{pinterest fail}

then i saw something shiny and totally forgot about the pin, the recipe and the strawberries.

until we went to baton rouge a couple of weekends ago. alina sliced up some of the biggest, sweetest strawberries i have ever seen this late in the season and we ate them with roasted & salted almonds and it was a delicious snack. while i was sitting there eating these delectable strawberries, alarm bells started ringing in my head.

i thought about the dried strawberries from central market, pondered on how to make dried strawberries and… wait just a hot second. I PINNED A DRIED STRAWBERRY RECIPE! eureka!

and that folks is how a reverse train of thought works. in case you were wondering.

so i printed out the recipe, bought some strawberries at brookshire’s and with single-minded devotion drove home and started slicing them according to this recipe:

dried strawberries from the world wide gourmet

ladies and gentlemen, i present to you how to NOT dry strawberries.

step one: don’t rush into brookshires and buy the first box of strawberries your fingers touch. take your time and look for the biggest, plumpest ones with bright red skin. once the prize package of strawberries has been located, take them home, wash them and lay them out on a cookie sheet. do not, i repeat, DO NOT slice them up, quarter them, dice them or julienne them. leave them in all their beautiful heart-shaped glory.

step two: put on the “yes-i-am-a-crazy-woman” apron to keep the strawberry juice from staining a shirt you aren’t exactly sure how to wash since it has lace on it.

step three: set your oven to 210 degrees. arrange the strawberries in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (wait – can you even stack strawberries? nevermind.) place in the oven. do not leave your house (like i did – the husband and i went to dinner). stay home and check on the strawberries every once in a while after the first hour.

step four: do not allow the strawberries to become dark, burnt, or crispy. a dark, burnt or crispy strawberry does not a chewy & delicious snack make. the recipe says to leave them in the oven for 3 hours. i would suspect that had i not sliced these pretty babies up they might have been halfway edible.

step five: scrape, cuss, scrape the strawberries into a little pile. take a test bite of the largest one that looks the least disgusting. spit it in the trash.

step six: explain to your husband that you just wasted a bunch of strawberries and make him proudly smile when you tell him that yes, you are still going to blog about the recipe.

so has anyone else had a disastrous recipe fail like this one? or a pinterest project fail? normally i would have gone with my gut instinct on this and not sliced them but i was following the recipe. i am going to give it another shot. i will let you know how attempt number two comes out!