strawberry fun

of course the very berry (hee hee) first thing we had to make with all those beautiful strawberries we hand picked was strawberry shortcake... whoo hoo! oh my goodness we love strawberry shortcake, even livi, so you know mommy makes them good. just looking at this picture, i'm drooling all over again. it's so super easy to make (we don't do it fancy here), we just get those shortcake cups from the grocery store, cool whip & of course our beautiful strawberries. the only semi-fancy thing mommy does is making the strawberries nice & juicy by removing the stems from the strawberries.  slicing them into thin (1/4" to 1/8") slices. put into a large bowl.  add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet the strawberries are to begin with) and mix into the strawberries.  then set aside at room temperature to macerate (which means that the sugar will soften the strawberries and help release their juices) for about 20 mins. then you have to make the eiffle tower of strawberries, cool whip, strawberries, cool whip over & over until you think its going to topple over... then its perfect!

because we had sooooooooo many strawberries, mommy thought a great thing to make would be strawberry jam. we couldn't agree more, we were so excited to make pb&j's, spread it on toast & waffles & pour it on ice cream. so we found a super easy peasy recipe & got to work. we were so excited to try it & let me tell you IT IS DELICIOUS! here's the recipe if you'd like to make some of the best homemade jam you'll ever taste.
strawberry jam:
fresh strawberry jam takes under an hour to make from start to finish and doesn't need a lot of babysitting, special equipment or require pectin!

ingredients:

 2 cups sugar

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1 1/2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

instructions:put a small plate in the freezer. combine sugar, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a medium saucepan and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved.

add strawberries and continue to cook over very low heat for 20 minutes, until the strawberries release some of their juices and the mixture boils slowly. cook until a small amount of the juice gels when spread across a very cold plate.

cool slightly and pour into 2 pint canning jars and either seal or keep refrigerated or freeze. unsealed jars will keep for a month or so stored in the refrigerator.

since we had just enough strawberries left to make some super yummy smoothies, we got to looking for some delicious recipes to try. mommy found this recipe called "darling clementine strawberry smoothies" which we thought was perfect since we always have tons & tons of clementines on hand. so here's the recipe if you'd like to try it too.

darling clementine strawberry smoothies:

makes 2 smoothies :

7 or 8 large strawberries, halved

1 clementine, peeled and sectioned

1/2 of a large, ripe banana

1/2 cup very berry yo-j (or sweetened yogurt+juice to equal 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup crushed pineapple in juice

2 handfuls ice

zip all in blender until smooth. pour into wine glasses, teacups or other drinking glasses…and enjoy immediately.

now that we're all out of strawberries, we all voted it's time to go back to collect some more & find more wonderful delicious things to create with them!