Strawberries and company

One of the perks of having a house with wheels is that you can make yourself at home pretty much anywhere! We had to "relocate" our house last week so Jeremie could make progress with our land clearing project... try working from morning till dawn with four kiddos who ask a million questions a minute and want to help with everything! I guess we "trained" them well in the natural learning way (learning through inquiry and encouraging them to challenge everything they see and hear...) but let's just say we had to take their learning someplace else last week! We have been staying at my aunt's place right next to their clover field and it has been a beautiful week of enjoying all that summer has to offer.

We have been waking up to sunshine and birds signing every morning! We have enjoyed their pool and their trampoline. Spent our evenings by the campfire and shared meals and caught up with cousins we had not seen for months! This season of us being "wanderers" has opened up the door to so many experiences we would probably not have made time to enjoy if we had had the comforts of a big house and demands of a big yard. This improvised vacation week ended up being just the thing we needed to fill up on relations and conversations!

It also turned out to be the hottest week of the summer so far for us and with the sunshine finally granting us enough of his presence to make things in the garden grow and strawberries ripen we couldn't miss our chance to get our hands on this season's goodness.

We've been doing our best not to spoil any of these precious berries (which was not so hard really...) My husband had one request, that we make his mother's famous strawberry mousse, so I texted my mother in law for her "secret" recipe and went right ahead trying my best to replicate the taste of his childhood! I think it was a success as we ended up making a batch for our lunch dessert and then another batch after diner.

The recipe is as simple as this: beat two egg whites in a food processor until they form white peaks, add about 1/3 cup of sugar and 2 cups of strawberries! The result will leave you wanting more or very sticky like it was the case for our dear Peachy (the nickname we gave to our youngest daughter)!

Now, on my part, nothing says summer and strawberry time more than fresh strawberry "jam" and toasts! We used to have this for breakfast every single day after we went strawberry picking when I was a kid until their was no more to be had! We simply cut the berries in slices, pressed them with a fork on our toast and added a bit of sugar on top. I couldn't help myself and made them again this week but replaced the sugar with coconut sugar this time around and the kids loved it!

And lastly, we had to have strawberries with lemon scones... we just had to! I got up early one morning, before the heat of the day would make it unbearable to even think about baking, and made a fresh batch of these delicious lemon scones! We usually add dried cranberries to the recipe but since we had strawberries I decided to omit the cranberries and serve them with fresh strawberries and honey!

Lemon scones recipe:

2 cups of flour (we use Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour)

1/4 cup of sugar

4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 egg

6 tablespoons melted butter

2/3 cup milk (we use coconut or almond milk)

juice and zest of half a lemon

Combine dry ingredients together. Make a well in center. In a separate bowl, beat egg, add butter and milk. Pour into well. Add juice and lemon zest. Stir until just moistened. Knead on flour surface. Divide into 2 equal portions. Pat each into 6 inch circle. Arrange on greased baking sheet (or on silicon sheets like we do). Brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Score into 6 wedges. Bake in 425C oven about 15 minutes. Serve with fresh berries and honey.

So there you go, I hope you are finding time to appreciate the little pleasures of summertime as much as we have been doing for the past week and maybe even squeeze in a few minutes of strawberry picking to your week! If you end up trying any of these recipes I would love to know if you liked them!

Bon appétit!