Two of my Loves....

For those of you who know me well, two of my most fave things in the whole wide world - (other than my boys, duh!) are - wait for them.......

:: Food and
:: Critters.

It's true. Both of those delights make me one very truly happy camper.

I love all things to do with food....except grocery shopping for it. I'm not a huge fan of that. But, I love eating it, I love cooking it, and I love making it special for those I love. One of my mostest favoritest fave things to do with food is to prepare it for my wee little family - but to do the whole thing from start to finish.

Like jam making. I love the whole process. I love picking the berries, hulling them, making the jam, putting it into jars, and then storing it away to have for months on end. Kev says it's kind of like shooting a deer - seeing something to completion from start to finish. You know - from the deer standing in the field all the way to the cooked venison on the table.

Who knew? I can totally see the analogy, though.

Anyway......this week, my two little loves and I hit the strawberry fields two different times in between the rain showers to see what we could see. I was a wee bit hesitant about going all by myself with them, but it was so much fun and they had a really good time - and they actually worked really hard right along side of me. True to personality - Kaden's was the most perfect box of all - not a blemish on any berry. And Jesse's.....well, let's just say that the majority of his box was inedible - but he was very proud of himself!

So, here are a few pics of one of my loves this week:



We only picked sixteen boxes, but we got quite a few berries from these.



We made six batches of delish strawberry freezer jam.



I made some scrump-didilly-umpshious strawberry muffins to put said fresh jam upon.



And I flash froze the rest which are now in freezer bags awaiting their fate.

:::And now, for my second love which I share with both of my boyzies...
A few pics for your viewing pleasure:



A sweet little tree frog that we just released a few days ago.



A super cool luna moth that has now kicked the bucket.....they only live for a week anyway.....this one did get quite a bit of love though, I must confess.

And for the most rockinest thing of all:



A baby snapping turtle that we found today!!!



Seriously, how cute is he?



I totally would've kept him, if he wouldn't have grown up to be able to bite my children's fingers off.

:: Jam and berries in my freezer.
:: Some fun and funky critters to hold and admire.
:: I can now die a happy woman!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

love this post! Jason once kept a snapping turtle that was half the size of that one when he found it. He kept it until it was the size of a dessert plate and it was NASTY mean! He stuck a pencil in the tank and it bit it in half in a split second.

Anyhoo, I need your bread recipe if you'd shoot it my way in your spare time!

Shay said...

good stuff Amy :)