Double Strawberry Delight

Double Strawberry Delight
Dorcas Annette Walker

Ever since I was a small girl and planted my first wild strawberry plant in a sty foam cup placing it on my sunny bedroom windowsill, I have been enchanted with strawberries. Each day after school the first thing I did was to check on was my strawberry plant talking to the green leaves and making sure to keep it watered when the soil dried out. I still remember the excitement of seeing tiny berries form and slowly redden after the white flowers had died. My mother was quite impressed with my green thumb as every plant died on her. In fact that tiny plant became the conservation piece of our household. It was triumph indeed when my father actually came to my bedroom to see my strawberry plant. The day I harvested tiny strawberries and shared them with my family clinched my fascination with plants. From one strawberry plant on my windowsill my love of living green things grew to covering every available space in my house with plants as a young housewife until my husband complained that we lived in a jungle. Today the lure of seeing things grow has stretched outside to several gardens that I delight to work in.

Early this spring, Dana built a wooden fence to protect my newest flower garden in front of our woods where we keep my two German Shepherds. At one end of my garden is a steep hill where I planted several strawberry plants that thrived and produced strawberries. It was delightful to go out first thing each morning and see which strawberries were ripe. So you can imagine my shock when one morning I discovered that my two “wolfies” had jumped the wooden fence and dug out several of my strawberry plants killing them. I loudly scolded Shep and Natasha severely wagging my finger threatening in front of their long black noses telling both what bad dogs they were for getting into my strawberry patch. Even though they whimpered and apologized by licking my hand to reassure me that they had learned their lesson, I decided to take no chances on further raids in my garden and had Dana run electric wire around the fence. Some folk might claim that strawberries and German Shepherds don’t mix, but I am determined to have a patch of strawberries regardless of having German Shepherds in the same area.

My Double Strawberry Delight is an excellent simple light summer dessert with fresh strawberries, angel food cake, and cool whip. You can substitute other fruit in season like peaches or raspberries coordinating the jello as well. The Double Strawberry Delight is a colorful dessert that also can be served year round using canned or frozen fruit. Preparation time for my Double Strawberry Delight is fifteen minutes (not counting baking or cooling time) and this recipe serves twelve.

Double Strawberry Delight

1 angel food cake mix
1 (3 oz) box of strawberry jello
1 (16 oz) container of cool whip
1 lb fresh strawberries

Prepare the angel food cake mix according to the directions folding in the strawberry jello before baking. Tear the cooled cake in half placing bite-size pieces in the bottom of a glass dessert bowl. Layer half of the cool whip on top. Hull and slice half of the strawberries on top of the cool whip. Repeat using the rest of the cake, cool whip, and strawberries. Chill and serve!

Weekly tip: Strawberries do not ripen after harvest so choose ripe strawberries. Medium to small berries usually taste better than large ones. Use strawberries as soon as possible, but leave the caps/stems on and do not wash the strawberries until ready to use. You can store strawberries in the refrigerator for several days if you layer them with paper towels!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com