FRESH CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRY RECIPES.

Dillon's Grocery had 4 lbs. nice large (no moldy ones on bottom ) Strawberries on sale for $1.49 a lb. I bought them Monday (ad ended on Tues.) and that night had sugared slices on vanilla ice cream. Yum! First thing I always do is pour them out and (now) wash in soapy water & rinse and divide them by ripe, not so ripe, & kinda green (lots of white & not very red). I use the little & really ripe strawberries cutting out any spots and use soon for ice cream. Keeping the others divided I use all the medium or large for around the Pizza Dessert (recipe next) and also Spinach/strawberry salad. The greener ones I keep to make fresh stawberry pie because they will keep longer. That recipe will follow soon.

Tuesday I made a PIZZA DESSERT that is the best I've ever eaten given to me 1975 by a lady named Berniece Knapp who's husband was on the Dairy Co-op Board that met every month in Kansas City, Misssouri with my husband. Us ladies always went along & went shopping.

CRUST: 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp.salt, 3 Tab. butter, 2 Tab. Lard; Cut shortening into flour & salt and sprinkle 3 Tab. of milk one Tab. at a time stirring with a fork gathering & shaping into a ball.
Roll out on pizza pan and prick several places with a fork to keep it from puffing up when baking. Bake 375 degrees 18 minutes. Cool. While cooling make topping to put over the fruit after it cools & the crust cools.
TOPPING:
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
3 Tab. & 2 tsp. Cornstarch. Cook and cool for glaze on top of fruit. After everything is COOL.
Beat : 4 ounces cream cheese, 1-1/3 cups whipped topping, 1/4 c. sugar. Spread on cooled crust. Place around the outside edge on the cream cheese mixture medium or large halves of strawberries. Place them big end to small end all around in one row with sliced side up. Next row around inside beside the strawberries, place slices of banana, then a row of drained Mandarin Oranges, if you have room for another row inside the mardarin oranges do another row of bananas. To finish it off in the center I make an X with two sliced strawberries, if only room for 1 stand it up, etc. It's beautiful. Now cover it all with the Orange glaze. Let it all cool in refrigerator before you slice it. Defineately worth the time.

Today with lunch I had: FRESH STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD
(1 peck - (grocery bag full) $1.50 at the Farmer's Market Saturday.)
Washing & picking through them when I got home. The torn looking and pieces I cooked.
I am saving the rest in a pastic bag in the refrigerator. I check each day & if dry. sprinkle with
water. I have another spinach recipe I'll put in here later. I should get lots of spinach for my $1.50.
FRESH STRAWBERRY/SPINACH SALAD
Fresh Spinach leaves, pull out the stem
Fresh stawberries, sliced
Purple slices of onion
Roasted slicered almonds (to roast put in cake pan and broil (watch closely) a few minutes .
Dressing: Honey 1 Tab, 1 Tab sugar, 2 Tab Balsamic Vinegar, 1/4 tsp. poppy seeds.

I really look forward to the fresh california strawberries coming to the store this time of year. I will have strawberries this week till they're gone so more recipes coming.