U-Pick Strawberries

I've been a little obsessed with strawberries lately. I've been buying them from the store, eating them with breakfast, snacking on them and thinking of amazing treats to make with strawberries. Not since I was a little kid have I felt such a strong desire to eat strawberries all the time. Yesterday, I went to Sauvie Island with my sister and a friend to pick our own strawberries. My sister and I used to do this with our grandparents in California, but it's been years since I picked my own strawberries. We went to Kruger's Farm and each filled up 3 pints of strawberries to take home. We've had slightly out of season cloudy weather in Portland, so our strawberries are a little small, but still tasty, and very cute.
Today, I made some Strawberry Basil Pesto. My boyfriend has been asking me to make this for a couple of years now, but his requests always came when strawberries were out of season. I roughly followed a recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini. I have a tendency to just wing it when making pesto, and I ended up using the ingredients from the recipe, but added them to the blender by taste. I've put a bit in our fridge to eat this week and have frozen the rest to enjoy later.
With the remaining strawberries I plan on making cupcakes for a friends birthday this weekend and I will freeze what ever is left over.

Cheese Success and Marinara

Earlier this week I made a second attempt at home-made mozzarella. I used the 30-Minute Mozzarella recipe from the book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll. The first time I tried to make mozzarella, I ended up with a big pot of boiled, slightly curd-y milk. It took me a couple months to find the time/inspiration to try again. The mozzarella wasn't quite as perfect as I had hoped, but I think there is a pretty big learning curve with home cheese making. The texture is a little off, and it is a little bland, but it is still cheese and is definitely edible. There are a few different reasons as to why my mozzarella didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. It could be that I have an electric stove, it could be the pot or utensils I used, the brand/type of milk, etc... I think I will try it again in a few weeks to see if I can get a slightly more satisfying result.
Also this week, I finally made some marinara sauce from the tomatoes I grew last summer. I know, tomatoes that have been frozen for almost 9 months probably aren't as good as tomatoes frozen for 30 days or just a couple of months. I've been busy though, and it is difficult to motivate myself sometimes. I'm not a huge fan of tomato sauces, usually I prefer a pesto or alfredo. This sauce turned out quite well though. I used a recipe from Epicurean.com, and put the sauce into jars and froze for later.
Tonight we are making calzones with my sister, and my home-made mozzarella and marinara sauce are going to be put to good use.

100 Best Children's Books

A new favorite blog of mine, Book Scout, wrote in April about a list compiled by The School Library Journal of the 100 best childrens books of all time. This is a list that was put together from a poll by the blog A Fuse 8 Production. There were a few surprises, and many child hood favorites, and also many books that I had either not heard of or never read. Because of this, I've taken it upon myself to read (or re-read) all of the books on this list, with the exception of the books that I have read recently (with in the last year or two) or read more than once (The Harry Potter series, for example). I've placed the entire list on the side of the blog for everyone to see. The titles in bold are books I have finished (or have read in the recent past and have decided not to re-read).

If you are interested in following along in more detail, please take a look at my Goodreads. Also, feel free to read-along and share in the comments. I started this at the end of April, and am giving myself a year to complete the list.