Strawberry Sauce

Recipe via ourbestbites.com
This strawberry sauce has about a million uses, is freezer-friendly, and is so much better than that jar of Smuckers strawberry sauce that you've had sitting in your fridge since that time you made banana splits 1 1/2 years ago.

1 pint strawberries
1/3 c. white sugar
1 tsp. almond extract (my favorite) or vanilla extract

Wash strawberries and remove stems. If you're feeling ambitious, you can roughly chop the berries, but I say you're already feeling ambitious enough by making your own strawberry sauce. So don't sweat it.

Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.

After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of large chunks of mystery fruit, so I like it smooth, but you can do it however you want.

Wanna know what to do with it?

--Make banana splits with this and Sara's hot fudge sauce

--Drizzle over plain ol' cheesecake

--Spoon some over this ice cream, with or without the cinnamon (depending on how brave you're feeling)

--I'm envisioning this sauce atop a pizzookie with sugar cookie dough and lemon ice cream

--My proudest use of strawberry sauce: mix a couple of tablespoons (depending on the size of the glass and your own personal taste) with this fresh-squeezed lemonade for strawberry lemonade. So so so so good...

--Chocolate waffles, anyone? If that's not your thing, you could put them on your favorite French toast, waffles, or pancakes. Speaking of French Toast- try this one!

--Drizzle over angel food cake and add a dollop of sweetened whipped cream.