Bon Appetit Hon

Libby’s First Birthday

17 July 201319 June 2013by Wendi10 Comments

Dear Libby, you don’t remember the day you were born. But your Dad and I will never forget it. You should know that it is one of my most favoritest stories ever and I plan on making sure I tell it to you every chance I get….especially on your birthday. That’s one of the privileges bestowed on me by virtue of being your momma. Another is that I get to reflect on the year that has been and wonder what the one ahead will hold for you.

I am in complete denial that your birthday is only a few days away. Where have the last 365 days gone? Every time I look at you I marvel at how much change has taken place in a single year. Gone is the 7 pound newborn who didn’t know day from night, who would promptly fall into a restful sleep the moment she was snuggled into my chest, and whose cry morphed into the bleat of a billy goat when a requested diaper, feeding, or snuggle did not materialize in a prompt manner.

Nope, that Libby is just a memory now…tucked away with mental snapshots of other moments, seemingly ordinary but quietly precious – sleepy middle of the night feedings, the way you smell after a bath, the way you smile with your entire face scrunched up so that all we see is gums with two baby teeth poking through on the bottom. These are what fills my heart.

All that has made way for you to become an adventurous little person. You are developing clear preferences for things you like….and things you don’t. Your curiosity, like your energy, is boundless and it simply amazes me to watch you conquer your world.

I adore the fact that you learned to crawl so that you could chase the cat (I don’t think the cat was too happy about that development). And I’ve made it my own personal mission that one of your first words will be “cat”. It’s clear to me that you know what the word means because when I ask you “where’s the cat?”, you turn and look and point….at the cat. So we will keep playing “where’s the cat” where I keep repeating c-c-c aaaaaaaaaaaa t-t-t, cat. And eventually, something that sounds almost sort of like cat will come tumbling out of your mouth. After that maybe we can work on the idea of “gentle”? I’m sure the “cat” would appreciate that.

You are already starting to assert your independence and I can see that it frustrates you not to be able to do everything you want. All I can say about that is it’s my job to identify the boundaries. And it’s your job to push them. It’s part of the dance that we do.

And as surely as I know the sky is blue, I know that I won’t always get it right. There will be moments that I am not the parent I want to be, or the one you need me to be. I just hope that one day you will see that along with the truth of my imperfection you also saw the truth of my love for you.

Happy birthday dear Libby, I love you to pieces.

xoxoxo,

Momma

Sweets

Peanut Butter Cup

10 July 201317 June 2013by Wendi5 Comments

Ok, so these happened. But like many DIY food projects in my kitchen, I don’t know that I would ever make them again. Especially when Trader Joe has the most delicious dark chocolate peanut butter cups on the face of the earth. #seriously

To satisfy your own curiosity, you can check out this post on Sprouted Kitchen…it’s the recipe I worked from. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Very Special Birthday Party to start fretting over since I failed to make arrangements with the Birthday Party Fairy.

Uncategorized

Israeli Couscous with Preserved Lemon and Butternut Squash

3 July 201317 June 2013by Wendi4 Comments

Here’s one of the secrets about children that nobody tells you…kids are like computers. No really, hear me out.

You bring one home, set it up, and start to learn how to use it. You have some stumbles at first as you get your feet wet with the operating system, programs, and apps. But as days go by your confidence grows and you become more proficient with Baby 0.0. You settle into a routine and even set up some shortcuts and reoccurring tasks to run automatically. What’s all the fuss about, you wonder.

Then things get a little buggy. Random little things. The Nap program stops running for no reason. Or you forget the password for a Safe Mode reboot after a hard drive shutdown. No matter how many times you go into the Task Manager and attempt to force close the Pull Momma’s Hair program, it continues to run in the background…taking up valuable parental system resources as you attempt to redirect your child’s attention to less frustrating programs such as The Quiet Game or Go See What Your Father is Doing.

Your child did not come with a Technical Support option so you are left to your own devices…mainly the Google…to troubleshoot. You’ll find forums and blogs that reassure you that other users are experiencing similar issues. They won’t have tested and certified solutions but at least you’ll know that you’re not imagining these things. But you’ll also find sites that insist that every single system failure must be the result of user error since they never experienced any of these problems with their child. Feel free to ignore those sites.

