Sunday, June 27, 2010

Strawberries!!!

I love June, and strawberries, and getting out of the city!!! One of my favorite things to do all year is to go fruit picking. So I drag my family out of the city every summer to pick strawberries, blueberries, and apples in the fall, and it makes my day!! Hopefully they enjoy it too!!
This is the second year we have driven out to Susie's Garden Patch to pick strawberries, which is about 1 1/2 hrs. out of the city, but about 2 1/2 hrs. with traffic. But it is well worth it!! The kids take a nap in the car, and we pack our lunches to eat before we go out to pick!!
It was a perfect June day!! The kids and I had just gotten back from Ohio, so it was a nice thing to do as a family when we got back!!
My babies are getting so big!!
Judah is such a happy baby!! I told Tad that putting him in the front pack might get hard, that he should put him in the carseat facing away from the sun, with a blanket, but daddy always insists on the front pack. I won't say that it did get annoying, that he did forget the pacifier, that Judah got tired, and it was really hot. I won't say that.
They have fun stuff for the kids: a swinging horse, animals to pet, playground (country style, with an old tractor to climb on), and little picnic table.

Maddy loves to pick berries, but loves eating them more!! Every year she gets more and more helpful!! This year she actually picked quite a bit!! Last year she probably ate more than we bought!!
Good job, Maddy!!
Yes, we finally get out of the city and away from the noise, and Tad is on his cell phone talking in this big open field. About work. Silly daddy.
Me, I was breathing in the fresh country air. I'm really a country girl at heart. Trapped in the big city!
These pictures make me happy!!

Here's my little country girl. If you ask her what kind of music she likes, she will say, "country and kid music." And my personal favorite, "I'm a country girl."
They had baby calves that were only 2 weeks old!!
Of course there is much work to do after picking all those strawberries!! And I almost missed my deadline, because would you believe those strawberries sat in the fridge for almost a week before I did anything with them?? I finally got on my A-game and got cooking, all in a days work I made these scrumptious recipes. I was looking for lighter versions of the things I wanted to cook, and got lucky with some great healthy (or healthier) versions. Here is what I found!!
Delicious: Strawberry-Orange Muffins from the Eating Well website. With some easy substitutions, these are healthier than the usual muffin, and taste awesome!!!
Note to self: Lower calorie muffins consumed in higher quantities equals the same or more calories consumed. Lesson learned. Maybe these are too good to make if you are on a diet!
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/strawberry_orange_muffins.html
Fresh Strawberry Pie from Cooks.com. People, this only has 6 ingredients and was soooo good!! Of course, this too was consumed by my little family in 1 day.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1953,134186-240193,00.html

Creamy Strawberry Dressing from Taste of Home. We made a salad for dinner one evening after we got home from the beach. Lettuce, strawberries, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, blue cheese, and this amazing dressing. A perfect summer dinner!!
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1953,134186-240193,00.html

So all in a day's work: Strawberry Orange Muffins, Strawberry Pie (which by the end of that day there was no pie left to photograph), creamy Strawberry dressing, Strawberry Jam, and I used the rest of the strawberries and crushed them up for cereal or whatnot. So yummy!!!

Blueberries are next in July!! We will probably go back to the same blueberry farm for the 3rd year in a row!! I love summer!

1 comment:

  1. I LOVE this!! I love the pic of Tad and the kids and you and the kids. Priceless.

    And all the yummy things...wow, looks like such a fun time. I need to blog about pickin' blueberries too. :)

    Maybe that will be my next one...tonight or tomorrow...or eventually. LOL!

    Love you!

    ReplyDelete