Strawberries and Chocolate

Last Sunday night we had some friends over for dinner who are both confirmed chocoholics so I had my work cut out for me when it came to the final course of our meal. I have a philosophy that "it's never really an event without two desserts". So, taking my own advice, I whipped out two easy treats featuring freshly picked strawberries from our garden and plenty of chocolate.

For the first dessert course, we had strawberries smeared with Capriole Farm's Fommage a Tois Bourbon Chocolate Torta (a naughty but oh-so-nice chocolate goat cheese laced with bourbon, pecans, and raisins).Then it was onto the second dessert course-- a tiny tart made simple with little store bought bases and a dollop of rich dark chocolate ganache. All I did to make that crowd pleaser was bring one cup of cream to a boil and poured it over 12 ounces of chopped dark chocolate that I'd put into a glass bowl. After ten minutes, I stirred the mixture together until it formed a glossy rich ganache. Then I poured about a teaspoon of it into each tart base and plopped a strawberry on top of it. While I was making the tarts I accidentally dropped a few (OK, maybe not by accident and maybe more than a few) berries in the warm ganache. Dessert number 3 anyone?