Saturday, June 21, 2008

Temptation: Thy Name Is Strawberry


At approximately 2:30 pm today, I purchased six containers of locally grown, ripe, ruby red strawberries. Oh, the plans I had for them. Shortcake layered with whipped cream, fruit salad with dessert wine dressing, perhaps a dip in some dreamy chocolate. *Sigh* I need a moment. There. Now I can continue.

As with the best temptation scenarios, it started innocently enough. A covert nibble here, a stolen bite there. By the time we arrived home, all pretense of control was gone.

By approximately 5:30 pm today, this is all that remained of my strawberries. *Sob* Those little urchlings of mine, and yes, that includes hubby man, fell prey to temptation. I, of course, remained angelic like and resisted ... yeh, right, but, well, you know how it is. There would be no shortcake with whipped cream, no salad drizzled with wine dressing, no chocolate .... I need another moment.

The girls were the first to fall hard for the lure of the strawberries. My littlest actually asked me to put them out of her reach because she couldn't control herself. My older girl couldn't shovel them in her mouth fast enough. That leaves son and hubby man. It's stunning how quickly they consume food. Plague fast. At that point, I threw in the towel and told them to just have at it.


Can you blame them? Temptation is a powerful thing. Just look at these babies. No wonder everyone fell under their spell. They are red throughout, small but full of summer sweetness, and downright irresistible. Just compare a store bought strawberry to the one's I bought via a local farmer. Sure the store bought one is bigger, but I'd pass it up any day for one of these locally grown, just picked this morning babies.


Today's strawberry rapture was complicated by the fact that my son had to be rushed to the hospital ER this afternoon for an allergic reaction to who knows what (not the strawberries). Something got in his eye (while I was buying the strawberries) and by the time we got home, his right eye was swollen shut and looked like he had just gone ten rounds in the boxing ring. Poor kid. He takes anti-seizure meds, so he can't take over the counter antihistamines, so it was off the ER where they cleaned his gunky eyeball, prescribed something that won't react with his regular meds, and 2.5 hours later, sent him home. He still looks like he should be standing on the ropes of the boxing ring shouting out "A-d-r-i-a-n"!!! I told him that he should tell everyone that he was defending his sister's honor, but he told me ... "Nah, everyone knows I'm too nice to hit anyone". His sisters were properly put out at his comment, but only for a moment. They are well aware how much their brother looks out for them ... that's why they saved some strawberries just for him. Stuff like that makes me forget all about temptations and strawberry plans.

6 comments:

Marjie said...

One twin down Friday, the other on Saturday....this was not a fun weekend, now was it?

Those berries are beautiful. Too bad your plans did not come to fruition (pun intended). Ah, well, we Moms can dream, can't we?

I hope both the twins are doing better today.

test it comm said...

Those strawberries disappeared quite quickly.

Steph said...

Who can resist fresh strawberries? Being the fruit loveer I am, I could probably finish them before the rest of my family!

Paula said...

Marjie: Despite our injury extravaganza, the weekend turned out wonderful ... especially since the sun decided to make an appearance!

Kevin: Even I was surprised at how quickly they were consumed! Thanks for stopping by.

Steph: These first of the season strawberries were particularly good, and we were all tempted! Thanks for stopping by.

K Allrich said...

Those are some mighty tempting berries. Glistening in their ruby red seduction. Who can blame (any of) you?

Kudos to your sweet allergic son.

Nothing like an allergic attack to add a little drama to life.

:)

Karina

La Bella Cooks said...

There is nothing better than farm-stand fresh strawberries. They do not last long in my house either. It is a conspiracy ;) Or just a good excuse to go buy more!