3 Quarters Today

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Quick and Easy Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe

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It’s Easy to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Don’t these chocolate covered strawberries look delicious? I made them at home. Seriously.

Not even a word to describe how good they actually taste. Just like at Christmas, I dip everything in almond bark chocolate. I have used Ghirardelli’s melting chocolate when I’m doing a small personal batch for gourmet chocolate covered strawberries. But for large events, chocolate almond bark works just fine.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Day 153/365 Project: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

It’s easy to make chocolate covered strawberries from scratch. All you need is big delicious looking strawberries, chocolate, and a fork. Ok, a double boiler pot does come in handy.

I get the white almond bark drizzle on the strawberries by dipping a fork in the white chocolate and drizzling it over the strawberries.

It’s not hard to make chocolate strawberries, all you need is a double boiler and some dipping chocolate. But, some people think it’s a little intimidating. Around Valentines Day you will see and hear ads from various online stores where you can buy chocolate dipped strawberries and have them delivered.

Why Use a Double Boiler when Melting Chocolate?

Chocolate is a fickle ingredient. If you it too hot chocolate will burn or “seize up” and become clumpy. (Whatever you do, do NOT add water to chocolate.) With a double boiler pot, you add an inch or two of water to the bottom pot and set on medium heat.

You can turn the stovetop on a boil, to begin with, but then reduce the heat to low to gradually melt your chocolate. If you don’t have an “official double boiler pot you can use a metal bowl and sit in on a saucepan. Or a smaller pot inside a larger pot, as long as the bottom doesn’t touch the water.

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Melting Chocolate Without a Double Boiler

This can be done. But take caution and be careful. I normally melt two squares of white almond bark for 20 seconds at a time and check it until it’s soft. Don’t just look at to see if it’s melted. The blocks of almond bark retain their shape, even when melted.

Ghirardelli melting chocolate wafers are actually designed to be melted in the microwave. Instructions are on the package and it’s VERY wise to follow them.

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Strawberries are good any time of the year, but I make them on Valentine’s day and also for high school graduation parties. They are everyone’s favorite and I’ve created an expectation amongst my friends. My kids LOVE when I make chocolate covered strawberries.

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For my son’s graduation, I made about 60 chocolate covered strawberries and it wasn’t nearly enough. I could have made three times that many considering how popular they were. Maybe next time.

Buy Chocolate Covered Strawberries Online

If you don’t think you can handle dipping your own strawberries then you can always buy them online. Golden State Fruit sells them on Amazon and the reviews are fantastic.

I’ve read reviews for Sherri’s Berries and the Golden State Fruit Company Although they both pack and ship them approximately the same Golden State Fruit Company comes out ahead.

Very little is more romantic and makes an impression than tasty chocolate covered strawberries. What woman doesn’t like chocolate?

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Day 145/365: Peep Photoshoot

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Here is my yearly Peep Show Photoshoot, every year around Easter I play with these marshmallow confections designed to rot your teeth, spoil supper, and give you a belly ache. I’m addicted to the concept of fluorescent spring colors all soft and gooey sprinkled with sugar.

Peep Photoshoot (Olympus E-10)

Yellow and sugary, soft and gooey, enough sweetness to send you into a diabetic coma. But, they are so good. I have to eat just one a year around Easter time, just like Cadbury Eggs, Peeps are a ritualistic tradition.

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After I broke these little chicks free from their cellophane wrapper I posed them on my springtime tablecloths for a photo shoot. My soon to be 18-year-old son did not find the humor in this, he rolled his eyes (I get that a lot from my kids) and anxiously awaited when I would be finished playing, so he could eat them. Which he did, all three boxes.

He was quick to point out that the sugar-free Peeps tasted terrible. I agree, if you’re going to eat something as nutritionally void as a Peep then just go for the sugar.

Photography Notes: taken on my Olympus camera, I’m finding it hard to know where to set the exposure, the viewfinder isn’t intuitive and it’s a little like a film camera, I don’t know what it’s going to look like until I get it into the computer.

Day 120/365: Marshmallow Peeps for Easter

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You know it’s getting close to Easter when the Marshmallows Peep show up on the store shelves. I always get excited about the anticipation of Easter Peeps.

Day 120: Easter Peeps
Marshmallow Goodness in all colors

Marshmallow Peeps are soft, colorful, sugary, and fun!!

This iconic treat of pure sugar has a cult following and there are many ways to use them other than just for getting a sugar high. They now come in all sorts of colors, aside from the original yellow, although I’m a purist.

There is a whole website dedicated to Peep Recipes, Peep Crafts, and multiple contests including one from the Washington Post called the “Peep Show” I won’t even go-to the subject that comes to mind.

Heck, there is even the official PEEPS Facebook page, well of course, why not?