Flowered Strawberries w/ Rosey Cream Cheese Filling

Look at these baby beauts!

My dad had a birthday recently and the tradition always is we all pack up our families and head to the beach. We stop along the way for a huge bucket of KFC, and tote along a couple sides. My dad loves certain fruit, so we pass around watermelon, Michigan Cherries, and strawberries!

It's a favorite highlight of the summer for me-and it's not even my birthday! Also because it's so hot in July, the fruit is a good substitute for a cake and doesn't melt.:)

I wanted to create something tasty AND pretty (that's just me) so these little flower buds were born. I just wanted to spruce up your average strawberry without too much maintenance. These held up well in the sweltering weather-well, maybe because they were gone so fast!

I'm sure they would also be fun for a shower or a ladies luncheon..Fun finger food!

you'll need:

a carton of fresh strawberries
1/2 brick of cream cheese
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 drops of red food coloring
slivered chocolate for garnish (you could use cocoa powder too)

With each strawberry, cut off green end so fruit can lay flat, pointy side up. Cut a cross through top, taking care not to reach the bottom completely. Fan out corners gently. Repeat with rest of strawberries.

In small mixing bowl, whip cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Add red coloring and give another blend till filling is a pretty pink color. Put in a zip lock bag and cut off corner. Pipe into strawberries and garnish with chocolate shavings.
Enjoy.

Fresh California Strawberry Basil Lemonade

So my father-in-law and mom-in-law reside in beautiful southern California and invite us to visit often. They, like us, love to garden and eat good things from the earth. Mom has plants and herbs growing on her back deck, but the mother load of amazing organic eats are at the massive garden where they work.

Tomatoes the size of your heart, strawberries the size of your fist, basil, cabbage, sweet crunchy carrots-awesome GOD made stuff!
So dad brought home a hefty sum of strawberries, a tree size of basil, and said, "Do something with this." Why YES SIR!!

Being beautiful and sunny and hot out here, I thought I would make a cool, refreshing beverage. As I write this, Dad and Nathan are laboring hard outside working on dad's wine cellar (it's being created beneath the house), so they'll probably need something cold to drink soon.

Here it is, try it and LOVE it!

You'll need:

1 cup fresh chopped strawberries
1 packet Crystal light Lemonade
3/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 quart pitcher

In pitcher, throw in lemonade mix, and fill with cold water. Add in strawberries and basil. Stir. In a blender, puree 3 large strawberries, a small pack of basil leaves, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and the juice from one lime. Pour mixture, after blended, into lemonade. Stir until all is a pretty pinkish, yellow color.
Serve over ice and enjoy!