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Jul 31

One Year Ago Today- August 1, 2015

It has been a year since the passing of my sweet Nando. Writing this is hard because I am still grieving. Percy is a gift and the sweetest boy, I love him dearly and he was just what I needed to help me deal with the pain of losing both of my sweet babies less than a year apart. There are many happy memories and I will cherish them forever. This is my way of honoring the memory of my babies, you don’t have to comment unless you want to, not obligated. The hole in my heart has a bandaid covering it, it has not healed and never will.

He loved to sit on my lap while I worked

Nando was brave, loving and the best most well behaved dog ever. a kinder or more gentle soul you would be hard pressed to find. He was a real gentleman, more than anything in the world Nando loved to eat, it made me so happy seeing him scarf down his food with such joy and gusto. Within a minute his bowl would be clean and he would sit next to Izzy, patiently waiting for her to finish so that he could lick her bowl clean as well. Izzy was a finicky eater and often would not finish her food, Nando counted on that.

Izzy waiting for Nando to clean her bowl

It was just 2 months shy of his 15th birthday when Nando passed away from a brain tumor. I have mentioned in many posts how he was diabetic and blind. He developed diabetes when he was 8 years old and lived with diabetes for almost 7 years. The last year of his life was not happy times, he started deteriorating when Izzy passed. They were best friends, I have never seen two dogs so close to each other. Her passing weighed heavily on Nando, and it seemed like he lost his will to live, the brain tumor diagnosis hit hard and he went downhill very quickly.

Izzy was first and what they say is true, you can’t have just one pug. I felt that Izzy needed a companion and I registered with a local pug rescue group saying that I wanted a young adult pug. They told me that is a tough one and I may have to wait a year or longer. I was prepared to do just that. Only 4 days after submitting my application I got a call from them saying that they had a young black pug who was found tied to a pole in Long Island with a note tied around his neck and all his medical records. He was 10 1/2 months old. They asked me if I would like to adopt him, of course I couldn’t get the YES out quickly enough and the next day Nando arrived. I don’t think I have ever seen a pug as big as Nando, he was twice Izzy’s size, a gentle giant. Izzy immediately fell in love with him as did I.

I try to concentrate on the happy memories but it’s hard when the last months of his life were so traumatic. I am so thankful that I was given the gift of caring for Izzy and Nando, taking care of those very special souls was so much a part of my life, when they passed away part of me died with them.

I am so thankful to have Percy and very grateful to Emily for choosing me to care for this special boy. I spent so many years caring for Izzy and Nando with so many health problems, it was a lot of work, day and night. At the end of Nando’s life I was not sleeping or eating regularly and everyday I watched him deteriorate and I’m afraid I was deteriorating as well.

Rest in Peace Nando, my sweet boy. I will always love you!

Jul 30

73 Comments

Peach And Blueberry Tart

This was a really busy week, I have neglected the blog, between work, the community work I do and this oppressive heat I haven’t had time or the inclination to use my stove/oven. On Thursday I got to meet one of the bloggers that I have been following for a long time, Shashi whose wonderful blog Runnin Srilankin is always chock full of delicious healthful recipes. We met at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and had pizza at Grimaldi’s. It was great finally meeting her in person.

Last weekend I went to a barbeque, and decided to be daring and try a new recipe. This is a tried and true recipe that is very popular on Food52, it’s by Amanda Hesser and she got it from her Mom. I used frozen peaches which is not the best idea as they produced a lot of juice and some plucots. The party was great but I had to leave before dessert was served and I didn’t get a chance to try it. The feedback though was that it was amazing. The simplicity of this recipe is what drew me, a press in crust that uses oil not butter, fresh fruit and you make a sugar, flour and butter crumble topping and sprinkle it on before baking.

Today I went to the farmers market and got some great produce, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, nectarines and blueberries. Since I didn’t get to taste the tart I decided to make it today using the nectarines. Best laid plans don’t always work, the nectarines were very ripe and I put them at the bottom of my cart without thinking and 3 of them got squished, I will blame it on the heat, for once I only bought enough for the tart, since I had some blueberries I decided to use them as well.

This tart is a winner, and I hope you give it a try. The ease of preparation, use of delicious seasonal fruit and beautiful presentation make this tart one that I will make over and over again. Next time with only peaches or nectarines, it’s not as pretty with the blueberries after it’s baked but still delicious.

This tart is coming with me to Fiesta Friday #130, Angie is away but has left the party in very good hands the co hosts this week are Judi @ cookingwithauntjuju and Petra @ Food Eat Love

Peach Tart

Made 1 9 inch tart (the recipe said 11 inch but I didn’t have enough fruit)

Pie Dough

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup neutral oil (I used grapeseed)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbs milk (I used half and half)

6-8 peaches, nectarines sliced thickly (I added a pint of blueberries also)

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk or stir with a fork. Add the oil and milk and mix with a fork until cohesive.

Press into tart pan with your fingers pressing on the bottom and up the sides. Make sure there are no cracks in the dough. Trim and set aside. Pre heat the oven to 425 and line a sheet pan with parchment.

Arrange the fruit however you like in the tart pan.

Crumble topping

3/4 cup sugar

2-3 tbs flour

2 tbs cold butter

pinch of salt

Mix with your hands until it resembles fine crumbs. Distribute the crumbs on top of the tart and bake until golden brown and bubbly, approximately 45 minutes. It will seem like a lot of the topping, it’s ok use all of it.

Just out of the oven

Jul 22

93 Comments

Gooseberry and Red Currant Popsicles And More Popsicles

Have I gone gooseberry crazy? It’s all together possible! Wasting food is abhorent to me and I wanted to make sure I used every single gooseberry and currant that I bought. Besides the crumble which is pretty standard fare I wanted to do something a little bit different with them. Since it’s so hot out I decided that popsicles would be the way to go, icy and cold and delicious a great way to beat the heat and use up my berries. In making the popsicles I discovered the real flavor of the gooseberry, there is a lovely floral note and when cooked with some sugar and water, it really brings out the flavor. It reminds me a little of elderflower. The popsicles are a mix of green and purple gooseberries and at the end after straining the pulp I added the red currants distributing into a half frozen popsicle. Don’t throw that pulp away, it’s really delicious with just a couple of tablespoons of the syrup to loosen it up, it makes a delicious preserve or jam on biscuits, scones or toast. FYI, the gooseberries and currants are labor intensive to clean and de stem, kind of like pitting cherries. Each gooseberry needs to be clipped on each and end and the currants are very tiny and each individual currant needs to be picked off of the stems. Labor intensive but worth the effort.

Gooseberry and Red Currant Popsicles

Makes 8 popsicles

1 pint gooseberries (approx)clipped

1-1 1/4 cups sugar (You can add less if using the sweeter gooseberry, I mixed them and they were very sour)

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 (approx) cup red currants

Put the gooseberries, sugar and water in a pot. Bring to a boil and continue cooking until the berries pop open. Strain into heat proof bowl or cup. Immediatly add the currants and let them sit until it cools then refrigerate.

I decided to add some red currents that would be suspended inside the popsicle. The currants float in the liquid so in order to ensure that they are dispersed within the pop I partially froze it. a couple of hours in the freezer without the stick inserted, the mixture is not frozen solid just slushy, you then place some currants in and spread them around with a skewer, insert the sticks and put back in the freezer.

