Strawberries, Anyone?

I have a strawberry obsession going on right now.  I didn't mean for it to happen and I never even used to like strawberries.  I started liking them when I was pregnant and it became a permanent thing (unlike Domino's Pizza, which I used to love and now, for reasons I won't detail, I will never ever be able to eat again).  Anyhow, awhile back I posted about joining a CSA with a local greenhouse, Dean's Greenhouse. Since the weather was so unseasonably warm this spring, their first crop was ready a couple weeks early for pickup so I was able to get our first box of goods on Tuesday.  Inside was a box of strawberries, a bunch of Swiss chard, and a big bag of sugar snap peas.  I had already bought a box of strawberries over the weekend that still wasn't finished so I found myself on strawberry overload.

We ate a bunch of them, then I made strawberry bars using this recipe.  The only adjustment I made to the recipe was adding about a tablespoon of cornstarch to the strawberry mixture to thicken it up a bit.  They were delicious--maybe even better than the blueberry bars.  They were gone in a day.  Don't judge.

I still had some strawberries left, plus some heavy whipping cream from another recipe (why is it impossible to find heavy whipping cream in a small size?  I needed 1/4 cup but had to buy a quart).  The only solution I could see was to make pancakes with strawberry and whipped cream topping.  I'd actually never made whipped cream before, and now that I have I might make it all the time.  I added a little powdered sugar (2 tablespoons or so), a splash of vanilla extract, and a teaspoon of sweetener.  I ended up with a giant bowl of whipped cream, but that's a good problem to have.  I found that putting a dollop of whipped cream on a graham cracker makes for a tasty dessert.  Also, eating it straight from the bowl isn't out of the question.

To add to the strawberry theme going on, Charlotte and I went to a garage sale yesterday morning.  I have some berry decorations for her party (mostly strawberries) and I found these:

I kind of love them.

Enjoy your long Memorial Day weekend!

~Stacy