It’s strawberry season!!!

I found this adorable colander (it’s one from a set of three) in TJ Max and couldn’t resist grabbing it… even though I have NO idea what I would use it for. I figured it would be a good prop for pictures though… and decided to use it to show off these fresh strawberries I bought. Doesn’t it look great with the ruby red strawberry and the periwinkle-ish napkin???

These were my first fresh/local strawberries of the season and I picked them up at Allandale Farms — which is considered the last “working” farm in the city of Boston (even though their address is technically Brookline) —  and is a mere 2 miles from my house. They were delicious… succulent, sweet and had the most beautiful, solid red interior (not like the white center of those out-of-season grocery store strawberries!). We just ate them raw… and enjoyed every minute of it. Oh, and I threw a few into one of the juices I made.

Even though I didn’t cook with them, Allandale had a pile of recipes next to them for customer’s to try. I grabbed this one because I thought it sounded delicious and I still plan to make them at some point. Let me know if you try this!

Melt-in-your-mouth Strawberry Muffins

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar and baking soda. In another bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Toss strawberries into the flour mixture then pour the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture and stir.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tin. Sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on the muffin tops (I noticed that this is not included in the ingredient list — I would probably do a 50:50 mixture).

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

Yields: 12 muffins