We are smack dab in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures soaring to almost 100 degree’s and thats not the heat index. I so love my popsicle mold I have been making popsicles all the time, they are stockpiled in my freezer. I really love experimenting, in the summer lemonade and iced tea are favorite drinks that I almost always keep in the refrigerator. So I thought I would make both into popsicles. Sweet tea with mint and lemonade with raspberries. Ice cold and portable these popsicles are wonderful. All you need to do is make lemonade and iced tea, no recipe required. When the popsicles were partially frozen after 2 hours in the freezer I added some raspberries to the lemonade and mint leaves to the sweet tea. I ran out of lemonade so made one Arnold Palmer popsicle, half lemonade and half tea.

sweet tea and lemonade raspberry popsicles

All of these frozen treats are coming with me to Angie’s for Fiesta Friday #129. Got my ice chest ready and I will rush over so they don’t melt. This week’s co hosts are Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook and Colleen @ Faith, Hope, Love & Luck. See you all at the party!

Jul 19

47 Comments

Apologies

Just a quick note to you everyone. I thought my inbox was light, but attributed this to the summer, people being away etc.. That was not the case, just glanced at my junk folder and there were almost 1500 emails (1473 to be exact) that never made it to my inbox, I have missed thousands of emails from you all, so if I have not commented or stopped by your blog to see what you are up to I apologize but I didn’t see the notification. I had to turn off my junk filter so now I will hopefully get your email notifications. It burns me up because it allowed all this junk that always goes straight to the trash in my inbox and filtered almost everyone’s blog posts. So so sorry. I don’t think I will be able to catch up, there are simply too many emails that go back to June. You do not have to respond to this but I wanted to let you know that I did not intentionally ignore your blogs, I didn’t see the posts but now I will (I HOPE).

Thanks so much everyone who is so kind to comment here, you always make my day, week, month and year!!

Suzanne

Jul 19

73 Comments

A Non Traditional Panzanella, A Gooseberry Red Currant And Plum Crumble And Salsa

Salad

The first thing that I made with my Farmers Market finds is a salad. There is nothing like a salad made with fresh vegetables. There is no recipe for this, it’s a salad after all and everyone has their own favorite way of making and dressing them, this is sort of a panzanella, sort of because it’s not traditional. A traditional Tuscan panzanella is made with tomatoes and stale bread dressed with olive oil and vinegar. I spread pesto on the bread and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown. Saturday’s farmers market find included both cherry and regular size tomatoes, for a salad cherry tomatoes are so easy and I love how crisp and sweet they are.

Panzanella

tomato

cucumber

spring onion

bread

pesto

shaved pecorino romano

salt and pepper

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, slice the onion very thinly, cut the cucumber into small pieces and throw it all in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Spread some pesto on the bread and either broil or grill until lightly browned. Cut into bite size pieces. Dress the salad with vinegar and oil. I don’t measure starting out light and adding more as/if needed. Add the bread and toss it together. Shave pecorino romano cheese on top and enjoy.

crumble

Today I experimented with some of the gooseberries. Having never eaten them or cooked with them I didn’t really know what to expect, For the first attempt I thought a crumble would be nice and only made two individual servings in my tiny cocotte pans. I chose purple gooseberries, red currants and a golden plum. The fruit when baked produced a lot of juice and was very tart, next time I would probably add another 2 tbs of sugar although the tart fruit when eaten with some vanilla ice cream was really nice. For the crumble top I used spelt, oat and AP flour in equal parts added some butter and brown sugar. Before baking I dotted with a little butter and sprinkled with demerara sugar. I thought adding a plum would be nice with the gooseberries and currants, somewhere in my research I saw that the gooseberry is a member of the plum family or vice versa, not sure thats correct but they do go together nicely.

Gooseberry,red currant and plum crumble

serves 2

Crumble

1/4 cup spelt flour

1/4 cup oat flour or oats

1/4 cup AP flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar (not packed)

4 tbs butter+ more to dot on top before baking

whisk the flour and brown sugar together add the butter and mix with your hands until it resembles pea size crumbs.

Fruit

red currants

purple gooseberries

1 golden plum

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

I didn’t measure the berries if I had to guess how much it was about 1/3 cup of each. Put all the fruit into a bowl and add the sugar, toss to combine. Spoon into baking dishes and top with the crumble topping. Dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 375 degree’s for approximately 20-25 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.

