The Strawberry Challenge

I was not feeling well yesterday. I woke up feeling fine, but as the day progressed, I felt worse and worse. During the "feeling worse" stage, I went out with hubby to pick up a few groceries and spied strawberries on sale at the local supermarket. Two pound punnets. Hmmm.

When I buy strawberries, I smell them. If they smell good, I buy them. Probably not the most scientific way to select fruit, but it usually works out alright.

Hubby was immediately skeptical. He maintains that supermarket strawberries are never worth the money. I will admit (this time) that he is right, but I was so hungry for that rich, red colour that I couldn't resist. So, I bought two punnets (or rather, he bought them, since he was paying for things yesterday).

I went home, and immediately felt ill. This happens to me sometimes on the weekends - I hit the relaxation button and all hell breaks loose in my head. I get a headache, which turns into a monster, and then I can't eat or sleep or let anyone touch me until it's over. This one was a doozy. I couple of trips to the bathroom to worship the toilet and a Gravol later, and I was still feeling awful. I went to bed and stayed there until this morning.

When I came downstairs to the kitchen, I saw them. Four pounds of strawberries that my husband would not eat, and that I wasn't even sure I wanted anymore, given the adventures my stomach went through yesterday. I was feeling ok, though. Maybe it was time to prove that these berries were edible.

So, I went to work. Two eggs, a cup of sugar, a cup a flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a dash a salt, a cup of flour, a quarter cup of milk, two tablespoons of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla later, and I had a sponge cake.

I cut up 2 and a half pounds of strawberries, threw half into a bowl and the other half into a saucepan, added two tablespoons of sugar to both, and a little water to the saucepan. Covered the bowl with clingfilm and set the saucepan to simmer. Five minutes later, I had strawberry sauce, suitable for pouring over ice cream or cake.

I went swimming. *swimming interlude music here*

I came home, took the sponge cake out of the pan, covered it in some vanilla pudding and the strawberries.


Hubby thinks it's amazing. I think so, too. I've been too sleepy to try it yet, but I'm hoping I'm well enough to eat it. If not, I may have to hide it from the local furball. I'm sure he'd be all too willing to try some for himself!

Comments