Family Meal Plan: Classic Strawberry Shortcake Bliss + Softly Shaken Cream + Strawberry and Cream Smoothies

Classic Strawberry Shortcake Bliss

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• bake :

  to cook food with dry heat, as in an oven.

• blend :

  to stir together two or more ingredients until just combined; blending is a gentler process than mixing.

• emulsify :

  to convert two or more liquids into an emulsion. What is an emulsion, you ask? It is a fine dispersion of teeny tiny droplets of one liquid into another. It’s what allows oil and vinegar to mix and not separate.

• macerate :

  to soften foods, like fruit, and bring out their juices by allowing them to soak in a liquid.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• shake :

  to rapidly and vigorously move a covered container filled with food up and down and side to side to combine ingredients and create a different consistency, such as shaking whipped cream to make butter.

• shape :

  to form food into a specific shape by hand or with a cutting tool—examples are cutting cookie dough into shapes with cookie cutters, forming bread dough into a roll or crescent shape, and rolling ground meat into a meatball.

• stir :

  to mix together two or more ingredients with a spoon or spatula, usually in a circle pattern, or figure eight, or in whatever direction you like!

History of Strawberry Shortcake!

• Shortcake is a European invention dating back to the late 1500s. Shakespeare mentioned shortcake in his play, The Merry Wives of Windsor. 
• Shortcake gets its name from the addition of shortening or butter to dough to make it tender. Referring to lard (animal fat) as "shortening" comes from the 15th-century term "to shorten," which meant "easily crumbled." This is probably because the pastry fibers are short, unlike bread. 
• The crumbly shortcake, which first resembled the texture and shape of a scone, became round when the point of the typical triangular-shaped pastries kept breaking off. It was thought that the round shape was more practical. 
• Shortcakes are made with flour, butter, sugar, baking powder or soda (or both), heavy cream, and sometimes eggs, and then baked in the oven. After cooling, they are often sliced horizontally in the middle before being topped with strawberries and whipped cream.
• The strawberries are washed, hulled, and sliced or quartered. Sugar is added, and the berries are allowed to macerate (soften and become juicy). Other flavorings, like lemon juice, vanilla, or almond extract, are sometimes added to the strawberries. 
• The shortcake is sometimes replaced with pound cake or angel food cake, but these variations on the dessert are still called "strawberry shortcake."
• Strawberry shortcake, similar to what we eat today, was first mentioned in an 1847 recipe book by Eliza Leslie of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Strawberry shortcake parties soon sprang up to celebrate the harvests of summer fruits. Strawberry shortcake remains a popular summer treat!

Let's Learn About the United States!

• Most of the United States of America (USA) is in North America. It shares its northern border with Canada and its southern border with Mexico. It consists of 50 states, 1 federal district, 5 territories, 9 Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. 
• The country's total area is 3,796,742 square miles, globally the third largest after Russia and Canada. The US population is over 333 million, making it the third most populous country in the world, after China and India.
• The United States of America declared itself an independent nation from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, by issuing the Declaration of Independence.
• The Revolutionary War between the US and Great Britain was fought from 1775-1783. We only had 13 colonies at that time! On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and declared that the new nation would be called the United States. 
• The 13 colonies became states after each ratified the constitution of the new United States, with Delaware being the first on December 7, 1787.  
• The 13 stripes on the US flag represent those first 13 colonies, and the 50 stars represent our 50 states. The red color of the flag symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes innocence and purity, and blue symbolizes vigilance and justice.
• Before settling in Washington DC, a federal district, the nation's capital resided in New York City and then Philadelphia for a short time. New York City is the largest city in the US and is considered its financial center. 
• The US does not have a recognized official language! However, English is effectively the national language. 
• The American dollar is the national currency. The nickname for a dollar, "buck," comes from colonial times when people traded goods for buckskins!
• Because the United States is so large, there is a wide variety of climates and types of geography. The Mississippi/Missouri River, running primarily north to south, is the fourth-longest river system in the world. On the east side of the Mississippi are the Appalachian Mountains, the Adirondack Mountains, and the East Coast, next to the Atlantic Ocean. 
• On the west side of the Mississippi are the flat Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains (or Rockies), and the West Coast, next to the Pacific Ocean, with several more mountain ranges in coastal states, such as the Sierras and the Cascades. Between the coasts and the north and south borders are several forests, lakes (including the Great Lakes), rivers, swamps, deserts, and volcanos. 
• Several animals are unique to the US, such as the American bison (or American buffalo), the bald eagle, the California condor, the American black bear, the groundhog, the American alligator, and the pronghorn (or American antelope). 
• The US has 63 national parks. The Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, and the Grand Canyon, with the Colorado River flowing through it, are among the most well-known and visited.
• Cuisine in the US was influenced early on by the indigenous people of North America who lived there before Europeans arrived. They introduced beans, corn, potatoes, squash, berries, fish, turkey, venison, dried meats, and more to the new settlers. Other influences include the widely varied foods and dishes of enslaved people from Africa and immigrants from Asia, Europe, Central and South America, and the Pacific Islands. 

What's It Like to Be a Kid in the United States?

• Education is compulsory in the US, and kids may go to a public or private school or be home-schooled. Most schools do not require students to wear uniforms, but some private schools do. The school year runs from mid-August or the beginning of September to the end of May or the middle of June.
• Kids generally start school at about five years old in kindergarten or earlier in preschool and continue through 12th grade in high school. After that, many go on to university, community college, or technical school. 
• Spanish, French, and German are the most popular foreign languages kids learn in US schools. 
• Kids may participate in many different school and after-school sports, including baseball, soccer, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, swimming, and track and field. In grade school, kids may join in playground games like hopscotch, four-square, kickball, tetherball, jump rope, or tag.
• There are several fun activities that American kids enjoy doing with their friends and families, such as picnicking, hiking, going to the beach or swimming, or going to children's and natural history museums, zoos and wild animal parks, amusement parks, water parks, state parks, or national parks. Popular amusement parks include Disneyland, Disney World, Legoland, Six Flags, and Universal Studios.
• On Independence Day or the 4th of July, kids enjoy a day off from school, picnicking, and watching fireworks with their families. 
• Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Thursday in November when students get 2 to 5 days off school. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are popular December holidays, and there are 2 or 3 weeks of winter vacation. Easter is celebrated in March, April, or May, and kids enjoy a week of spring recess around that time.  
• Barbecued hot dogs or hamburgers, watermelon, apple pie, and ice cream are popular kid foods for 4th of July celebrations. Turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie are traditional Thanksgiving foods. Birthday parties with cake and ice cream are very important celebrations for kids in the United States!