Warm crumble with vanilla ice cream

There are a few more recipes I plan on making with the gooseberries and will post them very soon, it’s fun working with an ingredient you are not familiar with getting your sea legs so to speak. The crumble was delicious the combination of gooseberries, currants and plum created a lot of juice and some of the crumble sank creating what was more akin to a cobbler. It was really good this turned out to be a cobbler/crumble.

Salsa

The green gooseberries are very tart, sour really and using them in a savory dish seemed like it would be delicious. I had a flounder filet earmarked for dinner the other night and thought instead of a heavy tartar sauce (love it) a light fruity salsa would be nice with the fish. I didn’t measure, don’t need to with this type of dish, the beauty of it is that it is tailored to suite the individual’s taste.

Salsa

makes approximate a cup of salsa

Green gooseberries (larger ones cut in half and quartered and small ones cut in half)]

1/2 mango- chopped

1 purple spring onion- chopped

approx a tbs of chopped fresh mint

1 jalapeno chopped and seeds removed

1 small orange bell pepper chopped

approx a tbs of chopped flat leaf parsley

juice of one whole lime

salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients, serve right away.

Jul 17

75 Comments

A Trip To The Green Market, And My Introduction to Gooseberries

Green Market Haul

It has been hot here, I mean really uncomfortably hot and humid and even though I have AC it’s still hard to use the stove. It’s been a few weeks since I have gone to the Farmers Market in my neighborhood, each week I went I was disappointed to find nothing, so I decided to check it out this weekend and I happily found some beautiful produce. There are still no strawberries though, did I miss them? Every year I see basket after basket of gooseberries and until this year I have never bought them, I really don’t know what to do with them. Same with the red currants, I have had red currant jam, dried currants in Persian rice, but have not actually bought and made anything with fresh berries. It’s just me and Percy and as you can see from the photo, as my Mom would say my eyes are bigger than my stomach. How can you resist when you see produce this beautiful, it’s impossible for me. I tend to shop with my eyes, if something looks beautiful, even if I don’t know how to use, it will probably end up in my basket.

Weather wise summer is my least favorite season, I am not a person who enjoys being in the sun, I detest being hot and sweaty and braving the heat to go to the Green Market was uncomfortable, but once I saw all of that produce I forgot how hot it was outside, that is until I had to lug it all home. I have 2 tomato plants in the garden that are producing some cherry tomatoes, in dribs and drabs. I keep a container by the door and religously pick a few ripe tomatoes each day. Maybe someday soon I will have enough to make a salad. My zucchini plant never produced anything except for one zucchini blossom that I let sit, thinking it would turn into a zucchini, it didn’t.

the end of the homemade pesto and homeade bread ready for salad

My favorite salad is simple, cucumber and tomato, maybe a little onion and grilled bread. After buying the beautiful heirloom tomatoes and the seedless Persian cucumbers I knew that is what I had to make. A few days ago I harvested a huge amount of basil from my garden and made pesto. For this salad, the bread is slathered with pesto and grilled, then broken or cut in bite size pieces and added to the cucumbers and tomatoes. The dressing is simple, olive oil and vinegar. Sometimes I will add some crumbled feta or ricotta salata. The salad is incredibly flavorful, fresh organic produce and bread that is grilled with pesto make an absolutely delicious and satisfying meal.

I will shamefully admit that I have never eaten or cooked with gooseberries or fresh currants, it’s hard to believe that every year I pass them up at the farmers market without so much as a glance back. This year is different, I grabbed 2 lovely punnets of gooseberries green and purple and some red currants. Now that they are in my hot little hands what to do with them? They taste pretty sour, I like sour so find it appealing but I don’t think I could sit there and eat them by the handful. Doing an internet search there is really not very many recipes using gooseberries, there is compote, jam and pie and a few savory recipes as sort of a chutney with meat as well as beverages. I love wikipedia, vital information at the touch of a keypad, according to this online source there are a few varieties of gooseberries and they are quite popular in England. The three varieties noted are the European/North American, Indian and Peruvian Gooseberry. The Indian gooseberry seems to be the most nutritious with the highest vitamin C content. All contain moderate levels of anti oxidents.

