I wait all year for these: local, organic summer strawberries. Their fragrance is so like cotton candy it reminds me what it feels like to be a kid at an amusement park.
These, the small, richly-red, juicy strawberries of summer always make me wonder why I ever buy any other kind, because I know what strawberries are supposed to be and taste like. They are NOT supposed to be some colossal science fiction-fruit, pale-orange/red with white tips, without much taste and dry as pillow stuffing: the kind you find most often in the supermarket.
If you’ve never tasted a real strawberry, locally grown, do yourself a favor and find some. Make sure you buy extra because, if you’re anything like me you’ll eat a carton of them on the way home. Look for the 100% organic so you know it’s non-GMO and hasn’t been sprayed with pesticide.
You don’t need anything else to make strawberries the perfect dessert or snack. They are amazingly, naturally sweet.
If you insist, maybe a squirt of orange juice or orange brandy.
Or homemade whipped cream. Homemade. Because store-bought whipped cream is loaded, unnecessarily, with sugar.
Here’s my recipe:
Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
Refrigerate a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer) and beaters for about 30 minutes or until chilled. When ready, pour the cream into the bowl and beat at low speed, then gradually increasing the speed to high for 1-2 minutes or until the cream is slightly thickened. Add the sugar and optional vanilla and continue beating until the cream is thick.
Makes about 2 cups