Weekend Update

Such a lovely weekend.

Perfect weather. Lots of outings. Good food. Outdoor dining.

What else could we ask for?

Friday evening was an overdue girls' night out. Mom, Casey and I went to dinner in Levis Commons and then to see Bridesmaids in the theater. I got a Farmer's Market Pizza half-off appetizer (as my meal) and I laughed my butt off at the movie. Happy girl.

Saturday morning started with a library trip with both kids. I love going to the library on the way to anywhere because this is what happens on the remaining drive:

Silence. And "reading". :)
From there, we made our way to the zoo to see the new baby elephant. Oh my, is he ever cute!?
Please excuse no make-up on me.

First stop is ALWAYS the giraffes. So says Will.

Hmm... not sure what lead to this goofy expression, but she was so content in the Ergo while we walked the zoo and I wanted to snap pics of both kids during our visit.

Awwww! Isn't the newest zoo resident adorable?

He was telling me how elephants use their trunks. :)

Checking out the hippos and crocodile. They were indoors today.

Rhinos!

Cooling off in the stream in Nature's Neighborhood.

This is the first time I've ever taken the kids on the playground at the zoo. We usually don't even walk by... ;) It's a bit of a challenge keeping an eye on two if they dart in different directions so the rule was: they had to stay together!

Will was very good about keeping Sophie in his sight.

Following our zoo trip, we continued our frequent ritual of stopping off at Wixie Bakery for donuts. Half dozen to go. Three sprinkled for the kids and I. Three others for daddy. :) (He's spoiled.)

Lunch and nap followed and then we joined a large group of friends and their kids for a cookout and party in Genoa. The kids were lined up playing "Red Light, Green Light".

Sunday was a bit of a lazier day. Craig and Will went to a brunch at the nursing home to visit his Grandpa. (Grandpa stays in the independent living facility.) Sophie took an early nap and Will returned in time for a short nap before our afternoon plans. The kids and I were out the door to visit another new farm for cherry picking (post coming shortly) while Craig met some friends at the quarry to play basketball.

The evening was just beautiful. (The whole weekend was really!) And I did most of our dinner prep outside while Craig and the kids played in the yard.

Don't worry. Those were soft balls and he was just chipping a little while the kids used their own toy golf club set.

We ate dinner outside (menu to come in my dinner post) and it could not have been a more beautiful evening.

Sunshine. Not too hot. No wind. Simple summer dinner menu including our fresh picked cherries. No worries if the kids made a mess. Just perfect and relaxing. I wish dinner could be like this EVERY NIGHT!

Saying grace... except for instant-gratification-Sophie.

The last of our strawberry popsicles.

Sharing a piece of apple cake that my mom dropped off to me.

{Mom and I have this unspoken agreement where we share portions of anything that we make that is exceptionally tasty or that we have an abundance of. Coincidentally, it always comes at the perfect time so that I have an impromptu apple cake for dinner or a cup of veggie soup to put in my lunch bag the next day. In turn, she gets to try all of the new things I make that my family turns their noses up to. Love you, mom!}

Post popsicle... Sophie demanded a bite of my apple cake. :)

She's lucky I'm nice...

Drinking out of daddy's water jug from his basketball game. Eew. She wouldn't put it down.

We were feeling very carefree this night. Can you tell? LOL Kids were messy after dinner so we just let them strip down and run around naked before plunking them directly into the bath tub.

And so I leave you with this:

She was trying to pee like her big brother. LOL I know, I know. What are we teaching them, right? Well it does feel very freeing and exhilarating to be naked outside in the summer when you are a kid. I remember.

Cheers to a beautiful weekend!

Strawberry Recipes

For awhile there, we had strawberries coming out of our ears!

Not a bad way to live if you ask us. :)

This was just the first ~11# batch from Whittaker's. The day we picked, I came home and sorted through all the berries while the kids napped. The ones with intact stems will keep longer and it's best NOT to wash them until just before you plan to use/eat them. Strawberries are best preserved when stored in the refrigerator in a shallow container. So I had a couple 13x9 Pyrex dishes with lids and stemmed berries layered no more than two high. I also immediately made about four different recipes that day with the stemless berries and still had a small container in our fridge just for regular eating. :) If you're wondering how we made it through all these berries, here is one reason:

NOBODY could keep their hands off of them!

We ate them for at least two of the three meals every day for two weeks, not to mention all the recipes the berries went into.
So! First things first... recipe #1 is Craig's favorite: strawberry pie.
I know I've said this before, but I am seriously in love with my food processor for making pastry. You cannot get any easier than dumping flour, shortening and salt in the bowl and letting the blades cut it in. No fancy recipe - just the tried and true.

