Strawberry Girl Strawberry Bread

 I first read Strawberry Girl in Mrs. Basista's fourth grade class, and when I started this blog, I knew I had to make something to celebrate this awesome book.  (Maybe partly, again, because of my love of all things Berry.)  I'm giving a little more background for this one than I usually do, just because I feel like I should.

Strawberry Girl, written by Lois Lenski, is the 1946 winner of the Newbery Award.  Ms. Lenski was a prolific author, and may be most famous for her books about children of various regions and cultures in the U.S., including Bayou Suzette and Corn Farm Boy.  She also wrote several picture books and several historical novels, as well as being an illustrator for the first few of the Betsy-Tacy series (which we discussed last fall).  I remember reading Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (one of the historical novels) several times as a kid.

Strawberry Girl is one of the regional novels.  It's set in Florida, and the characters pride themselves on being "Florida Crackers" - basically, poor farming families.  The book features two main families: the Boyers, including Berthenia (Birdie), who is the title character, and the Slaters, including young Jefferson Davis (Shoestring).  The Boyers are relatively well-off and have recently moved to the area to grow and sell strawberries, sugar cane, and anything else that will grow.  Birdie wants to be friends with everybody, and wants more than anything to be a Strawberry Girl, selling her berries on a street corner in the nearby town.  The adult-me wants to say, "wow, dream big!", but I remember being a kid and thinking how much fun it would be to grow and pick and be able to be proud of my own strawberries, so I must have gotten cynical in my old age.

As a side note, I have on several occasions attempted to grow my own strawberries.  It never worked very well.

Anyhow.  The Boyers' closest neighbors are the Slaters, who really don't have much of anything.  They aren't farmers so much as squatters, and they don't raise their cattle so much as let it run wild.  This doesn't lead to friendliness between the families, since Mr. Slatter isn't too happy about Mr. Boyer fencing in his land.  No love lost between the dads in this book, which is really too bad, because the moms seem to hit it off pretty well.  And Birdie and Shoestring could totally be BFFs, given the chance.

The things I remember from the 1994 reading of this book were how much I liked the main character, the desire I had to grow my own strawberries, and the description of a road made out of logs as a Corduroy Road. My friend Manna remembers mainly that the book is written in a strong dialect that's a little hard to understand. Neither of us remembered Mr. Slater being an alcoholic or the bits with animal cruelty (which really just stand to show you how much of a jerk Mr. Slater is - it's not like they're glorifying it).  So, just be aware that, if you're giving this book to your child, there are a few things in there that aren't all sweetness and light.  But I still recommend that you give this story to your kids, though, because it's an awesome book, and you really don't remember the unhappy parts.  At least, I didn't.

So!  For Birdie, who is the best Strawberry Girl ever, I have made this awesometastic Strawberry Bread.  I found the recipe at the AllRecipes website, listed as Strawberry Spice Loaf, and all credit goes to HMBOLAAF, who posted it.  (I just added vanilla and extra berries.)  Thank you! 

Strawberry Girl Strawberry Bread

 

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

2 16-oz. bags of frozen strawberries, thawed

2 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350, and grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans (I actually made one large and two small loaves instead of two large ones - if you do that, be sure to adjust your cooking time).

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda.  Dump the bags of strawberries into a (different!) large bowl, and squish them up with a fork, your fingers, or a potato masher to break them up a bit.  Add the oil, eggs, and vanilla into the strawberries, and mix well.  

3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour in the strawberry mixture.  Mix thoroughly until everything is combined, and pour into the loaf pans.

4. Bake the loaves for one hour, or until a toothpick/butter knife in the center comes out clean.  

I've been told that this bread tastes like apple cider donuts, without the apple and with strawberries.  I've been describing it to people as "like banana bread, but with strawberries and without bananas." It's also really good with some whipped cream and additional strawberries on top.

So good!  I know the color looks "off" here, but it's not.  It really is that odd reddish color.  You could add some food coloring if you wanted it to be more vibrant, and I meant to do that, but totally forgot.  I bet it would be good with some pecans or walnuts mixed in, too.

Also, I know this post is more about what I thought of the book and less about the book itself, but I wasn't sure what else to say about it.  What do you think - have you read it?  Would you recommend it?  And what would you talk about for this book, if this was your blog?

City of Ember Roasted Potatoes

Imagine this: There's a city underground, deep enough to be cut off from the rest of the world entirely.  It was built years ago by people known only as The Builders, who supplied the city - Ember - with everything it could possibly need: canned food, clothing, a generator and power grid for electricity, a plumbing and sewer system, a greenhouse for growing fruits and vegetables - everything the city's people could need for 200 years.

