Ways to Eat Strawberries

1. Strawberry Pancakes



I chopped up fresh strawberries and added them to the pancake batter before cooking and then topped them with sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream! Deliciousness.

2. Wilted Lettuce Salad with Sliced Strawberries



I topped fresh greens picked from the garden with sliced radishes, sliced onions, crumbled bacon and sliced strawberries before wilting the lettuce. This is a summer must.

3. With Dry Cereal



I love eating Cheerios dry - I actually like it better than with milk. So it seems only fitting to add fresh picked strawberries from the garden along side it!

4. Fresh Picked from the Garden





Just rinse and eat. Tough to beat.

5. In a spring salad



6. And, one of my favorites, Strawberry Shortcake with homemade whipped cream!

Good on pound cake:


Even good on lady fingers:


But they're great on homemade angel food cake!


And now I think I'll go grad some strawberries I stored away in the freezer

Grandpa Pops 1.8.24-6.8.2010

For those of you that haven't heard, Eric's grandpa passed away this Tuesday, June 8. He was a great man to everyone he met and a hero even to those that never met him. The photo was taken 4 years ago at our wedding. We miss you grandpa.

The following is the obituary written by Freeman Harris Funeral Home.

William Dennis Zellers
(January 8, 1924 - June 8, 2010)   

William Dennis Zellers, 86, of Tulsa passed away, Tuesday, June 8, 2010. He was born, January 8, 1924 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He was raised by a loving, aunt Bertha and uncle Simon Meyer after the death of his mother. He served in the US Army Air Corps during WWII as a Tech Sergeant with the 307th Bombardment Group. Mr. Zellers retired from American Airlines as a Quality Control Inspector with 38 years of service. He is survived by his family, those he loved and those who loved him, his wife of 64 years, Mildred (Burchette) Zellers of the home, son, William E. and wife, Holly Zellers of Coweta,OK; two grandchildren, Rachael Van Winkle, Eric and his wife Lesley Zellers of Tulsa, three great grandchildren, Will, Chloe and Jonathan; brother, Russell Yoder and his cousins, Junior and Deloras Meyer, who were like siblings. He was looking forward to the birth of his newest great granddaughter, Paisley Ann. His family was his delight. Graveside services will be 11AM Friday, June 11, 2010 in Memorial Park Cemetery.

Yay for Wedges!!

They're coming soon!! (in case you hadn't heard)

Those of you that know me know I'm a huge fan of Toms shoes. They are cute and most importantly comfy. I can't wait to see the wedge they roll out. Check out there website for current designs or to sign up to be the first to know when they release the wedge!

Tula Pink : Plume

I just wanted to say how excited I am about this fabric! I found this at Sew Flakes in Broken Arrow and just love it. My grandma is making a quilt for my soon-to-arrive baby girl out of the Plume line. It will be a bright, girly quilt and I can't wait to see it finished.



Check out the Tula Pink blog and twitter!

I'm so lucky to have awesome quilters and seamstresses in my family - they are making pretty much everything fabric related that will be in the nursery including: curtains, a crib blanket, slips covers for my glider and pillows - all by my mom and several handmade quilts from my aunt! I can't wait!! It's going to be an awesome room!

And!!

My Prairie Letters poster came in the mail today!! Check out The Wheatfield on etsy or Katie Daisy on flickr for more posters. Thanks for the find, Ashley!

Fat Guy's Burger

If you haven't been to Fat Guy's Burger near ONEOK Field, I definitely recommend it! And here's why:





Need I say more?

If so, here's a little more. The burgers are great. It's like an old fashioned burger but what makes this place great is all the FREE toppings.

Here's the list of things you can put on your "Fat Burger" at no extra cost: ketchup, mustard, mayo, A-1 sauce, bbq, chili sauce, sriracha, relish, jalapeno relish, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, fresh jalapenos, onions, lettuce, green chilies and grilled pineapple.

The fries are also awesome and have a little seasoning but you can also choose a dipping sauce to go with them, other than the standard ketchup or ranch! Those include: Honey Mustard, Siracha Ranch, Parmesean Peppercorn, Mexican Ketchup, Siracha Ketchup, Blueberry Ketchup, Wasabi Ketchup, Chipotle Aioli, Caramelized Onion Aioli, Roasted Garlic Aioli, Wasabi Aioli, Malt Vinegar Aioli, Jalapeno Aioli and Siracha Aioli. We tried the Siracha Ranch, Wasabi Aioli (I do not recommend) and Malt Vinegar Aioli (a surprising taste bud pleaser :))

If that's not enough, maybe you'll believe these people, they seemed to like it too!

Tasha Does Tulsa, Tulsa Food Blog, or the Tulsa World.

My Dog (and husband) in TulsaPeople!

In case you missed it...check out who's on the homepage of TulsaPeople.com...under "Online Exclusives"

And, they appeared on page 8 of the magazine!!

