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"Go home and love your family."
-Mother Teresa

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Baking Season



Summer has hit-- lows in the seventies, and highs around ninety degrees in the afternoon! And the humidity... don't even ask. Fortunately, it is also time for strawberries! And rhubarb! It is one of life's ironies, that the best time for baking (berry season) is also the hottest part of the year. However, I would put up with far worse than heat exhaustion in order to have my strawberry shortcake. The shortcake is based on the Vanilla Chiffon Cake in A Perfect Cake, then filled with very slightly sweetened whipped cream (with a touch of vanilla) and our fresh organic strawberries from the family farm. The rhubarb is from our garden, the eggs are from the family farm (my in-laws) and the pie is the Quick Custard Rhubarb from A Perfect Pie. Both books are by Jane Purdy, and are the only cake and pie books anyone needs! The instructions are clear (I learned from these books) and the recipes are delicious-- entirely from scratch, and involving lots of butter. Fabulous! You can't beat the price either...
Baking and gardening have been distracting me lately from my various projects. But our Week Without Internet or Phone Service allowed me to get an amazing amount of knitting done. Verrry bad thunderstorms here lately-- something somewhere important got hit by lightning, so our service was down until Dashing Young Tattooed Internet Fixer came and repaired everything (for $300). Boy, I hadn't realized I was so addicted to my evening internet fix. Anyone else relate to that? :)

8 comments:

Andrea said...

Are you kidding me with that strawberry shortcake? It is a masterpiece! You are making me so hungry.

Thinking of you in storm-filled Indiana, where despite four tornado warnings this week, I still have my internet service . . . .

woolladyfelter said...

Wow those cakes look mouthwatering. How could you stand waiting to take the photo before eating it!! Our strawberries are a bit after our rhubarb. I have to pick peel and freeze mine - but it comes out just a good. - my husband says he married me because of my pies - hee hee.

Cadi said...

Ahhh! Da moechte ich mich doch einfach zum Kaffee trinken einladen! :-)

woolies said...

hi, just stumbled on your blog and now I'm starving and ready to leap through the page.
I taught my son to bake - today he made the Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cake YUM, but I love the fruity desserts..

Saints and Spinners said...

Rhubarb pie is a direct equation for love in my book! I have been blanching and freezing rhubarb for the chilly months in the future. My husband has gotten into pie-baking, and I'll have to get him A Perfect Pie. Thanks for the recommendation.

Beth said...

The cakes are beautiful!!! I love berries so much. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Mussipitz said...

Oh, this looks so yummy... I just could sink my teeth in...

Now I am German and love to keep my english up... how can we do it... lol...

now my comment in German...

Die Kuchen sehen so lecker aus... da würde ich gerne ein Stück probieren... außerdem liebe ich Shortcake und Pies...

Ich vermisse meine Zeit aus den USA schon sehr... aber mein Leben spielt sich nun mal jetzt in Deutschland ab...

Ganz liebe Grüße

Andrea

Lynnie said...

That pie looks so delicious I could eat it right off the screen!

I totally know what you mean about chickens being a bit weird. I think it's that their heads are so small compared to ours and their feet so ridiculous. We raise chickens every summer and then freeze them for meat to eat during the winter. I do get attached to a few each year, though, so we do have some pets!