Friday, March 11, 2011

Que Fresa! Strawberries, Slang, and $h!+

MMmmmmmm strawberries... I love them. I love them fresh, I love them in crepes and on pancakes. They taste great sliced over breakfast cereal. I even like them with whipped cream, dipped in chocolate, or in cobblers and pie (although with strawberries I prefer a more natural preparation). I've always associated strawberries with love and passion. Sharing a bowl of these juicy fruits with a lover certainly is delightful. If you break a double strawberry in half and share it with the one you desire, legend has it, you'll fall hopelessly in love. Strawberries are shaped like hearts and red in color...the symbol of Venus the goddess of love.

That is why I was particularly disturbed this morning. I was sipping on my coffee and watching "Go Diego Go" with my three year old. I should have known after watching the previous episode, where Dora came to his rescue by producing a bottle of polar bear milk from her backpack (still trying to figure out how to work that one into a blog entry), that just about anything goes in the world of Diego and Dora... The episode in question was titled "Green Iguana Helps Abuelito Plant a New Strawberry Farm!" Sounds lovely right? Little did I know that Diego was going to be using Green Iguana as a "mule" to transport the strawberry seeds across the rain forest in his... drum roll please... DIGESTIVE TRACT.

Sure I know all about manure, fertilizers, and the roll that animals play in planting seeds. I have a garden after all. In fact I read somewhere that birds (and their poop) are almost solely responsible for the spread of wild strawberry seeds. But after watching Green Iguana complain for the last leg of the journey about how bad he needed to go, and then watching him poop out row after row of strawberry seeds for grandpa, I just couldn't see myself sitting down with Diego and Alicia and digging into a delicious strawberry parfait. In Mexico they use the word for strawberry (fresa) to describe someone who is stuck up or has high bred ways or tastes. Does my disgust at iguana poop mingling with my favorite fruit make me fresa? No! I am far from fresa! I didn't say I wasn't going to eat them anymore...but I might have found a way to get my 6 year old to slow down a little and save some for me. Perhaps I should show her this episode tonight and see how she reacts.

Our iguana-poop-free strawberry patch... I can't wait to taste some of our own homegrown fruit.
Strawberry Crepes


I found my recipe for batter here...


Cook them in a well oiled skillet.

Kids don't try this at home... My husband is a good cook... but I assure you this was his only contribution to this meal. I am hopeless at flipping things without a spatula.


Dig in!

Cheers,
Jenn







4 comments:

  1. HA!!! I learned so much I didn't know (and didn't want to know? lol) about strawberries from this post! How funny about the Diego episode...I always wonder if the writers just get bored and throw in plot lines like that partially for their own amusement...

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  2. We are on the same wavelength. Bought a ton of strawberries and my daughter made crepes. Mmmm. Didn't even need butter or sugar! When I was a kid my mom had a strawberry patch. They aren't the easiest things to grow up north. One year they promised to be a wonderful crop... until the goat got loose and ate them all within minutes!

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  3. Well, well who would have thought it! The only strawberries available here are from Spain forced in green houses so I guess we're alright for the moment. Loved the crepe recipe...I've taken note of it for when we do have some non iguana poop free strawberries :)

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  4. That was a little too educational. The strawberries in my fridge don't seem quite as appealing. Maybe I need to turn them into crepes!

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