This post is by Eat With Me contributor Eileen.

It’s a happy time of year when the grocery stores start selling two pounds of strawberries for the price of one. Strawberries are so delicious, and here in the Northeast, they’re a great harbinger of spring after our seemingly endless winters. I love them because four out of five of the members of my household eat them, which is a better success rate than virtually any other fruit or vegetable.

Still, there comes a time when even two perpetually hungry adults and two fast-growing children can’t keep up with the strawberry supply. Sometimes I slice and freeze them, which is a great way to satisfy a yen for strawberries once the season has passed. I use them in smoothies and muffins, and occasionally a pie. You could make preserves, but my domestic abilities aren’t there yet. Last week, I decided to try making strawberry syrup, and I’m happy to report that it’s an excellent and easy way to knock off a whole pound.

The night before I wanted to make the syrup, I washed and thinly sliced a pound of strawberries.

I sprinkled them with ¼ cup of granulated sugar. My mom always served us strawberries this way … I don’t think fresh strawberries need any embellishment, but macerating them in sugar releases their juices, which seemed an obvious first step in making syrup. I covered the bowl and let them sit in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, I put the strawberries in a saucepan and cooked them over very low heat. Meanwhile, I whipped up a batch of cornmeal pancakes, following a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks: Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. The strawberries burbled along nicely while I cooked the pancakes, pausing every so often to mash up the berries.

I tasted the berries, and sprinkled in another few tablespoons of sugar. The flavor was right on, but the consistency wasn’t yet syrupy. I decided to try cornstarch although, as an amateur cook, I feared it might turn my syrup into a floury mess. I mixed just a tablespoon of it with about two tablespoons of orange juice, then stirred that into the pot. Success! The cornstarch thickened the berry mixture nicely, with no floury taste, and the orange juice gave it a subtle zing.

The one-pound box of berries reduced to just a cup of strawberry syrup. We ate it with our yummy homemade pancakes that day, then with plain old frozen waffles for the rest of the week.

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