Tasty Tuesday – Strawberry Tapioca

Welcome to this week’s Tasty Tuesday’s strawberry recipe – Strawberry Tapioca.  I found this recipe in the Seasonal Garden Cooking and Family Favorites cookbook.  It wasn’t hard to make at all, but I think I would have enjoyed it more using pearl tapioca instead of the minute kind.  But I wanted to stick to the recipe, so minute is was.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to make a batch to enjoy.

Strawberry Tapioca, Salome, Seasonal Garden Cooking & Family Favorites, page 61

2 qt. water

1 c. minute tapioca

1 c. sugar

6 oz. strawberry jello

2 1/2 c. strawberries

1 c. whipped cream

Bring water to a boil.  Add tapioca and boil 10 minutes or until tapioca is clear.  Add sugar and jello.  Chill and let set, then add strawberries and cream just before serving.

For the whipped cream, I chilled my metal mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Then added the heavy whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of 10x sugar to the bowl and let my Kitchen Aid mixer do the rest.  Just keep an eye on it – don’t be like me cutting up the strawberries and not paying attention to the mixer.  Batch two came out much better with me constantly watching it to form peaks.

For the whipped cream on top of the tapioca, I just used Redi-Whip, since I had used all my heavy cream on my two batches of whipped cream for the tapioca.  Live and learn!

If I would make this again, I’d most likely use the large pearl tapioca.  To me, the minute type just doesn’t seem like tapioca.  This seemed more jello like than I would like my tapioca to be.  It was still good, but I’d tweak it some.  Maybe add more whipped cream too.

Let me know if you try out this recipe.  It’s a great way to use up some of those fresh strawberries.

Next week will be the last strawberry recipe for the month.  The big decision is what will I fix…

Have a great week!

Blessings…

Tasty Tuesday – Easy Strawberry Shortcake

Happy Tuesday!  Another hot one here.  I think summer is sneaking in early.  We saw our first lightning bugs last night as well as watch the evening primrose open.  It’s the neatest flower – it opens up in slow motion at dusk, then it blooms through the night and during the day, and then closes up and dies.  The next night, the next set of buds do the same thing.  This goes on for a bit as they work their way down the flower stalk.  Before the next bloom, we’ll pull the dead buds off and toss them on the ground, so the plants can reseed.  Here’s a picture of our plant a couple years ago.  All of those blooms opened up that evening.

It’s pretty neat to watch the flowers open right in front of your eyes.  And then with the heat we are having, summer has unofficially arrived in Baltimore.

As I said last week, June is strawberry month.  This week, I am sharing a recipe for shortcake.  And oh my word!  It is an absolutely delicious shortcake.  I think it would be even yummy without the strawberries and whipped topping too.  This week’s recipe comes from Wanda E. Brunstetter’s Amish Friends Cookbook, Volume 2.

Easy Strawberry Shortcake, Susie Knepp, page 50

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon soda

1 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In large bowl, use spoon (not electric mixer) to combine flour, sugar butter, soda, and buttermilk.  Pour into greased 9×9-inch pan.  Sprinkle top with sugar and flour mixture.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes.

The sugar and flour mixture on top of the shortbread gave it a nice crunch.  As I said above, this was delicious.  I used the whipped topping as my frosting and put the strawberries on top of that.  Yummy!

If you get a chance to make this recipe, you will not be disappointed at all.  It’s gonna be a keeper in our house.  I can see it topped with all sorts of fruits and even just served naked.

Have a great week and stay cool.

Blessings…

Tasty Tuesday – It’s Strawberry Time!

Welcome to June!  To me, June is strawberry time.  It is when I see lots and lots of quarts of strawberries for sale along the backroads of Amish Country.  Over Memorial Day weekend, we camped up there (as you can see, it was chilly that afternoon)

and picked up a couple quarts of berries.

This past Saturday, we ran up for the afternoon, since we didn’t get a chance to grab a homemade strawberry shortcake from one of the Amish stands we like to stop at.  So we grabbed our strawberry shortcake there as well as hubby’s homemade rootbeer he likes and a jar of canned pears and a jar of bread & butter pickles.  Now mind you, that was our almost to last stop – should have been our only stop except lunch.  LOL  Our first stop was Quarryville Family Restaurant for a late lunch (yummy, yummy yummy!!), then we swung into the campground for a quick stop, and the Amish family that sells baked goods was in there, so we grabbed four quarts of strawberries, a small strawberry pie, a whoopie pie, four cinnamon sticks, molasses cookies, and chocolate chip cookies.  And then we headed to the strawberry shortcake stop.  Then we ran up to our favorite Amish bakestand to see if they had any blueberry bread left.  We have a couple people in our church that just love it, and I thought it would be nice a surprise for them on Sunday.  Nope, none left, so we bought a strawberry rhubarb pie and raisin sticky buns instead and visited with Joe for a few minutes.  After there, we stopped off at one more little Amish farm for two more quarts of strawberries, asparagus, and some perennials.  We bought some perennials from them over Memorial Day weekend, and we wanted to grab a few more.  Definitely the way to buy perennials – so much cheaper than going to a greenhouse.  Five dollars for three large size perennials ready for planting – you can’t beat that!  So by this time, the back of my truck was filled with fruit, baked goods, and flowers.  And boy did the strawberries smell good!  And before heading out of Quarryville, we ran into Maplehofe Dairy, so hubby could get his peanut butter ice cream for the ride home.  That’s where we picked up the orange cream milk.  Haven’t tried it yet though.

On the way home, I called Mom and Dad and said we were coming with the strawberry motherload of desserts.  Perfect timing since it was just past dinnertime, and I knew Dad would not turn away strawberry anything.  Everything was yummy, and they have the leftovers of the pie and cake to enjoy this week as well as a quart of strawberries, asparagus, chocolate chip cookies, and raisin sticky buns.

So now that I’ve gone a little off track, I’ll jump back on track and head to our Tasty Tuesday recipe.  For the month of June, I’m going to have strawberry recipes hopefully each week.  This week’s recipe is for a yummy Strawberry Cake.  I found this recipe in the “Seasoned with Love” cookbook.  It’s easy to make and uses some staples found in your pantry.

Strawberry Cake, Jolaine Martin, “Seasoned with Love” page 313

1 box yellow or white cake mix

1 (3.4 oz.) box strawberry Jello

3 T. flour

1/2 c. oil

1/4 c. water

Approx. 1 pt. frozen strawberries

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Frosting:

1 lb. 10X sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Mash strawberries and add the rest of the ingredients.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes in a greased 9×13″ pan.  When cool, frost with frosting.

I used fresh strawberries, of course, for my cake, and it turned out just fine.  One thing I like about this cake is that it is not sugary sweet.  I did use sugar free strawberry Jello to help cut the sweetness too.

I brought the cake into work yesterday to celebrate the birth of my boss’ first granddaughter.  I told him it’s close enough to pink.  Any excuse for baked goods in the office is a good one, but having his first granddaughter born ranked pretty high up there.

Also in our Saturday journeys, we saw a very decorated Amish buggy in front of us.  Usually you don’t see “bumper stickers” on the back of a buggy.  But when you do, you are usually guaranteed it’s a teenager or young adult driving it.

Before church yesterday morning, this is what I was doing – I was in Tasty Tuesday and dinner planning mode for the upcoming week…

I had four cookbooks open to recipes to try as well as my shopping list.  I think I have my strawberry recipes planned out for the next couple weeks.  Our neighbors will be enjoying some yummy strawberry stuff this week.

Hope you enjoy your first week of June.  Lots of graduations occurring as well as last days of school.  Have a great week!

Blessings…

 

Tasty Tuesday – Quick and Easy Meatloaf

Happy Tuesday!  This week’s recipe is for a quick and easy meatloaf out of “The Byler Chicks Cooking” book.  It was very easy to make and had a different consistency while mixing it up than my normal meatloaf I make.  I don’t put milk or oatmeal in my meatloaf, so that was new to me.  The milk make the consistency more runny and not as firm to shape into a loaf.  Since I used two pounds of ground turkey, it would not fit into a loaf pan as called for, so I opted for an oval glass dish that I normally bake my meatloaf in.  Since it wouldn’t stay in a loaf shape this way, I had to rig some aluminum foil along the side of the dish to keep the meatloaf from spreading.  It’s always something in the kitchen.  Not the prettiest picture of the dish, but it was yummy.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try this version of a meatloaf for dinner.

Quick and Easy Meatloaf, The Bylers Chicks Cooking, Mrs. Marvin (Susan) Glick, page 69

1 1/2 lb. ground beef

3/4 c. oatmeal

1/4 c. chopped onions

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 egg, beaten

3/4 c. milk

Sauce:

1/3 c. ketchup

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. mustard

Worcestershire sauce, optional

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  For meatloaf, combine all ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.  Pack firmly into loaf pan 8″x8″.  Combine all ingredients for sauce and pour over meatloaf.  Bake in preheated oven about 1 hour.  Let set 5 minutes before slicing.

I doubled the sauce for this recipe, and it still wasn’t enough sauce for my hubby.  He likes a lot of sauce on his meatloaf, so when we had the leftovers for dinner a few days later, I made another doubled batch of sauce.  That did the trick for him.  I did add the Worcestershire sauce to the meatloaf sauce for added flavor.  It was really good and added to the flavor of the meatloaf.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend – where did the first part of the year go?  Hope you keep in mind what Memorial Day is really all about – not the start of summer as a lot of people think, but honoring the memories of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.  There will be parades and services to remember those who have fallen protecting our country.  And there will be cookouts and pools opening for the season.  It will be on the chilly and wet side for our weekend here.

Hope you have a good week!

Blessings…

 

Tasty Tuesday – Giveaway Winner & Amish Buttered Noodles

Happy Tuesday!  Going to feel a little like summer here the next few days and then get cool again over the weekend.  Mother Nature is on a seesaw it seems like with all the ups and downs we’ve had over the past few weeks.

Last week, I had a spring giveaway for the following prize pack:

I used a random number generator to pick the winner for last week’s giveaway, and it picked #4.  The fourth comment was left by Crystal M.

CONGRATULATIONS CRYSTAL M!

