Balsamic Strawberries

I promised a very tasty strawberry dessert this week and it's been quite the journey getting here.  My first idea was to make strawberry cupcakes, however these turned out a dark purple muffin (which I feel tasted quite similar to blueberry muffins).  I was extremely disappointed.  So, Tuesday I set out my second attempt at making them, altering the recipe a bit and chopping the strawberries rather than pureeing them and adding them to the mix.  What I ended up with was more of an eggy, spongelike muffin than a cupcake.  Again, it tasted like blueberries to me, but it wasn't purple!  Dylan actually loved both versions and ate several of them, but I'm not happy with either and decided that I would give my strawberry cupcakes a rest for the week. 

I spent the next couple of days this week trying to figure out a fun way to use these strawberries and decided on using the balsamic vinegar.  I've never had balsamic strawberries before so I wasn't really all that sure what to expect when I sliced them up and added them to the balsamic, sugar mixture.  I patiently waited the next hour until it was time to try them and heated them up on the stove just until warm, finally pouring them over top of vanilla ice cream. (I opted out of sprinkling black pepper on top, I still find this a strange combination, but maybe next time...) When I finally took that first bite of warm strawberries soaked in balsamic and vanilla ice cream...I didn't think I liked it.  It wasn't until about the 3rd or 4th bite that I decided it really wasn't so bad and started to really enjoy it.  Dylan however, loved it from the beginning, which definitely surprised me (although, I guess it shouldn't, she has quite the taste buds)!

I do think that I will be making this again and I'm looking forward to finishing off the strawberries for tomorrow's (or maybe even tonight's) late night dessert!