I think I may need to pick up a copy and have them autograph it!!

Midtown Gardening

The garden is in full swing and already producing more than my husband and I can eat!! Here are a few pics of the progress:

The homemade container systems:

These have onions and spinach in one, radishes with butterhead lettuce mix in another and the third has radishes with kale and arugula.


One month later they look like this:



Two months after planting we had to thin the buckets and we had a baby green salad of fresh kale, arugula, spinach and leaf lettuce.


And some of the radishes are ready to add to the salad!


With all that healthiness, this pregnant lady needed a sweet treat!


We made strawberry pancakes from scratch, with sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream on top! And, I had a delicious Topeca latte to go with it...is your mouth watering yet!?

Tulsa's BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie

Well, the great Tulsa cookie debate started as a fun way to celebrate my husband's birthday week. He doesn't like cakes and didn't want any presents for his birthday, he just wanted to go fishing. So, I tried to think of something fun to do for him each day during the week of his birthday to celebrate.

I decided to bring him chocolate chip cookies (his absolute favorite dessert) from all around the Tulsa area each day of the week. I then polled my friends on the best cookie in town via twitter with the simple question, "Where can I find the BEST choc. chip cookie in Tulsa?" Due to the great and varied response, I had more places to get cookies from than a week could handle! So, I decided I'd get cookies from 2 places a day and my husband would have to judge each cookie on 3 things: taste, texture and appearance. Thus, ending up with what HE thinks is Tulsa's BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie! His coworkers also got involved in the tasting and voting!!

Day 1: Old School Bagel and Blue Moon Bakery

Old School Bagel got the most recommendations via twitter. They had 3 different chocolate chip cookie options the day I went in: Hershey Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chunk and Oatmeal Walnut Dark Chocolate. Of these 3, the basic Hershey cookie got the least favorable reviews.


Old School Bagel - Hershey Chocolate Chunk:



Old School Bagel - Oatmeal Pecan:


Old School Bagel - Oatmeal Walnut:

Blue Moon Bakery - Chocolate Chip


The results of Day 1 = Blue Moon Bakery wins all 3 categories: taste, texture and appearance.

Day 2: Ann's Bakery and Merritt's Bakery

These are close to work and I love both baker's cakes so I had to get their cookies.


Ann's Bakery - Chocolate Chip:


Merritt's Bakery - Chocolate Chip:


Day 2 Results: Merritt's Bakery Wins all 3 categories. Merritt's is also winner over Blue Moon Bakery.

Day 3: Caramel and Felini's

Caramel also rated high among twitter recommendations. Their cookie was great, just a little too overcooked to some of the judges' liking.

Caramel - Chocolate Chip:


Felini's - Chocolate Chip:


Day 3 Results: Caramel's cookie wins all 3 categories for the day but Merritt's is still overall winner of the week. (Caramel did have an oatmeal coconut cookie that was phenomenal but, it didn't have chocolate chips, had it, there might have been a different result)


Day 4: Doubletree Hotel


I knew Doubletree ranked high on my husband's list so I had to get him an entire tin. They even gave me my own cookie so he wouldn't have to share!

Doubletree Hotel - Chocolate Oatmeal Pecan


Day 4 Results: Doubletree is outright winner for the entire week and is therefore awarded the title of Tulsa's BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie!! However, the winner of classic chocolate chip cookie (no extras) goes to Merritt's Bakery.

When all is said and done, my husband had a fun birthday week and got to try A LOT of chocolate chip cookies. But, he did tell me that none of the cookies even compared to the homemade cookies my sister makes. You would think he had enough cookies by now...oh no! Not when Ashley makes them. My sister brought him an entire plate of chocolate chip cookies for his birthday to Easter dinner and he finished them all off after only 2 days!!!

Tulsa's Real Cookie Winner: Ashley's Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies


Lesson learned: instead of spending time, gas and money driving all over Tulsa to bakeries for cookies, just pay my sister to make some next year. It will undoubtedly save time and money and end up with a much more satisfied birthday boy!!

Hope you've enjoyed the post as much as we enjoyed tasting all the cookies! Leave me a comment on what your favorite Tulsa cookie is...the contest continues!

UPDATE: I forgot to rank these in order of best to worst so here goes: Ashley Ann's Homemade cookies, Doubletree, Caramel's oatmeal coconut, Merritt's Bakery, Caramel's chocolate chip, Blue Moon Bakery,  Old School's Oatmeal Pecan, Ann's, Old School's oatmeal walnut, Felini's and finally, Old School's chocolate chunck.

Pregnancy Cravings

Frozen custard. Specifically, vanilla concrete with hot fudge and bananas.



Or any frozen treat with hot fudge!






Pancakes!

MMM.

We're having a BABY!!!

Yep! It's true. Baby Z will arrive around July 27th!!!