I’m supposed to be blogging for work right now.  But I really am not in the mood to blog.  So I thought I’d pop over here to TST for a bit and keep everyone company for a while in order to avoid blogging.  It makes sense in my world.  I don’t actually have anything earth-shattering to write about.  I’m not even sure what pictures I’m going to insert into this post to maintain your interest.  I just know that I am really not in the mood to blog my responsibilities.

I guess since it is SAD today, I will post a recipe for the masses:  chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels.  I didn’t make them for SAD this year.  I made them for my sister’s wedding reception.  Last summer.  But really, when is it ever a bad time for chocolate covered strawberries?

The first thing you need is some chocolate.  You can make it yourself from scratch if you are so inclined.  Or you can totally cheat by going to the craft store, the candy store, or the kitchen supply store, and purchasing chocolate candy discs disks round things.  I’m more of the cheating kind.  If you aren’t worried about white chocolate not actually being chocolate, then there are a lot of color choices available.  We picked up some white, blue, pink, purple, and plain old regular chocolate brown.

You also need strawberries.  And pretzels.  Or something to dip in the melted chocolate.

Melt the chocolate.  You have two options:  stovetop or microwave.  Guess which one I chose?  If you are going to melt the chocolate in the microwave, do it a little at a time; reheating is really not recommended, and it will cool off pretty rapidly.  And whether you use the stove or the microwave, you still need to stir the chocolate so it heats evenly.  Be careful not to overheat.  Our first batch was made on the stove… and ended up down the drain.

Get to work!  Dip those strawberries or pretzels and lay them out on waxed paper to harden.  You can reheat the chocolate once, maybe twice, before it starts to resist your efforts.  Take advantage.  Smaller batches work a little better.

When we finished with the first coat of chocolate (some white, some milk chocolate); we used the colored pieces to add designs.  We melted it down and then placed it in plastic bags and cut the corners out to let it stream steadily.  It worked pretty well.

Because we made several hundred strawberries and pretzels, and they needed to last an entire day, we needed a way to refrigerate them.  We opted for party trays stacked on top of one another with the bottom third of several red Solo cups in between to keep them from crushing each other.  Sometimes I impress myself with my own genius.  And now you, too, can impress your friends and families with beautiful chocolate covered stuff.

Unfortunately, while I’m busy impressing everyone here, I’m still not getting anywhere on my blog post for work.  And I really need to do that so I can go to bed, which is where I really want to be.

Happy SAD everyone!