Today's Strawberry Harvest

It looks like it is going to be a great year for strawberries... this is what we picked from our strawberry patch today.

We planted several plants a few years ago and they send out runners to start new little plants each year. Some years are better than others -- it seems like every other year is especially fruitful. Not only do the strawberry plants make practical and beautiful ground cover, they, of course, are healthy and delicious.

The strawberries we gathered tonight are intensely red and have a great texture. While I love strawberries from the store, it is a very special treat to have ones from your own garden.

While no calories were spared on the fresh whipped cream, would you ever be able to tell that there is spinach puree in the brownie underneath?

There are lots of spinach brownie recipes out there and tonight I tried a new one from recipezaar.com. This one calls for frozen spinach but I used fresh spinach... just steam it for a few minutes first.

Brownies (with spinach & carrot)
3 eggs
21 ounces brownie mix
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup carrot juice
1 tablespoon milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9"x13" pan with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Squeeze out the liquid from the spinach. Place spinach, vegetable oil, milk and carrot juice in a blender and puree until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the brownie mix, 3 eggs, and the spinach mixture until well blended. Spread batter into pan and bake 40 minutes.