So What Did I Do with all the Strawberries?

Besides eating them plain and giving some to friends and family….

1. The first night I was able to make them appealing with simple additives. Dessert for the family was strawberries with chocolate syrup, strawberries with a side of sugar for dipping, strawberries and vanilla ice cream and for myself … Strawberry Daiquiri! Simply made with ice, strawberries, raspberry vodka (but I hear most people use rum), dash of lemon juice, and a packet of Splenda.

2. The next morning, Crepes. I can’t believe how easy it was! I used this simple crepe recipe, which I changed to 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 all purpose flour. Inside I either put nutella and strawberries or strawberries and whatever jelly you have in your fridge. I had Orange Fig jam. We also used them in morning for Strawberry and Oatmeal Smoothies.

3. For dinner we had Strawberry and Mozzarella Salad as a side.

4. Since my husband’s birthday was the next day, we made birthday cake with fresh strawberry and jam filling…

Adam's Birthday Cake

Then I let Jack decorate it…

Cake with Jack's Artistic touches

5. My sister called after seeing all the strawberries to tell me JAM! According to her, if it makes 5 cups squished then I’m in business. After hearing her out, I realized that would involve a whole new level of kitchen savvy. And a bunch of utensils I don’t have if I want to can. But in the end I couldn’t resist, I found a recipe that just used sugar, strawberries and lemon juice. I also didn’t can it, just made a small, 3 cup batch, baked up some whole wheat biscuits and ate them up for breakfast. Yummy!

I’m down to 1/2 a basket. Wish me luck. My goal, after seeing how hard it is to pick them, is NOT TO WASTE ONE SINGLE STRAWBERRY.

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Father’s Day 2011

I’m sure you will all be surprised to hear that, for Father’s Day, my husband wanted to take us all strawberry picking.

The boys 'Helping' Papa pick berries

I realized our kids were city kids when Jack was too scared of bugs to help. I wasn’t watching Ben closely because I was too busy crouched over, sweating and picking, having a new respect for the profession of strawberry pickers and vowing never to waste a single strawberry ever again, but I am pretty sure based on the red hands and face that Ben will have strawberry butt tomorrow.

What the hell am I going to do with all these?!

This year was better than last for Adam. Last year he had the unfortunate fate of his birthday falling on Father’s Day. I think I even remember going for a run in the afternoon that year which probably wasn’t very nice of me.

You’d think I would have had some residual guilt. But I married a very kind, thoughtful man. The kind of man who actually is happy just making us happy. I’m a very lucky woman.

After berry picking we ended up in Gurnee Mills. Home of the outlet mall! I’ve lived here 7 years and never managed to make it out there. The temptation was to great. After lunch I ended up once again doing something for myself – shopping for clothes while my husband took the kids to Toys R Us.

Ironically our gift to him this year was a wallet.

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