Instructions:

Step 1

Chop up strawberries and place in a large bowl. Mix with Sugar and set aside in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Step 2

Heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Make Biscuits. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk gently or stir with a fork.

Step 3

Next add Heavy Cream and Ricotta and mix gently by hand until combined and forms a large ball. You can add more cream 1 tsp at a time as needed, if flour is not sticking. You want to end up with a dough ball. Knead ball for one minute on a lightly floured surface. Flatten dough using your hands and make it about 2 inches thick. Cut out using a biscuit cutter round dough pieces.

Step 4

Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet and brush the top with milk or cream lightly. Bake until browned about 12- 15 minutes.

Step 5

While biscuits are baking, prepare chocolate whip cream. In a mixing bowl or kitchenaid bowl lightly whisk in chocolate and sugar and vanilla. Taste and add more sugar or cocoa as needed. Start on low speed using whisk attachment and mix until begins to thicken. Turn up speed being careful not to splash and whip until soft peaks form.

Step 6

Slice biscuits in half when cooled and smother with chocolate whip cream and layer strawberries. Top biscuit and add more cream and strawberries. Serve and Eat!

Optional: Top with chocolate shavings

Tips

“A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange tree would if it could walk up and down in the garden, swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up in the air.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

Solitude sometimes feel like healing to me. It's in that moment I can look around and see, truly see what is around me or feel the calm set in. Do you need that time? I know I do.

There is so much noise and stimulation around us everyday. Sometimes I need silence and other times I need that acoustic guitar with the musical lyrics of someone's voice rasping words into my ears. I stopped listening to words so many years ago.

I had this recently at the park. I put the headphones in and walked along the water. Is that what makes headphones so amazing? The control of the noise or lack of noise around us? I'm not sure, but I think so. Whatever the reason my mind was where I wanted it.

I watched:

the sky change color three maybe four times in less than an hour
the dog chasing the ball head straight into the water with an unfounded trust in his owner
the kite flyers waiting for that just right moment of wind to whip their stream of colors into the air.

Do you ever have these moments? Do you love them?

No one stops your thought process and you write or dream or focus in your head. You don't make a list of things you need to do,or stop and worry but rather you admire and smile about what is around you.

I love these moments. I often write to you dear reader during this time. I tell you about my day, my life, why I love something or even why I don't.

Sometimes I forget what I wanted to tell you but that's okay if those thoughts but are gone, or fleeting, I don't mind, because they were my thoughts, and they let me be alone.

Days and times like that that make me realize why I create food to share.

It's funny this sharing thing... don't your think? it seems like most days I want to share but then again those moments of solitude they just can't be shared.

They need me.

I need them.

We need each other.

You know what I mean?

It's not loneliness that's different, that's sadness.

This is time well spent making me, a better me. It's the "why" in why I want to share later.

It makes me hungry for life, if I can get away with saying that on a food blog. 😂

I hope you get to have these times and if you don't I hope you make them for yourself soon.

My food stems from these places. My food confidence in the kitchen is built starting with theses moments and branch out from there like long stems on a willow tree.

My first attempt to be kitchen confident started with salad dressings. I remember hearing something about "you know you're a real cook when... you don't have pre-made salad dressings in your refrigerator." Hmm, a good goal to strive after, I decided.

It's been years now since I purchased salad dressing and it boosts my confidence even now to think I can pull out just a few things and make a nice simple vinaigrette or a yummy ranch dressing without the need for a trip to grocery land.

In fact I can't even tell you where to find the dressings in the grocery store anymore, because I stopped looking for them. That's progress.

It takes time in the kitchen to feel comfortable.

I liken it to getting to know your neighborhood after your first move into your home. The area is new, you're unsure about where to go to get your haircut, who does the best dry cleaning, where to buy that quick cup of coffee in the morning or that slow Sunday cup o' joe.

Your comfort zone comes in time. You ask others,

you try a few places,

you find your niche, you get to be a regular

and suddenly, you find yourself offering advice to someone else on where to go.

Yeah, that's what it's like being kitchen confident. You will get there I promise, give yourself time.

Let yourself have that solitude.
Allow yourself a few mistakes on making that vinaigrette.
Make it for your before you share so you know that you love it.

And if you still feel in doubt, Stop. Take a breath, and think 3 to 1 .

3 oil (TBSP)

1 vinegar (TBSP)

See it's as easy as 3...to....1.

I knew you could do it. I love that about you, my confident kitchen friend.

Happy Cooking!😊

Ingredients:

1/4 cup blood orange juice (2 oranges depending on size)(fresh squeezed)

1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed if possible)

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1 TBSP dijon mustard

1 TBSP honey or maple syrup

1 clove of garlic pressed or grated

blood orange zest

1 1/2 cups olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Step 1

Squeeze oranges into jar or using juicer, juice oranges. Next juice lemons. I like to do them separately so that I have fresh squeezed juice to mix and match or drink as I like for later.

Step 2

In a mason jar or other jar with lid to shake: mix vinegar, and juices, mustard, honey, garlic and zest. With a tight lid, shake jar until blended.

Step 3

Remove lid and add olive oil to shaken ingredients. Next with Lid on tightly shake all ingredients together until mixed. Remove lid and taste. Add salt and pepper to enhance flavor based on taste.

Step 4

Before serving make sure ingredients are mixed in jar then add how much you prefer to salad of your choice. Start with a small amount as you can always add more. I love it with thinly sliced raw root vegetables.

Blood orange vinaigrette with shaved raw root vegetable salad

Tips

When juicing citrus fruits remove the rind and most of the white pith otherwise your juice will have a bitter aftertaste
Using a microplane grater for garlic will allow you to have a freshly grated garlic without all of the chopped chunks in the dressing. Also it is great for zesting the citrus.
You can also make this dressing in a bowl and add the olive oil very slowly while whisking to have an emulsion that will stay in the jar and not need to be shaken. But for me dressings are fine if they need a little shake 😉
Shaved root vegetables such as rutabagas, golden beets, and radishes make a delicious accompaniment to this vinaigrette

Do you want to see a blog post on the shaved raw root vegetable salad? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks!