Friday Favorite - Strawberries and Roses

Friday, June 20, 2008, by Leigh Anne

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This week for Friday Favorite I am sharing two of my favorite things about June in Oregon - roses and strawberries.

Portland is the “City of Roses” and famous for its Rose Parade (the 2nd largest floral parade next to Pasadena’s), Rose Queen, the Royal Rosarians and its amazing roses. They are always at their height the first part of June. After a cool, wet spring we are now seeing a little hint of summer and the roses are magnificent.

We have about 35 rose bushes in our garden - my husband will confirm this as he is the one who prunes them each year around President’s Day.

Before I share my Friday Favorite recipe with you I want to share a few of the rose bushes that are blooming in the Wilkes Family Garden this week.

Now onto the strawberries - Oregon is berry heaven. The strawberries are the first of the many berries we will enjoy this summer. Others include raspberries, marionberries, loganberries, blueberries, blackberries and lots more!

This pretty bowl of berries is from our garden. This is what the big, bad, black crow that has taken up residence in our backyard had not eaten!

As pretty as they are in my cute little berry bowl, they were not quite enough for a pie.

Since Jim requested a strawberry pie for Father’s Day I headed down to the corner berry stand and picked up these beauties!

This particular strawberry pie has an added surprise in it - a delicious layer of cream cheese filling! This recipe is from my friend April and since she first brought it to a party at our house several years ago it has become a regularly requested pie around our house.

There are 3 steps to this pie. The crust, the glaze and the filling. I made the crust and the glaze the night before and then put it together Father’s Day morning. It does need to chill for 3 hours so plan ahead.

My pie would have looked prettier if I had strained the glaze. I have also made this pie and just used a jar/container of strawberry glaze from the store and it worked fine.

Strawberry Cream Pie

Graham Cracker Crust:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs(this is one package of graham crackers)

1/4 cup sugar

6 Tbsp. butter, melted

Combine the above ingredients and press firmly into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 375 degrees for 5-8 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool.

Sparkling Glaze:

1 cup strawberries

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup water

red food coloring

Crush 1 cup strawberries. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan. Add water and crushed strawberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until clear and slightly thickened. Strain through sieve(I skipped this step as I couldn’t find my sieve!) Tint with food color (this turns the glaze from pink to red). Cool.

Creamy filling:

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

4 cups whole strawberries

Blend cream cheese and sugar. Stir in vanilla. Fold in whipped cream. Spread evenly in cooled crust. Refrigerate

Place whole strawberries stem side down on top of creamed filling, pressing slightly. Spoon glaze over the berries. Chill for 3 hours.

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Categories: Friday Favorites, Recipes