And then, just when you’ve gotten to the point where you feel confident that you’ve mastered Baby 0.0, a software update automatically downloads and you’ve got an entirely new Operating System on your hands. Baby 0.0 is gone and no amount of hard drive restores will get it back. In its place is Toddler 1.0. You had no warning and no beta testing to get you used to a new OS.

Oh sure, you had heard rumors that a new OS was in the works. But you figured that you had plenty of time to do some reading on the topic and get ready for what would have to be only minor changes. Sadly, you were wrong. And it’s back to square one.

My friends, I’ve been there. And if it is any consolation, I know I’ll be back there again. Just as soon as I get to feeling comfortable with the parenting thing, it changes. And that’s exactly how it is supposed to be.

While I can’t help you unravel the programming language that is your child, I can give you a meal that you can enjoy regardless of how many times you found yourself hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del that day.

Israeli Couscous with Preserved Lemon and Butternut Squash

Adapted from David Lebovitz

BAH Note: There is something about the distinct tang of preserved meyer lemon that you just can’t get from any other ingredient. So if you don’t have any in your fridge, do yourself a favor and head over to the Google for a bit of online shopping. Don’t try and make do with a bit of lemon zest and sea salt…it will only bring bitter disappointment.

1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, cubed (I leave the skin on but you can peel it if you like)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 3/4 cup israeli couscous
1 cinnamon stick
1 preserved lemon
1/2 cup golden raisins

Heat your oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Toss the squash and onion with the olive oil and roast on the prepared sheet pan for 40 to 60 minutes or until tender. Transfer the squash and onion to a large bowl and add the raisins.

Boil a large pot of water and cook the couscous, along with the cinnamon stick, for about 10 minutes or until done. Drain the couscous, discard the cinnamon stick, and add the couscous to the bowl of roasted vegetables.

While the couscous cooks, take your preserved lemon and cut it into quarters. Using the back of a knife, scoop away the pulp from the rind. Cut the rind thinly into a fine dice and add it to vegetables. Take the pulp and press it in a small mesh strainer to extract the liquid. Add the liquid to the bowl of vegetables.

Stir everything to completely combine and taste for seasoning. Season to taste with a bit of kosher salt and black pepper.

{printable recipe}

Baking, Breads

Touch of Grace Biscuits

26 June 20137 June 2013by Wendi6 Comments

There’s no graceful way to say this, so I may as well just be blunt…I can be a complete ass sometimes. And by sometimes I mean when I just react instead of stopping and thinking about how I want to react. It’s the dark side of living in the moment. Because in that precise moment, it’s a head spinning, furious fisted meltdown. I was swallowed whole by that moment this morning at breakfast.

That’s right. I had a tantrum over a plate of scrambled eggs.

And here’s the kicker….as soon as I started, I knew I was over reacting. I knew it and knew that it was easier to just be swept out by the rising tide of my anger than it was to dig my heels into the shifting sand and ground myself to a halt. And while I see progress in the fact that I’m not sitting here stewing mad hours later, listening to the looping rant in my head about “why can’t you just listen to what I say?”, this place of saying I was wrong is uncomfortable.

Wasn’t I just talking about being a student of life and the continuing education that has come courtesy of the Tater Tot? What is the saying about pride coming before the fall? Yeah, the Universe has a way of keeping us humble and in check. So maybe I should expand this particular life lesson plan to include being mindful enough in that moment to consciously choose how to react.

Since the Universe also has an uncanny knack for giving us repeat opportunities to try and get things right, I have a hunch this won’t be the last time I get quizzed on this particular life lesson. I can only hope that my scores improve so that I get to move on to the next chapter in the lesson plan.

And what exactly does this have to do with a pan of biscuits? Well I’ll tell ‘ya. Once upon a time, I tried to make Touch of Grace Biscuits. There were multiple attempts. And they all failed to make a passing grade. Really, click that link and take a look at the best I could do. That’s no biscuit.

But thanks to putting my pride aside and paying attention to the lesson as the Universe presented it to me, I was able to create pans of graceful biscuits. So while I still have a ways to go with some of life’s lessons, I’m going to say that I’ve gotten a passing grade on this one.

Thank you Shauna Server for bringing me face to face with perfectly graceful biscuits. I am in your debt. Not only did you get the right recipe in my hands but your photos gave me great visual cues to how my biscuit dough should look.

