What We Do With Our Strawberries

It's that time of year - strawberry season!

Whether you're picking your own, getting baskets from your CSA, or buying a bucket at the farmer's market, you might end up with strawberries for days. We certainly have (we even got more this week from our CSA). Whenever we get new strawberries in the house, I always wash and slice some to have on hand, and leave the rest unwashed in an open container (I've read it's best not to wash until you're ready to use - I've had them last about a week this way). The ready-to-use washed and sliced ones are perfect for topping yogurt...

Adding to a sandwich...

Or blending into a vanilla milkshake to make a strawberry one (I also added vanilla bean to this one, yum).

I tried two new recipes with our fresh strawberries - the first was for Strawberry Biscuits (recipe from Southern Living found here).

They were a bit of work and made the kitchen a hot mess, but they were delicious. Not very sweet, and perfect to snack on any time of day :)

The other recipe was for this Strawberry Salad with Strawberry-Poppyseed Vinaigrette. I cheated and instead of making goat cheese croutons, I just subbed in plain crumbled goat cheese (because, #momlife).

I also tweaked the dressing (I reduced the amount of sugar) - it was so pretty in person!

Towards the end of the week when the strawberries look like they're on their way out, I rinse and slice the remaining ones and freeze on a baking sheet (then transfer to ziplock baggies). My friend Courtney does this step with half her strawberries the first day she gets them, so that's another option.

Frozen ones are great for smoothies and baking. This past week I unearthed the recipe for Strawberry Freeze (which calls for frozen strawberries), courtesy of my college roommate, Lindsay.

I literally hadn't made it since we were in undergrad, so it was such the trip down memory lane! It's the perfect fun, summery dessert to serve a crowd (or to keep in your freezer and nibble on each night, oops).

Just a note - I used my stand mixer, something we did not have in our Santa Barbara apartment. I think the stand mixer is a million times stronger because instead of 20 minutes of beating, I did maybe 10 (and stopped once the mixture tripled in size and started overflowing over the mixing bowl).

If you're like this cutie and you just need more strawberry goodness, click here for my blog post from a couple years ago with my other favorite strawberry recipes!

Who else is loving strawberry season?