Strawberry Creations

A few weeks ago 2 things happened simultaneously. My wonderful girlfriend Erin arrived back from her internship at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Lowes Foods had 2 lb. containers of beautiful strawberries on sale. Of course seeing Erin is much more important than the strawberries, but the combination of these two things created a delightful evening!
Erin traveled up to our house for dinner one night, which gave all of us some much needed "catch up" time. Many things can change over 10 weeks - new experiences, lessons and perspectives. Erin and I have seen this demonstrated many times over the years of our friendship as she would travel to Peru or Ghana over the summers. One summer I worked at Myrtle Beach or during other summers I have taken summer school. At the end of each summer we always come back together and have loads of things to share with one another.

This was definitely an eventful summer for both of us. All three of us shared a great dinner with enjoyable conversation! For dinner we had filo wrapped asparagus, grilled chicken & rice with fresh basil and pine nut pesto. I have to brag a little about this meal because it really turned out to be outstanding! Brett and I enjoyed cooking together - one of the things that I love about him!

For dessert I wanted to somehow incorporate the large package of strawberries that I had just bought with my brownie mix. Now I must share a trick that my Mom taught me. Thanks, Mom! With certain baked goods (brownies, muffins, banana nut bread, etc) you can replace some or all of the oil in the recipe with applesauce to lower the fat content. The applesauce makes for a very moist product, and you never taste the apple! All that I had at the house was strawberry applesauce - how convenient?! I used this in the brownie recipe, and then decided to slice fresh strawberries to put on top of the warm brownies - not too creative, so I was ready for some input. Brett had the great idea to make a fresh strawberry syrup to drizzle over the brownies. See below.
Syrups require patience, so Brett was just the person to attempt this. (he is definitely the one with more patience) The finished product was absolutely delectable! Chocolate and strawberries - the perfect combination! We had a blast enjoying this dessert!

All in all, it was a wonderful evening. I know I have spoken a lot about the food, but the company was even better!

Another recipe to enjoy: Delicious Strawberries & Cream Muffins
Brett originally made this recipe with some fresh peaches earlier this summer. The original recipe is for Peaches & Cream muffins, but you can modify it like we did or add blueberries... the sky's the limit.

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup vegetable oil (we used 1/4 cup oil and 1-4oz. container of strawberry applesauce)

1 cup sour cream (reg, low-fat, or fat free - all taste great)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped strawberries (we put closer to 2 cups)

2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. In large bowl beat eggs, add sugar while beating. Continue beating and add oil, add vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream. Fold in fruit.

These muffins are some of the most moist and mouth-watering morning treats that I have ever had! Brett and I enjoyed them for breakfast and dessert for the next few days. We did notice that the fresh peach muffins kept much longer (10 days or so) than the muffins with fresh strawberries (5-6 days).