Here in Wilmington, NC, we have an amazing place called Lewis Farms that has rows and rows and ROWS of Strawberries ready for picking all summer long. They also have amazing ice cream from a sister dairy farm (I recommend a Strawberry Banana Milkshake or the Pineapple ice cream), tons of great plants (I get most of my vegetables and herbs for the garden from here every year), Blueberries, Blackberries and I’m sure I’m forgetting something because there is just SO much awesome stuff here! My 2 kiddos go completely nuts when it’s time to go pick strawberries. Of course, they both MUST have their own bucket and we’re not done picking until they deem the buckets filled to capacity. That’s a LOT of strawberries, folks. This is just HALF!
 

I had my work cut out for me on making the most of these fresh berries. I’m happy to say that after a week, I only had to freeze about a pints worth. But hey, we use those for smoothies regularly so I’m happy. The kids probably ate half of the berries just by themselves. Thank goodness for Shout stain remover… otherwise I think my little girl’s clothes would be dotted with strawberry juice for all eternity!

I’m not kidding, gang. We had some form of strawberry with at least 2 meals a day for most of the week. I think the star of the show were these Chipotle Lime Shrimp Tacos with Strawberry Salsa. They were SO good. We had them 2 nights in a row and could have gone for a third, but we ran out of shrimp. I have totally been sleeping on the whole strawberry salsa thing. It’s so easy (made just like regular salsa sans the tomatoes) and so so good. I sent some to preschool with my son to accompany his quesadilla for lunch and his teachers made a point to geek out to my husband about it. We won the gold star for Best Lunch that day- kidding!

I also made Strawberry Jam with Honey Basil Butter. We put these on waffles, English Muffins, etc. I would like to try strawberry bruschetta next time because the strawberries and the basil go so nice together.

Next, to further put my Strawberry Jam to good use, I made these super yummy Strawberry-Lemon Shortbread Bars.  My little boy isn’t super into sweets, but he devoured this and keeps asking for more! Definitely a keeper recipe.

Then, the Strawberry Margarita idea popped into my head. I saw several recipes online, but I ended up just winging it because I didn’t like the idea of adding the booze into the blender with the berries. I kept the strawberry/lime puree separate so I could share with the kiddos! Also, I’m not a huge fan of super thick drinks so having the booze and puree separate allowed me to control the consistency of my drink.

I was fresh out of little umbrellas but this drink definitely deserved one.

I hope everyone has an awesome summer and if you happen upon some strawberries, try out some of these recipes! Let me know how it goes, if you do 🙂

Happy Noshing!