Betty Crocker Pancake Recipe

Strawberry Shortcake? Bring it!

The strawberries are coming, the strawberries are coming! They’re showing up at local farmers markets and grocery stores and a sweet season it is indeed. Although strawberries are available all year round, there is nothing like the taste of local berries in season. I just received my first box of organic produce from Delivery Produce  and there, nestled in the middle of the box was a pint of the beautiful red berries. They were not large like the ones you sometimes find at the grocery (and that look like they are on steroids) but oh were they sweet!

Strawberries will be in season locally until the end of June or maybe until early July. The Northbrook Farmers Market , which opens next Wednesday, is sure to have them. Or perhaps you’d like to pick your own. If so, head up to Thompson’s Strawberry Farm in Bristol, WI. Be sure to check the website or call the day you plan to go to make sure they have berries available for picking that day.  They may be a bit behind schedule with picking this year due to the cold wet spring.

A friend of mine makes her annual pilgrimage to Plow Creek Farm in Tiskilwa, IL, to pick organically raised berries. It’s a bit of trek, she says, but well worth it. She picks enough to make jam for the year (the recipe is simple and can be found on Epicurious.com) and it is truly delicious! 

Or you can purchase your berries at Long Grove’s Strawberry Festival and enjoy the day sampling all sorts of treats like chocolate covered strawberries, smoothies and even strawberry donuts! The signature festival will be held June 24, 25, and 26 this year and is fun for the whole family with music and entertainment along with all of the goodies.

There are so many delicious things to do with strawberries – sliced fresh strawberries are great in green salads paired with a salty cheese like feta or whisked into a strawberry vinaigrette. Of course, they make great fruit salads garnished with sprigs of fresh mint as well. Make strawberry sauce simply by sprinkling sugar over sliced berries and letting them sit in the fridge to create their own juice. The sauce is great over vanilla ice cream or on pancakes and waffles. My son loves fresh strawberry milkshakes and you can make strawberry cream cheese or butter to spread on your bagel or muffin by blending a few of the sweet berries with the cheese or butter in a food processor. For a super simple dessert, cut the stems off large berries, stand them up on a plate and make two cuts almost to the bottom of the berry, quartering it. Then simply take a can of whipped cream and fill the center of each.  Serve immediately!

Betty Crocker Gluten Free Fun - Gluten-Free Fun

I had previously tried the brownie mix which is insanely good! What I love about it is not only the taste, but also the texture. For me, the problem with so many gluten free baked goods is the texture (they're are dense or hard or crumbly). But the Betty Crocker mixes taste and feel like  real  food. Yes, I use the word 'real' still, because I've been diagnosed for just over a year and am still on my learning (and acceptance) curve. I have been very strictly gluten free since getting my diagnosis, but I still miss many of my old favorites - I can't even walk on the same side of the street as my favorite, old (now off-limits) pizza place. So finding the Betty Crocker mixes has been great for me and helped me feel less deprived. Confession time: After I was diagnosed with Celiac last year, I started getting irrationally angry at the sight of those iHop commercials which run during the news every evening; the ones where they show the close-up pictures of those luscious pancake dishes. I say 'irrationally' because I've never even been to an iHop, wouldn't know where to find one, and haven't even had pancakes in (probably) 20 years. But suddenly, now that this was no longer a possibility for me, it upset me. The Bisquick GF pancakes are light and fluffy and rather terrific. Unlike the iHop commercials, I didn't stuff mine with cheesecake; instead I topped them with fresh strawberries and greek yogurt and drizzled them with GF vanilla agave syrup. YUM! And something else that worked well: The recipe on the Bisquick box makes 10 pancakes - too much just for me. So I wrapped up the extra pancakes in the fridge overnight, and the next day popped them in the toaster to see what would happen - and they came out even better - A little crispy on the outside - perfection!

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