Touch of Grace Biscuits

Adapted from BakeWise

BAH Note: I don’t typically say you need to use a specific brand of anything…unless it really makes a difference. And in this case, I think it does. So look in your grocery store for White Lilly self rising flour. Once you get to know these sinfully graceful biscuits I don’t think that bag of flour will go unused in your pantry.

Oh, and if you were inclined to brush a tablespoon or so of melted butter on the tops of the biscuits when they come out of the oven, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad choice.

2 cups self rising flour, preferably White Lily (see the note above)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup shortening (yup, shortening)
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all purpose flour (don’t substitute any self rising flour here)

Heat your oven to 425 degrees and lightly spray a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix the heavy cream and buttermilk in a measuring cup and set aside.

Place the all purpose flour in a pie plate or dish and set aside.

Whisk together the self rising flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Use your fingers to work the shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles wet sand with no large clumps.

Add the liquid to the flour mixture and stir gently to combine. The dough should resemble wet cottage cheese. To tell if you have the right consistency, use an ice cream scoop and scoop out some dough into your plate of all purpose flour. It should hold its shape. If not, return the test scoop to the mixing bowl and add self rising flour one tablespoon at a time and gently stir it in.

As soon as your dough holds its shape, place a few scoops of it in the all purpose flour. Working with one scoop of dough at a time, pick it up, dust it with flour from your plate, and gently toss the dough from hand to hand to form your biscuit. Place the formed biscuit in your prepared pan and repeat the process with the remaining dough. Fit your biscuits as close together as you can…they need to be snug up against each other to get a really good rise.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops are light golden brown. Allow the biscuits to cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes before turning them out and serving.

{printable recipe}

Main Course

Crockpot Char Siu Pork

19 June 20135 June 2013by Wendi4 Comments

“It’s in the ‘Freezes Beautifully’ section of my cookbook, and I want to make something that freezes beautifully.” – Annelle, Steel Magnolias

The Mistah and I have only recently begun to seriously budget. Until now, budgeting meant making sure we had enough money in savings to cover our over spending from checking. I know that’s not the best approach…I knew it as we were in the midst of it. But it was easier than having the conversation about getting things under control. Now that our family has grown, the money talk can’t be avoided. I guess I should consider this practice for the other “talks” that wait for us down the parental road.

Have you ever tried to convince someone to do something the way you think it should be done? Then you know that if you and the other person don’t think alike, that can be a hard sell. Not to mention seriously frustrating for you both. That’s how all of our previous attempts at having the money talk went. It was my way or your way, but not our way.

Something had to change. So we took a page from organizational management tools and formed a committee. We meet monthly. We keep minutes. We look for ways to meet our goals and objectives without having to be right.

The reason I’m oversharing this with you is because at our last Finance Committee Meeting, one of the ideas presented for consideration was to buy a separate freezer. The thought behind this is that our refrigerator/freezer can’t accommodate a gallon of ice cream without a fight. Trying to buy frozen foods in bulk, or heaven forbid actually cooking and freezing individual portions of meals is completely out of the question without additional cold storage.

We haven’t fully committed to this plan. Do you know how much an upright freezer costs? They ain’t cheap. So I’ve been trolling Craigslist. Until I either land my white whale used or suck it up and drop some serious cash for a new one, my “freezes beautifully” selections are done on a small scale…and our Frigidaire is an ice cream free zone.

Crockpot Char Siu Pork (Asian Pulled Pork)

Adapted from Cooking Light: The New Way to Cook Light

BAH Note: I scored a deal on a 4 pound pork roast and doubled the recipe. If you scale it up, be prepared for a longer cooking time. My 4 pound roast took nearly 12 hours to fall off the bone.

1/4 cup soy sauce (lower sodium recommended)
1/4 hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
2 pounds Boston butt pork roast, trimmed of extra fat
1/2 cup chicken broth

Combine the soy sauce, hoisin, ketchup, honey, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and five spice powder in a small bowl. Stir to fully combine and then transfer to a large zip top plastic bag. Add the pork roast and refrigerate at least 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Place the pork and the marinade from the bag in a crockpot. Cover and cook on low 8 hours or until the meat falls apart. Transfer the pork to a cutting board or sheet pan and let it cool before you shred it with two forks.

Meanwhile, carefully ladle the liquid from the crockpot into a saucepan. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the sauce reduces a bit. Taste for seasoning and spoon the sauce over the shredded pork. Stir to let the sauce get reacquainted with the pork before shoving it in your face.

{printable recipe}

Main Course, Soup

Chilled Avocado Soup

12 June 20135 June 2013by Wendi8 Comments

Lately I feel like I’m on the verge of becoming the stereotypical crotchety old lady. The one who mutters under my breath about “kids these days” and “hell in a handbasket” and then wonders why people avoid making eye contact with me as they pass by. All I need to complete the transformation is a housecoat, hair rollers, and a coffee mug full of gin as I sweep my porch. Ok, maybe that is a bit of a stretch. Because anyone who knows me knows that my coffee mug would be hiding vodka or wine….never gin.

Who knew that I would feel so old and tired at 42? But when you’re young and daydream about what the future holds, you totally gloss over the unglamorous parts of being an adult. Things like pulling weeds, taking out the trash, paying bills, and navigating the tough patches in relationships. What you think about is the freedom of being an adult when you get to call the shots.

You certainly don’t imagine what it will feel like to work a full day, slog through rush hour traffic with a cranky toddler as your backseat driver, and arrive home to discover hair balls and cat vomit deposited throughout your house. Or as I like to call it, Wednesday.

Oh, and when you do finally get in the door, clean up the vomit, change a diaper, and set the toddler up with enough toys to stock an aisle at Target, you are expected to make dinner magically appear. After dinner there are dishes to wash, clothes to fold, emails to return, bed time for the toddler, lunches to make, and deep breaths to take. Glamorous, right?

Some days I handle this with more grace than others. And on my best days, I have dinner mostly prepped and ready to go in the fridge. Because let’s be real, if I didn’t we would have cereal for dinner as often as we have cereal for breakfast. And as glamorous as that may sound when you’re young, at 42 I can tell you that it’s really not.

Chilled Avocado Soup with Shrimp
Adapted from Cooking Light Good Mood Food

BAH Note: Cooking Light calls for low fat sour cream. I got feisty and used regular. Let your conscience (and your waistline) be your guide. Yes, this dish has several components. But they can all be made ahead of time. When you’re ready to serve, just put all the pieces together.

Soup:

3 cups chicken broth
1 1⁄2 cups diced peeled avocado (about 2)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper

Lime Cream:

3⁄4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Shrimp:

1 pound shrimp, unpeeled
1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup corn kernels (about 2 ears if using fresh)
1⁄4 cup chopped red onion

To prepare soup, place chicken broth, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Cover and chill.

For lime cream, combine sour cream, cilantro (if using), lime juice and zest, and salt in a bowl. Stir until combined and add additional lime juice to get the consistency you like.

To prepare shrimp, heat oven to 400 degrees and line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Spread the shrimp into a single layer on the sheet pan, coat with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Roast for 8 to 10 minutes or until the shrimp is firm and cooked through. Allow to cool thoroughly before peeling.

While the shrimp roasts and cools, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until the onions begins to soften. Add the corn and cook, stirring occasionally to allow the mixture to brown and char a bit.

Serve the chilled avocado soup garnished with the shrimp, lime cream, and corn mixture.

{printable recipe}

Uncategorized

How To Make Grilled Cheese

5 June 201330 May 2013by Wendi9 Comments

It’s funny how if you stop and think about it, you never stop having opportunities to learn. I am well past my days as a student in the academic sense. And yet I continue to be a student of life.

In the last year alone I have learned important life skills such as how to change a flat tire, how to snake a drain, and how to reset my garbage disposal. These are all good things to know and can get you out of a jam from time to time. So I lump them into category of things I know and hope that I won’t have to use.

But maybe just as important are the things I’ve learned from our Tater Tot, and these I consider to be life lessons with daily applications. What’s the number one lesson I’ve learned from my child? It is that I can have a bad moment but still have a good day. Many of you already know this lesson but for me this is like trying to master a new language.

All my life, if something didn’t go exactly according to plan it threw me off. A disagreement left me disagreeable for the whole day. A perceived slight had me fuming and indignant. I got good at being prickly and stabby. I might say “let’s agree to disagree” but in my head I would be listing the ways that you were wrong and I was right.

And then I began to see how Libby could go from a full on meltdown one minute (or two, or ten) back to happy the next. Thanks to her developing understanding about wanting everything she sees, she gets upset in the morning when she sees us walking around getting dressed and ready for the day while she is left in her crib. There are tears. There are sobs. Sometimes, there is wailing. And it goes on for what seems like forever (especially at 6:30 in the morning). But eventually she pulls herself together, sits down in the crib, and plays with a toy. And you would never know that only minutes before this happy, content, singing baby was a shrieking, whirling dervish.

So what does my 10 month old know that I don’t? Maybe that it is ok to be upset or angry but once you’ve said as much it’s time to let go and move on. She doesn’t hold a grudge against us because we put her in the crib, won’t let her crawl into the dishwasher, or keep her hands out of the cat food dish. Granted, I won’t give you an up-arms hug or wet kiss the way Libby does after she’s calmed down but I might not be shooting mental daggers your way either. Let’s call that progress, shall we?

Grilled Cheese

Adapted from Bon Appetit

BAH Note: This is more a process than a recipe. But the two step approach produces perfectly browned toast on the outside with melty cheese goodness on the inside. No flipping required. Of all the life lessons of the past year, this one comes in just below not letting a bad moment lead to a bad day. Can you blame me?

Bread
Butter
Cheese

Heat your oven to 400 degrees and line a sheet pan with foil.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add two slices of bread to the pan and cook until the bottom of the bread is crisp and browned. Transfer the bread to the sheet pan, toasted side down. Top one slice of bread with the cheese and place the second slice of bread, toasted side up, on top of the cheese. Bake for approximately 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Carefully remove from the oven and enjoy.

{printable recipe}

Drinks

Jargaritas

22 May 20139 May 2013by Wendi13 Comments

These Jargaritas would have been perfect for Cinquo de Mayo. But since that ship has sailed for another year, you’re just going to have to find another excuse to make them. Like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or the random weekend cookout.

But they come with a warning…these adult slushees have a way of sneaking up on you and knocking you on your arse. So proceed with caution.

Jargaritas

Adapted from Bluebonnets and Brownies and Souffle Bombay

12 ounces frozen limeade, thawed
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 cups tequila (I prefer patron silver)
3/4 cup triple sec
1 cup chambord
4 cups cold water

If you plan to freeze these in individual portions, go ahead and get your jars and lids ready. Otherwise find yourself a nice big pitcher or jug and combine all your ingredients. Stir well. Give it a taste and add more lime juice or tequila as desired.

Drinks can be portioned into jars, sealed tightly, and stashed in the freezer for about 4 or 5 hours or until they reach your desired level of frozen. Or they can be enjoyed in a completely unfrozen state.

{printable recipe}

Chicken

Weeknight Chicken and Mushroom Sauce

15 May 20139 May 2013by Wendi5 Comments

I mentioned how my friend Amber is responsible for my rather manic fascination with making strawberry shortcake crumb topping to recreate a childhood food memory. I briefly mentioned how she readily shares the arsenal of tools that she has, sometimes having Amazon dropping an unexpected box of exactly what you need on your door step. That’s how I came to have Weeknight Chicken and Mushroom Sauce.

No, Amber didn’t have dinner delivered to my house. What she did was hear me say that I was overwhelmed by the struggle to be back at work (even if it was just one or two days a week at that time), take care of the Tater Tot, and cook dinner on a regular basis. She heard me and she took action. Thanks to Amazon’s freakishly quick ability to get product delivered, a day later there was a smiling Amazon.com box sitting on my doorstep. Inside was a survival guide with recipes and strategies for how to keep The Mistah and I fed in spite of the crazy new demands on our time and attention.

A. Freaking. Men.

Better than a casserole that freezes beautifully (but that won’t fit in my poorly chosen side by side), Amber gave me the tools to fit cooking back into my routine. I still have days where I struggle with it. But I also have days where I thaw some chicken breasts, chop some mushrooms, and call it dinner. Amber, I hope I can return this act of kindness to you because it’s made a world of difference to me.

