five things Friday: strawberry season edition

June brings with it many great things, and high on the list: strawberry season. While pineapples are currently an "in" thing to sport on everything from shoes to tees to home decor, I think my favorite fruit is even more fun on these five finds:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Carrying around that phone case or umbrella would brighten up any day wouldn't it? And I love that this nail polish is named "strawberry margarita" perfect thing to have on my strawberry-picking fingers... The top use for freshly picked berries at my house? PIE.

Here's one of the 3 pies I made/partook of in this year's strawberry season - fingers crossed that there will still be some berries available when I get back from my week-long work trip so I can get another! And if you have any left in your area, get you a couple of quarts and make one for yourself. Recipe below...

Strawberry pie

Ingredients
Pie crust
Approx. 2 quarts strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 cup water
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons strawberry jello mix


Instructions
Wash and hull the strawberries; prepare the pie crust (from freezer section at the grocery store; bake it according to the package directions).

Put the sugar, corn syrup, water, salt, and corn starch in a sauce pan. Heat on medium/high, stirring constantly, until the consistency thickens and the mixture turns clear (you'll know when it happens; it's a pretty drastic change); boil for about a minute while continuing to stir. Take off the heat, let cool in a bit, and mix in the jello powder.

Arrange the berries in the pie crust and pour cooled mixture over top. Let it set up in the fridge for a while, and then you're ready to eat - once you've put a nice helping of whipped cream on top, of course.