Recipe for summer

So, today I was outside...only briefly, as the humidity and heat were stifling. But after weeding the garden, my three year old and I decided to check how our strawberry patch was coming along. Only a few days ago we had picked and enjoyed a few handfuls of beautiful sweet berries. This alone was quite impressive to me because of past experience with "growing" strawberries. Growing up in Utah, my family always had a small patch of strawberries. We didn't take great care of it....no amending the soil, or watering when it probably needed it...just left it to nature. Nature provided a berry here or there...never very impressive. Fast forward to Iowa. Last year a kind neighbor gave us a dozen or so strawberry starts. I planted them not expecting much (see above). That summer we had a few nice berries...more than I ever saw in our measly patch out west, but nothing you could make jam out of. Then this summer began. Our little starts had multiplied...sending out shoots and creating daughter plants...they had doubled what we started with. Still, I wasn't impressed until I saw all those blooms. We might really have some berries this time! Our three year old always remembers to ask a blessing on the strawberries when he says his prayers. A few prayers, a little compost, and occasional weeding was all it took. We picked so many berries today I was inspired to make up a recipe to use them. This picture is what we picked the first day....today there were three times this many...amazing stuff to a non farmer like myself....and now, the recipe. At first I wanted to make a traditional strawberry shortcake type thing, but there were no milk free, egg free shortcakes out there.....I really checked. So I was walking down the baking isle in the store when I saw a box mix for "apple crisp". I have made that before from scratch, substituting the real butter for something sans dairy. So I decided to make a sort of trifle, with crumble "topping" going in place of pound cake. Bubba-do could have soy whip cream (not too terrible ) and the rest of us could enjoy the real thing....Here goes.

Strawberry Delight

• 1 pound strawberries washed and sliced
• 1/3 cup sugar

Crumble

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup melted butter (or allergen free margarine)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Whipped Cream

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup sugar

* Before starting, place bowl, whipping cream, and beater(s) in freezer to thoroughly chill. Remove them as soon as berries are sliced and start whipping the cream. This will make the cream whip up a lot better/faster.

• Wash and slice strawberries. Mix berries with 1/3 cup sugar and set aside.
• Pour heavy whipping cream into chilled bowl of mixer and whip at medium speed. Add 1/2 cup sugar gradually. Whip until desired thickness (not too long, it will start turning to butter!) Taste and add more sugar if needed.
• Prepare crumble by mixing brown sugar, flour, oats, melted butter, cinnamon and vanilla with a fork until it resembles coarse crumbs ( a.k.a. "little pieces" ) set aside in fridge for better texture.
• Layer ingredients in a dish in this order : crumble, strawberries, whipped cream etc...

Enjoy this wonderful taste of summer!

I can proudly say I made up this recipe, and it is delicious!