Well, we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. At all. We let the kids do their things at school with the Valentines and the candy-fest, but Andy and I take a stand against a holiday about love- we celebrate love everyday, and hate the fact that it’s become a frantic gift-giving holiday, spurned on by greeting cards and jewelry stores. Do we really need to spend money to show our affection for each other? No, so we don’t celebrate, and Valentine’s Day is known in our house as February 14th.
However, this week we’ve been happily exploring uses for a homemade Strawberry Syrup I concocted, and when I put this one together tonight, it just looked so appropriate for the day that I just had to share it.
(I really need to put away the Christmas dishes.)
Strawberry Syrup, Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, and Mom’s Brownies. It was delicious, and a very rare, but spectacular treat. Now normally, I would be a gooey fan, this would have to be topped with caramel or hot fudge or marshmallow sauce to be spectacular- but I’m really digging this strawberry sauce and I thought it was a spectacular compliment to the brownies and ice cream. I’m trying to figure out if I could use it to actually bake in the brownies.
The syrup was originally created to top a French Toast dinner, but has also found it’s way on ice cream, and last night I also tried drizzling it in milk for homemade strawberry milk. Have you tried purchased strawberry milk? It tastes like sugar at best, but this, this one tasted like strawberry milk. It was absolutely delicious- although there was a bit of sediment on the bottom of the glass. We’ve eaten up the first jar of Strawberry Syrup in just under a week’s time, so I guess I’ll be making more. We’ll never buy strawberry syrup again.
Simple Strawberry Syrup
1 package frozen strawberries, thawed 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juicePuree the strawberries in a blender with their juices. (Or use an immersion blender or food processor.) You should end up with 2 cups of strawberry puree.
Strain the puree if you have issues with seeds. We didn’t strain.
Combine the puree, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it starts to boil, stirring frequently.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring often, until a nice, thick syrupy consistency. Basically, as thick as you’d like.
Cool, and store in a mason jar in the fridge for 7 to 10 days.
You are evil and that looks too good.
I think making cut out cookies for Hallmark and Flower Shop day is a good way to celebrate. But this year it’s a deadline and candy at the computer for me.
Yuuuumm… I love brownies and ice cream! 🙂
But J- it’s strawberries! Those are good for you, and uh, cocoa is full of antioxidants!
Rina, I’m not a big ice cream person in the winter normally, but paired with brownies, it’s such a weakness.
What size package of strawberries? 12 oz? 1 lb? I totally want to try this!
Colleen, I used whole strawberries I had frozen myself in a quart size freezer bag. Hope that helps.