DIY Herb Pallet Garden

For Mother's Day/my Mother-in-Law's birthday, the three daughter in laws built her this herb pallet garden.  It was so simple and turned out so cute!  I now need to build one for myself :)

We started with a small pallet.  I then cut spare boards from other pallets, as well as some leftover 1 x 4 boards to fit the bottom of each row and screwed them in.  

We then used chalk board paint to create a writing surface, and stenciled our herb names onto each space.  Soil filled in each of the boxes, and then we planted our herbs!  We included basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, lavender, and strawberries.  You will need about 1/2-3/4 of a regular sized bag of soil to fill a small pallet like this.  

I loved how simple it was to create, and how cute it turned out!  I can't wait to find another pallet for my own herb garden at home.  

The Best Ever Strawberry Dip

Nearly every time I serve up this tasty dip, everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.  And then they taste it.  And they feel disappointed they've been missing out on this deliciousness all their lives.  "What is it?",  you might be wondering.  Well, it's a strawberry dip made with brown sugar and......sour cream!  No joke.  

All you need for this tasty recipe is a bowl of washed strawberries, a small bowl of sour cream, and a small bowl of brown sugar.  Dip your strawberries in the sour cream, and then in the brown sugar.  And then eat, be amazed, and repeat the process.  Pretty simple, eh?  What are you waiting for?  Go try it out!  Be sure to come back here and tell me how amazed you were once you actually tried it, too, okay?

P.S....this was actually served at our wedding 8 years ago by one of our guests/friends.  She used styrofoam craft balls and put the strawberries on toothpicks into the balls to make it look like a strawberry "tree".  The sour cream and brown sugar were served just next to it.  It was AMAZING and beautiful! 

How to Freeze Strawberries

When you make a major score on fresh strawberries (12 pounds worth) at your local grocery store, you inevitably have to freeze some to avoid any going to waste.  Do you know how to freeze strawberries? Well let me show you!  It's super easy and doesn't take much time at all.  

You will need:

An 8x8 dish 

Wax or parchment paper

Ziploc freezer baggies

1. Start by washing your berries.  Cut the tops off (set tops aside in a bowl) and slice your berries into quarters (or halves if they're small).  

2. Line your dish with wax paper.  Lay the berries in a flat layer across the paper.  You don not want them smooshed together or they will freeze together.  When you fill a layer, add another sheet of wax, and repeat with more berries.

Now, check out my leftover top pieces above.  Do yours look like mine?  There's still strawberry on them!  Those little pieces are perfect for adding to a bowl of oatmeal!  So....

3. Chop off all the extra little bits of strawberry from the stem.  Look how much I got from one top piece!  

4.  Create a separate layer for these small pieces.  Again, spread them out over the paper.

5.  Place the dish in the freezer and allow the berries to freeze.  

6.  Remove berries from dish, and place into labeled freezer baggies.

We use our chopped berries in smoothies, and our small bits in bowls of oatmeal (which we have almost every morning!) or yogurt.

Chocolate Filled Strawberries

Like I said, those 12 pounds of cheap strawberries I bought this last week would lead to a lot of strawberry recipe posts!  

This one is super easy to do.  Simply cut off the top of the strawberry and cut a small hole out of the middle.

Melt some chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until done.  

Put the chocolate into a Ziploc baggie, cut the tip of the bag off, and squeeze some chocolate into each strawberry center.

Place in the fridge to set.

Now, I must admit, you cannot eat these straight out of the fridge.  They need to be room temp or meltier to eat (well, you CAN eat the straight out of the fridge, but I personally did not like the big chuck of hard chocolate in the middle).

The solution?  Sit outside in the sun and let your chocolate melt a little bit (not all the way).  NOW they can be eaten in bites!  And they are oh-so-delicious!

While I like the look and ease of these, I truly think I'll stick to strawberries dipped in chocolate in the future (except maybe parties and such).  Though, eating them outside once melty really was just fine in my opinion ;)