This post is too long, because I dislike having too much information in one post, it will be divided into two and the recipes will come later. In closing here are Percy’s thoughts on the summer heat. Wishing everyone a relaxing Sunday!!

I hear ya Percy

Jul 8

92 Comments

Black and White Cookies For Fiesta Friday #127

Black and White Cookies are an iconic treat made famous in New York City. There are multitudes of articles and opinions of who makes the best. Russ and Daughters, Zabar’s, Glasers, the opinions are as numerous as the number of black and whites in NYC. In doing some research I saw that one theory of origin is that it was was first made in Utica, NY and called “the half moon” (my hometown) at Hemstroughts Bakery (my families favorite bakery). You can see reference to the black and white on one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes and it is thought to be “the New York snack”. History aside, these are some seriously delicious cookies, or really they are small cakes. The cookie part is like a sponge cake, soft and voluptuous and the glaze is sweet and the perfect topping for this substantial cookie.

I thought I would try my hand at making the “black and white” and studied some recipes and my favorite was one from Epicurious. It seemed very easy to make and the cookies looked wonderful. The recipe makes eight large cookies, now they say to put about 1/4 cup batter 2 inches apart on a large sheet pan, maybe mine was not large enough because some of my cookies ran together. I don’t really care that they are not perfectly round, as long as they taste good. Let me tell you, this is a really good recipe, the cookies are delicious. The cookie came out exactly as it should, flat on the bottom and domed on the top, it has a tender crumb and is very cake like. The glaze is wonderful as well. This recipe is a keeper.

I made these cookies with 2 things in mind, first of all my young cousin who lives in NYC just had surgery and I am going to see her tomorrow, her favorite thing is the black and white so I am bringing some to her. Next I am lucky enough to be co hosting Fiesta Friday #127 this week with the lovely and uber talented Jess @Cooking Is My Sport. You are all invited to the party!!

Black And White Cookies

Recipe on Epicurious

1 1/4 cup AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter softened to room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup buttermilk (I didn’t have buttermilk so I thinned some creme fraiche, worked great)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degree’s. Whisk together or sift the flour, baking soda and salt. In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat to combine well. Mix the vanilla with the buttermilk. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk ending with the flour mixture. The batter is quite thick and I used a heaping 1 1/2 tbs scoop for each cookie. Line your cookie sheet with parchment and spray lightly with cooking spray. (In retrospect I would not bake all 8 cookies at the same time because some of them ran together slightly) place the scoops about 2 inches apart and bake for about 15 minutes (I took them out at 13 minutes). Place cookies on cooling rack and make the glaze.

Vanilla and Chocolate Glaze

1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 tbs clear corn syrup

2 tsp lemon juice

1-2 tbs water

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.

1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix the sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice and vanilla together. Add water as needed until it’s spreading consistency, it will be thick. The recipe said to divide into two bowls, I didn’t do that. When the coolies were cool I spread the white part with a small offset spatula, when that was done I added to the remaining glaze the chocolate, 1/2 tsp corn syrup and another tbs of water and spread that on the other half of the cookie (it saved me from getting another bowl dirty). Make sure the glaze is set before storing them.

Really good, quality control, cooks perogative taste testing.

Jul 6

78 Comments

Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream And Saveur Blog Awards Nominating A Friend

As far back as I can remember I have loved ice cream in almost any form. Whether on a stick, in a cup or cone, in a milk shake or float it’s all good. When I was 16 years old my first job was a scooper at Baskin Robbins, a dream job for this ice cream lover. My favorite flavor was Jamoca Almond Fudge. I have always loved coffee and chocolate and this combination was so delicious, we were allowed a free cone during our work shift and this was the flavor I always chose. It has been a long time since I’ve been to a Baskin Robbins, I was only going by memory of how this ice cream tastes and it’s really pretty close to how I remember it.

