Holiday "Baking"

I'm always looking for a unique gift to give to co-workers around Christmas time. In October, I was browsing through the Sky Mall catalog on a flight and discovered beautiful chocolate covered strawberries for about $20 a half-dozen. Too rich for my blood, but surely I could make these delights for my work gifts.

As December has progressed, work has gotten more hectic. I've barely had time to think about Christmas gifts for co-workers; my main concern has been, "when do I get to leave?" But, in the back of my mind, I was going to prepare these strawberries. I picked up the berries and chocolate Sunday afternoon. Tuesday evening arrived, and it was time to start. Thankfully, I "googled" chocolate dipped strawberries and found a useful tip: spearing the berries with toothpicks and inverting on styrofoam to keep them uniformly covered, versus having a flat side if the berries were placed on wax paper to dry.

As I melted my chocolates and dipped my berries, creating this delicious forest, I realized I had nothing to package the berries in. Why hadn't I shopped for cute, decorative Christmas plates? I quick trip to Wal-Mart at 9:30, yielded small foil loaf pans, which I wrapped in plastic wrap and adorned with a bow. But, I should add that my "quick" trip to Wal-Mart was not so quick. I had to explore EVERY option for packaging the berries--white bowls with a green ring, green acrylic bowls, clear plates, red plates; I even pondered buying fabric napkins to us to tie up the foil pans. Nothing can be quick and easy with me. And, I needed some moisturizer and magnets to decorate to hold all the photo Christmas cards I've received; and someone told me about a cold medicine. (As you can see by the rambling nature of my post, my trip was not quick.)

I did return home to put ornaments in gift bags (oh yes, I had to buy some more gift bags, but I had to search for the best deal . . . ). By then the chocolate was all set, and so was I. It was 12:30 when I collapsed into bed. I'm a girl who goes to bed on "school nights" at 10 or 10:30, not 12:30.

After reading Devin's chocolate chip cookie post, I knew that I made the right decision to dip strawberries. My mother-in-law makes the best cookies for her husband's work gifts: pecan tassies, Mexican wedding cookies, and various candies. I just wish I had the energy and the time. (In Judy's defense, I've seen her up all hours of the night baking, so I could do the same.)

If you ever decide to dip some berries I have tips:
1. do the upside down styrofoam thing; it's great.
2. use skewers for really big berries, toothpicks aren't sturdy enough
3. plan your packaging in advance
4. mini cupcake liners make great holders for the berries
5. start before 8pm