Strawberry picking and easy homemade sherbet

N, me and little v visited Russell Orchards last Saturday. Boston has tons of these 'pick-your-own-fruits' farms which let you pick fruits fresh off the trees. We wanted to take v for a small outing while summer is around, so this turned out to be the perfect occasion.

Russell Orchards is a cute little rustic farm located in Ipswich, at about 45 mins drive from where we live making it a perfect destination for 'baby's day out'. Depending on the time of the year you visit, you could pick strawberries, arugula, greens, herbs, kale, lettuce, radishes, scallions, sungold tomatoes, swiss chard. Its strawberry season right now & believe me, there is nothing better than picking these berries fresh off the plants. Some pics from the farm:

Much to little v's delight who is crazy about his animal friends, there are a few farm animals too:

The farm also offers a variety of preserves, all made from its fresh produce.

This time of the year though, its all about strawberries! We love strawberries but find the ones from the market almost always disappointing, mainly because they go bad before we can finish off the box. Both N and I hate to throw away food so this usually means that we will buy very limited quantities of fresh strawberries. This time though, we just could not resist. With the strawberries fresh off their plants, we decided to pick as much as time & little v would allow us.

Did you know strawberries grow on the ground & not on trees?

Cannot even begin to tell how much N & I enjoyed the strawberry picking. There were a lot of people on the farm that day so between that competition & the fact that the brightest, juiciest strawberries tend to hide underneath a cluster of leaves, it ended up being a treasure hunt of sorts. By the end of the picking session (which lasted less than an hour), we had about 6 pounds of strawberries!!! Isnt that neat?

We returned with 3 boxes like this! We ate one over the next couple of days (they were so good, they went fast!), gave one away to our friends who live down the street & with the third, I decided to make some homemade strawberry sherbet.

For those who might not have heard, sherbet happens to be an American term for fruity flavored frozen dairy product. with low milk/yogurt content (between 1% and 2%). This was the first time I prepared a sherbet at home & it was a big hit; N loved it!

Strawberry sherbet
Adapted from cookincanuck's recipe from here. 

Ingredients:
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar (or more/less depending on sweetness of fruit)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 (small, individual serving) container packaged strawberry flavored yogurt 

Preparation:
1. In a medium bowl, stir together strawberries and sugar. Let the strawberries rest for 15 minutes to release the juices.
2. Place strawberries along with the juices & lemon juice in a blender. Puree until the mixture is smooth.
3. Sieve the puree using a fine mesh; discard the solids left in the sieve.
4. Add yogurt to the sieved puree. Blend a little & transfer to a stainless steel container. Cover with a plastic wrap & chill in refrigerator until syrup has chilled – about 1 hour.
5. Transfer back to the freeze for 3-4 hours. Remove sherbet from freezer and puree once more in a food processor or blender. Return strawberry puree mixture to metal container, cover and freeze for a further 3-4 hours. Serve.

Makes 4 small  servings

This is a super easy recipe & yields delicious results- the sherbet is light, delicately sweet & the lime juice adds a nice touch to the tartness of the strawberries. Perfect for hot, summer days; I will definitely be making some more soon.

Picture post: An eve at Boston Common

Some pics from our trip at the end of September to Boston Common, an awesome park in the middle of Boston city. It was heartening to see this HUGE patch of green (the park is almost 50 acres in size!!!).

The park plaque: would you believe how old this park is?

A super place to relax and get in touch with nature

One of the many views from the park

It was end of September and the fall colours were just starting to show..Gorgeous!

The sunset made it all only more beautiful

Little V enjoyed it so much!!!

More later,
V

Resuming Trip recap: Day 3- Bye CPH!

As a welcome change, we woke up early this day...why you ask??..well, we had booked the breakfast at the hotel on the last day and it was open only until 10...by now you should know that only food (that too made by someone else) will make me wake up at a reasonably early time while on vacation (or not-on vacation).

So we had this lovely Danish breakfast..complete with the 'Danish' pastries (of course, what else?)..and enjoying the harbour view as we ate..fabulous! Once done, we packed and checked out of the hotel and took the metro to the CPH airport.

