Gather Ye Strawberries…

Strawberry season is coming to a close, so before they’re gone, I urge you to grab some this weekend. You will thank me—but mostly my friend Vincent—that you did. The other night Vincent came over for burgers (grilled to perfection by Mr. Foodinista), bringing with him an incredible brown butter shortcake with strawberries and whipped cream. The recipe hails from the New York Times, and tastes like pure summer. The brown butter shortcake—oh my god, so rich, so buttery, so delicious. I’m told the dessert made its heralded debut in The Pines on Fire Island last month, and its maiden West Coast appearance Wednesday night was equally lauded. In fact, it was so freaking good that I ungraciously demanded that he leave the lion’s share of the brown butter shortcake and all the berries behind. With friends like me, who needs shortcake?

Strawberry Shortcake

While we’re on the topic of Dutton’s Farm Stand in Manchester, VT, I also wanted to share the haul I got there for dessert last week: local strawberries, fresh local cream and housemade biscuits.

I tossed the strawberries with some mint that was growing outside the kitchen door, and then drizzled a little balsamic vinegar over the berries. Then we whipped some of that excellent local cream and served on the biscuits.

Strangely enough, the next morning at breakfast my brother-in-law Tim was looking at his hands saying “what is on my hands? Furniture polish?” I didn’t give it another thought until 4 miles into a morning jog, at which point I was pretty much seeing spots anyway, when I looked down and noticed my own hands had a similar splotchy patina. What on earth were Tim and I both doing that nobody else was, I wondered? Then it dawned on me: balsamic vinegar. Tim was helping me mix the berries and I think we both picked up a few and sampled along way. Busted.