6 cups cubed peeled potatoes
4 cups water
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
4 teaspoons Maggi instant chicken bouillon (for best results) or 4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups milk, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 pound Velveeta cheese (Mexican Velveeta may be used to spice it up a little.)

Combine first nine ingredients in a Dutch oven or large kettle and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 7 to 8 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Using an potato masher, mash all vegetables until are almost pureed. Gradually stir 1/4 cup of milk into flour, making a smooth paste. Stir into soup and add remaining milk and the cheese.
Cook over medium heat until soup thickens and cheese melts. Serves 6 to 8. Leftover soup can be frozen.

- Susan Strachan

2 Cups butter
2 Cups sugar
2 Cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 Teaspoons vanilla
24 ounces Milk Chocolate Chips
(Semi Sweet may be used as well;
I prefer the milk chocolate chips and get the most raves from them.)
4 Cups flour
5 Cups oatmeal
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Teaspoons baking powder
2 Teaspoons baking soda
One 8- ounce chocolate bar, finely grated
(I like Symphony Milk Chocolate bar the best)

After measuring oatmeal, put a small amount (1/2 to 1 cup)
in blender until it turns to powder. Set oatmeal aside.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.
Mix together the flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda.
Add to butter mixture. Then add chocolate and chips.
Make golf ball-sized cookies, 2 inches apart.
Bake at 375 degrees 11 minutes.
Bake on un-greased cookie sheet.

- Susan Strachan

(Peaches or Rhubarb are my favorites with this recipe.)

Base
4 -5 Cups Frozen fruit
or fresh Rhubarb (chopped in ½ inch pieces)
1/3 Cup Bisquick
1 ¼ Cups sugar

Topping

1 Cup Bisquick
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 egg (beaten)

¼ Cup melted butter for top.

Base:
Combine fruit, Bisquick, & sugar.
Toss lightly & place in buttered 9″x 13″ pan.

Topping: Combine Bisquick & sugar then
add egg & stir until it resembles course crumbs.
Sprinkle on base and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 375 degrees 35 -40 min.

- Susan Strachan

First make a crust:
Crust:
1 ¾ cups oatmeal
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
Mix above with a whisk then add:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
Mix crust, save 1 cup for topping.
Pat in a 9×13 greased pan.
Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees

In a sauce pan over low heat mix:
4 egg yolks
3 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups of Golden raisins
1 ½ cups sugar
2 cups sour cream
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
Cook until thick.

Pour over baked crust. Top with remaining crumbs.
Bake @ 350 degrees 20 minutes.
Cut into bars when cool.
Delicious!

- Susan Strachan

1 stick butter softened (1/2 Cup.)
½ Crisco
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup white sugar
1 Tablespoon milk
2 eggs beaten
1 Tablespoon vanilla (no that’s not a mistake)
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 Cups rolled oats
2 Cups corn flakes
1 Cup coconut
18/8 size scoop (flatten balls with hand)

Cream butter & shortening, add milk and beaten eggs.
Wisk flour, soda, baking powder & salt together and add to mixture.
Add remaining ingredients.
Roll into balls or use small ice cream scoop to make cookies.
Flatten them with your hand or the bottom of a glass.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

- Susan Strachan

Place the following 4 ingredients in a large bowl:
18 ounce of semi sweet chocolate chips (12 ounce. + 6 ounce package)
½ pound (2 sticks) butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla

In a large pan (Dutch oven) mix:
4 ½ cups sugar
1 can of evaporated milk. (12 ounces)
On medium heat, bring mixture to a rolling boil.
Boil exactly 7 minutes.
Pour mixture over ingredients in bowl and stir until melted.
Pour into a buttered pan.
Let set up over night.

- Susan Strachan

PALM HARBOR — In a gravel lot at the corner of Tampa Road and Alt. U.S. 19, there’s a small, old-fashioned-looking ice cream shop. A small herd of black and white ceramic cows out front catch the eye of passers-by in cars — especially children. Strachan’s Homemade Ice Cream & Desserts serves up 36 flavors of ice cream plus baked goods like double-layer carrot cake. The shop seems so simple and low-key. Customers digging into a sundae may not realize just how much time and effort it took the owners to make their dream come true. Read full article.

By: Theresa Blackwell
Copyright Times Publishing Co.