Weeknight Chicken and Mushroom Sauce

Adapted from Parents Need to Eat Too

BAH Note: This is what I scribbled on a piece of paper and tucked into the book at this recipe’s page – “easy weeknight supper can cook chicken 3 minutes / side then cook 5-10 min @ 350 degrees” In my scribbles, capitalization and punctuation seem to be optional.

If the idea of having to wash two frying pans makes you want to cry, once you remove the cooked chicken breasts from the oven (carefully, that handle is going to be HOT), wrap the chicken in a bit of foil to keep it warm and use that pan to make the sauce, omitting 3rd tablespoon of oil. You’ll get to the same place, it will just take a little longer.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 teaspoons agave or honey
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels and season with a pinch of kosher salt and some black pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in an oven safe frying pan over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add the chicken breasts to the pan and cook for three minutes on each side. Transfer the pan to the oven and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the chicken is done.

While the chicken finishes cooking in the oven, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to another skillet and heat until it shimmers. Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until the liquid released by the mushrooms is mostly evaporated. Add the sherry, agave (or honey), and vinegar to the pan and raise the heat to high. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the butter to the sauce, whisking to combine. Taste for seasoning and add kosher salt to taste.

Add the cooked chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan and serve the chicken topped with mushrooms and sauce.

{printable recipe}

Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake Crumb Topping

9 May 20133 May 2013by Wendi13 Comments

I often find the words “back in my day” tumbling out of my mouth. As enjoyable as I find these trips down memory lane, I’m not sure the person I’m forcing the reminiscence upon would say the same. Unless we happen to have a shared or similar point of reference…and then I need to watch out. Because this leisurely stroll can quickly become an all out sprint that leads to things I never expected. Case in point? Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Bars.

My pal Amber spoils me. Seriously. For as long as I have had the good fortune to know her, she has been a cool breeze on a warm summer day. In the midst of pain she is ready with a comforting embrace. When the Universe smiles on you, she celebrates your good news with joy and enthusiasm. When you say that you don’t know how you’re going to get through this, she reaches into her bag of tricks and gives you the tool you need [or has Amazon deliver it to your door ; ) ]. And when you randomly start talking about the Good Humor truck from back in the day, she not only skips down memory lane with you, she plants the seed in your head to recreate your favorite offering from the ice cream man. This is how her visit through town resulted in me reuniting with my old friend Strawberry Shortcake.

For me, Strawberry Shortcake was all about the outer crumb coating. The rest of the ice cream was merely the vehicle to get the crumbs in my mouth. So I got excited when Amber alerted me to the fact that there was a recipe for Strawberry Shortcake AND the Crumb Topping in a new cookbook, Classic Snacks Made From Scratch. It pretty much sparked an obsession to drown out the voice in my head screaming “I WANT IT. MAKE IT NOW!”

There’s no clever or interesting side story here. I bought the cookbook. I bought freeze dried strawberries. I bought a pint of Breyer’s Strawberry Ice Cream. I had the rest of the ingredients so I got down to business.

Eventually, the crumbs were just as good in my kitchen as they were in my memory. I say eventually because Strawberry Shortcake Crumb Topping is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I dipped a damp finger into the crumb to give them a taste and thought they were good…but something was missing. Turns out that something was the ice cream. There is a dynamic between the crumb and the ice cream that brings the crumb topping to life. Just add ice cream and it goes from being “eh” to being “hell yeah”.

By the time I had worked my way through that pint of ice cream I wasn’t just topping my Breyer’s with the crumbs. I was mixing them in like my own private Ben and Jerry’s flavor.

Strawberry Shortcake Crumb Topping

Adapted from Classic Snacks Made From Scratch

BAH Note: You’ll have to search around for freeze dried strawberries. I found mine at Wegmans. If you have a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods nearby, I’d start there. Or you can save yourself some searching and just hit the online bazaar that is Amazon and have them delivered to your door.

To make the strawberry powder, pulverize the freeze dried strawberries using your method of choice – food processor, mortar and pestle, or plastic bag and rolling pin. You want the powder to be fine. Approximately 3/4 of an ounce of freeze dried strawberries will net the 3 tablespoons you need for the recipe.

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered milk
3 tablespoons freeze dried strawberry powder (see note above)
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the melted butter and use a fork to stir until you get clumps of crumb.

Serve on the ice cream flavor of your choice.

{printable recipe}

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