Strawberries, Strawberries, Some Lunch, And Did I Mention Strawberries?

The strawberries are in.

Oh, happy day.

We're on the mailing list for a particular
 pick-em-yourself-strawberry farm in Point Harbor,
 just north of the Wright Memorial Bridge. 

And on Friday, we boogied on up
 to Currituck County to the immaculate beds.
 (Well, shoot. Why wouldn't they be immaculate? 
They're covered in space-age material
 with holes cut out where the strawberry plants were stuck into.) 

Mr. Hawthorne and I took to the field with our buckets

and picked beautiful strawberries.
 

I liked this old pump in the field.
 Nice thing it was there since my hands were RED.

We picked about 20 pounds of strawberries.
 

Aren't they beautimous?
 Now, what, you ask,
 are we going to do with 20 pounds of strawberries?

We're preparing for winter.

For our smoothies.

Mr. Hawthorne washed and trimmed the strawberries
 and packaged in individual snack baggies. 

Then he put his snack baggies in a freezer bag
 and froze his berries.
 (Heh. 12.)
 Next it was time for lunch
 and I was craving something green. 

I steamed asparagus and spinach
 and Mr. Hawthorne seared the tilefish, 
lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, and Old Bay,
 in a combination of butter and olive oil.
 I topped the veggies with buttah and lemon juice 
and this was wonderful. 
Tilefish is very light, delicate, flavorful, flaky, moist, and tender. 

This little strawberry reminded me of ...

... this little lime.
 Now, Mr. Hawthorne didn't use up all the strawberries.
 I made two strawberry pies,
 one for us and one for my friend, Natasha,
 who is recuperating from knee-replacement surgery.
 Ouch.
 I've made the recipe for the single pie many times,
 and it's the absolute best strawberry pie I've ever had. 
However, I've never doubled the recipe before.
 If I double it again, I'll use more cornstarch, 
since the filling was not as set as I'd like it to be. 
 

I'll give you the recipe for a single pie:
 1 quart strawberries, plus extras
1 cup granulated sugar 
2 TB cornstarch
 1/4 cup water 
1 TB butter 
 In the above picture, everything is doubled. 

Normally, I would make my own crusts,
 but because of time-restraints,
 I Sandra-Lee'd it with Pillsbury Pie Crusts.
 One thing I don't like about these pie crusts
 is that by leaving the dough out to thaw
 dried out the edges so I can't flute the rims
 as well as I'd like to.
 And the rim on that left pie kinda sucks looks-wise.
 You just can't do anything with dried-out pie crust.

 Now, on to the filling.

I poured the rinsed and trimmed strawberries into my pan. 

I mashed the strawberries and brought them to a boil. 

Then I added the sugar. 

I mixed the corn starch and water
 and added that to the mixture. 
Now, if you double this recipe, 
like I said, I'd add more cornstarch. 
To double the recipe, 
I'd try 4 TB cornstarch to 1/2 cup water. 

Bubble slowly over medium heat for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Remove from heat and add the butter, stirring to mix.
 Next, I'm forming the base for my pies.

I took a package of softened cream cheese (8 oz.)
 and mixed with about 4 TB of the strawberry mixture.

And I spread that mixture over my cooled pie crusts. 

Next, I picked out some of my prettiest berries
 and arranged them in the cream cheese mixture. 

Then I poured the strawberry mixture over top.
 

Refrigerate until set, preferably overnight.

Here's my slice.
 Like I said, doubling the recipe requires more cornstarch.
 Still tastes delightful.
 But the texture is a bit too runny for my tastes.
 The extra cornstarch would have taken care of that.
 Hey, cook and learn. 
You know me.
 I tell it like it is and like I see it. 

This is the leftover strawberry puree
 which didn't fit in the pies
 and which will be wonderful on toast.
 Now, fast forward to this morning's breakfast. 

I love a strawberry smoothie like nothing else.
 And this is why we picked 20 pounds of strawberries.
 For our smoothies for next winter.
 Instead of using ice and fresh, ripe strawberries
 to make a smoothie, we like to use the frozen strawberries.

And each snack baggie is perfect

for one individual smoothie.
 With frozen strawberries, you don't need to add the ice 
so you get a much more intense, richer strawberry flavor. 
It's undiluted. 
And it's sublime and exquisite. 

I like to add a bit of orange juice to flavor my smoothies. 
Mr. Hawthorne does not like the OJ in his smoothies. 

Then I added a few tablespoons of cream.

Some milk.
 And a packet of Splenda or use sugar.

And whup it up in the Magic Bullet.

Gernish with a choking hazard and this is delicious.
 It would be good with pineapple added or with banana.
 You can make a smoothie with almost any fruit.
 Just use your imagination.

 Now, Mr. Hawthorne is making his breakfast.
 Buckwheat pancakes. 
We got the buckwheat from Mabry's Mill 
 when we visited there on our trip last fall. 

He mixes equal parts buckwheat flour and all purpose flour,
 along with sugar, egg, baking powder, vanilla, and buttermilk.
 Then he added sliced strawberries.

Flip over.

He topped his strawberry buckwheat pancake
 with fresh strawberries and the strawberry pie filling mixture and maple syrup.
 And don't forget the sausage!
 (OK, Ticky, there was absolutely no maple in the syrup.
It was all chemicals! And it was all very good.
 But don't worry, I'm all over the whole wheat pasta now,
 like Pauler on Buttah!.)

I love his buckwheat pancakes.
 They have a fabulous crunch to them that's
 just not in regular pancakes which I don't even like.
 But I love Mr. H.'s buckwheat pancakes.
 And the strawberries?
Took it over the top.

