Strawberry Break

We are going to take a quick break from gardening to do a little cooking. Here in Michigan our strawberries have finally come in! Whoo hoo! I purchased a flat of strawberries for $25 at the farmer's market. A flat is eight quarts, that is a lot of strawberries. I spent one evening cleaning and hulling half the flat to freeze so that we can thaw them when we get extra time to make jam. And since I was working I thought that we all deserved a little treat here at Four Rocks Homestead. After cleaning and hulling the strawberries I chopped them up for strawberry short cake. Look at their gorgeous ruby red color and they smelled so amazing. You could walk into our house and smell fresh strawberries it was incredible. After the chopping came the sugar just a quarter cup because these babies were already super sweet. Isn't my Pyrex bowl pretty? My mom gave me that but that is a story for another day. After the sugar the bowl gets some wrapping and then into the fridge over night. Really that is the hard part, knowing you have something so very yummy in the house that you can't eat right away. Then the filling for the short cakes. Normally I would just throw the strawberries on some biscuits but I really wanted to make an extra special treat for us. So I took one brick of softened cream cheese and one half cup of powdered sugar along with one tablespoon of orange extract and creamed them together. This is also set aside to rest overnight. The filling is a bit like cheese cake it just tastes better the next day (you know if there is any left over that long). The next day I cheated an bought biscuits because it was hot, humid and icky and I did not want to turn the oven on. A little of the yummy cheese spread, lots of the sweet strawberries and of course some whip cream that I had left in the fridge. Voila! A delicious summer treat for all!Recipe for filling

1 brick softened cream cheese
1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 TBSP orange extract
cream these ingredients together and let sit overnight. You can then smather some on biscuits or you could get all fancy and use a pastry bag and star tip to make your creation look gorjous! we're down and dirty at our house so smathering is right up our alley!
Happy cooking!