Strawberries

We picked 8 pounds of strawberries yesterday at Huber's farm. We discussed on the way home how funny it is that for a good price and the idea of having "fun," people willingly subject themselves to manual labor in the hot sun. Us included. Heck, I can't wait for raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries to come into season, either! Last night I made strawberry shortcake, which was really good, but there are still a lot of shortcakes and whipped cream left, and I'm still supposedly trying to lose weight. Oh well. It's a good thing we have friends in the building -- I think they'll be getting some shortcake tonight.

In the meantime, do you have any good strawberry recipes? When I buy a pint from the store, I usually just eat them fresh with whipped cream (real, not from a can!), but I'm not sure I can do that with 8 pounds of them. Plus, I don't have an electric hand mixer for beating the whipped cream. Last night I managed to whisk it stiff enough by hand, but now my arm hurts, so I don't think I can do that again. Oh well. It's a good thing we have friends in the building -- married friends, so they probably registered for an electric mixer that I can borrow. I'm also eagerly awaiting the results of the Beep Food section recipe request for strawberries -- maybe there will be something good there. (By the way, I know that Beep is a Chicago-area site, but our friend Jon is the food editor, so I keep up with it.)