A lesson in choc-covered strawberries

Over the past few years, I've become enamored with chocolate-covered strawberries. I think you could almost say "obsessed" vs. just enamored.

I love the darn things - the bigger the better, of course!

I love to buy them, but I also really enjoy making them. Here are a few lessons-learned I've picked up from making my own:

• Chocolate - Only purchase the Hershey's chocolate shell coating. Any other brand will leave choc remnants on your wax paper vs. sticking to your strawberry. And use a small, child's cup (my fav is one of the sippy cups from Tupperware) to hold your choc so you can easily dip the strawberry into it.
• Strawberries - Cut the damn leaves off. It is annoying trying to eat around the leaves. As I said, I also like the bigger strawberries, yet the smaller ones are probably sweeter.
• Wax paper - I place my strawberries on wax paper over a cookie sheet. This keeps the strawberries from sticking to the pan.
• Quantity - If you believe your small family will only eat a dozen...make two dozen because you are dead wrong. That small family will devour those 12 strawberries and lift their heads to sniff out more. They will look like freaks from a horror movie, with strawberry juice dripping from their chins. The lesson here is to overdue it; buy 2 cartons of berries and dip them all!
• Announcing your dessert choice - I believing timing is key here. If I have one or two picky, dinner eaters I'm apt to announce my yummy, berry goodness as our dessert choice a little early in the meal. However, if I have a lazy eater (or two!) I will keep this a secret until the end of the meal, and watch them shovel their meals in their mouths in order to earn that yummy, berry goodness. As I said, timing is key.

And there you have it, peeps. I challenge you to try it yourselves at home.