5/16/2006

The Great Strawberry Incident of 2006 If I'm going into this, I might as well go all the way. So you might want to grab a beer. (Speaking of which, and this will just take a moment -- I promise, I heard someone the other day say people aren't drinking liquor anymore. That it's all about beer and wine. I don't know who she hangs out with. We have a little of everything in our house.) On Saturday, I spent about an hour in a strawberry field picking 10 pounds of the little buggers. (I was planning to make jam.) Have you ever done this? Well. It's a lot of bending. The backs of my legs still hurt a little. Which is good because I told myself I was going to the gym every day this week. Well, Monday through Thursday because I'll be out of town Friday through Sunday. Have I done that? No. It's day two and instead of being at the gym in the weight-lifting class, I'm sitting here talking to you guys. But I do plan on talking a walk later. Maybe that will count for something. I had to work Saturday night, so I packed some berries in some baggies and took them with me to share with a couple people. I left the box on the front porch because I was worried Jasper would eat them. When David came home, he brought them in. Sunday morning, I cut some up for us and added a little mint from my herb garden. So yummy. The plan was still to make jam, but I wanted to hunt down a recipe online. But I couldn't do that because it stormed a lot Sunday and the Internet was down. We went to buy David some new suits. We were there for. ev. er and the sales guy was getting on my nerves because he was trying to talk David into getting more than he wanted to get. HATE THAT. When David was trying on the pants (because they all have to be tailored -- WHY is that again!?), the guy says to me, "So is it just you two or are there little ones?" Great. Now I'm getting the third degree to the guy who's pushing menswear? I say, "It's just us." To which he replies, "Ahh. I wondered how he got to buy suits on Mother's Day." Well, I guess I'll give him that. It is a good question. But still. Speaking of this buying spree of his, he also got shoes for which he used my DSW coupons. But I gave them to him. He didn't steal them from me or anything. And truth be told, I had to get some shoes too because you had to spend a certain amount to use the coupon and his shoes were about $10 under that line. I got some Keds thongs. I can't find a picture online, but they're like this, only the straps are pink plaid and the footbed is green. When we got home, I ran to the computer. Nope. Still out. It was out all night. And there the berries sat, waiting. I put some in a big baggie and stuck them in the freezer. The next morning, Monday, I got up intending to make the jam. Then I decided I'd get a pedicure. You know, to go with my new shoes. There were no morning appointments, just one at 2:45. So I figured I'd run my errands, get the pedicure then come home and make jam. I did all my errands, got the pedicure then decided I better pick up some stuff for dinner. I got home around 5:30. I walked in the door, dropped all my bags, looked in the kitchen and saw red. No, literally. And then figuratively, a little. The berries. They'd molded and the juice started oozing out the bottom of the box. Strawberry juice was everywhere. Pooled all over the little kitchen island and then dripped down the side, where it splashed onto the floor. I say splashed because you could tell it had splashed. They were little red juicy splatters for a 2-foot radius. I called the number on the box. The girl said I should have refrigerated them. Sigh. I did this last year without any problems. I must have put them in the fridge though last year. I called Chrissy and told her. She said it happened to them too. They had kept them in the garage and went out to get them Sunday night or Monday and they were all bad too. She said she saved a couple. I hung up and started digging around in the box. Well, not digging exactly. Ew. I was able to save 4 cups of berries. Just enough for one batch of the jam I decided to make. Which incidentally is the same jam I made last year and I have the recipe in my recipe binder, so I didn't even need to waste all that time waiting to look online for one. (I'll post it next.) The irony, though, is that I was worried about Jasper eating them or knocking over the box or something. When really, the berries... they needed to be saved from me.

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