Happy Friday everyone! Actually, it’s MORE than a Happy Friday… it’s Happy National Donut Day!
I realized this morning that I haven’t posted anything ridiculous in a while, so here you go:
What, you don’t serenade your food before devouring it? Now I just need to find Ollie so I can hold him out Simba-style…
Okay, be honest… did you giggle a little?
Last week when we got back from OC, I still had a couple days off of work so it was a great weekday opportunity to take Jack strawberry picking.
I mean, that is a total ‘me’ thing to do… find an outdoor activity that would result in an exhausted child AND a huge vat of yummy berries. So, we hopped in the car and drove 15 minutes to our favorite local pick-your-own farm.
Here’s how it would go in my imaginary world: Both Jack and I would be harmoniously skipping through the fields, filling up our baskets as we went. Every so often, we’d happily giggle at each other and he’d tell me what a wonderful mother I am for taking him on our little excursion. After we filled our baskets, we’d return to the farm’s market for homemade ice cream and hold hands while we ate.
Here’s how it went in real life: Apparently I hadn’t gone outside that day, because it was NINETY-some degrees. We rode a tractor-train type thing to the strawberry picking area, so by time we got there we were both covered in dirt and rivers of sweat. In the field, Jack was more interested in eating every single strawberry he picked and then stealing the biggest, juiciest ones out of my basket. Within about 20 minutes he was kind of over the whole thing, so I raced around filling my basket so we could leave.
Then, in the middle of the HUGE strawberry field Jack decided that he REALLY had to pee right that second and started pulling his pants down to tinkle on a nearby strawberry bush. I did some kind of slow-motion move where I dove over to him and yanked his pants up while shouting “NooooOOOOOOO!” Then, I grabbed my 34 pound kid, 2 strawberry baskets, and my purse (which for some reason weighs 80 pounds) and tripped over every stinking strawberry bush trying to get to the porti-pot that was like 8 miles away. Okay, maybe it was a half mile. Or 100 feet. I’m not quite sure, it was all a blur. Afterwards, we rode the tractor back to the farm’s market and ate homemade ice cream. There may have been some hand holding.
So yeah, it pretty much went according to plan.
Okay, really… as any parent will tell you, that was pretty much a freaking perfect day when you have a 3 year old. It was dirty, sweaty, delicious and fun… and I kind of want to do it again this weekend!
Have you gone strawberry picking? Did the experience live up to your expectations?
One of my favorite summer memories is back in college when I spent two summers living with my grandparents down in Ocean City, Maryland.
They had a small hotel that they ran, so I’d help them with cleaning the rooms when I wasn’t busy working at a local pizza place. We’d eat most dinners together – just the three of us – and often had fresh fruits and veggies from a nearby farmer’s stand.
That is where I first had tomato sandwiches.
Now, for most people the sandwich would be missing the lunch meat… but for me this was the perfect combination of toasted bread, tomato, a little mayo, salt and pepper.
It’s been almost 20 years since I lived down in Ocean City and looking at a fresh, red tomato brings me right back. However, every time I go to the grocery store all I see are lame pink tomatoes that don’t look like they taste like anything. I actually have thought about trying to grown my own tomatoes, but with my black thumb I figured it would be a waste of energy.
This is why when my friend reached out to ask if I’d be interested in trying tomatoes from Tasti-Lee, I jumped at the chance. According to their press release, while all tomatoes are high in heart-healthy nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin A, biotin, potassium, fiber and the antioxident lycopene, the Tasti-Lee tomatoes have the highest levels of lycopene in any tomato variety in the United States.
A couple days later, I got these in the mail… 20 tomatoes!
I figured I’d try them out by making two of my favorite (and super easy) tomato recipes: the tomato sandwich and tomatoes & fresh mozzarella.
First up, check out my tomato sandwich:
I swear, it is exactly like the ones I had almost 20 years ago!
I also threw together some sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, coarse salt and pepper:
YUM! I don’t know how those food blogger-types do it, because both these treats were gone within about 2 minutes of taking the photos.
Now I need your help — I still have a bunch of tomatoes left and I’d love to know your favorite tomato recipes!
Also, if you want to learn more about the Tasti-Lee tomatoes, you can find them online, on Facebook and on Twitter.
Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Tasti-Lee. I received the tomatoes to try and loved them so much that I wanted to tell you all about them. All thoughts, opinions and super easy recipes are my own.