Strawberry season may be officially over, but U-Picks are still going moderately well (at least based on what I saw today).

For the first time in years (I'm not kidding, it has to have been over a decade) I went out to pick my own strawberries. Even though the sign said that strawberry season was over, the folks at the farm were sending people out to find what they could. No assigned rows, just find what you can.

The weather was hot! I'm fairly sure that by the time I quit that if I'd stayed out any longer (say, to finish the bucket), I'd have ended up with heatstroke/sunstroke despite the hat. I managed to avoid sunburn though. Personally, I think the dust from the field in combination with the sunscreen was impenetrable by the sun's rays. I certainly almost needed to scrape it off when I got home.

I'd gone with two friends. One got about ten pounds of berries, the other twenty. I was somewhere in the middle with thirteen or fourteen pounds. Either way, it was one and a half of the four liter ice-cream pails. I also bought rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries and a bag of green beans.

Of course, now I'm too tired to actually prep the stuff to freeze. I did get a strawberry-rhubarb pie made though, and it was delicious. I'll do the rest tomorrow: wash and freeze the strawberries and the blueberries, and blanch/freeze the green beans. While I made the pie my two friends cleaned and bagged their berries for the freezer.

All in all, it was a fun day.

The two are actually somewhat connected.

The day before yesterday I gave in and bought the new Jamie Oliver cookbook, . Yesterday I went on a fundraising walk and then ended up doing some more walking (to the stores the second time).

How the two are connected is this: At the first walk, I won the silent auction on a Magic Bullet Blender. Then, I needed to get the ingredients for a cheesecake recipe from the new book. I'd forgotten that it is the beginning of summer, neglecting to put on sunscreen, leading to sunburned arms (and neck). Ouch.

The cheesecake turned out (although it's not as firm as I'd like), and has been a hit. The previous day's recipe (and one of the reasons I bought the cookbook), the Macaroni and Cauliflower Bake, was also delicious (and easy to make).

Today, I tried the smoothie recipe for breakfast. Yum.

If you like simple recipes, I recommend the new Jamie Oliver book. I've already matched the number of recipes I've done from his other book in the last year, in three days.

Of course it had to be the hottest day yet. The fruit couldn't wait though. Five and a half small jars of strawberry/blackberry jam. Made of the too soft for freezing berries and berry bits. Not bad. Took twice as long (or more) cooking time from the recipe. Really, it's a bit like "want some fruit with your sugar" jam. Tastes good though.

Got the chocolate cake/square baked and iced and the fruit square iced. The caramel corn is in the oven. I didn't think I would get it all done, but it is.

Got the meat pockets done! Just one more tray to go into the oven. Just like the bread, this took all day. I started around 11:30 this morning. And now, I've got to be at work in two hours.

I got a new cookbook for Christmas, which inspired me to start a cooking/baking spree. The result is (if I get it all done) I will be doing all of the cooking for the family New Years party. Last night was two batches of Chili, one vegetarian and one regular (nearly doubled in size). That was simply fun. I've done chili before, several times.

Today (I thought it would only take a couple of hours, LOL) I did something I've wanted to do for a while now. I baked a batch of bread. I've never done it before, so it was an experience! I started around 10:30-11 this morning, and I only just now took the final tray out (4:30). The recipe says it make 4 dozen buns. I guess I did mine a little small and uneven in size. I ended up with 67 (and a mountain of dirty dishes that I'm hoping will miraculously disappear while I'm typing this).

I've still got more to do in the next couple of days: one cake recipe and a fruit square, caramel corn (from the new book) and a type of meat pocket (also from the new book).

Edited entry addition:
The fruit square is now in the oven. The buns have turned out to be a success, though I'm pretty sure I forgot to add the salt. That is enough for the night!

Thanks to a bake sale tomorrow, I've been on a baking spree today (Last time I did this was a couple of years ago).

So far, the list is:
- Two loaves of bread
- One cherry square (still needs to be iced)
- One batch of butterscotch cookies

Planned is two more batches of cookies, one Chocolate Chip (with M&M's) and one Double Chocolate, also with M&M's. I sure hope they sell well.

Well, I made them using a half cup of cocoa, however I forgot to reduce the flour by the same amount. Anyway, the general consensus is that they are great.

Working on an update to the website that I hope will be ready to go today (thought that yesterday though, so who knows).

How much cocoa do you usually use to change a recipe involving 2 cups of flour to a chocolate flavour? I'm going to try changing a cookie recipe to double-chocolate.

Does anyone know if curry goes well with pasta instead of rice? I know I've had it that way in some restaurants, but I've never done it myself.

Went on a baking spree over the weekend.
Grand total of:
One batch of pastry
Two chocolate cakes (with chocolate icing)
One Key Lime pie
and a batch of oatmeal cookies.

I'm thinking of doing it again next weekend.