my very first recipe post...

i love work potlucks....i really really do!!!! i mean, what could be better than random collections of food, sitting in the break room for hours, prepared in the homes of people you really don't know all that well (and you just KNOW there has to be at least one cat lady in the group...you've seen them on hoarders...100's of cats with thousands of their babies just roaming around the house, and underneath the stacks of litter boxes there are probably a couple of disinegrating carcasses).
but i SERIOUSLY love them...in spite of the tuna casserole the cat lady brings.

But often i forget about the potluck until about an hour before i go to bed when i am making mental preparations to remember to bring a pair of scrubs to work that actually includes a top and a bottom (today i ended up with 2 pairs of pants and no shirt). And then i remember the potluck. So the google search starts. "easy potluck recipes" usually brings up a couple of winners, and i start creating the usual kitchen mess that my husband adores me for :)

today, however, i had the brilliant plan to make chocolate dipped strawberries with the overflowing tupperwares of strawberries from our recent costco run.

and now, my friends, i will share the delightful completed product. brought you by your very own Paula Deen of the OB/GYN world.....

lovely, aren't they?

I thought i would share a few tips from my newly aquired expertise in chocolate dipped strawberries.
The supplies:
Strawberries
toothpicks (i had to use kebab sticks because for some odd reason i have kebab sticks but not toothpicks)
some sort of styrofoam device (i ended up using plates, but a block-type thing would work better)
chocolate chips
cooking oil
dipping delicacies (so, here i had to improvise. Upon first glance through my....ahem....rather oddly stocked kitchen, I came up with Fruit Snacks, Cheezits, hot dogs, and gummy vitamins. after much digging around I found some more appropriate dipping options).

i do, however, like this recipe because it requires very little from the pantry. As my own mother can attest to from her recent stent at our house, we have an odd pantry. Looking for flour...probably out of luck. But i do have 2 commercial size cans of Pam....so do with that what you will. we run things kind of strange around here.

anyway, back to this very easy recipe.

Melting Chocolate. Do NOT, and i repeat do NOT use a double boiler system. Double boilers are a thing of the days of Yore, and completely unnecessary since the invention of the ever popular Microwave Oven. One sidenote. Do not try to multitask while melting chocolate in the microwave. If at all possible, remove all 3 year olds from the kitchen as well. You WILL burn the chocolate (unless of course you have discovered the little miracle pill all multi-tasking moms need called Adderall). I, however, do not have the little miracle pill. And I burn chocolate in the microwave unless i stare at the microwave the entire time i am melting it. Melt it for 20 seconds at a time, and then stir. when it is all melty (but not burny) take it out and add just a tiny little bit of oil. it makes it silky smooth and shiny, and easier to dip.

Here is a true pearl of wisdom. Dry the strawberries completely before dipping. Water and melted chocolate make clumpy chocolate (as my own mother had informed me MULTIPLE times in my 4-H days, when we did use the old fashioned double boiler, and the boiling part got a little out of control, causing the boiling part to mix with the melty part, and i ended up with a big bowl of clumpy).
so now you have a very dry strawberry. stick the toothpick in the stem part, swirl it around, and stick the whole thing in the styrofoam. The old styrofoam-toothpick trick is the magic that keeps you from getting the flat side to the strawberry. words of wisdom here friends. write that one down.

before you stick it in the styrofoam you can roll it around in your chopped up hot dogs, or whatever dipping delicacies you found around the house.

( for real, though, i used crushed up pretzels, crushed oreos, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and some regular old sugar with a couple of drops of red food coloring)

When they are all chilled, you can put them on the wax paper and voila....a lovely and delicious treat.

now for my REAL creative side.. I decided to give some chocolate dipped raspberries a whirl. Now, the secret to these little beauties is to dip them one.at.a.time. I am not kidding here. These are how adorable they are dipped individually. Here you can see I used my particular gifting in patience (stop rolling your eyes, husband!) if, however, your patience begins to run out, and you decide to just dump the rest of the berries in the chocolate you end up with this....

i guess i kind of have a thing for clumpy. edible...of course!

presentable....i think not.

so, there you are, my friends. your first recipe post from your friendly OB/GYN.

enjoy!