Crystal, please send me your address, so I can get your goodies mailed out to you.

As like last week, I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen.  Busy with life in general and taking my momma away to Amish Country to celebrate Mother’s Day.  We left at noon on Friday and got home around 6:30 on Sunday night.  I kept her hopping.  We had dinner at Fisher’s Amish Restaurant Friday night.  It was very convenient, because we were staying at the Harvest Drive Family Inn on the same grounds as the restaurant.  There were several tables filled with people enjoying the yummy food.  We both got the buffet.  One of the things I enjoyed eating was the buttered noodles.  That is something I never fix at home and usually eat up in Amish Country.  Years ago, one of my Amish friends had given me a recipe she used to make them, so I wanted to share that recipe with you today.  They are easy to fix and require only noodles and butter.  You just have to make sure you don’t burn the melted butter.  Here’s the recipe if you’d like to give them a try.  They are good to eat by themselves or with some type of meat mixed in with them.

Amish Buttered Noodles, Barbara L. Smoker

8 oz. wide egg noodles

1/4-1/2 cup salted butter

Cook noodles according to package.  Drain well.  Melt butter in small frying pan or saucepan.  Keep stirring until butter starts to foam and brown (keep watching it, so it doesn’t burn).  Place noodles in bowl and pour browned butter over them.  Toss to coat.

Please leave me a comment if you give this recipe a try.  They are a quick side dish to whip up for any meal.

Hope you have a great week.

Blessings…

 

Tasty Tuesday – Spring Giveaway

Happy Tasty Tuesday!  It’s been so busy around our house that when I do cook dinner, it’s something easy to toss together (last night was spaghetti – nothing Amish about that) instead of trying something new out of an Amish cookbook.  Sorry about that.  Hopefully next week, life will slow down, and we can enjoy new home cooked meals.  I just got two new Amish cookbooks, so I’m anxious to try recipes out of them.

So, since I haven’t had a chance to try out new recipes, I figured it was time to have a spring giveaway.  Last time Mom and I were up in Amish Country, we stopped by The Quilt Patch, and I picked up some Amish made potholders for blog giveaways and noticed they have Amish made oven mitts now too, so I grabbed one of them.  Isn’t this great fabric?  I picked up this cookbook at Gordonville Book Store too.  We had a fun, but quick, trip covering a lot of countryside.

For your chance to win this week’s giveaway, just leave a comment here on my blog telling me what your go-to meal is on a busy night.  I usually gravitate towards something that can be fixed as a casserole or something that doesn’t take too much time as in our spaghetti last night.

You have until Sunday evening to leave your comments, and I’ll post the winner’s name on next week’s Tasty Tuesday post, so make sure you check back to see if you were the lucky one.

Good luck!

Blessings…

Chatting It Up With Amy Clipston About Mother’s Day and A Fun Giveaway

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and what fun to have an interview with Amy Clipston about being a mom and Mother’s Day.  Amy is the proud momma of two boys – Zac and Matt.  Here is a throwback picture of them all.

Check out the following questions and answers that Amy shared about her life as a mom and a special memory shared with her mom, Lola.

~Do you have a tradition on Mother’s Day (something your husband or kids do for you every year)? 

My husband and boys give me gifts and cards, and there is always at least one card from the cats. Then they take my mom and me out to lunch or dinner. It’s fun!

~When you first learned you were going to be a mom what thoughts entered your mind?

I was thrilled, and I hoped and prayed my baby would be healthy. I prayed this prayer fervently when I was pregnant with Matthew because I’d experienced a miscarriage two years before he was born. I was terrified I was going to lose another baby, which why I call Matthew my miracle. He was appropriately born on Good Friday.

~Do you get any book ideas from your sons’ shenanigans?

I haven’t really included any of their shenanigans, but I did model a character after Zac. In my young adult book Roadside Assistance, Logan, who is Whitney’s younger brother, was inspired by Zac. Logan likes Star Wars and video games, and his room is decorated similarly to how Zac’s room used to look.

~Can you share a special memory of your mother?

 My favorite memory as a child is going to the movies with my mother every Saturday. We would go to see a matinee, and we had the best time! My love of movies truly comes from my parents.

This might sound corny, but my mom and I make special memories every day. She lives with my family and me, and she’s my best friend. We watch movies and television shows together, and we share books. While I’m working on a book, she sits in the same room and reads in order to keep my company. She helps me plot out my stories and she reads my books for typos. I can’t imagine not having her in my life. I’m so thankful God blessed me with the best mom!

I have had the privilege of meeting Amy and her mom at a Christmas Tea a couple years ago.  They are two of the sweetest people, and you can see the special bond they have.

I can so relate to that, because I feel God blessed me with the best momma too.  She’s my best friend, and we have so much fun getting into trouble together.  That’s what we do best.  Well and traipsing around Amish Country shopping till we drop.

Now that you’ve learned more about Amy, click on the link to enter this great giveaway.

Click here:  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Isn’t that dress just precious?  It fits an American Girls doll.  And what great books to read and Amy swag!  Good luck!

I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day next Sunday.  I will be spending it in Amish Country with my momma, and I can’t wait.

Blessings…