Then, incorporating the cold water to form the pastry dough is even easier when poured through the lid while the machine is running. It binds quicker and uses just the right amount of liquid so that you're not adding more flour later.

See the ball of dough? Just stop the machine when it binds like that.

Voila!

Berries halved or quartered. Crust baked and cooling. Filling cooked and cooling.

The first pie I made was just ours to eat for dessert that week. But I made another for Father's Day a week later. Total berries used: ~9 cups for two pies. Though they tasted very good, I just wished I could figure out a way to avoid using Jell-O for the filling. Then last week, I read a recipe from a fellow blog friend of mine that I haven't tried yet, but uses pureed berries and more cornstarch as the binder in place of boxed Jell-O. Hooray! I'm definitely trying that next time.

Recipe #2: Weelicious Strawberry Popsicles!

Two ingredients: strawberries and lemon juice. So simple!

Blended in the food processor and poured into molds.

I made two batches of these totaling 4.5 cups of berries used. One batch went to the babysitter's one day to share with the other kids. Another just stayed with us for the kids to eat for "dessert" (Ha!)

Recipe #3: Weelicious Strawberry Muffins.

Three batches made totaling 4.5 cups of berries. I've been on a muffin kick the past month or so! More on that later. Oh, and aren't deep, red berries gorgeous in my aqua, melamine colander? Red and aqua is one of my favorite color combos. Love this thing! It's constantly in our fridge filled with washed-and-ready fruit... usually grapes.

I have two batches of these muffins frozen in our freezer. I also sent some to the babysitter's again and the kids have been eating them with meals.

Ooh, this next one was so fun.

Recipe #4: Strawberry, Lemon & Basil Soda from Bon Appetit magazine in an article called "Fizz Ed". Isn't that a cute title? It was written as an alternative to drinking soda (which I am forever working on with Craig) and it was SO GOOD! I even got to use basil from my herb garden for the first time. And if you're thinking: "Basil? In a drink?" My answer is: "YES! You haven't lived till you've tasted homemade lemonade and my very favorite recipe uses basil to create a simple syrup as a sweetener. Lemon and basil go together like pb&j in my opinion!" :) So I knew I'd like this new version that includes strawberries. Berries, lemon juice and basil get "muddled" together with a small amount of sugar. I don't have a "muddler" (whatever that is) so I just used the deep cup that comes with my immersion blender and the wooden tool from Pampered Chef that creates a "well" in a mini muffin pan, i.e. for mini cheesecakes or cookie crusts or pies, etc. Smash, smash, smash... and a little swirling in between. :)

Pour in soda water... ...and then strain into glasses filled with ice to chill.

I'm not sure why, but my drink looks much more like Kool-Aid than the one on the website. Their's looks more like iced tea. But let me tell you: it was so yummy and refreshing! I garnished with half a strawberry and a basil leave and Craig and I enjoyed these with a movie after the kids went to bed.

Okay, batch #2 of strawberries was the ~4# we picked from Polter's. The majority of these got eaten plain with our meals but I did try a homemade drop biscuit recipe for Strawberry Shortcake and this was by far my favorite "strawberry recipe" of all. It comes from that "Last Call for Corn" blog I linked to in one of my recent dinner posts. I am such a lover of Strawberry Shortcake and these were the best I've ever had... EVER. The tops got brushed with cream and sprinkled with sugar before baking. Yuuuummmmm!!!!Bisquick... eat my flour dust! I'm never going back to you!

Feast your eyes on these!

Oh, I want another! I want another!
Somehow, this dessert always gets bigger than I originally intend and then our bellies are on the brink of explosion after. But in a good way. And it's totally worth it.

Other recipes that I bookmarked and never got around to making:

Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer Cake

Smitten Kitchen's Almond Cake with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

Weelicious's Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

And my cousin Brittany's Strawberry, Peach & Kiwi Fruit Salsa served with Baked Cinnamon & Sugar Tortilla Chips

You can only have so many "desserts" in your house at one time. And I tried to choose recipes I could freeze and save a little longer. But I really should have done the fruit salsa. That is so delish. I am definitely bookmarking these recipes for next year!

The kids and I went cherry picking on Sunday and stopped by Polter's again on the way home. I was hoping to just pick up some already-picked strawberries in their little market but the lady told me the season is basically over and they are only offering U-Pick for 3 or 4 more days. No more already-picked berries were available. :( Boo hoo. (I didn't have time to U-Pick that day and it takes me 40 minutes to drive there.) I hate how short the seasons are for so many foods. But I guess that gives them all the more allure and entices us to "go overboard" when we can. I may try to get to a Farmer's Market this week/weekend and see if any other local farms might have some strawberries left for sale.