Trading Snow for Sunshine

Tomorrow, I'm headed to Mesa, Arizona to see Grandma and Grandpa Barrett and take advantage of Marting Luther King Jr providing me with a 3 day weekend. It's been a long time since I've seen them, and an even longer time since I've seen them at their home in Leisure World. Seriously, that's the name of it. People drive golf carts on the roads and play cribbage all day. Sounds odd, but I love it there. While all my friends in college would go to Padre Island, or Mexico for Spring Break, I went to Leisure World.

Mostly, I'm excited about getting back to some warm weather. Colorado has been unseasonably snowy lately. The picture is the snow in our back yard. 3 weeks ago the airport closed. 2 weeks ago people died from the snowy conditions. Last week an avalanche buries people alive and they had to be dug out. This Friday we're set up to get more snow. I just hope my plane makes it out before it gets too bad.

Following the food theme of yesterday's post, I'm looking forward to eating at my Mesa Favorites like the Organ Stop and Luby's. Okay, obviously they aren't my favorites because of the food, but because of the memories I have eating there with my grandparents. I also want to make a trip to the Orange Patch to pick up some great oranges to eat.

If you've never been to the Organ Stop, think Chuck E Cheese for old people. There's nothing like a room full of senior citizens swinging their beer mugs in the air and singing the Iowa state song to the sounds of a HUGE pipe organ. If you've never been and you're in Mesa, you have to go. It's an experience.

Also on my trip, I'm going to be hooking up with some dear old friends from back in my Oklahoma days who took refuge in Arizona. I can't wait to see everyone and catch up on what's been going on. Hey, maybe we can all go to Luby's for dinner! - No, not really.

Chocolate Filled Strawberries

One of my wife's favorite sweets is chocolate covered strawberries. In fact I've noticed that pretty much anything with chocolate in the name has a good chance of being enjoyed by women. I wonder if I would have introduced myself to my wife when we first met as Matt "Chocolate" Barrett if I wouldn't have had to work so hard to woo her. Hmmm...

Anyway, during the holiday season I came up with a great idea to improve on the chocolate covered strawberry idea. I call it Chocolate Filled Strawberries. (Original isn't it?)

Here's what I did.

Take a normal strawberry. It has to be one of decent size though. Think golf ball size.










Then get one of those melon ballers and scoop out the stem and insides of the berry. You'll need a small melon baller to do it right. Set the stem aside, you'll need it later for garnish.










It may take a second or third scoop, depending on the size of the berry. Your ultimate goal is to hollow the berry out and make a nice cavity to fill with chocolate.











Use a small teaspoon to fill with melted chocolate.











Once filled, your berry should look like this.









Now, pull a couple of leaves from the stem and press into the chocolate as garnish and dust with powdered sugar. I know my powdered sugar looks a little heavier than a dusting, but what the picture doesn't show is my kids waiting to open their one present on Christmas Eve and I got in a hurry.










Refrigerate until the chocolate hardens.

I was amazed at how different the taste experience was from a chocolate covered strawberry. Normally, you crunch through the hard chocolate and finally get the berry. This way you first taste the berry, then the chocolate starts melting in your mouth. Plus the bright red berry is much prettier than plain brown chocolate.