Close encounters of the strawberry kind

I was fortunate enough to find some more good strawberries when we went shopping on Sunday.  I ended up buying a 2-pound container because they looked a lot better than the smaller ones.  We ate about half of them on Sunday, and then the rest ended up in the fridge.  They sat there until yesterday, when I decided that I'd better do something with them before they went bad.  (Especially since I'd already had that happen with some raspberries a day or two before.)  

Brianna's been bugging me to make ice cream or popsicles, since it's been so hot.  I did remember to find room in the freezer for my ice cream machine canister, but I really don't like fruit ice creams that much--I'd rather put berries on my ice cream than in it.  So while I was out yesterday I stopped by Target and picked up a popsicle mold.  I can't say that I really used a recipe.  I just hulled the strawberries (I had about a pound), sliced them into chunks and tossed them in my blender.  Then I added a few tablespoons of sugar (to taste) and the juice of a lime.  I pureed everything together, filled the molds and popped them in the freezer.  I actually had more puree than I needed--more on that in a minute.

The verdict?  Brianna and Gillian both loved them.  Gillian hasn't really had popsicles much, so I kept my eye on her for a while.  Then I made the mistake of turning my back for a minute or two:  

I know it's a bit blurry, but the picture was too good to pass up.  =)  At that point I resigned myself to the fact that she was going straight to the tub afterwards, and let her finish.

And of course, I had to take pictures of Brianna, too:

As for the rest of the strawberry puree?  I added some orange juice, a bit more sugar, some rum and some frozen peaches and blended everything until more or less smooth and slushy.  Brianna was a bit put out that I wouldn't share my "grownup smoothie" with her.  =)