Using up the Strawberries!

*Note: Hopefully you'll be seeing better pictures on here soon! Our camera is five years old and apparently on the fritz. As soon as I get a new one I'll be able to snap some better pics!

In my quest to use up the strawberries from our garden, I've made two new strawberry recipes today: Buckwheat Strawberry Banana Bread and Strawberry Dumplings. I think I'll be making both again! And the strawberries are officially used up! The ones in the house that is. Since I haven't picked any in two days now, there are likely another 1-2 quarts ready for picking. Out of sight out of mind?

The Strawberry Dumplings recipe was based on the one in Gourmet.com. Being a city girl who really likes shortcuts I opted to make some changes, including making my dumplings with Bisquick since I'm familiar with that and it's so so easy! I also had a few peaches on hand that were starting to go bad so I threw those in too. It turned out great and was a lot like a warm strawberry shortcake without having to go through the trouble of making shortcake. So here's the City Girl version:

Strawberry Peach Dumplings
1 quart strawberries, large ones halved
2-3 peaches, peeled and chopped
juice from half an orange
1/2 c sugar or splenda
couple dashes of cinnamon

1 1/3 c Heart Healthy Bisquick
1/4 c plus 2 T skim milk
1 T sugar or splenda
couple dashes of cinnamon

Mix first 5 ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a low boil over medium heat. While that's heating up, prepare the dumplings by mixing the last four ingredients. Once the fruit is liquidy and bubbling add dumpling dough by spoonfuls to the top of the fruit. Cook for 10 minutes uncovered, then 10 minutes covered until dumplings seem dry on the top. Let mixture cool for a few minutes before serving.

The Buckwheat Strawberry Banana Bread was adapted from the banana bread recipe in How to Cook Everything. Here's the City Girl scoop:

Buckwheat Strawberry Banana Bread

8 T butter (1 stick) softened
1/2 c buckwheat flour
1 t salt
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
2 overripe bananas, mashed
3/4 c mashed strawberries (about 1 pint fresh whole strawberries)
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c shredded coconut

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with butter. Mix dry ingredients. Cream the butter, and beat in the eggs and bananas. Stir in the strawberries. Then add dry ingredients and stir just until wet. Add vanilla and coconut. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes until browned and toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.

Enjoy!!