Strawberries - 2019 Edition

We loved having fresh good strawberries, and now that we have our little house, we decided we missed them enough that D made a bed beside the driveway and ordered 50 plants of Mara Des Bois.  We planted 35 and gave 15 to the neighbor across the street who loves to garden.

Even though we live in the "city," we have deer, woodchucks, skunk, squirrels, chipmunks, and lots of birds.  And these guys all love strawberries (well, maybe not the deer - they love apple trees).  To protect the plants from predators,  an arch of fencing was put over them, and when the berries began to appear, plastic mesh was put over the arch.

We were able to protect the bed from the mammals and all but one bird.

Alas, it looks like slugs like strawberries.

Time for "Sluggo".

So far, we have picked 17 strawberries.

Lunch Meat???

We love corned beef and pastrami.  Well, we used to love it.  Recently (like the last 10 years or so), the corned beef is only salty leather, and the pastrami has no fat.  Huh???  No fat???

Then  I found that Katz Deli in NYC (of the "I'll have what she's having," fame) ships!!!  So for a treat, we ordered a whole pastrami.  "Meat Size Katz's Legend Size (5.3-6lbs)" It arrrived when scheduled, packed with dry-ice.  You have to cook the whole one by boiling for three hours. The cooked weight was about 4 pounds.

We simmered very slowly, keeping the temperature of the water below 212º

Oh, boy, is it good!  Nothing like you buy in the supermarket deli.  What a treat!

I bought some things in our local markets:  half-sour pickles, marble rye bread, seeded rye bread, and sauerkraut.  I ordered Swiss Cheese from Katz. but it's not great.  (I still haven't found a swiss cheese I like, so that's a matter for another day.)

Becky told me that Junior's Cheesecake is available in PriceChopper, and it's almost as good as hers.  When I picked up the rye bread, I picked up a 1.5 pound cheesecake (from the freezer section).

Oh, my.  She's right.  It's excellent.  (I can't imagine how good hers is. . . )

I licked the platter clean. . . 

Hope you had as good a meal. . .