Fresh Picked Strawberry Recipes

Last week was only the second time I've gone strawberry picking.  My first time yielded slightly disastrous results... I attempted jam - it didn't thicken, I pitched tons of berries because we didn't eat them fast enough and they turned to over ripe mush.  So this time, I wanted to make sure I used up as many as I could, as quickly as I could, and froze the rest.  The results were much better!

Saturday morning I made a scrumptious and very easy strawberry crumble that was devoured in no time.  It was incredible warm, alone or over vanilla ice cream with a pinch of fresh mint. It was also perfectly delicious at room temperature.  Jimmy and I just left a fork in the dish and nibbled every time we walked by it.  I figured we kiss each other enough so sharing a fork for a day isn't totally disgusting, right?  Ok, maybe a bit.

Fresh Strawberry Crisp
3 cups fresh berries, frozen
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 3/4 cup flour, divided
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
7 TBS chilled butter, diced

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine frozen berries. 1/4 cup sugar. 1/4 cup flour and lemon juice in a large bowl; toss to blend well.  Transfer to a buttered 9 inch pie dish.  Combine remaining 3/4 flour, oats, brown sugar, spices and salt in a medium bowl.  Add butter; mix with pastry blender or fingertips, until topping holds together in moist clumps.  Sprinkle over berry mixture.  Bake until berry mixture bubbles thickly and topping is golden brown, about 1 hour.  Let stand 15 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

(Note: I washed and dried my berries and popped them in the freezer overnight in a ziplock bag.  They were very ripe so I though by keeping them frozen to start they would help them hold their shape better.  Also, I kept my berries whole b/c they were on the smaller side.  If using very large berries, I would suggest cutting them in half.)

With my remaining berries, I made Ina's Easy Strawberry Jam.  Since I'm the only jam eater in the house, I kept a little for me and gave away the rest.  The recipe made enough for 3 half pint jars and will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks.   I had fun making little labels to put on the jars.

The problem was... I made the labels before I bought the jars and they were a bit too big for the tops.  They would have been perfect on a full size canning jar.  I also love these French canning jars from Sur La Table.  Next time!

I get a lot of questions about designing + printing labels.  They are much easier than you think but it takes a bit of tinkering with the printer.  I don't use graphic design software, just store bought labels (Paper Source in this case) and Pages (word processing software for Mac).  The three fonts I used to create these are: Soymilk, KR Fruitsy, The Skinny.  All can be downloaded from dafont.com.  The templates for the labels can be downloaded from Paper Source.  I also love the round kraft labels from Garnish.  They are probably my favorite to use on food gifts. Both strawberry recipes were big hits and will be made again! Enjoy!!

{the secret ingredient!}