Stir Continuously with Strawberry Syrup

(Are you here for the blog give away? You're in the right place!!!)

We used to go to the pancake house on Saturday mornings. The kids loved the different flavored syrups and I loved that I didn't have to clean up. Since we moved, we live too far away to make it every Saturday. Well, I got a killer deal on strawberries this week so we decided to bring a little of the pancake house to our house with this extremely simple Strawberry Syrup recipe.

For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Strawberry Syrup

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 cups strawberries, puréed

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, water and strawberries in a medium sized pot.

2. Stir constantly as you bring to a boil over medium heat.

3. Boil for 5 minutes.

4. Remove from stove and turn off burner.

5. Serve warm or cold.

I had my 8 year old help make the syrup. He's learning different rules for the stove and I still haven't gotten him to the point that I feel good about him using it by himself. However, this recipe was a good chance for us to work on stove-top safety and stirring technique. 

The first thing I explained was WHY we have to keep stirring. This recipe has sugar and sugar will burn easily if it sits on the bottom of the pan. We stir the syrup to move the sugar off the bottom and evenly distribute the heat. Bada-Bing he knows I'm not giving him busy work!

We discussed holding the handle while he stirred to keep the pot steady as he moved the stuff inside. (He's a lefty so I set it up for him to stir with his left hand and hold with his right.)

I also had to give him a pattern to follow because he kept stirring the same spot. He liked: circle, circle, make an 8. It seemed to cover the whole pan as his 8's were not uniform in shape.  All in all this was great practice and I'd let him do this again without me watching. It's great to feel like I can trust him to stir while I go figure out the main dish. AND he feels taller for gaining my trust. Besides all those wonderful outcomes, the syrup was really yummy. 

Sooooo, I promised a give away today. Do you see that really cute pirate dish towel in the picture? The one with the ruffles? The one that is the perfect addition to any kitchen for Halloween. 

That's what I'm giving away. All you have to do to enter is follow my blog. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. Good luck!