Strawberries (or: Summer Has Officially Begun)

This morning we had a nice large playgroup activity, and met at a farm for strawberry picking. I drove an HOUR each way for this activity. O.o (that's my "holy smokes" face... one big eye, one little eye, a nose in between....)

It was worth it, really. The strawberries are absolutely delicious. Way better than you get at the store. But somehow they still don't quite hold a candle to Marysville, Washington strawberries (Ahh, the yearly Strawberry Festival!). I grew up with a strawberry farm 5 minutes from my house, and didn't pick-my-own until I visited 2 years ago. (And I'm pretty sure my parents have still never gone... hint, hint....) And here I am driving an hour to pick strawberries that are delicious and great, but so not the same. The things you take for granted!

We all got ourselves out of bed bright and early to make it to the farm by 9:30am. We gathered with a few of our friends, and drove on the tractor-pulled wagon/bus thing. Melinda and Jacob thought that was great. I was a nervous wreck, with no bars to keep them in, and only one of me, so I couldn't block them in with my body. I was afraid Melinda was going to topple off with every bump, and wind up under a tractor wheel. Yep, that was some fun visual images, huh? But we made it (both ways) without any incidents. Thankfully. :)

Melinda really enjoyed picking the strawberries. She did a really good job, too! She missed a lot, but everything she picked was nice and ripe. Jacob, on the other hand, only picked a couple strawberries, and otherwise just stood around waiting for me to hand him some to put into his bucket.

Here are the kids with our yummy red crop!! It was so hard to resist the temptation to taste-test the strawberries, as I'm sure you can imagine!We headed back earlier than most who were with us - Our containers were full, and Jacob was a little too grumpy to just hang around to visit. (That's what happens when you go to bed at 10:45pm and wake up at 8:00am, and you're still 2.5 years old.) We bought our strawberries, and enjoyed the nearby playground while the others in our group finished up. Jacob and Melinda shared the see-saw swing:


And both of them really loved the wooden "choo-choo" train. Jacob really got into it!

After a while of making Melinda wait and wait and wait and wait, we finally walked down to the petting zoo area (this is a really kid-friendly farm, huh?). We saw - and petted! - two big ol' spotted pigs, a small cow (about my shoulder height), a few energetic goats, a couple donkeys, a llama, two very cute bunnies, and even a peacock! Isn't he beautiful? Jesse asked the kids what their favorites were when they were telling him about our day, and Jacob answered "Peacock!!" with no hesitation at all.
We did buy a small bag of food to feed the animals, too. This picture is before we went inside the fence. After? The goats were all over us, and the cow wasn't far behind. I'm surprised we didn't get any injuries from their horns, in all seriousness.

At Alex's vocal prompting, I finally had to drag Melinda and Jacob back to the car. Neither were especially happy about that, but it was lunchtime (for *everyone*!), so back to the car we went. On the way, they both stopped to blow some dandelions. I couldn't resist taking a picture.And what did she wish for? A teddy bear. "Don't you already have a teddy bear, Melinda?" "Yeah, but I want more!"

And of course, with two large bowlfuls of strawberries here at home, and me not planning ahead, I searched around for some recipe ideas. I quickly saw a pattern evolve: 1 serving equaling nearly 400 calories in each dessert recipe I found. Ugh. Definitely not what me and my 20+ extra pounds need. And strawberries are supposed to be healthy for you, aren't they?? So I was very happy to run into a dinner recipe, and eagerly tried it out. It was very, very yummy!! So I'm sharing it with you. Aren't you lucky? Especially if you're my mom and I know you're going to have access to a million strawberries any day now?? :) I should say that we didn't include the walnuts the recipe calls for. None of us in this house like nuts in our food.

Strawberry Chicken Salad

Servings: 4
Prep: 20 min.
Cook: 10 min.
Total: 30 min.

INGREDIENTS

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup honey
  
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove, minced
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• Dash pepper

Salad:

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  
• 1 teaspoon butter
  
• 8 cups torn mixed salad greens
  
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
  
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  
• Additional whole strawberries, optional
  
  

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients. In a large skillet, cook and stir chicken in oil and butter until no longer pink; drain. Add 1/2 cup salad dressing; cook 1 minute longer.
Place the salad greens in a serving bowl. Top with chicken, sliced strawberries and walnuts. Garnish with whole strawberries if desired. Serving with remaining dressing. Yield: 4 servings.