When the summer comes, you can see bunch of stands next to the roads selling fresh strawberries — at least in the town I am living in. Some are so delicious that I sometimes wonder if I owned that land to make a living selling strawberries, would I be able to stop myself from eating them all?

Last week, I asked a friend to come with me to locate a farmer’s market that another friend has mentioned. We drove to that direction, but nothing ;( As we were driving, there were signes to the “Fresh Strawberries” which draw our attention and 2 mins later, we were already buying two baskets. As we were about to leave I saw this huge carton box filled with berries, marked as “seconds.” And sure enough I got them to make strawberry jam & syrup…

There were 7lbs total; 1 went into immediate consumption, 4 for jam and the last 2lbs made this nice syrup.

Here is all I needed:

1. 2 lbs ( about 1kg) strawberries, cleaned, hulled and washed
2. 2 lbs sugar
3. 1/2 lemon juice

And here is what I did with them:

1. Left the strawberries with 1/2 lb of sugar for an half hour or so. This helped to get the mix juicy
2. Cooked them in a very low heat for about 30 - 40 mins, until they are all soft, mushy
3. Put the strawberries through a sieve, into the pot again ( you have to use another, intermediate pot for this operation), and used a spoon to push through as much as I did. The left overs went to the compost bin
4. Added the remaining sugar to the juice, and stirred well
5. Cooked them until it is boling and added the lemon juice. Boiled for another 10 mins or so, and divided into sterilized jars.

So far we have been drinking them by mixing with sparkling water; only about pouring 1cm into a glass seems to be enough for us. It would be nice topping for icecreams as well.

Tonight I was late to get out of work, and a friend of mine suggested this great recipe that can be put together in no time! Especially good if you have bunch of different vegetables left over from other recipes. Oh, this also gave me chance to use the cheese I made the other day! That was good.

I made two of these with eggs. While eating, it was hard to understand which one has egg in it. So, I guess it means I didn’t over do the egg amount. Stuffing the eggs was my idea as I had prepated more filling than the tomatoes can handle. They were quite good, too.

Ingredients:

1. 4 big tomatoes
2. 4 - 5 mushrooms
3. 1 little onion
4. 1 zucchini
5. 3 cloves of garlic
6. Feta cheese (or your own cheese), about 2 matchbox size
7. 1 Tbs chopped parsely
8. 1 tbs oregano
9. 2 Tbs olive oil
10. salt, pepper
11. Optional: 2 eggs

Steps to make it:

1. In order to empty out the tomatoes, cut their top part (save this) and run the knife around the inside edges to help scoop out the inside. Keep the tomatoes’ juice and the parts you scooped out in a bowl
2. Peel and chop the onion, garlic, zucchini and mushrooms. Put them into another bowl
3. Crumble the feta cheese either by hand or with knife, add to the veggie mix
4. Either grate or dice few of the tomatoes’ insides, add to the veggie mix
5. Olive oil, herbs go in there, too
6. If you are going to add eggs, do not break them by just hitting them in a random place. Use a knife to gently tap somewhere close to top and go around it to make sure you can take that “cap” out. Add the eggs to the mix, save the shells
7. Mix thoroughly. And fill the tomatoes, egg shells with this filling. My filling was more then enough, rest will become an omlette soon
8. Put the tomatoes into a heat proof glass pan, and if you have egg holders that will not melt with the heat, now is a good time to use these to make sure your stuffed eggs do not fall. Otherwise heat proof little bowls should work, too
9. Cover with aliminuim wrap, and bake for 35 - 40 mins in 350F oven. Move the wrap and bake for another 10 mins.

Bon Apetit!