But that was 241 years ago, and now, decades after the day when residents were supposed to return to the surface, the plans for Ember have been lost.  Supplies are running low, and the generator is slowly dying.  Ember is in fear of the day when the lights don't come back on after a blackout, when the shelves are bare, and when the plants stop growing.

Imagine, too, that you have found the Builders' plans, that you know that it's time to get the residents to the surface world, and how to do it, ending the years of darkness and uncertainty.  But nobody will listen to you.  After all, you're only 12 years old.

That's what happened to Lina Mayfleet in The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau.  She, along with her friend Doon and 2-year-old sister Poppy, has to decide whether to follow the Builders' instructions and escape from the city, or give up and let Ember die?  Tell me... what would you do?

I seriously love this book.  I saw the movie randomly on tv one day and loved it, and then found out that there was a book version (which came first, naturally), and it's even better than the movie (of course)!  Better than that, even?  There are four books in this series, and my library has all of them!  I made the ultimate sacrifice and re-read City of Ember for you, my dear friends, and I even have Book 2 (The People of Spark) on my coffee table for later.  (I left books 3 and 4 at the library this time - no need to be greedy.)

Anyhow.  It's not like I'm obsessed with this book, but it is one of the few that I've brought to people, put in their hands and said, "Read this.  I'm not kidding."  There's just something about it that makes me highly recommend it to just about everybody.

So, back to Ember.  Food, naturally, was pretty scarce in the city, since they only had what they little remained on the storeroom shelves and what they could grow in the greenhouse, which was, with plumbing and lights being unreliable, not all that much.  But there was one thing they could always count on, and that was potatoes.  Lina had potatoes for almost every meal, and while I'm sure she was probably sick to death of mashed potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... that really doesn't sound all that bad to me.

I love potatoes.  I'm like Bubba from Forrest Gump - I'll take them any way I can get them.  Boiled, baked, mashed, fried, potato soup, potato stew, potato dumplings, potato bread... but today I'm sharing with you one of my all-time favorite potato recipes.  It's easy as heck, and tastes really good, too.

City of Ember Roasted Potatoes

Red potatoes, about 2 or 3 per person*
Olive Oil - about 1 tbsp. per person (use as much as you need to lightly, evenly coat the potatoes)
Spices**

*NOTE about the potatoes:  There are many varieties of potatoes, and they're good for many different things.  Russetts are good baking potatoes, and yellow potatoes (like Yukon Gold) are awesome for mashies, but for this, I like good ol' red potatoes.  For one thing, they're solid enough that you don't have to worry about them getting mushy, and for another, you don't have to peel them!  Plus, they're yummy.  But you can substitute other potatoes if you want.

**NOTE about the spices:  You can use just about anything here.  I assume Ember's people would have just used salt and pepper, and this recipe are great with just that.  You can also do some with rosemary and dill, or with Italian seasoning, or with garlic powder and dried onions (or real garlic and onions!), or go really funky and use a little bit of dried salad dressing mix, like one of those Hidden Valley Ranch pouches (just make sure that you don't use a whole packet for just a few potatoes, because that may be overwhelming). They also make spice blends just for this, in the pre-mixed-spice-pouch section of the store.  Really, anything's good.  This time, I used dried diced onions and garlic powder, which is why they look "chunky."  I used a bit much... but it was so good!

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Wash and dry the potatoes, and cut them into biteable chunks.  I generally cut my red potatoes into 6 to 8 pieces each, but whatever size you like is fine.
2. Put the potato pieces into a bowl and add the olive oil; mix well, until evenly coated.  (This also works with a large ziploc - add the ingredients and shake to coat).  Add the spices of your choice and mix again, until the spices are evenly distrubuted.
3. Pour the potatoes onto a cookie sheet in an even layer.  Pop the whole thing into the oven, and cook until the potatoes are cooked through, stirring/flipping the potatoes about 30 minutes in.  When they're done, they'll have a light crust on the outside, and the inside will be warm and soft.  This usually takes me about an hour and 15 minutes, but I check at 45 minutes and again at 1 hour, just to make sure they're not getting burned.

I'd like to give attribution for this recipe, but I remember my Mom making this when I was little, so it may just be one of those things that Moms know how to make and pass it along.  (My Uncle Hawk also makes a mean roasted potato, to be fair - it's not just Moms.)

One of the things I like about this recipe is that I also cook my chicken at 350, and that takes usually 35-45 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken breasts), so if I time it correctly, my dinner comes out of the oven at the same time!  I'm a big fan of that.  (Take it out, let it cool for a few minutes while I microwave some veggies, and eat!)  Alternately, you can roast the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-45 minutes.  They taste about the same, so it all depends on what temperature you're cooking other things at, or personal preference.