DUNEDIN — Developer Joe Kokolakis and his wife, Anna, knew what they wanted on the northeast corner of Broadway and Main Street: a place where they could go after dinner, sip coffee and watch their three children play in a small park. The Dunedin residents bought property on the corner and donated it for the city’s new Purple Heart Park. But a deal to open a Starbucks fell through. “They were very clear on what their vision was, the type of business that they wanted in that space,” said Lynn Wargo, Dunedin Chamber of Commerce president. “They were looking for a family-oriented, warm, safe place.”

Saturday, Strachan’s Homemade Ice Cream and Desserts officially opened its doors on that corner. It sells homemade ice cream, award-winning carrot and coconut cake, fudge, as well as pastries and gourmet coffee. It has parking in the rear, an outdoor service window and tables next to the park.

“When Starbucks backed out on the deal, we approached Strachan’s and frankly, they’re a much better fit for downtown,” said Joe Kokolakis, president of J. Kokolakis Contracting. “They are a much more family-oriented business than Starbucks.”

Three other businesses feature ice cream within a few blocks, but most are not too concerned about the competition. One expects to get more business.

“We hope that their success is going to mean more success for the businesses around them,” Wargo said.

One thing does worry the chamber, from a personal willpower point of view: Strachan’s is just across the street and Wargo has discovered they sell fantastic, flaky pastries.

“Their baking ability is …” she hesitated. “We’re concerned.”

• • •

A confluence of events brought Strachan’s to Dunedin. But ifyou ask Susan Strachan, it was more than that.

About nine months ago, the owners of Strachan’s Homemade Ice Cream in Palm Harbor, Bill and Susan Strachan, got some bad news. After nearly 10 years in that location, it looked like the ice cream place along Alt. U.S. 19 was losing its lease.

The Strachans, in their 60s, had tried to buy the property earlier without success. Now the property owner said a Walgreens was interested and the company moves quickly.

The Strachans had trouble sleeping and she cried a lot.

“We thought we’d be there forever,” Susan Strachan said. “We painted our grandchildren’s pictures on the side of the building, riding cows.”

She took stock.

“Finally, I just turned it over to the Lord,” she said, “and a total peace came over me.”

A nice man named Joe Kokolakis soon visited Strachan’s, she said. He asked the couple to consider opening a new location.

“And I knew that God had answered my prayer,” said Susan Strachan. “No one had ever done that in the 10 years we’d been there.”

Though she declined to say how much the family spent on the new location, which employs 15 people, she said “it was twice as much as we thought it would be.”

Meanwhile, she said, the deal with Walgreens may have stalled, so they could end up with two locations.

• • •

  Good news for the Dunedin chamber: Strachan’s has a flavor   of soft serve called Only 8 frozen yogurt that’s 32 calories per   serving. The flavor changes every few days. On Monday, it   was butter-pecan.

  ”It’s very good,” said retired police officer Mel Ladner of
   Staten Island as he ate some on the patio.

  The afternoon was warm and breezy, with lengthening   shadows flickering across the small park. Ladner said he and   his wife have been wintering in Dunedin for six years.

  ”This is paradise,” he said.

Bill and Susan Strachan
105 Alternate 19 North
Palm Harbor, Fl 34683

Dear Bill & Susan:

This is just a short note that I wanted to send to let you know that I really enjoyed attending your Ice Cream School. As you know from my visit, I will be opening an Ice Cream Shop in the spring of 2007. I did a lot of research to find an education offering that would give me the best real life example of what is required to run an ice cream shop. In my search I found your offering and I am glad that I choose to participate!

Your offering is not like any other industry/manufacturer offered course that I have attended in the past, it is what I call a real life in the trenches course. You cover everything from how to source out your ice cream supplies, then take those supplies to make ice cream from start to finish, and finally serving them to your customer.

Along with all of the hands on training that you do, you spend time on other important areas of the business, such as hiring and keeping good employees, finding and keeping your customer base, understanding your local health requirements and along the way you shared all of your personal stories, of trial and error, from the past 8 years in business.

Would I recommend this course to anyone who is interested in getting into the Ice Cream Business, the answer in absolutely! Once you finish this course, you have a real understanding of what it takes to run a successful ice cream business, because you actually did the work involved and didn’t just listen to a teacher teach.

Thanks again for your kindness and hospitality during my visit, I will keep you posted on my journey into the ice cream business.

Regards,

Kevin Nason
Global Bean Coffee Company
VP of Creamery Operations
Atkinson, NH

They are our 2006 Palm Harbor Chamber Small Business of the Year and have
been selected the 2006 Upper Pinellas Small Business of the Year!

What an honor! The best of the best; we are so proud of them!

Connie Davis
President/ CEO
Greater Palm Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce