Strawberries

I love fruit picking. Last year we went strawberry picking for the first time and I realized how wonderful it is. We used to go blueberry picking, and I will definitely go again this summer, but picking tiny berries in the scorching heat does not seem to suit the boys very well. It takes forever since the berries are so small. They get bored and hot after 15 minutes. And the bucket it barely filled up to my liking.

Strawberries on the other hand. Perfect. It doesn't take too long. 

Alex was busy picking the whole time. Which was 30 minutes give or take. Not long at all.

Liam is wonderful at eating strawberries. It wasn't too hot. He could sit down and not get lost in the bushes.

This picture sums it up. Liam eats, Alex feels important because he has his own basket. And both refuse to look or smile at the camera. 

So what does one do with three baskets of strawberries?

I asked Alex what we should make with them. I was thinking strawberry shortcake. Grab some pre-made stuff and add strawberries.
Of course he would suggest sometime like cupcakes. Or cake. He went back and forth most of the car ride home.
Of course, I am already on pinterest as we are leaving the strawberry patch. But what way to more quickly get some ideas, and think about a list of ingredients I need before we get home.
I just knew it needed whipped cream. What better way to add strawberries to a dessert than add in some whipped cream. (unless you are making chocolate covered strawberries, and we ran out before I had the chance)

So these are the recipes I ended up using.
I found the strawberry cupcake recipe here and doubled it because I was going to make some for our community group and my hallway at school. It was delicious. Even though my butter wasn't totally room temperature and never mixed in very well.

And the strawberry whipped cream was divine. You can find the recipe here. And just go ahead and make extra of that too because it tastes good with everything.

The rest of the strawberries were eaten fresh! The boys ate them with almost every meal and as snacks. They were delicious with my granola and yogurt in the mornings too. We ate up Alex's basket first because he didn't totally grasp the concept of picking BIG strawberries... his were nice and red but pretty tiny!

Anyways. I am looking forward to filling my freezer with blueberries this summer. And we missed apple picking last year, so I am excited to do that in the fall too! But strawberry picking will always be one of my favorite family activities too! :)