As a side note for those who didn't see my side note - yes, that is a different location, and totally different plates!  Also, a new camera, so it won't take me 5 minutes to get a good shot.  Hooray!

Quick Notes

Hello my friends!!
It's been a busy busy summer.  I finished my last two classes of grad school, took two 1400+ mile long road trips, and am completely relocated to Florida. A lot has changed, but things are going well right now, and I finally have time to get back into doing what I love - reading, cooking, eating, blogging.

You may notice a few changes on the blog -- please let me know what you think!  (I'm not sure what possessed me to make everything blah-green when I started this up, since that's not really the most appetizing of color schemes.)  I like this much better.

I've heard that there have been some issues with commenting, and I apologize for that - I have no idea what the trouble was.  We've been set to Everybody Can Comment, and there should be no waiting period before comments show up, but if we continue to have problems, we may have to make some bigger changes. If there are problems, please let me know, either via Facebook or email (katcooksthebooks@gmail.com).  You can also write either of those addresses, or use the comments here, to tell me what you think, suggest a story or food for me to review/cook, tell me how awesome I am, or just to say hi.  I love getting email.

The other consideration is whether I want to get my own domain name.  I'd like to, but Blogger doesn't allow the use of their software on outside websites, so it means that we'd be moving to a different program - what do you guys think about that?

So, we're back in action.  And yes, there WILL be a recipe posted tonight.  Cross my heart and hope to burn my cookies if I'm telling lies.

Candyfloss Chip Butties

If you're like me, this title makes very little sense.  Let me explain.

I was randomly shelf-reading in the library the other day, and I happened across a book called Candyfloss.  "Aha!" I said to myself (quietly - I was in the library, after all).  "I can make cotton-candy-flavored yumminess to go with this book, if I like it!"  Candyfloss being the British term for what I would call cotton candy, in case you didn't know.  (I did know, for some reason, though I've never been outside the U.S. - did Willy Wonka talk about candyfloss? Or do I just really like food-related facts?)  Between the title and the fact that the front cover photo is a girl wearing polka-dot socks, I had to give this one a try.  I love both socks and polka dots.

So, I took out the book, and I read the book, and I really really liked the book, but there is so much talk in said book about chip butties that I just have to make them instead.  It would be a travesty not to.  (What the heck is a chip butty? We'll get there.)

Candyfloss is a book by Jacqueline Wilson, who just so happens to be such an awesome author that she not only has won scads and oodles of awards, but was actually granted the title of Dame Jacqueline Wilson in 2008.  Long story short, if you have not heard of or read any of her books, I'd recommend getting your tush in gear and getting to the library to read at least one to see how you like it, because she's got the Awesome thing down pretty well.

Candyfloss is a chapter book about a girl named Flora, who everyone calls Floss or Flossie, and who lives with her family in England.  She has a pretty good life - she even has the most popular girl in the school for her best friend!  On weekdays, she lives with her mom, Mom's husband Steve, and her half-brother Tiger.  On the weekends, she visits her Dad, who lives above the cafe he owns, where he makes wonderful chips, and chip butties. 

(A chip butty, oh patient reader, is a sandwich with chips - french fries, not potato chips - inside.  I've done some research online and found that, to those who have had and enjoyed chip butties, a recipe is about as useful as one for me would be for a peanut butter sandwich.  But, since I did a peanut butter sandwich recipe for Thanksgiving, I think this one's okay.)

Our story begins on Floss's birthday.  As one of her presents, her mother tells her that the family will be traveling to Australia (hooray!!) for six months (um... what?).  After thinking long and hard about it, she makes a tremendous and scary decision.  She is going to live with her father full-time, while the rest of her family leaves for Australia.

The question is, how is this going to work out?  Dad isn't used to having his daughter full-time, or ironing school uniforms, or cooking healthy meals, and Floss isn't used to living in a tiny bedroom, and smelling like fried food all the time, and not having much of a place to play.  And Floss's best friend isn't used to it, either - she doesn't seem as much fun to be around as she used to. But the new girl, Susan?  She looks like she might be more fun.

I'm not going to give anything else away, because I don't want to ruin it, but I am going to say that it's a shame the illustrator's name isn't on the cover of the book, because he deserves massive kudos, too.  His name is Nick Sharratt, and he has drawn a picture for every single chapter of the book, that appears on the page before the chapter starts, that illustrates some of the main points of the chapter.  It doesn't give it away, exactly, because you don't know what the illustrations are referring to, but it does get you hooked enough that you want to jump into the next chapter.

On the whole, I really liked Candyfloss.  There were things I disliked about it - it was pretty unrealistic, for one, and the friendships between a few of the characters seemed a little overly dramatic, but I did enjoy it, and I'd recommend it, particularly for the 5th grade girly-girl set.  I also loved the many descriptions of food, from birthday cake to candyfloss to chip butties.  And speaking of those...

