Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake

Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake
8 servings
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, chilled
2/3 to 3/4 cup cream
1 quart strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Rinse berries; drain well. Hull and slice the berries; place in a bowl. Sprinkle with sugar; cover and let stand for about 1 hour. Whip the cream until it holds a soft peak. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. In a food processor (you can use a pastry cutter or fingertips) combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar; mix. Cut butter into about 8 pieces and add to the mixture. Combine until mixture resembles coarse meal, but with a few pea-size chunks of butter left in the mixture. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and make a well in the center. With a fork stir in the cream, just until dough is moist. Be very careful not to overwork. The dough doesn't have to hold together well at this point. Let the dough stand for a minute. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough 2 or 3 times, until it is holding together and is less sticky. Gently pat the dough about 3/4-inch thick and cut into 8 (3-inch) biscuits with a floured round cutter. Transfer to a buttered foil-lined cookie sheet. Brush on a little cream and sprinkle tops with some sugar. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 425, until risen and golden brown. Split each biscuit horizontally. Butter the hot biscuits then top with about 1/3 cup of berry mixture. Replace the tops and top with more berries and whipped cream. Enjoy!

I had some leftover crushed strawberries from my jam making, but not enough for another batch. I just added some sugar to them and used them for the strawberries in this recipe.

Tip for making whip cream - keep everything cold! Chill your bowl and beaters in the freezer before starting. Start whipping as soon as you take the cream out of the fridge. Also, place your bowl in a large bowl of ice while whipping and use an aluminum bowl, instead of a glass or plastic one - it will hold the cold better.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

The fruits of my labor - haha! Pun intended. ;-)

Sure-Jell Strawberry Freezer Jam
makes 48 ounces

2 cups crushed fresh strawberries
4 cups sugar
1 (1.75 ounce) package dry pectin
¾ cup water

Mix crushed strawberries with sugar, and let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, stir the pectin into the water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 1 minute. Stir the boiling water into the strawberries. Stir the berries and pectin until sugar has dissolved, about 3 minutes. Pour into glass jars to store in fridge or plastic jars for long term freezer storage. Place tops on the containers and leave on the counter for 24 hours to set up. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to a year.

I used two, 2 lb cartons of strawberries. After washing, hulling and crushing them, I had slightly less than 5 cups of crushed berries. I did two batches (you aren’t supposed to double the recipe or the jam might not set up right) and it made four 16 ounce jars and almost four 8 ounce jars.

Linked to Gooseberry Patch Recipe Roundup, Fun Summer Recipes.

Strawberry Moon

According to my Susan Branch calendar today is "Strawberry Moon" day. I have never heard of a strawberrry moon. I found out that -

"Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.

Full Strawberry Moon - June
This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!"

~from www.thefarmersalmanac.com

Here are the traditional names given to each month's full moon from the "Farmer's Almanac" -

January Wolf Moon
February Snow Moon
March Worm Moon
April Pink Moon
May Flower Moon
June Strawberry Moon
July Buck Moon
August Sturgeon Moon
September Harvest Moon
October Hunter's Moon
November Beaver Moon
December Cold Moon