Hello friends! How’s that social distancing going? I’m hearing a term called ‘quarantine fatigue’ which means people are getting really tired of being at home and are venturing out when maybe that’s not the best strategy. It’s hard to keep in touch with those we care about just through texting, phone conversations, or Zoom, and I’m sure that’s a contributing factor. Missing that physical proximity with our friends is a big deal, and really hampers those conversations that have to be in person. I’m experiencing that with a couple of friends right now, and maybe you are too. I can’t do anything to make their situation better, so I’m feeling pretty useless at the moment. I know our friendships will survive and there will be better days ahead, so in the meantime let’s just do the best we can, reach out as best we can, and practice understanding and compassion for those we can’t hug in person at this moment. And in the ‘Let’s be good to ourselves’ segment of the Blog today, how about we talk about strawberry crisp for a minute or two?
I wasn’t really sure what to call this recipe, and it’s had a long and winding road to end up where it is today. A year ago, I was trying to create a Strawberry Jam Bar cookie recipe – I needed to use of a bunch of excess strawberry jam from the previous year. I took an existing recipe, doubled the jam, and sent it out to tasters, who proclaimed that it had ‘too much jam’ – oops. They were right – it did have too much jam, which resulted in it tasting way too sweet. Then a few weeks ago, my ‘pretend daughter’ Allie sent me a photo of a Strawberry Crumble she’d made. It looked delicious, with a crumbly topping and plenty of fruit. Allie is an excellent and adventurous cook, is kind, smart and wickedly funny. And if I had a real daughter, I’d hope she’d be just like Allie. Back to the recipe… Wait a second…that’s it!! Make a bar cookie with big chunks of fresh fruit in addition to the jam. On the plus side, it’s got a ton of fruit flavor and is a lot less sweet, but on the other side, it’s no longer a cookie bar. So, it’s kind of a cookie, kind of a crumble, but really neither. So, I’m calling it a strawberry crisp. It was either that or I’d have to call it ‘I Have No Idea What the Hell This Is’ which probably wouldn’t have worked very well on Pinterest.
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