Now, no, that is not a euphemism for, ahem, anything. This is a family show. Rather I really am talking about the enormous strawberries that are in the stores now. See that one little strawberry all alone in the bottom row? It's pointy, plenty big enough, your basic attractive, tasty strawberry. But now look at all the other strawberries. They're huge (and somewhat lacking in general quality, really). And these aren't even very giant giant strawberries! I bought some last week that were much bigger! I don't know why bigger is supposed to be better. Now they look like some weird strawberry relative. They're not pointy anymore, they are actually very blunty, and they tend to be sort of pinkish and fibrous inside. And the end that used to be pointy is really jam-packed with the little external strawberry seeds, way more than strawberries used to be. Frankly, they just aren't all that pretty. I don't need a strawberry the size of a baby's head, thank you very much. I'm sure it has something to do with crop yield--same number of plants but much more tonnage. And what kind of fertilizer situation is going on here? Well, I don't like it, not one bit. I tried to grow my own, with remarkably little success. We know that I am not a plant nurturer (the strong will survive!), and I think strawberries may be the needy chick of the home-grown fruit world. Once again, no immediate solutions, but I like to voice my concern and curiosity.
So now I've got these giant strawberries that beg to be cut up and cooked in some way. Usually I just put them on the stove with some water and sugar and let them cook down. This time, however, I did something just a little different.
Roasted Strawberries (and rhubarb if you feel like it)
4 cups cut-up strawberries (or 2 cups cut-up strawberries and 2 cups cut-up rhubarb)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark, whatever you have)
4 Tbl. melted butter
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl, turn out into a 9 x 9 baking dish, spreading evenly. Roast for about 15 minutes, till fruit is soft and juices are bubbling. Let cool to warm room temperature. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Mmmm.
