Fried Green Tomatoes, Tougas Farm, and Hopkinton State Park

On the plate:  Fried green tomatoes ....oh, my, heavens....these were incredible!!

Soundtrack to cook to:  Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.  I LOVE his soulful voice and what an amazing album!

Adventure day!  (Or at least that's what I call it when I have to take the boys out and about.)  I'll say, "Adventure awaits!!  We're going to go on a surprise adventure!"  I choose to say "adventure" to make it interesting and to keep it vague.  Our "adventure" could be anything from going to the park, the aquarium, a museum, or just the grocery store.  It's whatever I think of, off the top of my head based on the weather for that day.
I had done some research and really wanted to go to a pick-your-own fruit farm.  I found a farm that we hadn't been to before and decided to set off with the boys on my own.  The boys and I ventured to Tougas Farm in Northboro, MA.  It was truly an adventure.  :)

Alexander and William, chilling in William's stroller as we waited
to hop on the tractor that took us to the fields.

Rainier cherries!  These are my absolute favorite and I LOVE eating them.
So, I was so excited that they had fields of trees full of these beauties.
Here's Alexander, picking some of these delectable cherries. 

Alexander, hard at work filling up our bucket, while William
hung out in the stroller.

The trees were absolutely full of cherries!  I was very excited. :)

He became a professional picker.

Alexander, giving his best, forced smile. :)

After we filled our bucket full of Rainier cherries, we made our way to the blueberry fields!

Mmmmm!  Blueberry picking time!

Alexander, getting ready to pick some blueberries.

There he goes!

In the middle of picking blueberries, William got hungry.  I asked Alexander to keep picking blueberries while I fed William his bottle in the middle of the field.  Alexander did a GREAT job of picking the blueberries, but neglected to put the blueberries in the bucket.  Instead, he ended up picking and eating about 30 blueberries while I fed William!  Oy vey, Alexander is such a ham!

Once our bucket was filled with juicy blueberries, we made our way to the last field - red cherries!

The red cherry trees weren't nearly as full.  In fact, the only red cherries
that were left on the trees were towards the bottom.
This was perfect for Alexander because he was just the right
height to reach the cherries at the bottom.  Little man went to work!    

Slim pickins....but still delicious!

The boys, holding our haul for the morning! 

After about two hours of picking fruit, it was time to play on the playground!

Alexander loved playing on the tractor.

Once Alexander was done playing on the playground, we went into the country store and bought a few goodies for ourselves.  Cider donuts!!!

Alexander, digging into the most delicious cider donuts I've ever had
and a juice box.  He was one happy boy.

I gave William a little bit of the cider donut, too.  He LOVED it!

One happy little guy. :)

William, laughing and showing off his bottom four teeth.  :)

After we had our mid-morning snack, we checked out the goats, pigs, and chickens in the farm yard.  This place was awesome!

Alexander, sauntering towards the goats that were in the middle
of literally butting heads with one another.

Alexander, looking at the pigs and not wanting anyone else to
do so while he was there.

We had an absolutely wonderful adventure going to Tougas Farm.  It was a little bit of a drive from our place (~1 hour), but it was well worth the trip.  The fruit that we picked was absolutely delicious and we had a lot of fun together.

On July 13, 2013, Joseph celebrated his birthday!!  Since we've had a lot of red velvet cake at our house over the past few months, I thought I'd change it up a little bit.  I surprised Joseph with a chocolate and whipped cream cake with strawberries from an amazing Italian bakery that's about ten minutes away from our new home (which is VERY dangerous, by the way).

Jojo's birthday cake!

William, Joseph, and Alexander, getting ready to help blow out
Joseph's birthday candles.

There they go!  We had a nice little celebration.  Happy birthday, my darling!

Joseph's parents came to visit to help celebrate Joseph's birthday and to attend a conference in Boston.  While Linda was hard at work at the conference one of the days, Elias chose to stay home and go on an adventure with me, my sister, and the boys!!  We went to Hopkinton State Park, played at the beach, and had a delightful little picnic.  It was a perfect day.

Alexander playing in the sand. 

William and Kristen, snuggling before getting in the water.

Alexander, Elias, William, and Kristen in the water at the little beach area.

Alexander loves playing with his beach toys.

Alexander and Elias playing in the sand.

Who was having more fun?  Alexander?  Or Elias?  :)

William, being the little beach bum.

More snuggle time!

After playing in the sand and the water, we decided to have a little picnic.  We brought some sandwiches, chips, and fruit and had a delightful lunch, overlooking the beach.  

The best part was that an ice cream truck pulled up right by us.
As soon as my sister and I heard the ice cream truck, our first instinct
was to run towards the song!  Lol...it's like we never grew up.
Instead, Kristen took Alexander to the ice cream truck after lunch
and got little goodies.  Alexander was in heaven!

Our little picnic :)

Alexander, Elias, and William at our picnic

William and Elias at the picnic bench

Mmmmm!  Mmmm!  Mmmm!  And now for the delicious part of the blog post - recipe time!!  Linda, Joseph's mother, brought four delicious green tomatoes from her garden and asked me if I knew how to prepare them.  I perked up right away and said that I had a recipe I was longing to try because I LOVE fried green tomatoes SOOOOO much!  Whenever I see them in a restaurant, I have to have them.  I've had this recipe sitting in my recipe book for so long and have not taken advantage of it, until now.  

Combine the following ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour (you can also use all-purpose)
1 tbsp garlic powder
Pinch of cayenne pepper

In a separate bowl, mix together:
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice four green tomatoes.
Coat each slice in the buttermilk mixture first, and then in the
cornmeal/flour mixture, making sure that each piece is coated well.

After that, pan-fry the tomato slices in a skillet on medium-high heat
that has a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil in it.  Cook each tomato
for about four minutes on each side. 

The little beauties, sizzling and crackling in the hot skillet.

Oh.my.heavens.

The result was absolutely heavenly and totally lived up to my expectations!
The crunch of the cornmeal and the juiciness of the ripe tomato
were such a beautiful combination.  These were best served with
a little bit of lemon juice and hot sauce.  Absolute decadence.

I love summer food and summer adventures.  It's a great time of year.  :)  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki