What did we do with all those strawberries?

Why, we made jam, cake topping, a smoothie ingredient and attempted drying them!

First of all, we made strawberry jam.  I've made this the past few years with strawberries and blueberries and it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.  But this year, B made the jam!  OK, not completely, but I did not do it all myself, so I am happy to give him props.  I love freezer jam because it is fast - it involves no cooking!  I hulled the strawberries and then B crushed them with a potato masher, added a Ball's freezer jam packet of pectin and some sugar and then stirred for 3 minutes.  That's it!  Then B ladled the jam into the Ball jars that my Nana and Papa used to can their own garden's bounty, I put the lids on them and off they went to the freezer.  They last 12 months in the freezer and 3 weeks once you move them to the fridge.

A year and a half old video I took of B finding out that he was going to DisneyWorld for the 1st time aired on America's Funniest Videos last night.  We had a "viewing party" - invited my parents and my brother over to eat dinner and watch B cross something off his Bucket List at 9 years of age.  My mom made a pound cake for dessert.  I hulled some more of the strawberries we'd picked and just mashed them up with my potato masher.  We served it over the pound cake, vanilla ice cream and pound cake topped with vanilla ice cream.  Did I mention my mom brought a can of whipped topping, too?

Now I have to confess to you my failure - drying strawberries.  I followed these directions I found on Pinterest and most certainly did not achieve the beautiful picture posted by the author.  Instead, I got this:

Now, be honest - what does that look like?  Because it looks like a dried up va-jay-jay to me.  Seriously, you have got to go to the Pinterest post and compare those dried strawberries with mine.  What's wrong with this picture?!  Both B and the hubs were brave enough to try my dried strawberries (I confess I do not like strawberries) and both found my dried up fruit to be sour and inedible.

While the AFV viewing party was winding down, I hulled the rest the the strawberries we'd picked, put them on a plastic-wrap-lined cookie sheet and put them in the freezer.  This morning, I pulled the cookie sheet of frozen strawberries out and dumped them in a freezer bag.  As you can see, below, the bag fogged up quickly from the frozen strawberries.

B wanted the hubs to make him a strawberry smoothie when he got home from work this afternoon, but the hubs had other plans.  Since B and I were busy with weather experiments during Science class this afternoon, the hubs came home and announced he was making dinner.  I love it when that happens!  Spaghetti with sausage, homemade sauce and Ree Drummond's "The Bread".  Instead of smoothies, the hubs made strawberry milkshakes for dessert with some of the above frozen strawberries, vanilla ice cream left over from last night's AFV viewing party and a little milk.  

I am A-OK with 3 out of 4 strawberry results working out!