A few things we learnt about 'commuting in CPH without paying through the nose':
-the best way to get around CPH is using the public transit i.e. metros and buses...the transit system is awesome and connects almost all tourist attractions and more
-tickets for the transit system are available right at the airport...the costs vary with the number of zones you might want to visit...since we were going to be in CPH for three days, N and I each bought a 10-ticket card that cost us about 130 Danish kroners (about Cdn$30....expensive, I know!!!) but it lasted us throughout the trip...we even had a couple tickets left at the end but didnt find anyone to pass them on to!
-each of the bus drivers we met was very helpful so getting around the city was quite easy (in spite of not knowing Danish at all...of course, we ended everything with 'Tak' meaning Thanks in danish)
-another good way to go around the city is rent a bike...we would have loved to explore this option but came to know about it after we had already bought the 10 ticket cards....next time though, I will keep this in mind...not only is it super-cheap (2o DKK) but also a lovely way to see the city from up close...mind you, the weather in CPH is very finicky and I would take up the bike only if Mr. Sunshine comes along

With that, we said bye to CPH, our first European country visited, and started for Rome...I cant begin to tell how excited I was at the prospect of visiting this city...I am a kind-of-history-and-arts-enthusiast and what better place to know about history than Rome???

More about my first impressions of Rome in the next post!

Bye bye CPH..tak!!
V

Trip recap Day 2: Copenhagen

So after a lovely first day in the city of fairy tales, I was all set to make it most of the next day...and how did we do in reality???..we made the least out of it!!!...at least that was what I was thinking at 4 in the evening when we were still stuck in our hotel!!!!!

The day started off quite like the previous one, I woke up around 10 (jet lag, you see..and not laziness..ahem) and since N had his presentation that day from 12 to 1.30, I only wandered around our hotel and the mall nearby till he came back...I also made a nice long list of places I wanted to see (including some museums which closed at 5....but I had plenty of time until then...or so I thought).

Harbour at the back our hotel...this is the view from our window

After N got back at 2, we headed to a place close by for lunch and almost as soon as we got there, it started raining cats and dogs...just my luck!!!....having lived in Vancouver for 3 years now, I have grown used to rain anytime of the year...but rains on vacation is just not done!!!!...I even tried the 'rain, rain go away...come back some other day' thing but I think that works only for innocent kids and not for grown-ups like me with selfish, vacationy-ulterior-motives...sigh!!...amidst all this, N seemed actually happy...he is just not a 'museum person' you see....wonder if he secretly prayed for the rain to keep pouring!!!


Anywho, when the rain finally did stop at 4, we no longer had the museums option (by this time, both N and the sun were beaming...and I was fuming)...so we decided to do the next best thing...we took a train/bus ride to Nyhavn...literally meaning 'new harbour' in Danish, it is actually a 17th century waterfront in the heart of the city and is a lovely area to dine and move around.
We liked the place instantly...it has lovely residential, colourful buildings that lining it on both sides.....people dining outdoors in restaurants...and little boats moored along the harbour...pretty!!...we decided to take a boat ride here..it lasted for an hour and took us on a ride along the harbour to show us a lot of interesting places including H.C.Anderson's House, the New Opera Place, Christiania, Little Mermaid statue, the Danish Royal Palace (one of the places on my list...sigh), the old National Bank and Stock Exchange Buildings and a few other notable places...the tour was lovely as the boat guide also gave bits of history on each place as we passed by it!

I wish I had more pics to share....but as can be expected from N and me, our camera buttery died 10 mins into the ride (sigh...sigh...sigh!!)...we did capture everything on the video cam but these are the only pics I had to put on the blog...By the time we finished the ride, it was almost 8 and we were ready to head back...we picked some food on our way and were back at the hotel by 10.


The second day of the trip went well...we could have done so much more....with N busy with the conference, I must confess that I wasn't hoping to see much of CPH in the first place...given that, I seem to have seen quite enough...next time though, I will make sure we have enough time for the palaces and museums...and also that I pray harder than N to keep the rains at bay :)


(Almost) content,
V

Trip recap Day 1: Copenhagen

So where do I start??...guess its best to start at the start...so I start with Copenhagen...our first destination...this is where N has his conference (the basic pretext under which this trip idea began...and slowly ballooned into a 2 week mini-Europe one...bet N will be more careful with his next conference..haha)...N left a couple days before I did and then I joined him on Sunday night...the flights were uneventful, got my baggage without any issues and finally met N at the CPH airport before we went to the hotel, ate a little and slept like a log.