Mr. & Mrs. Hawthorne Take A Road Trip.

Middle Hawthorne just finished his second semester at college, so Mr. H. and I drove the truck up to school to pack up the larger items that wouldn't fit into his 2-seater - which is basically everything he has. The back of my truck is filled to the gills with his drum set, wide screen TV, and numerous other large items.
He has entirely too much stuff.
Then Mr. Hawthorne dropped me off in Danville to visit Mama Hawthorne and Maxine, while he drove on to visit Mr. Mama Hawthorne-in-Law.

Soon after leaving the beach, we crossed Alligator River Bridge and we passed this sign.
We were tempted ... NOT.
Now Alligator River Bridge is kind of neat. If you ever have a chance to go across it, check out your compass. You're going due west and all of a sudden the compass jumps to north and north east. You're going due east and the compass jumps to south and south west.
I think the Mother Ship must be under that bridge.

In Plymouth, we stopped at our usual place for lunch.
Now, I generally don't like to go to buffets with Mr. Hawthorne because he's been known to knock down small children and old ladies with walkers to get to the buffet,
but he controlled himself today.
Good Mr. Hawthorne.

Now, I'm at Mama Hawthorne's, it's Saturday morning, and I'm fixing her lunch.

After prepping for a while, I thought to myself, "Self, you should be taking pictures of this and blog today, since you didn't tell anybody you were going out of town, and people get antsy when you don't post within a reasonable amount of time."
So I went into the trash to retrieve the Hunt's Meatloaf Sauce can
and the Lipton Onion Soup Mix box.
(Aunt Sandy would be proud of me.)
I finely chopped 1/2 an onion and 1/2 a pepper, added 2 aigs, 1/2 the can of Hunt's sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and mixed it all up in my meatloaf mixture of ground pork and ground beef with my impeccably clean hands.

And here's Mr. Meatloaf in the 350 degree oven.

While this is cooking, I decided to make a broccoli salad for a side dish.

Drop trimmed and chopped broccoli into a pot of salted boiling water.
Bring back to a boil, about 3 minutes.

Drain, and immediately put the broccoli in ice water to stop the cooking and set the color.

Drain the broccoli and add chopped red onions, raisins, walnuts, and bacon.

Next, I made a dressing: mayo, a bit of sugar, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper and tossed it all together.

Here's my finished meatloaf.
Throughout cooking, I was draining the grease out. After about an hour, I added the rest of the Hunt's Meatloaf Sauce on top and cooked for about 15 more minutes.
Let it set about 15 minutes before slicing.

Next up, chocolate covered strawburries.
Mr. Hawthorne and I stopped at Vollmer Farm
and bought two 5-pound boxes of beautiful, just picked, huge strawburries for $11.00 each.



I just melted some semi-sweet Nestle's morsels with a bit of vegetable oil and dipped the strawburries in it.



Here's our lunch - meatloaf, broccoli salad, and mashed taters.



Mama Hawthorne proclaimed her lunch, "Divine."

I must say, it's terribly difficult to cook in someone else's kitchen. I couldn't find proper utensils. I couldn't find ingredients that I have as staples. I only made three trips to Food Lion within a two-hour period to get stuff I needed. Plus, I can't see in this kitchen cause it's so dark. Even the little focusing illumination light came on on my digital camera.
In spite of these obstacles, Rosie still made a decent meal.

Here's our dessert - strawburry pie.

You could use a pastry crust, but I decided to use a graham cracker crust.
I just combined crushed graham crackers, melted butter, some honey, and brown sugar.

For the filling:

1 quart strawberries
1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cold water
2 TB cornstarch

2 TB butter

Slice the strawberries and bring to a boil with the sugar, mashing and stirring.
Boil for about 9 minutes.

Then add the mixture of water and cornstarch.
Cook until thickened

Add the butter and stir until melted.

Mix a few tablespoons of strawberry mixture with about 4-5 ounces of softened cream cheese.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the bottom of the crust.

Pick out some of the larger, nicer shaped strawberries and place in the cream cheese.
Then pour the rest of the strawberry mixture over top.
Refrigerate.

Slice of strawburry pie with chocolate covered strawburry.



Uh oh. What's this??!!!??
Mama Hawthorne is a closet Fandra.
She Semi-Ho'd my pie!



While Mama Hawthorne checked her email,
I went back to the kitchen to make tonight's dessert-
Pineapple Cake.

Here's the cake - one of the simplest, quickest, and tastiest cakes I've ever had:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 can crushed pineapple

Mix together dry ingredients and stir in eggs, pineapple, and pineapple joos.
Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

Bake 30-35 minutes in a pre-heated 350 degree oven or until edges come away from pan.

While cake is cooling, prepare the icing.

1 stick butter
1 package cream cheese
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 TB vanilla

Mix all together and spread on top of cake.

I cut the cake in half, since Imonna take half to Maxine for dessert tonight.
The toothpicks are there so the plastic wrap won't get all in the icing.

Here are the roses from out of my garden which I brought to Mama Hawthorne.
Aren't they pretty?

Mama Hawthorne gave me explicit directions on where to place the roses on top of her piano but
I wasn't following directions very well, unfortunately, and just didn't put them
exactly where she wanted them.

Move the pictures on either side. Not that way! That way.
No, no, no. Move that one to the left. NO! The other left.
Now, move that one back to the other side. No, not that side. I said the other side.
You get the picture.

Oooh, ooh ... Roses on your piano ...
That reminds me of a joke:
What's better than roses on your piano?

Go no further, Mama Hawthorne.


Tulips on your organ.

Mama, I told you not to go any further.