Candyfloss Chip Butties
Sandwich rolls
French fries (I used frozen), cooked according to directions
Butter

1. Slice the rolls horizontally, or use pre-sliced rolls, like hamburger buns.  I used Bulkie rolls, which are common in New England but rarely seen in other places.  Any good sandwich roll will do.
2. Butter the halves of the roll.
3. Pile the french fries onto the roll, and close to make a sandwich.  Eat and enjoy.

I'm using the directions given in the book here.  I looked things up online, and I hear that white bread is the most common bread used for the chip butty, but my heroine ate hers on rolls, and so that is what I did.

On the whole, it wasn't bad, but I don't think this is a meal I will be making in the future.  I couldn't get over the no-protein thing.  But it did remind me of the Fat Sandwiches I used to eat when I was an undergrad student at Rutgers, where chicken fingers and french fries and mozzerella sticks all made a home on one hoagie roll.  Ah, memories.

Reading Rainbow Bars

Butterfly in the sky!  I can go twice as high! Take a look, it's in a book - Reading Rainbow!  Okay, how many of you immediately started singing that song when you saw the lyrics?  I knew it wasn't just me.

I was thinking about Reading Rainbow the other day, and all the awesome stories I remember because of it.  Perfect the Pig, Imogene's Antlers, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, Sam the Sea Cow... I get so excited when I hear a line from those books because I remember the first time I heard them, and the voice I heard them read in.  (Say it with me, now! "A feather... that would change the weather.")

So, for the few people out there who have never experienced Reading Rainbow, please let me explain.  It was a television show that was produced from 1983 until 2006, hosted by LeVar Burton (who was also the executive producer), dedicated to promoting the love of reading for kids.  Each episode would have Mr. Burton talking about a specific topic, such as teamwork, or experiencing rites of passage (like losing a tooth), or being different (having to wear glasses), or.... well, anything.  And then a story that works within the theme would be read, usually by a celebrity - including, by the way, such awesome names as Bill Cosby, Gilda Radner, Julia Child, and Jerry Orbach.

[Edit because I forgot to include...] And then at the end of each episode, Mr. Burton would say that there were lots of other great books out there - "But you don't have to take my word for it!" and three lucky kids got to tell about a book they liked that could be found at your local library.  I used to want to be one of those kids SO BAD.  I'm not exactly sure why, but it seemed glamorous and exciting.

I love this show.  I loved it long after it was socially acceptable for me to be watching children's television or reading picture books, and if it was on right now, I'd be watching it as I write this.  I'm going to have to start saving my pennies, because I just looked it up on Amazon to find that episodes are available on DVD!  I even started watching Star Trek TNG because LeVar Burton was on there.  (Well... plus, it's an awesome show.  But I didn't know that at the time.)

Anything that can inspire such a love of reading deserves an entire freakin' cookbook, but as my time is limited, I am going to give you one very awesome recipe instead.  This is my mother's recipe for Rainbow Bars - I'm pretty sure it came out of a magazine or off the can of condensed milk, but don't be fooled by its humble beginnings.  This is an awesome cookie bar, and I can't think of anything that would better deserve it.

Reading Rainbow Bars
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter
1 can (14 oz.) condensed milk
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups M&Ms

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Melt the butter in the microwave and pour it into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Pour in the graham cracker crumbs and mix with the butter until well-blended.  Then press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan to make a solid layer of crust.
2. Pour the condensed milk over the crust and spread as evenly as possible.  Top with the coconut, chocolate chips, and M&Ms, in that order.
3. Press the toppings into the condensed milk with your palms.  The tighter you make this, the less likely it will be that the finished product will fall apart when eating, which is the #1 complaint I've heard about Rainbow Bars - don't skip this step!  It will make your hands messy for a minute, but it'll make things easier to eat in the end.
4. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.  The coconut will be lightly browned, and the condensed milk will be bubbling right up between the chocolate and all that yumminess will just melt right togehter.
5. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe - wait for the bars to cool completely before cutting, or you run the risk of them breaking apart and being a big gloppy mess.  A delicious gloppy mess, but still.  As you can see from the photo, I didn't wait until they were completely cool - mostly, but not completely, so the edges are ragged.

There are lots of variations to this recipe - substitute butterscotch chips for the M&Ms, and they are Magic Bars or Magic Cookie Bars.  Adding walnuts to Magic Bars makes them 7-Layer Bars.  I've also used peanut butter chips or some combination of the above... but Rainbow Bars are my favorite, perfect for my favorite tv show.

So, tell me!  What's your favorite episode?