Does anything say summer time quite as much as fresh strawberries?

I doubt it.

That’s why I love this fresh strawberry sauce. As soon as strawberries start appearing in the grocery store produce section- sometime in February- I start making this sauce.

It’s super easy and contains only three ingredients, yet it has the ability to transform, and elevate, any dish you add it to.

The possibilities for this sauce are endless, really, but a few of my favorites are:

-add it to lemonade for a restaurant-quality strawberry lemonade

-pour it over waffles, french toast, or pancakes (especially these yummy chocolate chip pancakes)

-use it as an ice cream topping

-spoon it over cheesecake

-serve it with shortcake or angel food cake and homemade whipped cream

Homemade Strawberry Sauce

-2 c. sliced or diced strawberries

-1/3 c. sugar

-2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine all ingredients. Stir constantly for 3-5 minutes, until berries begin to breakdown and sauce begins to form. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.

If you want a sauce with no berry chunks, you can run it through a blender or magic bullet. That’s what I do if I know I’ll be using the sauce for lemonade. If I plan to serve it over waffles or pancakes and want the sauce to have more texture, I just use a potato masher and break up the berries in the saucepan as they cool.

Store sauce in the refrigerator for a week or two. I doubt it will last that long.

I want to know: what will you do with your sauce?