Fresh Strawberries at the pig pen

We love strawberries at this pig pen and nothing beats fresh strawberries from my mother-in-law's strawberry patch this time of year.  This weekend we got our first quart of strawberries from her strawberry patch and they were delicious. 

You really can use strawberries in several ways.  My mother-in-law made us a fresh strawberry pie earlier in the week and I have a great family recipe for a strawberry cake, but really I must admit you can't beat fresh sliced strawberries by themselves or with a little ice cream, shortcake, and/or cool whip. 

When using strawberries in any way, it is really important as it is with all fruits and vegetables that you wash and dry them really well prior to doing anything else with them.

After I washed our strawberries, I cut off the stems and sliced them into smaller pieces so they were easier to eat.

My husband and I both grew up with our families sprinkling sugar on top of the sliced strawberries to create an amazing syrup and make the strawberries just a little bit sweeter.  Sugar works quite well; however, it takes a little bit of time for it to breakdown and create the strawberry syrup which is why I prefer to use powdered sugar.

I love powdered sugar and it works amazing on strawberries.  Truly within minutes, it works to help create a syrup from the strawberries and makes them perfectly sweet. 

I just sprinkle a couple of tablespoons on top of the strawberries and add more later if needed.  You really can probably never add too much if you have a sweet tooth like me. 

I realize adding sugar of any kind may defeat the purpose of eating fruit, but it sure does make them yummy.