Maybe you, like me, went a did a little strawberry picking this past weekend. And maybe you, like me, pick so so many that now you have an overload of the most perfect, if not slightly too ripe strawberries staring at you, waiting to be eaten or, at the very least, cooked into some magical cake, pie, cookie, or whatever. But lets face it, its Monday and maybe we do not exactly feel the need (or have the time) to make a cake, pie, cookie or whatever tonight. So that leaves us with a crap load of strawberries that need to be dealt with.
And sure, we can freeze them, but maybe you, like me, already have a freezer full of other stuff. And just because we don't want to bake a cake, pie, cookies, or whatever tonight, doesn't mean we don't want something amazingly tasty and fantastic.
So that brings us to this super easy, oh so pretty, and ever so tasty way to move those strawberries….. Stick them in the oven and roast them. So simple and really truly amazing. When strawberries are roasted, they turn so tender and fall apart and release all of their juices that turn into a sweet syrup. They become almost jam like, but the flavors are way better, more complex. And there is no need for added sugar or any other stuff because the flavors and natural sweetness of the roasted strawberries stand on their own.
A few ways to which you might want to use roasted strawberries that will make your life better: Dump onto ice cream, yogurt, or make a strawberry shortcake or a strawberry fool. Scoop onto a green salad, mix into a bowl of quinoa, marinate some tofu, or add to roasted veggies. You can mix into muffin batter, into oatmeal, or add to a layer cake. They make a fantastic PB and J and the syrup in seltzer is a tasty drink. You can pretty much use them for anything. But MY favorite way to consume these…a bowl, a little spoon, and my mouth. Nothing else needed.
And if you didn't happen to go strawberry picking this weekend. It's cool, just pick some up from the closest farm stand near you. You can tell all your anyone thats asks that you picked them yourself. (not a lie, just a stretch cause you did, in fact, pick them up yourself)
Yea for Monday and for roasted strawberries! (Or at least yea for strawberries.)
All you need…A big (or small) bowl of strawberries.
Rinse those pretties and place them on a parchment lines baking sheet. (don't skip parchment… these suckers get super thick and juicy.)
Here is the thing. These strawberries are picked from the lovely farm I get my CSA from.(How badass is it that we have a PYO part of the share). They are not like super market berries that are extra firm with dirty unappealing green tops. These little organic lovelys have tender little green tops…. I eat them. If you do not wish to eat the greens, just top the berry off before roasting.
So the berries, stick them in the oven at 450 degrees and roast them for about 35-45 minutes (depending on the size of your berries)
Pull them out when they start to get dark and slightly charred and the juice is thick and bubbly.
And scrap the berries, juice and all, right into a jar.
Eat with anything, everything and with nothing at all.
Happy Monday
-C
Roasted Strawberries
- strawberries of any quantity
Place strawberries, with or without tops (your preference) on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in a 450 degree oven and roasted foe about 45 minutes or until the berries are soft, mushy, starting to charr and have lots of bubbly juice, . When done, remove from oven and let cooll for for about 5 minutes. Transfer berries, juice and all, into jar.
Eat right away or stick in fridge. Juices thicken up when cooled.
Keeps about a week in fridge, but I highly doubt it will last the night.
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
The stuff. Chopped Roma tomatoes, chopped red onion, a diced jalapeño, lemon, a bunch of cilantro, and salt.
And thats it. Now eat… with something or without.
Chomp Chomp Chomp… The sound I make as I eat this freaking fantastic crunchy granola. You know it's good when the person sitting next to you is annoyed by the sound of you face while eating. 
The simplest of stuff. 1 smashed banana, a cup of pureed butternut squash, Vietnamese cinnamon*, honey, and old fashion oats. (and a dash of salt, not shown)
Toss the cinnamon and salt with the oats. Mix together the banana, squash and the sweetener and combine with the oats until full incorporated. 
Dump the mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and give it a little pat, you know, to settle all the bit and pieces together, all cozy and evenly spread out. Now stick into a preheated oven and after about 20 minutes, take out of oven and give the granola a toss, breaking apart any super big chunks or overly wet pieces. Put back into oven for another 20 minutes. (I like my granola super crispy crunchy so I cook it a little longer, like 30 more minutes)
And when you are happy with the crunchiness of you granola, remove from oven and let cool, trying not to eat all of it while it sit's on the counter looking all pretty and smelling like happiness. 
I swear I didn't plan this, but today is officially Pi Day! Pi being the mathematical constant of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its dimeter (did I say that right?) 3.1415…… And today's date is 3.14.15. 
The chilled pie crust gets rolled out, placed into a pie plate, trimmed and made all pretty. The bottom is sprinkled with a 1/4 cup of sugar and stuck back into the fridge while the oven preheats to 350. Now is a good time to dice the rhubarb into inchish chunks. Once the oven is preheated, remove crust from fridge and add in the diced rhubarb.
The remaining sugar and flour get mixed together in a bowl and dump on top of the rhubarb. Give it a tiny toss with you fingers just to get some of the mixture to sink down a little. (Don't worry, the filling will be perfect when you do it like this) I also cut up the pie crust trimmings and placed on top… not necessary, but looks pretty and is a good use of the scraps.
And then you take it from the oven and marvel at the beauty.