Strawberry mashing adventures!

So we did the cooking yesterday for the major part of our project. We all got together at Maria's house and I showed up early to chop strawberries for the strawberry pudding. A couple things are interesting to note here:

1) no matter how many times I read the recipe for the strawberry pudding, I pictured it totally differently than what the recipe said. For some reason in my mind it would be chopped up strawberries and some bread... sort of a strawberry cobbler type thing. The recipe did not give this indication, I just like to make stuff up in my head I guess.

2) It was going to be my job to mash up the strawberries. I was very excited about this because it sounded super fun. I like to make art and play with food and generally get into stuff, so mashing anything is super cool to me. (26 year old who acts like a 5 year old say what?)

So I chopped the strawberrries into little tiny pieces so they'd be easier to mash. This was also fun for me.

After that, the mashing began. I was very fun at first. I had little chunks of strawberry and was mashing them through a siv with a spoon! It gushed and gooped and was really messy. So exciting for me.

Despite the initial fun, after about 15 minutes I realized that mashing strawberries wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It hurts your hands and takes a long long time. My other group members completed so many other tasks before I was even half way done. You'll see in the picture that they're doing other stuff while I am still mashing away.

The really good thing I will say about mashing strawberries is that it smells delicious! I loved that part! I wanted to eat them as well as wear them as a perfume. I wondered how they might have mashed the strawberries back in the Middle Ages, and if they would also have thought the smell to be so amazing. How could you not? I wonder if they played with it the way I did though?

So after a while of continuous mashing...

It was time to add the ground almonds, wine, and cinnamon, and bring it to a boil. After simmering it and realizing it wouldn't chill as quickly in the fride, we popped it in the freezer (handy for us, but we did talk about the fact that in the past maybe they just left it sitting for a few hours to cool). Then it was time for a taste!

It was beautiful and amazingly delicious. We couldn't believe there was no dairy in it! We decided that we'd all make this simple and yummy recipe in the future.

So mashing strawberries for what seemed like forever, and having pains in your hands and arms, were nothing compared to how wonderful this tasted! I'd do it again for sure! Best dish of the day! And we had a lot of fun!