Welcoming Spring with Strawberries

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By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

The time I’ve been waiting for all winter is finally here: the first of the season’s strawberries.

I’m surprised to find out that many people don’t associate spring with strawberries, but I do. In the South, they always marked the arrival of new spring crops and, of course, lasted well into the summer, when most people think strawberries are at their best. And while I agree with that opinion, I still love the first strawberries, with their slight tartness.

That tartness suits them well to maceration, my favorite treatment for strawberries. Akin to marinating meat, maceration is when you soak a fruit in liquid in order to soften it. How you macerate it and in what liquid is where you can get creative.

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Extreme Food Styling

By Lori Powell

Last week, I was food styling on the North Fork of Long Island for a future Prevention magazine issue. Sounds glamorous, yes?

Well, not so much when you have brush fires raging a couple of blocks away and 40 MPH wind gusts. The fires were eventually put out, but not without destroying 1,000 acres and three homes.

The winds, on the other hand, kept on gusting so that anything that wasn’t tied down was flying through the air. Then came the rainstorms that blew through our shoot not once but twice…what’s next…locusts?

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Strawberries in a Jam

By Sandy Hu

In the summer, when strawberries are at their peak, I always buy a few extra pints to make fresh strawberry jam. This jam is so quick and easy, it shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes from start to finish.

Because the berries aren’t cooked, the jam maintains an intense, fresh strawberry flavor. It’s perfect topping buttered bread or toast. But it’s also delicious mixed with yogurt, topping oatmeal or spooned on vanilla ice cream.

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