It is strawberry season in Florida and that means one thing – I need to figure out what to do with strawberries so the pints I buy at the farmers’ market don’t just sit in my fridge until they are unrecognizable as the delicious fruit they are. I made a orange vinaigrette the other day and only used half for the recipe and decided to pair a strawberry and goat cheese salad with the vinaigrette and see what happened. Not only did it taste fantastic, it looked really pretty.

I also made strawberry french toast. I had not made french toast in a VERY long time – we almost never have leftover bread (or bread unless I buy it for a specific dish) so french toast just does not happen. In this case, I use a little orang zest in the milk/egg mixture and made a citrus french toast and topped it with fresh strawberries. How pretty was this?!?!

So the maple orange vinaigrette …

• Zest of 1 orange
• Juice of 1/2 orange
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

That’s it. It is super simple, but really delicious. I used it in three different dishes that week (yes, I made two batches) and each one of them was better than the last.