Strawberries!

I took the boys strawberry picking yesterday. We had a wonderful time! The strawberries were sweet, red, and juicy.  At first the boys thought the strawberries weren't ready to be picked because they were small. I had to explain that this was the actual size of a strawberry - it's not suppose to be the size of your fist.

Then we started picking...well, I started picking and the boys started eating! Once they had tried their first strawberry right off the plant there was no stopping them.  Sweet, red juice running down their chins and big smiles across their face - they had tasted a bit of heaven and they knew it! 

 The soundtrack I heard while I picked berries to bring home was "Mommy, is this a good one to eat?", "Mommy, can I eat this one?", and "oh, Mommy they are so good!".  The boys did pick a few to bring home but most ended up in their bellies - I know your not suppose to eat while you pick your own but it would have been a wasted effort to ask them to stop.  Trust me, I made up for it while shopping at the farmer's store.

What did we do with strawberries so sweet and ripe that they are completely red on the inside?  First, we made strawberry shortcakes. We used the round little cakes you buy at the store (keeping things simple!).  My littlest guy now calls the cakes "farm cakes" because we bought them at the farmer's store.  

Tonight we made strawberry milk shakes and they were a real treat! The boys loved helping to make them and all 4 of us enjoyed drinking them!

Here is how we made them:

about 2 cups strawberries mixed with 1 tbsp sugar (you could use more sugar with less ripe strawberries)

pour 1 cup milk into blender, followed by some crushed ice, about 6 scoops of vanilla ice-cream, and the strawberries

Put the cover on and blend it all together!  - We added 3-4 more scoops of ice-cream to thicken it up more and tossed in a 1/2 banana left over from breakfast. 

The result was a thick, flavor popping shake. The pink color is beautiful - all natural, no artificial coloring!  The taste is worth every calorie from the ice cream too!

We have two more baskets of strawberries left and we are making strawberry muffins or crumb cake - not sure which but either one is bound to be delicious since our main ingredient is as good as they come!

1 day of strawberry picking +  3 days of delicious treats = lots of yummy memories!

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