The next day, we started with our sightseeing around 1 after lunch (N did the muh dikhaai at the conference in the morning while I slept...yes, like a log)...there was a mall right next to the hotel and we ate a buffet meal here....that too an Indian/Mexican one (funny combination, i say)...at first, I was a bit turned off...why would i want to eat Indian in CPH????But N, the wiser-by-two-days-in CPH, reassures me that this is the best thing to do....firstly, things in CPH are way too costly...he tells me that he had a measly salad the day before and it cost him $20!!!!!!!!!!!..poor thing even mixed the salad himself (the shopkeeper just put his salad on a plate)!!..Secondly, Danish food doesn't best suit Indian palate like ours...they have a lot of meat (which neither N nor I eat) and it isn't spiced enough..all in all, I decided to trust N on this one..after all, he had 'tried and tasted' it!...the buffet meal itself was nothing great...there was a funny guy greeting everyone at the entrance saying 'dhanyawaad' (thanks in Hindi) to everyone who entered the place..at first we were impressed...but soon he started asking everyone eating their meals if 'sab dhanywaad hai'?(is everything thanks)...from then on, N bugged me with this phrase till the end of the trip....is the food thanks, is the sight thanks, is the hotel thanks...thanks but no thanks, I say!!


Anywho, so after the meal we began with the sightseeing...our hotel was a 10 mins walk from the Tivoli Gardens...this is supposed to be the world's first Amusement park (info source: travel guide N...hmmm...I know he is wiser-in-CPH-by-two-days but not sure if I can trust him on this one!)......but it sure is very popular with the Danish...when you enter the place, you think that the whole of CPH is here...it was super-crowded, especially for a weekday....and the crowds kept coming well into the night...I am scared of rides (yes, I admit it) so I didnt take any...and N refused to go without me (very sweet, I say)...so we walked through the gardens, listened to a live orchestra, heard other people screaming on the rides and spent a good couple hours there.


Once outside the gardens, we headed towards the 'Stroget'...a very long pedestrian street right in the heart of the city lined with shops on both sides...this turned out to be a lovely walk.... there were not just shops, but much more on the way....live street performers..musicians...vendors selling their fares...people sitting outside of cafes enjoying food...gave us a true feel of the city..we walked on for a good 1 hour before heading back....the walk back took more than an hour back and we were ready to hit the bed after dinner.

(Pic from the web: forgot to take one of the Stroget ourselves)

So the first day of the trip went lovely...what are my first impressions of the city and its people?....the city seems 'just okay' at first..but grows slowly on you...I liked it better at the end of the day than I did at the beginning..and from what little I saw the first day, there seemed to be some historical monuments in there too..hoped to see more of them the next day....as for the people, they have the blondest of hair, the bluest of the eyes and loveliest of the skin...really exquisite, I say!!!!!...No wonder Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairytales here!!!


From the land of fairies,
V

Blogger's back!

Well, well, well...we are back from the trip...how was it, you say?? It was AMAZING!!...of course, it was....and it was interesting in more than a few ways!! I was so hoping to write a day-by-day account as we went along but the tight travel schedules together with the unbelievable heat left us so tired at the end of each day, we barely managed to crawl into our beds and sleep (leave alone blogging!)

Anywho, plan to write some posts in the next few days...in the meantime, how have all the dost mandali been doing all this time??

For the Vancouver junta, happy long weekend!..and if you thought what you are going through here is a heat wave, let me tell you, its nothing close to Europe!!!!..one thing I have learnt during this trip is how much we take Vancouver for granted!

A little wiser than two weeks back ,
V

P.S. yes, its 6:22 am here...the jet lag made me wake up at 5:30 today...got a chance to catch the sunrise in Vancouver...it was utterly-butterly-loverrrlyy!!!..wish I could do this more often..catch the sunrise that is...but anyone who knows me knows that this can happen only if I am jet lagged...hmm...N might not like the huge airlines bills as a price to watch the sunset!!jaane do :D

Hasta la vista

Nope..I am not going to Spain..but who cares...I am off to the continent of romance (that's how I like to think of Europe...am hoping that the reality lives up to my thinks and thoughts)!

By the way, N reached Copenhagen safely and now its my turn to get there...have had some visits from 'Auntie Anxiety' telling me about flights not making it, missing the connection flight (don't have a direct flight, you see) and finally not having N at the airport to take me to the hotel (am reaching a little late in the night, so he comes to pick me up!)...fortunately, these Auntie A's visits didn't last too long...she tried to stay but 'Uncle Europe Excitement' pushed her out of the room :D

I leave tonight and hope to post some memories as we go along...see you later my friends, or as the Spanish would say 'Hasta la vista'

Super-duper excited,
V

Trip Update: 9 days to go

Just wanted to give a quick update on the trip....the countdown has begun...9 days to go (its 7 for N, but this is my blog so its my countdown)....the flights and hotels are booked..we did this about three weeks back and since we have done nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No trip planning

No laundry

No packing

No money arrangements

Nothing!!!

N, the planning freak is doing only half of that...freaking out...not planning...and I am too lazy and dis-organised to anything anyways...but the trip fever is slowly setting in..might just wake up the traveller-cum-packer inside me...who knows? :D

Excited,

V