Strawberry Basil Gelee with Sour Cream Panna Cotta

June is strawberry season and a time to celebrate. It's the few weeks of the year when you can buy strawberries that taste like... well.... strawberries 

Although you can get strawberries year round, those berries have been bred to withstand shipping and storage.  Most of the berries you see at your local grocery store started their life on Driscoll's Farms in California- the largest producer of the Strawberries in the nation. Americans love their strawberries, having gone from consuming 1.7 pounds per capita in 1970 to 4.4 lbs in 2001. So in order to eat more of them more often we've had to sacrifice taste.

When I read on Farmfresh.org that Smolak farms in North Andover had local strawberries for picking, I leapt for the fields.

I admit about a quarter of the berries never made it into the picking basket.  Each sun-warmed berry burst with flavor and melted in your mouth. There was no way these would make it onto a refrigerated truck. They needed to worked with quickly so I zipped home and turned these berries into a strawberry basil gelee with sour cream panna cotta.

©Gelology - photos by Anthony Eng

The Gelaboratory!

Mad scientists and gelatin dessert lovers unite! Now you can get your geek on and satisfy your sweet tooth with The Gelaboratory™ from Gelology! 

Photos copyright of Gelology and Jordan Harrison

For Swinssnex's Summer BBQ,  I made an interactive gelatin dessert table to complement the BIO International Convention theme.  

Strawberry Rhubarb Pies

Strawberry season is beginning in New England so I wanted to start it off with a gelatin twist on a strawberry standard- The Strawberry Rhubarb pie.

The concept was inspired by Tricia Holda who challenged me to make something fitting for her creative rustic wedding up in Smolak Farms.  What's more fitting for a barn wedding than teeny tiny gelatin pies made with fresh strawberries, a rhubarb simple syrup, vanilla pudding, butter, vanilla and citron vodkas, and Fragoli wild strawberry liqueur.

Photo by Antony Eng

CongraGELations!!

College + Gelatin + Graduation = fun.

There are round 50 colleges in Boston metro area and for the next few weeks, there will be thousands of graduates donning caps and gowns ready to move on to their next big adventure.  Parents and friends will capture these moments in pictures. I am choosing to capture the moment in gelatin.

Cinco de Gelo

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  To celebrate this holiday, I made  four Mexican themed gelatins with south of the border flavors and shapes.  The first two to share with you are the Prickly Pear and Agave Cacti and Strawberry Jalapeno Sombreros.  

Both are new recipes made using original molds. 

Violet Gelicacies

Spring is flourishing here in Boston. Tree blossoms everywhere and violets blooming in abundance in my garden.  Violets are pretty, but I've always thought of them as happenstance. Nobody ever plants them,  they just appear and make nice ground cover. A beneficent weed.

Then I learned they were edible, and that has changed everything. 

Begin at the Beginning

Gelology essentially started as a way to fundraise for the 2008 Boston Marathon. I was running for a charity and throwing a jello party seemed like a great way to get people to donate.  Now in 2012, I make gelatins for other peoples fundraising events.  And I don't have to run 26.2 miles in 80 degree heat.  Kudos to you all for your efforts today, but I'm sitting next to the fan right now.