The History of Strawberry Shortcake! [finally]

So I actually meant to post this last week, but the end of the semester has got me thinking about things that are not so related to strawberries.

However, I am excited that I finally have found the history of Strawberry Shortcake--no, not the doll (even though she was awesome)--the dessert! Although no one can really date the actual date of placing strawberries on top of shortcake, there is a long history that starts with the creation of the shortcake. Shortcake is a traditional European recipe. It was common around the time of Shakespeare, and found its way into a 1594 recipe book. Even though the cake part originated in Europe, placing strawberries on top of it is completely American. Around 1850 people topped their shortcake with strawberries, their juice, and whipped cream to signify the arrival of summer. It's earliest recipe was found in an 1847 cookbook. [http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Strawberries/StrawberryShortcake/index.htm]

I think it is rather appropriate that "the melting pot" has brought together these different traditions to make something so tasty. Learning that it started off as a treat served at parties celebrating the arrival of spring/summer allowed me to understand the dinning hall's overabundance of it recently.

I guess everyone is getting antsy for summer, and with 3 weeks til finals it is quite all right. This also means way more strawberry eating for me!

P.S. There was a huge strawberry display at my local grocery store this weekend, and they were 2/$5. Great deals!

Strawberry Fun Facts

So the weather is not as warm as I had hoped it would be by now. I guess there is a reason for April showers...

Even though the weather has been rather dreary, I have begun to see and hear a lot about strawberries. I have noticed that in the dinning halls a dessert staple has become some form of strawberry shortcake; whether it be actually strawberries ontop of shortcake or a pudding variation. With all this strawberry shortcake around, I figured I would look up the origins of this treat.

I had a little bit of trouble trying to look up the origin of this dessert, but instead I did find a lot of fun facts about strawberries that I did not know at all! So maybe my shortcake origin post will be soon..but for now hopefully you'll find these facts interesting!

1) The word strawberry comes from "strewn berry" because the strawberry looks as though it has been strewn about the plant.

2) They are not berries or fruits! They are technically the enlarged end of the plant's stamen.

3) There are about 200 seeds on each berry

4) They have been used for sunburns, discolored teeth, digestion and gout.

5) In medevial dinners, they represented peace, prosperity, and perfection.

[all facts were taken from http://nashville.about.com/cs/festivalsnmore/a/aa051303a_3.htm]

I was a little shocked to hear about some of these facts, but I guess they could always be used as an ice breaker!

note to self: file under useless information that could come up in a triva game....

Strawberries+ [insertfoodhere]=not always a great combo.

Strawberries are a great treat on their own. Over the years people have combined strawberries with multiple other dishes that have turned out great. Such as addining it into ice cream, or ontop of shortbread. There are just too many great things that have been combined with strawberries to enhance the greatness of this already awesome fruit. However, some combinations should never have happened.

Some people may already know about my severe dislike of hotdogs. I had a very traumatic episode with this food when I was younger (ok not that traumatic.. but food poisoning is awful at any age) and ever since I have avoided them, plus the fact that I have no idea what they are made of really scares me. Ok so now that everyone knows about my dislike of hotdogs... onto the point of the story. In class today we were discussing tofu and the various ways it can be prepared. Denise then told a story of her cousins who were alternating eating tofu dogs and strawberries. It may have just been the image in my mind, but this idea is utterly nauseating to me. Tofu resembling a hotdog in one hand, half eaten strawberries with the juice running everywhere in the other hand. Not exactly appetizing.

I will say that strawberries do make a great dessert at the end of barbeque that may have served hotdogs earlier in the meal. For me at least, these two should never be combined in the mouth. Strawberries have such a unique flavor and texture on their own that definitley would not combine well with the unique texture of tofu and the artificial hotdog flavors.

In short...

+

=

NO GO!

Strawberry Varieties

During our class discussion yesterday, we talked about different varieties of apples and tomatoes. That got me wondering if there was such a thing as a "type" of strawberry. I always thought the same one's I ate at my house were the same ones everyone else across the country was eating. Then I remembered that long stemmed strawberries were popular around Valentine's Day for dipping into chocolate.

With at least one other variety of strawberry in mind, I decided to research and find out how many different varieties of strawberries there actually are. In this particular article I found, there are over 30 different types of strawberries! They vary from what kind of soil they can grow in, to resistance to particular diseases. Who knew there were so many varieties! The article also said that new varieties are being created every year. So biotechnical engineering also pops up in this fruit. I wonder if anything has not been bio-engineered?

I was going to just copy the list into this post...but that would clearly take up pages. Here is the link to the article. http://gardening.about.com/od/fruitsberriesnuts/a/Strawberries.htm

Meet Clancy. A new strawberry developed by Cornell University. (Looks pretty standard to me!)

Good Morning Strawberries!

Well since I happen to be the only one in the house with the week off, I get to be the family driver? (Well for today atleast). So I was up at a rediculous time so that I could take my mom to work and my sister to school (this is what happens when you want to borrow a car for the day). The good thing about being awake during the breakfast hour is actually getting to eat breakfast!

I am usually not a fan of any kind of breakfast food, so when I do eat breakfast I tend to keep it simple with cereal and fruits. Today I started to crave my summertime breakfast treat; granola topped with plain vanilla yogurt and sliced strawberries. I tend to get stuck in breakfast food ruts, and I litterally ate this for breakfast for 10 weeks straight last summer.

