Deep-Fried Kool Aid?

Every year, an article comes out with the "latest and greatest" deep-fried thing that's being served up at County Fairs across the nation.  Winners from previous years:  twinkies, oreos, even deep-fried mac n cheese.  (Which is delicious, BTW.)  Deep-fried Kool-Aid though?  Sounds intriguing.  I'd go further and call it a Kool-Aid flavored donut.

Check out today's article on MSN:  Deep-Fried Kool-Aid.

Father's Day Feast

It's a tradition to spend Father's Day down at my parent's cottage in Connecticut.  We usually have a big cookout, gifts and summer activities.  This year's put every previous year's to shame:  we had ribs! 

Mmmm.....ribs.  Mom got the Lloyd's ribs that come pre-basted with barbecue sauce, all you have to do is wrap them in foil and cook them on low.  Ribs from scratch are quite a production, they take like three hours on the grill.  You also have to be careful with what you use for seasoning, too much spice will render them inedible.  So this was the perfect, easy meal for our growing family.  Rounded out by potato packets, salad, coleslaw and fresh corn on the cob.  Dessert was blueberry or apple pie, and cupcakes for the kids.  (And my brother, a kid at heart.) 

Happy Father's Day to my dad, my husband, and the dad-to-be, my brother! 

Going on a Berry Hunt....Gonna Get some Juicy Ones

Despite the fact that Dora the Explorer is going blueberry picking in the blog title, it pretty much works for strawberries too.  We got up this morning early, and after haircuts for the boys (MUCH needed) we went strawberry picking.

I hadn't been strawberry picking since I was a child, and it was so much fun.  Will, who doesn't like strawberries unless they're in a smoothie, had fun dashing up and down the aisles looking for red beauties.  Brian and I took turns hanging out with Sean while the other was busily filling up a pint container.  Sean kept looking down at the berries filling up the box and kept begging to eat some.   I'm not sure how many he ate, but he was really enjoying them.   When we weighed our take at the checkout, I was surprised to discover that we had picked twelve pounds!!

After a picnic lunch at the farm (and watching two wild turkeys run around the picnic area) it was time for picking up some strawberry donuts from the farm kitchen.  And let me tell you, they are delicious.

Some of the berries will go to my parents, my mom loves fresh strawberries.  Tonight we'll have some shortcake.  And then....I've bookmarked recipes for Strawberry Muffins and Strawberry Pie.  And but of course, strawberry-lemon syrup.  If there's any left after all of that, then into the freezer they will go.

We went to the same farm that we had gone apple picking last October.  That place is great, not too crowded, reasonably priced and very kid-friendly.  We liked it so much, we'll be back in July sometime to go blueberry picking.  (My boys are blueberry-eating monsters!!)

Never Met a Scone I Didn't Like......

There's this old breakfast cookbook that I've mentioned on my blog before.....we refer to it when we want to make something special for breakfast and have time to wait for it.  Today's Special Thing:  Oatmeal Raisin Scones!

Scones are an English pastry, and they're usually more savory than sweet.  They have a biscuit-like texture,  and the sweetness comes from what you put in them, usually,  (I really like dried cranberries, with a little squeeze of orange juice or orange zest.)

Breakfast ended up being more like brunch today, with the scones, scrambled eggs, bacon and breakfast potatoes.  A nice leisurely pace, and everything was delicious.

However...I thought that the scones would be a home run with the Big Kid.  Not so much.  In fact, my little Bread Aficionado flat-out refused to try them at first, and then pronounced them "disgusting."  (his favorite adjective.)

Oh well.  More for me, more for Brian and more for Brian's co-workers tomorrow!

Return of Our Garden

I just finished planting two tomato plants, basil, zucchini, green beans and cucumbers.  All before the skies opened and the rain fell, so all in all I'm pretty happy.  I also got one leaf off the basil plant so I got a little of that sweet basil-y perfume in a nibble, so now I'm VERY happy.  :)

Since it's already June, this year's garden motto is "better late than not at all."  We didn't have a garden last year, with a six month old keeping us on our toes and a three-year old running around, plus a trip to Wisconsin.  So the motto last year was "we're buying basil and tomatoes at the grocery store!"  I like this year's motto better already.