Strawberry Scones

With strawberry season in its height, now is the perfect time to go pick up some strawberries and make these delicious breakfast scones that will help you start your day out right!  

2 c flour                                                          ¼ cup milk

3 T brown sugar                                           1 egg

2 t baking powder                                        ¼ c pureed strawberries

½ t baking soda                                            1/3 cup diced strawberries                        

½ t salt                                                           Sugar

¼ cup butter

1. In a large bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Cut in butter.
2. In separate bowl, mix milk, egg, and pureed strawberries.  Stir into flour mixture along with diced strawberries.
3. Knead and form into an 8” circle.  Sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake at 400°F for 15-20 minutes.
5. Cut into 8 wedges.    

Smoked Salmon

The past few days I have been learning to smoke salmon.  I was amazed that the actual work to make it takes very little time.  It’s just the marinating and smoking that takes a while.  The most exciting thing about making this smoked salmon was something that happened because my dad was helping me create the recipe.  He had things pulled out to use in the marinade and happened to be drinking coca cola, which was sitting with the other things.  Slightly confused, I asked if we were going to add the coca cola to the marinade.  He said he hadn’t planned on it, but decided we should, so we added that unusual ingredient.  It was also entertaining to watch the sea salt react with the coca cola when I poured it in.  It only took me about ten minutes to prepare it, with a few minutes of transferring between the stages of marinating, drying, and smoking.  It marinated for about ten hours, dried for maybe half and hour, and then smoked for about ten hours.  Next time I might try drying it for longer, because it was not as dry as I hoped it would be.  Also, it turned out fairly salty, so I would not add as much salt next time.

Smoked Salmon

Prep Time: 10 minutes       

Cook Time: 10 hours marinating + 1 hour drying + 8-12 hours smoking

Ingredients: 1/8 cup soy sauce; 1 cup water; 1 tbsp. Worcestershire; 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar; ½ can coca cola; 3 tbsp. sea salt (or less); 1 tsp. onion powder; ½ tsp. black pepper; 3 lb. salmon

Directions: Mix soy, water, Worcestershire, vinegar, coca cola, salt, onion powder, and pepper.  Put salmon in marinade to soak for 10 hours, refrigerated.

Salmon waiting to be smoked.

Blackberry Fruit Leathers

Making blackberry fruit leathers should be a fairly easy process…unless you’re me and fail to spray the plastic pan and spend half an hour removing one of the fruit leathers from the tray!  I know not to make that mistake again.  Thankfully I only had one plastic tray, so the second fruit leather was on plastic wrap and was much easier to remove.  The only trick with the plastic wrap is making sure none if it remains stuck to the fruit leather.  I found the recipe for the blackberry fruit leathers in a book I had on drying and canning foods.  It took me about an hour on each end of the drying process to make the fruit leathers, but if you remember to spray any plastic trays you use and don’t have trouble deciding whether to leave the seeds in or not, that should probably cut that time in half on either end!

Below is the recipe for blackberry fruit leathers.  You can also make fruit leathers out of different fruits with different proportions of sugar.  For one cup of fruit: blackberries and Santa Rosa plums—2½ tbsp. sugar; strawberries—1 tbsp. sugar; raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and other plums—1½ tbsp. sugar.  For all non-berry fruits, heat only to just below boiling point (about 180 degrees Fahrenheit) instead of to boiling.

Blackberry Fruit Leathers

Prep Time: 30-45 minutes  Cook Time: ~20 hours

Ingredients: 4 cups of blackberries; 10 tbsp. sugar (5/8 cup)

Directions: Heat blackberries and sugar on stove until boiling and mixture looks syrupy.  Put in blender if needed.  Filter out some of the seeds if desired.  Spray plastic tray if using dryer and pour berries on ~1/4 inch thick.  Can also dry in the sunshine on plastic wrap.  Remove and roll after dry (about 20 hours).

 

In the dryer and before the removal process.