It’s not Summer, not even Spring, but Strawberries are out in the shops and are quite tasty. I had some tonight for tea with cream. I did sprinkle a bit of sweetner over the top of them.
I did think of adding a few blueberries to the fruit but there was enough with what I’d already prepared.
What I do like is the way cream fills in the little pores of the strawberries, it makes a nice pattern and could be cropped and put together as a collage. I might do that. Red is a favourite colour and this with the contrast of black and white makes a fresh looking image.
Made a birthday trifle, raspberrysugar free jelly with blackberries and port, strawberry blancmange with a bit of sweetner, whipped cream with chopped strawberries and grated dark chocolate.
Oranges, freshly peeled, or squeezed for their juice.
Finally strawberries. Either with cream or ice-cream. Or mixed into an Eton Mess.. Cream, meringue and strawberry all smashed together.
Well that was a boring list! It must be hard to try and think of a prompt to get people to write. Finding a specific idea, and then trying to find out everyone’s opinions. Maybe I should have chosen some less well known fruits, but I don’t know exotic ones. I’ve seen jackfruit on the TV but I’ve never tasted it.
And what is classed as a fruit? Some things are more like vegetables, some berries, do you have to have the seeds on the inside? I should have looked up a definition.
The thing I have to remember is that not everyone can afford fresh fruit. When I was a child, Sunday afternoon tea was canned peaches with evaporated milk and white bread and butter. We didn’t know, but our parents could not afford much. To us it was a treat and when we got maraschino cherries in our orange squash at Christmas it was so delicious. Now, with the cost of living crisis people cannot get the food they need, and that’s in the 6th most rich country in the world. If you look at the rest of the world, there is so much poverty that it must be a dream to get fresh fruit. What a strange world we live in.
I had some strawberries in the fridge but they started to go mouldy so I cut off the bad bits and chopped them up. I made pancakes with two cups of self raising flour, three eggs and milk to make a thickish batter. I let it rest in the fridge and whipped some cream.
If you heat a frying pan with oil in it till its hot you get better pancakes. Pour off any excess oil to reuse after cooking your first pancake. Swirl the batter round the pan to get it level. If you watch, as the batter cooks the top of it will start to bubble and dry out. You can see its setting as it cooks. I use a spatula to turn it over. When cooked add cream and chopped strawberries. I used sweetner rather than sugar and would have used lemon juice if I had any in.
Abstract strawberry and drawing of a strawberry. Done at an art lunch my friend organised at the warehouse at Etruria Industrial Museum. Just a chance to meet up with some artists I haven’t seen for months. It was good to see them in the flesh!
What to do next? Think about getting involved with community groups, I’m not good at networking so this is a good thing for me. It gets me to think about my artistic life.
Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was fruit. I drew a strawberry. Felt pens on cartridge paper. This is a photograph from a free clip art site. I liked using pink and red together. It makes an interesting combination.
Looking for comfort food, I’ve got strawberries in the fridge but no cream. I’m going to get some tomorrow. I want something fresh and summery to remind me summer is going to arrive, that picnics might happen again. That I can visit the park again with friends one day. That life can be restored.. All that in a bowl of strawberries and cream….
It turned out very tasty and fruity. I use sugar free jelly and blancmange, but the amount of fruit I put in was very naughty.
As I whipped the cream I was a bit enthusiastic with the hand whisk and some od it went over my Christmas jumper! At least we were not going out so I can slob around in my pyjamas and dressing gown.
By the way instead of sherry I used fortified British wine that was very fruity.
I usually make a trifle at Christmas, but I’m doing it for New Years Eve and Day this time (so it will be a two year old trifle!).
This is only the start, but it looked so pretty. I’ve put a pint of sugar free rasperry jelly (made up with half a pint if boiling water and a quarter of a pint of cold water and a quarter of a pint if sherry. (jelly is not the American version of jam, but is it called jello). I added chopped strawberries and whole blackberries to the liquid. Any slightly mouldy ones are going on the bird feeding table tomorrow, they have been washed and are back in the fridge.
Tomorrow I will add strawberry blancmange (a type of flavoured custard), as I don’t like custard which some people use. I make that up with a pint of milk and sweetener ( I avoid putting sugar in). Finally I whip double cream, (heavy cream?) about three quarters of a pint till it makes stiff peaks. I might add spare blackberries for decoration. I might take a photo tommorow when it’s finished. X
Mallaband-Brown 