Food For The Soul

The whole reason for this post occurred about a week ago. Moh, KIA, and I all took a walk down to the ski village the other evening. I had eaten a few hours before so I thought that perhaps a cup of coffee and a piece of pie would be a wonderful way to top off the evening. To our surprise, we found that the workers were setting up an outdoor, blow-up movie screen. Wow, a free movie in the village. There aren't a whole lot of free things up here. The movie they were showing was Cars. I hadn't seen the movie, nor had much interest to, but it seemed like fun. One of the restaurants had some tables off to the side where one could sit and order dinner. Great, I could get my coffee and pie after all. We sat down and several minutes later our waitress arrived and I ordered my coffee. However they had no pie, but a triple berry (raspberries, blueberries, and huckleberries) shortcake sounded excellent. However after a couple more minutes the cold wind coming over the mountain gave us the chills. KIA was especially cold. We decided to duck into the building and enjoy the food inside. When the food arrived I must say I was impressed. The shortcake was amazing-complete with a hearty serving of real whip cream. The bill, on the other hand, was a bit much (almost $7.00 for the shortcake). We didn't stay for the movie either. Maybe next time. I think it's Monty Python's Holy Grail this week.

A couple days later, after feeling a bit depressed for a variety of reasons, I decided an attempt to recreate the shortcake. After all, for me sweet treats made with butter, cream, and fresh fruit really helps ones soul. We had just been blueberry picking so we had over 8 liters to spare. I also had a few huckleberries that I picked just above our apartment. The result? Perhaps not as gourmet as Chimney Rock's shortcake, but still pretty damn good. They all got eaten at any rate. Here's the lowdown:



For the Shortcake
3 C flour (I used WW pastry)
3 T sugar
1.5 T Baking Powder
.75 t salt
12 T butter
1.5 C cream-milk mixture depending on the richness desired
1.5 t vanilla

*Mix dry ingredients together. Mix in butter with a fork or pastry cutter.
*Mix together wet ingredients. Add to dry and stir with a fork until just combined.
*Spoon the batter onto a baking stone and place in a preheated 425F oven. It should make 9-10 shortcakes.
*Bake for about 20 minutes

For the Berries
5 C mixed berries
4 T sugar

*Add berries to a pan with perhaps a bit of water and the sugar. Cook until the berries are a desired softness (You be the judge).
* Chill

For the Whipped Cream
1.5 cream
2 T sugar
.75 t vanilla

*You know, whip the cream.

Yum. I really like these. I add a little bit of goat milk when I eat these because I like my shortcakes a bit moist. I'm ready for strawberry shortcake now. There is someone at farmers market that still has strawberries. What a wacky growing season.

Me in the blueberry patch