We are Jammin'

After a morning of eating picking strawberries, we went back home with Oma and Peepaw to start making our favorite (and requested) fresh strawberry jam. Oma had all of the ingredients ready and waiting for us.

We started by washing the strawberries and then Oma and I cut off the tops of the strawberries while Tucker had the job of smashing the strawberries with the potatoe masher. I must say that Tucker's job looked like a lot of fun to me! I don't really know how many strawberries were smashed in the process of jam making, but Tucker grew kind of tired of smashing after a while. There is only so much fun that can be had right?

Moving on to the next phase, we then added A LOT of sugar to the smashed stuff. We were able to rest for 10 minutes while the sugar and strawberries did their thing, then we added the Certo gel and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Tucker then had to stir the mixture for 3 more minutes. Then it was time to put the jam in the jars. This was my job since it can get kind of messy, but Tucker continued to watch and make sure that he knew which jars "his jam" was put in. We continued this process the rest of the afternoon unitl we had about 25 jars ready and finished. Now, I just have to figure out how to get this stuff back to Texas to share with some of you. Heide keeps laughing as we buy more and talk about bringing all kinds of things with us. There really is a limit to what the Cherolla can hold you know. :0)

Poutine - Yumm-o

With all of the hard work strawberry picking, we had to stop by John and Tucker's favorite place to eat. It is called Bernard's Canteen (you say it with a French accent, right?) It is basically a burger and fry kind of place but they have some local favorite foods. I usually get a burger, but their fries are why we go there. They are freshly cut and of course fried. But, the goodness according to John and Tucker doesn't stop there. You have to trick up the fries to make them into a yummy, messy goodness called POUTINE.It is basically brown gravy and cheese curds on hot French fries. The brown gravy is similar to a roast beef gravy and the cheese tastes a lot like the pull cheese that you buy in the store. I think that it is an acquired taste. I sort of think of it as the French version of our Chili-Cheese fries. Tucker likes it because John likes it. I can usually eat poutine one time while we visited John's parents but I think that my guys could eat this for lunch everyday if it wouldn't clog their arteries (and if it was available in Texas). So, there is a little bit of Montreal cultural food info for you. Enjoy!

Strawberry Fields Forever

It has been raining a lot in Montreal, but we did get a break in the rain enough to go pick fresh strawberries! Tucker and I were very excited about that. We love to come to Montreal during strawberry season because there is nothing like picking and eating fresh strawberries. The only bad thing is that I can hardly eat a strawberry at home because they do not taste as yummy as they are here!

Tucker's motto was to pick one eat two. I think that he followed that very well. The poor farmer would have probably kicked us off the farm if he had seen how many strawberries Tucker ate. John and I eventually had to fill the rest of Tucker's basket while he filled his belly! Each of us had a basket to fill so we had 5 huge baskets of strawberries when we were finished. Heide and I started trying to figure out the different things that we could make with all of the strawberries. We knew that we would make several batches of jam (per Peaches request)! So mom, you do have several jars have jam coming your way. :0)

While we were picking, we also had a contest to see who could find the biggest strawberry. Tucker somehow won with a berry almost as big as his hand. Life is berry, berry good here in Montreal right now.

Peaches, you will be happy to know that we have made lots and lots of fresh strawberry jam, so you should have enough to last you a long time as long as we can get it all in the car.