Strawberries & Chocolate

It's not that I have moved to Stepford, but my girlfriends here have shared their strawberry dipping recipe and technique with me.

Here in the Salad Bowl of California, it is strawberry season and there is much talk of Big John, known for his, uh, berries (and their size) at the Templeton market on Saturdays and the Paso Robles farmeer's market on Tuesdays (3-6pm).

With freshly grown and harvested strawberries in hand, I was sent to the supermarket to buy a tub of Dolci Frutta-- a chocolate dipping sauce in microwave container, about $3 (SACO Foods, Middleton, WI; 800/373-7226; www.dolcifrutta.com). One woman did whisper there was a trick to it all but the others just laughed and said it was so easy it was almost a joke.

Ha ha on me. I'm the one who has been using a bain marie and imported chocolate and going to the moon in my efforts to make chocolate dipped strawberries. The ones I tested were perfection, so I was out to follow in my new friends' micro-steps.

THe 4-part directions are printed outside the container. I followed them, although after 1.5 minutes I was almost there and considered quitting. BUT the directions said two minutes, checking every 30 seconds. At the next interval, I had brown cow patties. Uh-oh. Was this the tricky part?

Seems that I was to turn the microwave down to medium and I over-zapped. Still, the sauce was great; Big John's berries were great and I have 0% cholesterol but 9 grams of fat to add to my intake list.

Do not refrigerate.