Patriotic Strawberry Treats~Pinterest Inspired Blog Hop

Why yes, that is a clearance sticker on my sugar.

Here’s my little secret–my blue sugar is over 6 years old! Oops. Here’s the thing–I found it on clearance at TJMaxx the summer of 2006, when I was pregnant with Kevin. I had preggo crazy brain and was just super excited about him coming, and I was buying anything blue I could get my hands on. Seriously. Even clearanced blue sugar. I figured that either for a welcome baby party or something…that we’d use it. I think I have actually sprinkled it on cupcakes for one of their birthday parties. But it’s still very granulated and dry, hasn’t blocked up, so I’m using it!

My other sugar, yeah, that was a clearance find at Acme too. Though not quite as old. Two years, max, I promise! I always find cute stuff like this on clearance and never get around to using it. Thanks to this blog hop, I am inspired!

These are so easy, even I can do them.

Anyway, I’m rambling, but here are your steps.

• Clean and dry the strawberries. I chose to cut off the green tops, but it’s up to you.It probably would have been easier to dip if I had left them on.
• Spread out on cookie sheet and put in refrigerator for 30-40 minutes, or freezer for 15-20. You want them cold so that the chocolate takes to them right away, but not frozen.
• Put chocolate chips in bowl and microwave. Start at one minute, then stop every 30 seconds after that. You don’t want your chocolate to overheat and seize up on you. If it does, a few drops of milk or vegetable oil will fix it.
• Dip strawberries in 2/3 of the way, leave the top third just plain red (for the red portion of your red, white and blue). Then dip the bottom third of the strawberry(or roll it) in your sugar. I had to play with this a bit. If you put the strawberry on the cookie sheet and the white chocolate is touching the paper, it will stick. You need the sugar to help it not stick. I also tried a paper plate and a small dish (with depth) for my sugar.
• Place on cookie sheet until it takes/dries/hardens, whatever you want to call it. It’s really warm here today and we don’t have the ac on, so I actually stuck mine back in the freezer for ten minutes.

And that’s it! Easy peasy! Even if you’re not really precise with your dipping and your sugar, the overall finished product is very festive and sure to impress your guests. Have fun with this!

Why yes, it does taste as good as it looks!