The great thing about this summertime treat is that it can also double as an afternoon snack as well (parfait anyone?). As soon as I thought about using strawberries in this way, I realized that strawberries really have snuck into most breakfast foods. Besides just sliced into breakfast cereals, they can also be found mixed into yogurt, breakfast bars, as well as juices.

With all this sneaking into foods, perhaps we are getting more servings of fruits than we think we are? Sadly though I had no strawberries, yogurt, or granola in my house, but I did have a mango and toast!

Prices & the approaching strawberry season!

So I have been neglecting this a little bit and I appologize for that. I have had several topics I wanted to post about, but I just never got around to actually sumbiting them! Now that spring break is coming up next week, perhaps I'll have more free time to experiment with strawberries...

If you haven't noticed, over the past few months I have been trying to do strawberry themed recipes. Obviously these recipes include fresh strawberries, so this led me to become more aware of the prices of strawberries.

The actual strawberry season is late May into June. This means we are in short supply of these berries throughout the winter months, and rely on imports from places such as Mexico for our "fresh" strawberries. Now that we're almost half way through March there has been a destinctive drop in prices, as well as brands that the supermarkets are putting on display.

For my strawberry cupcakes in February, I went to a local Wal-Mart to purchase strawberries, just because I figured they would be cheapest (and because I had other random shopping to do). I walked in expecting to be paying a high price for a carton of strawberries, but to my surprise they were only $4.48. I was plenty happy with this price because it was the week of Valentines Day, as well as the middle of a winter month.

Going on a side note off of the prices of Valentine's Day strawberries, Dr. Cohen also sent me a link to another blog (http://www.chow.com/grinder/4746) that talked about a certain strawberry from Japan that we being auctioned off at a ridiculous price. For a box of 7-12 berries, it cost $45. That definitiley made my $4.48 look like a steal!

As the weeks went on I was in and out of supermarkets and grocery stores for different reasons (now with my eyes looking at price tags of the produce section). One week a lot of the fresh fruits were on sale, and I saw that cartons of strawberries were on sale for 2/$4.00 or $2each. I thought this was a crazy sale and imediatley wished that I could think of something to make with these. Sadly I was in a rush to get back to school and left the sale (although my mom did go back later).

For my past recipe I did make a return trip to the same grocery store and was saddened to see the $2 sale was over. Even though the prices did go back up, it was not significant. A carton of strawberries is now aroung $2.50. So, over a period of about four weeks, the prices of strawberries dropped a little over $2. This price fluctuation amazed me.

Now, I would also like to note where these strawberries were coming from. The original box I bought at $4.48, was imported from a farm in Mexico. This same farm was the supplier during the $2 sale. I would have to assume this was their last import and wanted to make room for their new batch. Last week when I went and got my $2.50 strawberries, they were now from a different farm that was located in Florida. I have deducted that this significant, and rapid, decrease in price is from cuting back on traveling distance.

What does all this mean? Well, it does mean that the distance they must travel increases the price...but it also means that it's almost strawberry season!!! So now I'm in "summer mode" and thinking of all the strawberry juices and fruit salads I can make. Either way start preparing for lower costing fruits, and I will keep you updated on the decline in prices of strawberries!

Mint Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

[now with pictures!]

So last week I felt like I continually encountered strawberries and mint flavored food items. Thursday I had a cupcake with mint and strawberry frosting. Friday I had strawberry ice cream mixed with mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was everywhere! Thats when I got the idea for dipping strawberries into mint flavored chocolate. I had never heard of anyone doing such a thing before, so I decided to go for it.

Mint Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

1lb of Strawberries (1 carton)

8oz. of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 tsp. of Mint Extract

First, you must prepare the strawberries. Rinse the entire carton and dry using a paper towel (this alows the chocolate to stick to the strawberries better). I left the stems on for this, but you may cut them off if you prefer it.

Next get a setting place ready for the strawberries to cool on. I, again, used a doubled piece of tinfoil placed ontop of a cookie sheet. (Using tin foil or parfin wax sheet makes it easier to peel off the strawberries with out ruining the chocolate coating).

Take your 8oz. of chocolate chips and melt them in the microwave (or double boiler if you have one). I suggest using higher quality chocolate for this recipe, just because half of what you will be tasting is the chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted so that there are no lumps and that it is almost pourable, add in the mint extract. If you just want the mint flavor to be more subtle, try adding a half a teaspoon to begin with and add to taste from thereon in. If you're like me, and want the mint to be very noticible add in the full teaspoon (perhaps just a splash more).

Now you can dip your towel dried strawberries into the chocolate. Place each one onto the sheet and put them into the refridgerator to cool. It should take about 5-10 minutes to cool depending upon how much chocolate is on the strawberries.

If you are feeling creative you can use any remaining chocolate to decorate your strawberries. I used a ziplock bag to pipe a chocolate design onto the strawberries. By placing chocolate into one bottom edge and snipping off the end, this creates a make-shift pastry bag.

This was a very new taste for me, I think it may be an acquired taste. It did take me two strawberries to really appreciate the flavor combination. If you are more of a timid eater (as my mom is) do not judge it on the first bite, they are pretty good!