Strawberries with balsamic vinegar

Strawberries are in season right now, and at Costco they have these HUGE 5-lb containers of strawberries for about $6. Needless to say, I always have to buy one when I'm there. My intentions are always the best ... I tell myself that I'm going to have fresh strawberries until they're coming out my ears because they're good for me and they're not a lot of WW points. HA!

Yesterday I picked up a new container, thinking that the strawberries in my fridge from last time had probably gone bad. When I got home and went to exchange the old for the new, I found that my "old" container of strawberries was still in good shape and suddenly? I've got TEN pounds of strawberries!


Luckily a blogger buddy of mine recently posted that she'd put balsamic vinegar on her strawberries as a way to flavor and preserve them. HUH? I was just as confused as I was intrigued by this. Don't get me wrong, I love strawberries and I ALSO love balsamic vinegar. The combination just seemed to weird to be good. I googled a recipe (sure enough it's the Italian way to eat strawberries! Mangia! I'm an uncultured redneck!) and used this one as a template for my own little experiment. Hey! I had strawberries to burn and if I didn't end up liking it what did I have to lose?

First I hulled and cut up the strawberries and then gave them a quick rinse. I set aside a smaller bowl to make balsamic strawberries and just sprinkled sugar over the rest in another container to preserve them for later. Then to my bowl I added an easy tablespoon of the balsamic vinegar (I was scared!) and a tablespoon of sugar. The recipe also called for pepper, which I omitted. Then I left the covered bowl on the counter until I could get around to dessert later (it took three hours).
Later when Sydney was sleeping and after I'd eaten my dinner, I spaded a few scoops of ice cream into the bowl and took a tentative bite.

I was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting the sharp taste of vinegar, but instead the strawberries just tasted flat out DELICIOUS! They weren't too sweet or too bitter ... perfection. The marination was the key: the vinegar absorbed into the berries and married the sugar beautifully. I will probably be making this again tonight for my husband when he gets home from his trip (and then making it again and again all summer long!).