Thankful Thursday - Strawberries

I know, I know, almost 24 hours overdue *hangs head in shame*  And this post even regards one of my very favorite things to eat on this planet, strawberries!  This past Wednesday, my boyfriend and I attended the annual Strawberry Festival at our school, where for $8.45 (if you buy a ticket ahead of time), you get a sample of 9 different food stations, including something called "Strawberries To Go," which is a pound of fresh strawberries.  Considering that strawberries are around $4 a pound here in New York (often shipped from California!), well, lunch + a pound of strawberries was a bargain.

What to do with these sweet strawberries?  Considering that they're still not really in season, my favorite way to enjoy them is with things.  You know, when I can resist eating them anyway, which is not often...  Well, with the ones I had left, I baked some into scones (including some quite delightful strawberry mint chocolate ones), but the scone recipe didn't quite turn out the way I expected.  I'll have to mess with it some more until I'm happy.  The strawberry tarts, too, which were pretty good, but since I lacked milk, had no custard base...  After I share the second yogurt recipe I've been meaning to share since the first week of April (!)...

One thing that did turn out lovely, however, was mint chocolate-dipped strawberries.  The only time-consuming part about them is that they need to both wash and dry, since the chocolate won't stick if the strawberries are wet.  Also, they do need to cool and harden so the chocolate develops a lightly crackly shell, even without tempering.  So simple, they don't even need a recipe.  Although, a sheet of parchment paper to set the berries to dry might help :)