Do you remember the Mark Peel cherry ice cream sauce that I told you made me cry at the Silver Spoons event?  That sauce was so incredible that I found myself daydreaming about it a week later.  A dish that sticks in your mind like that must be recreated.  Now, I’m no Mark Peel, but I figured I should be able to jimmy up a home-style version that would appease my craving.  Oh people, I wish I could send each of you a little jar of this divine sauce so you believe me when I say that it may be the best thing I’ve ever made.

At the event, I actually had the nerve (ahem, cajones) to ask Mark what was in his cherry sauce.  Wine.  Vanilla.  Star anise.  Cherries.  Working from that rough outline, I came up with a respectable tribute to his other-worldly original.  A good red wine reduction sauce paired with juicy, fresh Bing cherries, freshly scraped vanilla beans and spooned over vanilla ice cream.  Say hello to your new Grown Up Ice Cream Sundae.

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At the first sight of ripe, red strawberries at the grocery store each spring, I go absolutely bonkers.  Bonkers, people. Three pints for $5? Great, I’ll take six … that kind of bonkers.  After a long, cold winter of nothing but apples, pears and imported oranges, strawberries are a sign of all things summery to come.  Visions of warm days filled with cookouts, burgers and fruit salad dance through my mind.  Of course, this all leads to thought of lounging poolside in a bathing suit, which immediately puts a damper on my desire to swirl those beautiful strawberries into a batter of sugar, flour, butter and all kinds of badness.

What is better than a bowl brimming with fresh, ripe strawberries topped with a lush, creamy vanilla yogurt?  Not much.  The beautiful thing about this dessert is the utter simplicity of it.  When it’s too darn hot for thinking of turning on the oven, this cool bowl of deliciousness is a perfect way to satisfy your sweet tooth without sabotaging your bathing suit body!  Rather than topping these beautiful berries with gobs of whipped cream, the topping is a mixture of Greek yogurt, agave nectar (or honey) and vanilla.  Super simple, low-calorie deliciousness to keep you in bathing suit shape!

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I’ve had this scone recipe from the incomparable Heidi, waiting in the wings for a few weeks. I’ve become slightly obsessed with agave nectar and, since Heidi already used a natural sweetener (maple syrup), I thought this would be a perfect recipe to experiment with.  I should probably warn you … when you come home from the store with a mountain of strawberries that look as beautiful as these do and you happen to have just enough milk in the fridge for one batch of scones … you might end up having what I’ve termed a Sudden Strawberry Scone Emergency.

Fear not, this emergency can be easily and quickly handled.  However, there is only one way to put out the fire: Make strawberry scones immediately.  Luckily, these only take about 35 minutes to prep and bake (plus a few minutes for cooling … if you can wait!).  Upon devouring these perfect little scones, your Sudden Strawberry Scone Emergency will be under control in no time.  At least mine was!

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