Summer Produce. Award

Monday I was out of fresh asparagus so obviously we had to go and get some. Whilst there I mentioned to Tim Barrie that the chive flowers on their plants were delicious, and pretty, in salads so he said I should help myself. I did take a few. Actually – not that I am much of a gardener – but if you do have chives you are supposed to pick off the flowers anyway and really they do look great in a salad plus adding an oniony tang. These weren’t really fresh enough, but I was popping them into my mouth anyway. In between eating spears of raw asparagus of course. This was my latest asparagus haul and of course I had some, so did Matt, for supper last night. Forgot I also bought some strawberries so they too were consumed. With Double Devon Cream although I had to be very careful not to eat too much of that, it is not exactly low in calories and I am on a diet after all. They were pretty good berries, but the best I have ever had in North America were at one particular farm in Morehead City, North Carolina. I showed my purchases to a neighbour in the elevator and she said her husband wouldn’t eat asparagus, he said he used to have asparagus in his back yard and used to spray it to kill it. Horrors. However, I found that one of the sales girls at the farm eats as much asparagus as I do.

I was sent an Inspiration Liebster Award today, but its going to take me a bit to sort it all out and answer the questions.

I love Strawberries Romanoff but I have had trouble finding a genuine recipe. A lot of them add ice cream, definitely not original. Sour cream is also not original. Even this is not quite right but sounds as though it would be good and close to the real thing. Obtain the thickest cream you can find, if you are able to buy Double Devon Cream nothing could be better - I would blend it with whipping cream prior to whipping it. I then found I had posted a recipe two years ago.

Strawberries Romanoff

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

2 pints fresh strawberries or 2 pints sliced strawberries
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 cup Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)
1/4 cup orange juice, no pulp
2 cups thick cream

Directions

Mix the sugar, liqueur and orange juice together and marinate (actually I think the correct term is macerate) the berries . Meanwhile whip up the cream. Just prior to service, fold the marinated berries into the cream.

Have a great day

Friday, Thanks, Angio-Seal, Berries.

Yesterday I spent the whole day feeling like a zombie. I assume from the anesthetic. I didn’t expect to have a general, only a local. I think I react more than most do. I was told I would have something to calm me, it calmed me right out of it. I felt like someone had inserted a thick blanket onto my brain.

Thanks to all the people who sent me best wishes for this operation, I really appreciate your thinking of me.

Apparently my surgery involved the use of an Angio-Seal which is something quite new to me and was certainly not used last time. The idea being, the surgical team doesn’t have to apply pressure for ages on the access site to stop the bleeding. The only thing, it says if the Seal is used the patient doesn’t have to lie flat for hours, so how come I did? Will have to ask about this. I have a card to carry for 90 days from which I assume the seal dissolves by the end of that time. Sorry, it says “absorbs”. I kind of read all the paperwork they gave me before but I am only now beginning to “absorb” the information.

I am now up to book 13 of the Wheel of Time Series, Towers of Midnight and once I have read this will have to possess my soul in patience until Brandon Sanderson finishes the last novel which is supposed to be published next year according to latest information. Bearing in mind how long this series has been running, there is a surprising amount that I remembered, on the other hand quite a lot that I had forgotten so it was nice to refresh my memory.

I had intended to accompany Matt to the doctor and then to Barrie’s Asparagus farm but I couldn’t hack it. Anyway, not only are we re-stocked with asparagus but we have our first strawberries. I can’t believe they have been available for a week or so and we haven’t had any. Matt got two punnets and they looked pretty good although the ones we saw in a country store last Friday when we were in Niagara were better looking. We added a dollop of Devon cream and made do with what we had!!! They were delicious and we have some more for tonight. I was saying to Matt, strawberries have such a short season that I personally don’t want them messed with, maybe Strawberries Romanoff, but other than that, you can keep all the other strawberry dishes people make, good ripe berries with Devon cream, what more could you want. I guess I mean what more could I want?

I decided to look for a recipe for Strawberries Romanoff and kept finding them with ice cream, no way, ice cream is not original at all. I am not sure how original this recipe is either. Whenever I have eaten this the strawberries have been folded into the whipped cream. This picture looks about right to me.

STRAWBERRIES ROMANOFF

1 pint. strawberries, rinsed, hulled and halved 1 tablespoon sugar curacao, cointreau or grand marnier, to taste 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 1 tablespoon orange juice, (up to 2) whipped cream, sweetened with confectioner's sugar

Combine the strawberries with all of the ingredients but the whipped cream.

Marinate at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. Serve in wine glasses topped with whipped cream.

Serving Size: 2

Hope you have a great Father’s Day