Hanging out at Miller Farms.

Middle of May 2011

It’s my birthday!  (Well, it was when all these activities took place; the posting isn’t quite keeping up with things since I’ve been working some crazy fun hours the past few weeks).  Anyway, we decided we wanted to do a birthday activity… so we shifted our work schedules to be able to head over to Miller Farms Market before they closed.  We’ve never gone strawberry picking, and new the berries were in season.  Despite some heavy rain showers before/after berry picking, we had a perfect 30 minute window of time.  All we had to do was take off our sandals and wade through a bit of cool, muddy water.   The berries themselves were beautiful, and we had plenty of time to pick (and eat!) before the storms rolled back through.  We also snagged some fresh cream from a dairy in PA.

The candles were very creative.

After berry picking we enjoyed dinner and drinks (Guinness and Bass drafts) at Otter House; the black bean burger and mac ‘n cheese combo might be even better than the bleu veggie burger and mac ‘n cheese.  Post dinner was admiring birthday plants (thanks T!) as well as cake and candles.  The cake was chocolate-coffee, with coconut cream cheese and marshmallow filling, and ganache on top.

Strawberries and cream are a new May favorite for us.

The ganache was made with fresh cream from Miller’s farm market.  The cream also whipped up beautifully with a bit of vanilla and sugar, and made a perfect accompaniment to the fresh berries.