I wanted a good strong coffee flavor so I cold brewed some dark roast coffee in half and half, I decided against making a traditional custard with eggs, instead I heated cream and half and half, milk, sugar and cornstarch making a thickish base, after removing from the heat I added the cream cheese, cold brewed coffee mixture, some vanilla and a tsp of cocoa powder and refrigerated. The fudge component is a ganache, 4 oz chocolate and 4 ounces of cream. Toast some almonds in the oven and chop them and there you have it. Simple and very delicious.

Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream

Adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream recipe on Food52

Makes approximately 1 quart

Cold Brewed Coffee

1 cup half and half or milk or all three

4 coffee scoops of dark roast coffee

Place in jar, shake and refrigerate at least 24 hours up to 48 hours. When done strain and refrigerate until ready to use.

Ice Cream Base

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk or half and half

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbs corn starch

1-2 tbs softened cream cheese

1 cup cold brewed coffee

1 1/2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp instant espresso (medaglia d’oro)

Place heavy cream and milk or half and half, sugar and cornstarch in heavy saucepan. Whisk to combine and cook on medium heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add the cream cheese, whisk to combine and then add the cold brewed coffee, cocoa powder and instant espresso. Stir well and pour into bowl or glass measuring cup lay plastic wrap on top of the custard, cover with another sheet of plastic and refrigerate overnight. NOTE: I don’t add the cold brewed coffee to the pot with the cream and milk and heat because I find that coffee takes on a different flavor when heated directly on the stove or even in the microwave. I wanted the coffee flavor to be pure and not compromised by heat.

Fudge swirl and toasted almonds

4 oz chocolate, dark or dark and milk your choice

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbs light corn syrup (optional)

1/2 cup whole raw almonds

Heat heavy cream in microwave or on stove top until scalding. In microwave approximately 45 seconds. Add chopped chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until all the chocolate is melted, if there are pieces put back in microwave for 15-20 seconds. Add the optional corn syrup. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat oven to 350 place almonds on sheet pan and toast until they are fragrant, approximately 10-15 minutes, or toast the almonds in a skillet. Let cool and chop into small pieces.

Making the Ice Cream

Take the fudge out of the refrigerator so that it comes to room temperature, you may need to help it along by putting in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Make the ice cream by following the manufacturers directions, when the ice cream is almost done add the almonds, churn for a minute or so just so that the almonds are mixed in and then put half in your container, add several spoonful of the fudge on top. Repeat adding the rest of the ice cream, fudge. Using a bamboo skewer or butter knife swirl the fudge into the ice cream. Freeze until it is a scoopable consistency, I find it takes at least 4 hours in the coldest part of the freezer but usually I let it sit overnight.

Saveur Magazine is now taking nominations for their 2016 blog awards and I have nominated my friend Aleksandra, her amazing and gorgeous blog deserves the award IMHO. She has done a guest post on this blog and is a good friend from Food52. I nominated her in the photography category, one look at her photo’s and you will see why, visit her blog, Three Little Halves and if you feel so inclined and don’t mind please nominate her for the Saveur Award in the category of photography, it only takes a second. She won a James Beard award for her writing and when a blog is this beautiful it deserves to be noticed. Thank you so much.

Jul 3

77 Comments

Coconut Lime Slushy Happy 4th Of July

This is one of my favorite summer drinks, I posted it a few years ago and decided to resurrect it for the 4th of July Holiday as part of my frozen treat series. This drink is reminiscent of a pina colada but it’s not one exactly. I make it with more lime than pineapple and use unsweetened coconut milk and lime simple syrup so that I can control the sweetness. Rather than use crushed ice which I feel waters the drink down, I freeze the coconut lime mixture in an ice cube tray. The cubes are solid but easy to break up in the blender. You can add as much rum as you like or make it virgin, it’s equally as delicious. One other cool thing about this drink is that because the drink base is frozen into cubes you can make 1 or more and leave the rest in the freezer for use later on. Remove the cubes place in freezer bag and store in the freezer. I love making multiple batches so I always have some of the cubes on hand. I double and triple this recipe so I always have some of the drink base on hand. It’s so easy to make and very convenient to have on hand.

This recipe won a whole foods recipe contest, as a matter of fact it was the last contest sponsored by Whole Foods. I miss them, it was a lot of fun. I am celebrating the 4th of July, Independance Day with my good friends at a backyard BBQ! Have a wonderful Day Everyone.

Coconut Lime Slushy

Lime Simple Syrup:

1 Lime peel removed (Use the peeled lime for the drink base)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water
In saucepan add sugar and water, bring to a boil let boil for approximately 2 minutes until sugar is completely dissolved take off heat, add lime peel. Cover and let sit until cool. Remove the lime peel. Store in jar in refrigerator. You can easily double this to make more simple syrup.

Remove all the pith

The Drink Base:

1 13.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk

1 Lime peeled and all of the pith removed and quartered (Use the lime you used for the simple syrup)

4-6 tablespoons lime simple syrup (Make it as sweet as you like)

2 -3 ounces Pineapple juice (unsweetened) Start with two and if you need a little more liquid to break up cubes in blender add another ounce.

1 ounce Rum (Add more if you like it stronger)

To your food processor add the quartered lime and coconut milk. Process until lime is pulverized. Strain into measuring cup. Add 4-6 tbs of the lime simple syrup. (Adjust the sweetness to suite your taste. Pour into ice cube tray and freeze.
When the coconut lime is frozen, remove from ice cube tray, place in blender, add pineapple juice and rum and blend until the cubes are broken up and it’s a slushy consistency. Pour and serve. Garnish with lime and pineapple.

Creamy thick and ice cold

Image from Google Happy 4th of July

Jul 1

84 Comments

Boozy Strawberry Rhubarb Yogurt Pops

I am dedicating the next few posts to frozen treats, ice cream. sorbet and popsicles. These popsicles are so simple to make and sort of nutritionally sound because they contain very little sugar and if you omit the booze it’s like a frozen breakfast popsicle. A few posts back I told you I made a rhubarb cordial, I used it in the Pavlova and now in these popsicles. They are so easy to make, all you need is a popsicle mold and a few ingredients, no cooking required. You don’t need to use any alcohol in your pops, honestly there is so little in this it’s almost not there, but for a family friendly popsicle simply omit. I didn’t really use a recipe for this, eyeballed and the measurements below are approximate, it just happens that it made pretty much the right amount to fill the molds. I added and tasted so bear in mind that this is not exact.

I just got a great popsicle mold made my onyx, it’s stainless steel, freezes quickly and the popsicles come out like a dream. I am very happy with it because it also has a feature that ensures the stick remains in place and can be inserted when you first place it in the freezer, genius.

I’ve got my ice packs and insulated carrier ready because I’m bringing these beauties to Fiesta Friday #126 . This is a holiday weekend and Angie’s co hosts are all of us. It is up to us to vote on our favorite recipes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Yogurt Popsicles

Makes 8

measurements are approximate

Strawberries

2 cups strawberries cleaned and sliced

2 tbs sugar (use if you like and sweeten to taste)

1/4 cup rhubarb cordial

Yogurt

2 cups whole milk greek yogurt (approximately 14 oz)

sugar to taste

2 tbs rhubarb cordial

1 tsp vanilla

Mash the macerated strawberries with a fork. Mix the yogurt with the sugar, rhubarb cordial and vanilla. The cordial thins the very thick greek yogurt slightly, if using greek yogurt you will want to thin it a bit with either the cordial or a liquor, water, milk or cream or fruit juice, your choice. Layer the strawberries first, then the yogurt and end with the yogurt. Place in freezer and enjoy in 4+ hours. See how easy this is.