Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

This seems a fairly easy recipe, hardly worth posting. And yet, I knew someone once who had no idea how to make this simple yet sophisticated treat. So, I offer it either as instruction or as inspiration ... your pick.

An old friend had once told me she was having a craving for chocolate-covered strawberries, and so she set about trying to make them even though she'd never done so before.

She took some berries and dipped them into Hershey's chocolate syrup ... uh oh. When they didn't set -- because, of course, syrup is a liquid and isn't going to firm up into a solid -- she placed the berries into the freezer, which promptly froze and destroyed them ... sigh.

I don't repeat this story to ridicule anyone -- we all have to learn things, and we all have areas of both expertise and ignorance.

It just demonstrates that what I think is easy may be out of someone else's knowledge base, while something like Sudoku -- so immensely popular, so many people can do it! -- baffles me, because I haven't figured out the key to it yet. Give me a New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle and a few hours, and I'm in my glory!

But I digress ....

So, here's a recipe for chocolate-covered strawberries, which are perfect for a Memorial Day picnic, a romantic evening, a treat while sitting on the front porch on a warm evening with either a good book or a best girlfriend, or "just because."

Really, it's strawberries and chocolate -- who needs a reason???

Now, I also have to share some good news with all of you: a photo I took at Big Bowl Cafe in Chicago, when I was there in October, was selected for the Chicago Schmap Online Guide!!! Here's the link -- Big Bowl Cafe ... :)


Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon butter
6 very large strawberries, greens intact

Lay a sheet of foil onto a plate and lightly grease it.

Place the chocolate chips and butter into a small microwave-safe bowl; nuke for 60-90 seconds, stirring until smooth.

Carefully take one strawberry by the greens and dip it up to its shoulders into the chocolate; let excess chocolate drip off, then place onto the foil-covered plate. Repeat until each of the berries is coated, then refrigerate the plate until the chocolate is set.

Makes 6 strawberries. It's up to you whether you share ....

Silvio's -- So Much More Than Just Pizza!

Tom and I had planned to go to Silvio's Organic Pizza a couple of weeks ago, after the Vital (A)(R)(T) exhibit that one of his digital photographs had been shown in; but the food was so bountiful and beautiful at the reception that we got sidetracked and found ourselves eating dinner -- hummus with pita chips and vegetables, fruit, egg rolls, salad, and an array of cookies and brownies -- at the buffet table provided. So this past Thursday night, after I met Tom downtown after work and we were debating our dinner options, Silvio's was the perfect choice.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am the least decisive person on Earth, especially when food is involved. I can make life-or-death decisions instinctively on the spur of the moment, and have unfortunately had to do that more times than I like to contemplate. So my theory is that when I actually have choices to peruse and the luxury of time in which to do so, my brain goes into paralysis.

Thus, in surveying the beautiful simplicity found in Margherita pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil) or Pesto pizza (basil sauce, pine nuts, parmesan); the novelty of the exotic Grape (with Fontina and -- of course! -- grapes); or the generosity of stuffed pizzas (vegetarian or tuna with rapini or cod, just for starters), my mind started to swirl as my soul cried out for all of it. Tom, fortunately, was able to hear potatoes calling him, and so we indulged in the sensuous -- on every level -- and seductive #9: Thinly sliced potatoes covered with blue cheese and mozzarella, with just a sprinkling of fragrant rosemary ... sigh.

Our pizza was brought right to us, with the cheese still bubbling from having only left the oven moments earlier. It smelled amazing, with the rosemary wafting through the air; and when we bit in, you could hear the crisp crust crunching but not resisting. It was hot but not sear-the-roof-of-your-mouth hot, and it held together both when cut or when folded (rather than the cheese oozing off and the entire slice deconstructing and falling apart). And the taste was incomparable, a combination that was perfect (a lot of carbs, yes, but carbs that worked in unison) with no one flavor overriding another. This was so, so much more than just "pizza" -- that stuff you can buy for $5 from a franchise or something you can toss into a microwave to turn to goo. This was a true vision of beauty and love, interspersed with kisses from Tom ... :)

Dessert was yet another indulgence -- a crisp round of puff pastry with a luscious creamy filling, delicately sprinkled with confectioners' sugar. Tom eats very nobly -- a former vegan and vegetarian, adores spinach and kale, eats organic food almost exclusively; and yet, he has a sweet tooth and loves baked goods. So the exceptional array of pastries was as tempting to him as it was to me, the girl who doesn't just have one sweet tooth but a full 28 of 'em (having had 4 wisdom teeth pulled decades ago). Tom had made the difficult decision of choosing from among the croissants and bombas (paczki-like filled "doughnuts") and strudels, thank goodness -- I'd likely still be there, 3 days later, if the job had been delegated to me! We hated to break into it, as gorgeous as it was; and yet, it called, it beckoned, it seduced us ... there was no way to resist, and it was so good that I literally picked at the flaky little crumbs left on the plate after the treat had been relished.

There was live music from a guitar-playing trio, warm and efficient service, and food so fabulous that it is difficult to fully describe. Silvio's ... sigh. Repeat visits will be inevitable ....