Strawberry Charlotte

During the last week, I have been spending most of my time in the kitchen, mixing ingredients by hand and giving my oven a workout. Halfway through my two weeks off from work and school, it is a welcome break to spend time away from the everyday grind, a chance to relax and get my thoughts back in order. Though I like to imagine that I will be productive with my newly found time, the last week has proven otherwise, as reality TV shows and sleeping in have sucked away more time than I would like to admit.

Maybe it is okay to let myself be lazy every once in awhile.

With more time in the kitchen, I have been playing around with elaborate, multi-step desserts, including cakes. While I love a good layered cake, I could not decide on a flavor, arguing back and forth with myself between fruit and chocolate based cakes and fillings. While fruit is lovely, it had been so long since I cut my fork through a thick chocolate cake that the thought grew tempting.

Nevertheless, after a walk outdoors with the weather still settling into early spring, a chocolate cake suddenly seemed too heavy for this delicate time of year. With buds just forming on the bare tree limbs, a sweet, light fruit cake seemed to fit the bill. After a walk through the local market, with pounds of red, ruby strawberries on sale, the deal was sealed.

Charlotte cakes originated in France in the early nineteenth century. They traditionally involve fruit purees, sponge cake, and custards or whipped cream frosting. This particular Strawberry Charlotte is not quite as the original cake, but the spirit is just the same. Instead of layers of sponge cake, I used my favorite light vanilla cake recipe and used a strawberry mousse to fill it. Lined with ladyfingers, either homemade or store bought, the cake becomes quite the sight.

While I did not have one on hand, a white or red ribbon tied around the middle would add a gorgeous finishing touch.

This Strawberry Charlotte is a spring cake that is perfect for all of life's celebrations. Layers of light vanilla cake are filled with an airy strawberry mousse and fresh strawberries and topped off with a coating of whipped cream icing. The strawberry mousse is made from pureed strawberries, which gives the cake a bright fruit flavor. The cake is lined with ladyfingers and graced with whole, fresh strawberries making this a simple, but impressive cake to decorate.

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Roasted Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream

Ice cream has many faces. To young children, ice cream is a delight, enchanting both the mind and the mouth. The frozen treat leaves a sticky smudge all over their faces as they attempt to lick the bowl clean. In the heat of a wild summer, ice cream cools down the body during warm afternoons, bringing a smile to anyone who happens to find a towering cone in their hands. Ice cream can also be a comfort food, a friend in moments when the world just isn't in your favor.

During my college years, my friend and I developed a ritual to coping with boy trouble whenever we found ourselves in a wearisome place. The routine always began with a hesitant call on the phone; once the strain of the situation became evident in one of our discordant voices, it was time to take action. The solution for these problems was always the same—ice cream. The grocery store became a fixture in those moments, as we'd wander the frozen food aisle carefully choosing the chilled tonic that would heal our wounds.

In the eve of twilight, we'd walk our heavy souls to a nearby park, with spoons in our back pockets, and dig into the melting cream, eating more than we should have dared. Just as the remaining ice cream would melt into a pool in the bottom of the container, the rush of sorrow and heartbreak and the unfairness of love would come spilling out of one of our hearts. As one bared her soul to the other, the other would open her ears, hoping the simple act of listening would lift just a part of burden the other carried. Some nights we'd find solutions to the problems together, but more often than not the troubles would hang in the air, unsolved and unresolved, as a satisfying answer failed to appear.

When the sugar would gather in our bloodstreams, we'd find ourselves on the park swings, cursing men and love with every pump of our legs. Higher and higher into the air we would fly as the metal chains of the swings began to shake. In those moments, with a belly full of ice cream and a dear friend by our side, the weight of the world would lift an inch off our shoulders for just a moment and we could begin to feel free.

To me, ice cream has always been a healer—a healer of broken hearts, hot summer days, and scraped knees. Ice cream has the uncanny ability to ease the troubles of life and bring lightness to the heaviest of situations. Ice cream, in its own way, is a carrier of happiness. In the chocolate swirls, strawberry chunks, and Neapolitan flavors, there holds a promise of smiles, happy moments, and ice cream smudged faces.

This is why I love ice cream.

Roasted Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream is light and creamy, with bursts of strawberry flavor. Strawberries are sliced, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and sweetened with a spoonful of sugar before roasting in the oven until the berries are dark and sweet. The ice cream is very simple to assemble (and dairy/egg-free!). The flavors alternate between spoonfuls of smooth coconut and bright strawberries.

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Strawberry Cream Cheese Pop Tarts

Over the years, I've become a connoisseur of tinfoil wrapped pastries. I use the term pastries lightly; anything that comes packaged to last through Armageddon doesn't quite pass my personal criteria as a true pastry. However, as any red blooded American child could tell you, despite the fact that pop tarts have an expiration date that lasts into the next year, they are delicious. Sinfully.

Pop tarts, if you haven't had the privilege of enjoying one for yourself, are filled pastries drizzled with frosting and sprinkles that are served for breakfast.

Yes, breakfast. They have seven essential vitamins and minerals, after all.

As a child, I was torn between the chocolate fudge and s'mores flavors, constantly changing my opinion over which reigned supreme. Pop tarts were a rarity in my house, considered a "special treat" instead of standard fare. My mother would buy pop tarts for afternoon snacks (never breakfast) and we were allowed only one in each sitting. Since pop tarts come packaged in twos, this became a big deal.

Would the remaining pop tart be eaten before it went stale?

(If anyone can identify with the fear of ending up with a stale pop tart, it's Paula Poundstone).

When I stumbled across the Michael Pollan quote above, I've truly tried to take it to heart. While I don't always eat "healthy," I try to eat real. Real foods in real cooking and real baking, with no ingredients floating around that I can't pronounce. Though this Strawberry Cream Cheese Pop Tart wouldn't fall under the definition of healthy, it's made with sound ingredients and fresh fruit which places it above tinfoil wrapped pastries in my book.

They are a treat my great-grandmother would have made and (if the genes she's passed down to me are any indication) enjoyed them immensely.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Pop Tarts are flaky, fruity hand pies. Two layers of pie crust (with a hint of oatmeal for a rustic touch) sandwich a thick spread of cream cheese and sweet, fresh strawberries. These little pies are relatively simple to make, but assembling them does take some time. These make for a lovely addition to special breakfasts or summer picnics when you'd like a less messy pie.

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