The grocery stores have had strawberries on sale almost every week for like a month and a half now, and by the time they're through I'll be able to get local ones. I have been seriously craving some strawberry shortcake.

The main version that sticks in my memory, is the kind my Grandma Antes made. Bisquick (or similar) biscuits, broken into several pieces and popped into a cereal bowl. Pile up some strawberries on top. Drench it all in cold milk. Smush together as desired while eating. It's pretty clearly a backwoods Pennsylvania version, but still delicious in its own right. Kind of like eating Cheerios with strawberries on it, it's a light kind of comfort food.

Tom looked rather bewildered by this description, so I tried describing the classic Better Homes and Gardens recipe, a biscuit-y cake with a few layers of strawberries and whipped cream. Still no-go. "Well what's *your* kind of strawberry shortcake?" "...oh, I don't know, but it's not that...ask my mother."

It slipped my mind for awhile, but I finally remembered - and called him on that, though I doubt he expected I would. The response I got:

"Here is the "official" strawberry shortcake recipe from bisquick...however, if the boy is being a pain in the butt...and wants his "mommy's" version (oh how I went through that too)...below the recipe is my changes (aka Doug's mom's changes...ps: also see if it's on the box)"

Ingredients are the Bisquick ones, but the presentation is totally different. Cook up the Bisquick portion in a square pan, and cut it into squares, which get sliced in half and berries put in the middle and on top. The strawberries get soaked in sugar + their own juices all day in the fridge, which makes a bit of a juice syrup to pour over things. Then scatter a few sliced-up strawberries around/over it all. I have a hunch it is going to be very pretty - I might tackle this sometime this weekend.

...but, I have to admit, I got a little flash of feeling a part of a tradition, and it made me really happy. I'm using the recipe that my boy's mother used, and she used the one *her* boy's mother used... it's very cool. It's making me all happy. :)


(which is good, because today was one of those days where I made every silly little mistake I pretty much possibly could. and that roll of 13oz vinyl is SERIOUSLY out to get me. grr.)

Labels: cooking, family, work