Home-made goodies

[wiseheart]

I gave in to temptation and bought some imported Spanish strawberries yesterday. We are both very fond of strawberries, and the local season is so short. Besides, I would have to go to the market for local ones, which means taking the bus, and I prefer to do my shopping where I can walk on my own two legs. Vaccinated or not, the less exposure the better.

Anyway, the Spanish strawberries looked really great, so I bought them. Unfortunately, while beautiful to look at, they were also very hard and practically lacking any taste. So I decided to make strawberry jam, which Mum would be able to eat, unlike the stone hard fresh fruit. The amount only resulted half a jar, but since I wanted to give Mary Berry's Swiss roll recipe a try, that was enough for the purpose.

Behold my terribly lopsided, amateurish Swiss roll! (Paul Hollywood would get a heart attack from the sight, but for the first attempt ever I'm quite satisfied with the outcome):



Next to the roll you can see what's left from the strawberry jam. We'll eat it to the Topfenknödel I intend to make for lunch on Monday. Today, we had Putengeschnezeltes with mushrooms in it and the rest of the pilaw as a side dish, with a salad. We'll eat the leftovers tomorrow, which means I won't have to cook tomorrow. Yay!

Comments

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Mmm, the Swiss roll looks good :) I'm a strawberry lover too, we'll start seeing the local ones in June. Since I don't bake I just cut them up, macerate with a little sugar and some liqueur and have them with whipped cream or over pound cake or something similar. Gee, now I really want some!!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Usually we don't waste strawberries on baking, either. They're best in their natural state. But these were really too hard for someone with only a few teeth. *g*

[meathiel]

We should have combined your Spanish strawberries and ours ... ours were basically mush.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, ours are mush now, too. It just took a bit of boiling. *g*

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Yum.
We get strawberries like that, too. Big ones that look nice, but are mostly tasteless. Unfortunately we don't generally get fresh picked ones here, so most people don't know the difference. :/

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I still remember the totally amazing strawberries my uncle used to grow in his garden. He was a biologist by trade and didn't use any chemical stuff, just earthworms to work on his soil. Those strawberries were a marvel!

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Oregon, where fruit and berries are grown, so I am a horribly picky person about fruit and berries and what they should feel and taste like.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I know what it's like. I spent the first nine years of my life at the edge of a small town in Transylvania, where fruit simply grew on the trees in the garden. Or the gypsy women brought it from the forest: those tiny little wild strawberries and blueberries — never felt a taste quite like that ever since.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

So delicious. I've been waiting for that taste again, too.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I thought you'd made some sort of cannoli varient! Looks tasty.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Not half as good as Grandma's sponge recipe, though. Next time I'll use that one, even if the roll breaks in the process of rolling up.

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

I avoid Spanish strawberries for the same reason. Even if you leave them out on a sunny window ledge they just never ripen.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just rot after a while. :(

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

I bought some Spanish strawberries for Easter, and they were okay. But you are right, mostly they taste watery and sour. Cannot wait for Erdbeerland to reopen!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I think I'll have to go to the market, after all, if I want some proper strawberries. *sigh*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Swiss roll with home-made jam looks and sounds lovely!

I'm thinking of the phrase 'when live gives you lemons make lemonade', and rewriting it to 'when life gives you hard strawberries — make jam and then Swiss roll' :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Good one! *g*