It’s still much too cold here in New England, but I attempted to get in the spirit of the holiday weekend by making a red, white and blue dessert. We got a pint of fresh local strawberries from a farm stand (for ten dollars!) and a massive quantity of blueberries (on sale at Whole Foods). Sadly, I could not find any biscuits or mini sponge cakes in the store for strawberry shortcake. (I actually went to two stores looking for them.) So, I substituted puff pastries and here’s what I learned:

You really want an absorbent base for strawberry shortcake. That’s why biscuits or sponge cake work well. Puff pastries, though delicious, don’t exactly enhance the flavor because they don’t absorb the strawberry juices.

Ah well…we managed to polish it off anyway.

Thank you to all who have served. I’m from an Air Force family.

The United States military was a key component of achieving the American Dream for these children of poor Italian immigrants. It changed everything for them, and therefore, for us.