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A Strawberry A Day Recap

So, I consider my A Strawberry A Day challenge, where I made everything the June 2011 issue of The Food Network magazine listed for the month of June, a success. Though if I put something with strawberries on the table anytime soon, Mr. L might get up from the table and not eat. Love strawberries, but too much of a good thing, is, well, too much.

Would I do this challenge again? Probably not. Not because of the food (Mr. L did suggest that should there be a month of pork and pork related products, he could deal with that) but because cooking and posting every single day is hard! I don't know how these prolific bloggers do it, but I'm still recovering.

I did enjoy discovering new ways to use a food that, up until the challenge, I had boringly just pretty much eaten raw. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because a good, fresh, ripe strawberry is heaven on earth. But it was nice to cook out of the box for a bit.

What was my favorite strawberry day? At first I thought that was going to be a tough decision. I love using frozen strawberries in drinks and dipping strawberries in sour cream and then brown sugar is a regular occurrence for a quick dessert. But even though there were many good ideas, the simple Strawberry Soup won me over. Easy to make, it's a dish that I probably wouldn't have made without the challenge and something that I really did enjoy. It's also given me a desire to experiment with different fruit soups in the future.

The funny thing is, I keep finding strawberry recipes I'd like to try! Maybe it's the season, maybe I just became more aware of strawberries in general, but there are so many new strawberry recipes on blogs everywhere that sound enticing. Except maybe not right away. Maybe I need to wait a bit. Or find a strawberry recipe that is mainly bacon...

A Strawberry A Day - June 30 - Strawberry Vinaigrette

This is the last day that I'm making strawberry related things (okay, last day for the A Strawberry A Day strawberry posts anyway) and I really thought that this dressing would be a bust. But I actually became quite attached to the flavor.

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Thursday June 30, 2011

For dinner, blend strawberries into vinaigrette, then toss with arugula, chopped berries and grilled chicken.

Mr. L, who is completely over and done with strawberries for quite some time, wanted nothing to do with this dressing or having strawberries anywhere near his dinner. Therefor for him I just served some chicken over a salad mixture not adding any berries at all. I on the other hand, did use this dressing over not only my lettuce greens but also over my chicken. Loved it. Really not sure why the mixture worked so well for me, but I'll be finding more ways to use the remaining  dressing over the next few days.

I used a recipe I found online on the blog "Our Best Bites". Great blog from two women who also feature some cool family crafts. Check out the blog and the recipe:

BERRY POPPY SEED VINAIGRETTE

It has a lovely color and I think the strawberry vinaigrette would also work well on a spinach salad. It doesn't have an overpowering sweetness which is what I expected. I really was surprised how well it went with the chicken so I might have to grill (or poach) up some chicken breasts to use up the rest of the vinaigrette!

And if you've come this far, thank you for joining me on this little A Strawberry A Day adventure. I plan on doing some sort of round up of everything in the next couple of days. Hopefully either a recipe, an idea or a tip worked it's way into your menus this month!

A Strawberry A Day - June 29 - Strawberries as Ice Cubes

Earlier in the month, when the daily A Strawberry A Day instructions were to freeze strawberries, I knew I'd be using them for this days post. What I didn't know back then, is that we would still be in winter weather with some wind, pouring rain and cool temperatures. I'm craving hot cocoa, not a nice summer drink with ice cubes!

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Wednesday June 29, 2011

Chill happy hour drinks with frozen whole strawberries instead of ice: They won't dilute your cocktails.

Alas, any cocktail I thought of that I'd want frozen strawberries in, just wasn't doing it for me with this weather. Thus I grabbed a bottle of sparking pink lemonade and added my frozen strawberries. Excellent idea, as the mixture went well together. Or course everything just seemed a bit off because I was wearing flannel pajamas, big fuzzy slippers and sipping this in front of a fireplace!!

 

A Strawberry A Day - June 28 - Strawberry Smoothie

There are a ton of different ways to make a smoothie so I kinda took a simple route...milk (I used whole), yogurt (I used Clover organic low fat strawberry) fresh strawberries, and some ice. Of course you could add a bit of vanilla ice cream, though that would make it more like a milkshake.

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Tuesday June 28, 2011

One cup of strawberries has more vitamin C than an orange. Blend some into a smoothie to get your daily dose.

Not sure why I don't have more smoothies for breakfast, especially in the summertime. Using non-fat milk would make this even healthier. Maybe use some greek yogurt and add a bit of strawberry preserves as a sweetner. Using fresh ripe berries gave this the extra touch it needed to make a great start to a work day.

A Strawberry A Day - June 27 - Strawberry Fools

Nice little quick dessert that I can put together anytime I have any strawberries on hand.

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Monday June 27, 2011

Beat the Monday blues with a quick dessert; Try the 10-minute berry-chocolate fools on page 120.

This actually was pretty quick to put together. I think if I ever made this again, I wouldn't even bother measuring anything. Basically you just macerate some berries in sugar, add some melted chocolate to sweetened whip cream, layer and you have dessert.

BERRY-CHOCOLATE FOOLS

Toss 1 quart quartered strawberries with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar in a bowl. Beat 1 cup heavy cream with 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar until soft peaks form. Melt 2 ounces finely chopped semisweet chocolate in the microwave and cool slightly; fold into the whipped cream. Layer the cream and berries in glasses.

Note: I used semisweet chocolate chips in this and didn't bother to finely chop them. The photo of the dessert in the Food Network Magazine seemed to have more swirls of chocolate (almost like they never mixed the chocolate with the whipped cream) so they either poured the chocolate between layers or really didn't mix it into the cream at all.

This was a great use of the last of some almost-passed-their-prime strawberries and some leftover chocolate chips. I enjoyed this but I think Mr. L, who for some reason has basically sworn off strawberries of late, had the last word...he wanted to know if there were seconds...which means it must have been good.

A Strawberry A Day - June 26 - Strawberry, Banana and Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I've never actually had an Elvis Sandwich...peanut butter, bananas and bacon on toasted bread. It wasn't the bacon that made me think twice...it was actually the combination of the peanut butter and banana that had me putting the idea of eating that kind of sandwich off...until now.

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Sunday June 26, 2011

Make sandwiches with peanut butter, sliced strawberries and bananas, and head to the beach for a picnic lunch.

I admit to not being sure about this sandwich at all. Such a strange combination. And though I made it and brought it to work last week, I had an alternate lunch should this concoction need to be tossed in the trash.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad! I had no problem polishing off the entire sandwich. But, I have to admit, my least favorite part were the strawberries. But the bananas and peanut butter? Worked. So yeah, I think an Elvis Sandwich will be on the lunch menu sometime soon. Or maybe I could just deep fry the dang thing like Paula Deen does? Why it took me so long to try this combination I'll never know, but now I may need to make up for lost time and have this regularly!

A Strawberry A Day - June 25 - Strawberry Muffins

In the real world (or my fantasy version of it anyway) I would have made the muffins from scratch, added some nice pecans, used fresh strawberries and made a  nice cream cheese frosting akin to something you might find on a carrot cake. But this is me we are talking about...

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Saturday June 25, 2011

Dress up your muffins for brunch today by adding dried strawberries to your favorite recipe.

I still had a bunch of dried strawberries leftover from that caramel popcorn fiasco so it was nice to be able to use them in these muffins, though I do think they would have tasted much better if I had made them with fresh fruit. I used a Pillsbury Nut Quick Bread mix and made muffins instead of a loaf.  

These were okay for a mix. Texture akin to maybe adding some dried dates to a nut loaf mix. I hardly tasted the strawberry flavor, though Mr. L said it came through fine. I think it just depended on if you got a muffin with a lot of little dried strawberry bits or not.

 

A Strawberry A Day - June 24 - How to Hull A Strawberry

This was a simple tip that I thought was a brilliant idea.

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Friday June 24, 2011

Hull strawberries in a flash: Push a drinking straw through the bottom of a berry to pop out the stem.

So I grabbed a straw that I had sitting in a drawer. Probably one I'd had left over from some fast food joint. And I tried to hull the strawberry as told. Only the strawberry decided to mangle the straw. I tried several sizes of strawberries and used much leverage trying to force that stupid straw up the strawberries butt to no avail. It just didn't work.

Realizing I needed a much more robust straw, I made a trip to Starbucks. I figured I'd order a Frappuccino and confiscate the straw. Yeah, really, I only got that Frapp because of the straw. It would have been rude to steal a straw and not buy a drink. So I got a venti size Caramel Frappuccino. You know, for the straw.

And low and behold, the Starbucks straw worked. To a point. If I used a smallish strawberry I could sort of hull the strawberry using this tip. Only the straw hole just wasn't big enough and I had to keep poking the poor strawberry with the straw to completely get rid of the greens. After a few of these I felt I was done violating the poor strawberries and went back to using my little paring knife to hull the berries.

Then I went and took a shower. Then I chewed some gum because I don't smoke.

A Strawberry A Day - June 23 - Strawberries and Rosewater

Oh well, epic fail on this day. Not because I didn't try. I looked for Rosewater at several places near me but was unable to find it. I also didn't want to spend a fortune having a case sent to me via Amazon. So today I just ate strawberries...plain...which wasn't all bad.

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Thursday June 23, 2011

Pick up a bottle of rosewater at a baking supply store. A few drops help brighten less-than-perfect berries.

I haven't given up. I do plan on keeping my eye out for rosewater (that isn't incorporated in some facial product) to give this a try at this point.

Photo Source

 

A Strawberry A Day - June 22 - Spinach and Strawberry Salad

For years, every time I've seen a recipe or a photograph of a strawberry salad, I've made a mental note to make one. Not sure why it seems so appealing or speaks to me of summer, but it does. Alas, up until this A Strawberry A Day challenge, I hadn't tried to make one even though it's a super easy process.

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Wednesday June 22, 2011

Bring an antioxidant-rich salad for lunch: Toss baby spinach, walnuts and sliced strawberries with red wine vinaigrette.

I used a Paula Deen Recipe from the Food Network since this is somewhat of a Food Network challenge. I changed up the recipe a bit because Mr. L doesn't like walnuts. I really liked the play of strawberries here with the spinach. I have a feeling there will be more strawberry salads in my future.

SPINACH AND STRAWBERRY SALAD
(Paula Deen)

INGREDIENTS:

1 (10 to 12-ounce) package baby spinach, washed and dried
1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 pint strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 medium cucumber peeled, seeded and finely diced

DRESSING:

1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

In a large salad bowl, add the spinach, almonds, strawberries, and cucumber and toss together.

For the dressing: In a small glass bowl or jar with a tight-fighting lid, combine the lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, oil , and poppy seeds. Whisk together in the glass bowl or shake if using a jar.

Dress the salad right before serving. Makes 4 servings.

Note: I was afraid that the dressing wouldn't work. I mixed it up and then it sat for a bit when I was putting the salad together. All the little poppy seeds rose to the top of the mix, so I just shook the jar again and it mixed up...and of course they all went to the top before I could pour it out. Mix damn you little poppy seeds, mix!

Note: Though it said to make a red wine vinaigrette, there is actually a day that calls for a vinaigrette that I might be making with red wine, so I went with a white wine vinegar version here.

Note: The dressing was very light. It didn't overpower the salad. Not sure about the cucumbers, they didn't really do anything for me in the dish. I'd leave them out next time and maybe add some, oh, BACON!