Mixed Berry Shortcakes with Whipped Cream

One of the BEST things about Spring time, in my humble opinion, is the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables 🙂  More specifically, strawberries!  Strawberries come in season during the month of May…  but who’s counting, right?  Who cares that it’s April?  Besides, our local grocery store had strawberries AND blackberries on sale.  Soooo…. without further adieu, I bring you my families FAVORITE shortcake.  Trust me, you’ll love it as much as we do!

Mixed Berry Shortcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup cold butter

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/2 cup sour cream

2 TBSP cream (you can use milk)

5 cups mixed berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries or whatever kind of berries)

3 TBSP sugar

whipped cream (recipe to follow)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.  Lightly grease a baking sheet (or use parchment paper).  Set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, the 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Using a  pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  In a small bowl, combine egg, sour cream and milk or cream.  Add wet ingredients to flour mixture, stirring with a fork just until moistened.

Drop dough into 8 mounds onto prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.  Transfer to a wire rack.  Let cool.

Berries

Mix 5 cups of berries of your choice with 3 TBSP sugar.  Do not mash fruit but let sit for 15 minutes so that juices can develop and “marry” together.

When ready to serve, split shortcakes in half and and scoop berries and juice on top of one of the halves and cover with the other half.  Serve with whipped cream.

Whipped Cream

In a chilled mixing bowl, add 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 2 TBSP sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.  Beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form.  If you like, you can also like 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Aunt Arlene’s Easy Corn Souffle (as promised to Jessamine)

One of the awesome blogs I follow, Attempts in Domesticity (Trying to Emulate Martha Stewart in a Town Full of Hipsters), posted about some yummy corn and sausage griddle cakes.  I’d never thought of doing griddle cakes like this, have you?  Anyway, I gave her a “fun fact”, not that she asked!  lol  I told her that I make a yummy corn souffle and she asked for the link.  Ahhhh…. most of my recipes are family recipes and some of them come from my collection of a million cookbooks.  I collect cookbooks like I do shoes.

SO…  Jessamine, as promised, now that I’ve had a couple of cups of espresso on this beautiful Sunday morning, here’s our family’s recipe for corn souffle.  I know you’ll love it if you try it!  It’s something that I don’t usually make unless we’re having company OR it’s a holiday.  BUT, I think it would be good any day, and especially for Sunday dinner 🙂

(photo credit goes to aboutdishes.blogspot.com)

Aunt Arlene’s Easy Corn Souffle

Ingredients

1 small onion

1 green pepper

1 stick butter (use REAL butter)

1 can whole kernel corn

1 can cream style corn

1 box jiffy corn muffin mix

3 eggs, well beaten

1 cup sour cream

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

Saute onion and green pepper in butter.  Add corn, beaten eggs and corn muffin mix.  Stir well and pour into prepared baking dish.  Mix sour cream and grated cheese together, spoon over corn mixture.  Bake at 350 F for 35 -40 minutes.

So here it is.  Now go over and check out Jessamine’s blog!  I think the hook for me was the part where she’s trying to emulate Martha Stewart in a town full of hipsters!  TOO funny.

Zero’s Chili (reblogged)

Today’s a PERFECT day for chili in the great Midwest!  I decided to try a different recipe from a blog I’m following.  http://captainofcuisine.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/zeros-chili/comment-page-1/#comment-330 Here’s the link but I’ve also copied and pasted his recipe and made notations with the changes I made.  This is a wonderful base recipe and I’ll definitely be using it as a regular!  Hope you enjoy!  Oh and Thanks to weckeman for sharing!

Zero’s Chili

Ingredients-

– 3 Pounds of ground round (or meat loaf mix, ground sausage or a combination of any the 3, your choice.  For vegetarians, 3 pounds of Morningstar Farms Grillers crumbles (TVP) taste great!)

– 1 Large can of whole tomatoes (pureed) (Just put them in the blender)

– 1 Small cans of tomato paste

– 5 Cans of red kidney beans with liquid (10 to 12 ounce cans each)

– 2 packages of chili seasoning mix (I used taco seasoning cause that’s what I had)

– 4 Medium green peppers (diced small) (I only had 3 green peppers so that’s what I used)

– 3 Medium onions (diced small)

– 2 Caps fulls of white vinegar

– 2 Tablespoons of butter

– 1/2 Tablespoons of garlic powder

– 1/2 Tablespoon of gravy master (I used 1 TBSP)

– 3 Tablespoons of olive oil

– Salt and pepper (to taste)

– 3 Teaspoons of ground cumin  (I added 4 tsp)

– A little water to thin to desired consistency (optional)

***I added 3 to 4 canned chipoltles in adobo sauce for extra heat.  It still didn’t make the chili TOO hot

****I also added 1 TBSP chili powder

Instructions-

1. Clean, chop, prepare and arrange all ingredients.

2. In a large heavy saucepan, brown meat (or meatless meat) while breaking it down with a spatula.

3. When meat is all browned and broken down to it’s smallest form, begin to drain all the fat you can.

4. Add pureed tomatoes and paste, chili mix and 1 cup of water and bring it to a simmer- stirring frequently.

5. Lightly coat a frying pan with olive oil and begin to sauté your peppers and onions until slightly limp and translucent.  Then add them to the chili

6. Add 1 cup of boiling water to the frying pan and de-glaze to get any remaining flavor. Add to the chili

7. Add all other ingredients except the beans and their liquid to the chili.

8. Simmer, stirring occasionally for at least 1 hour.

9. Add beans and liquid and continue simmering for another half an hour.

10. Serve with grated cheddar or parmesan cheese, Italian bread, ice cold beer and Sriracha.  Some people prefer it over rice.  Enjoy!