Refreshing Strawberry Lemonade

Making use of the five-pound bag of lemons I bought at Costco (why do I do this to myself?) I decided to make lemonade.  Those bright yellow puckers looked so lonely, so I added strawberries to the jug.  The lemon is front and center, but I love the pink hue the strawberries added.  Bonus is the pieces of fruit in the bottom of your glass!  This can be easily scaled up to serve a larger crowd for a back yard gathering or picnic.

• 1 cup organic coconut sugar (more to taste)
• 5 cups water, divided
• 2 large organic lemons
• 6 large organic strawberries

In a small pot, combine the sugar and 1 cup of water, bring this to a simmer to dissolve the sugar.  Slice the lemons in half and take a slice off each half, place these perfectly round slices in your lemonade vessel of choice.  Juice the remaining lemon, catching the seeds or strain afterwards.  Add the lemon juice to the vessel.  Add the sugar-water and stir to combine.

Chop the strawberries and cook them down until their juices are released, use the same little pot to save washing two!

Add the strawberries to the vessel.  Add the remaining 4 cups of water and stir well.  Cover and chill until ready to serve over ice.

Another idea is to make a more concentrated version by only adding 1 more cup of water then adding it to fizzy water to make a sparkling strawberry lemonade!

Cocktail time by adding vodka or gin to the sparkling version.  Although you may want to reduce the berries further and strain the seeds if you are making hard strawberry lemonade.  Seeds floating in your cocktail is not classy.

Have fun with it.  Enjoy and be refreshed.

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Fig Newtons with a hint of Strawberry

Remember that roasted fig and strawberry jam I made?  Well, I saved some for a rainy day and found this recipe for homemade fig newtons.  It’s raining, pouring actually, so I took to the kitchen to try out the recipe.  It needs a bit more flour, but the flavour and texture is very similar to the real McCoy.  The strawberries were few in comparison to the figs, but the hint of red-cheeked berries is there in the background.  Next time I will add more strawberry, maybe half and half!

Viva la fig!

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Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Squares

Typical shopping trip to Sprout’s Market today, I was there for the bell peppers (88 cents each and all colours!).  I stumbled upon a vat of ice topped with stalks of ruby red rhubarb.  The produce manager was there and I sarcastically asked “Can I take this whole thing home?” motioning an oversized hug in the rhubarb’s direction.  “Well, at that price you can take as much as you’d like.”  My enthusiasm prompted a sweet older lady to pause and comment “We used to grow rhubarb in Canada…” of course I had to tell her that I was also from Canada!  She was born in Saskatchewan and lived in Edmonton before moving to California, then to Round Rock.  We both agreed it’s far too hot here but otherwise nice place to live.  Our short conversation reminded me of the genuine kindness most Canadians show, especially to each other abroad.

I had to buy some rhubarb, then strawberries to go with them.  The kids don’t understand why I love this red celery looking thing.  It’s a bit strong in the tartness department for those not accustomed to it.  To me, it represents one of the few tastes of summer in The Great North.  The other two are raspberries and Saskatoon berries.

Now the jam is made (rhubarb, lemon, lemon peel, sugar, strawberries – no pectin) and cooling in my half pint canning jars.  Some of this jam will be the filling in my gluten-free dessert squares.  Stay tuned!

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Strawberry Daq Fizz

One part strawberry daiquiri + one part ginger ale (Canada Dry, please), garnished with mint from my garden 😛

Happy Mardi Gras!

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Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie

OK, I’ll admit this is more of a milkshake than a smoothie since there’s no yogurt and several scoops of ice cream.  But hey, I call it as I see it, and this is a smoothie. I think they should teach milkshake-making in culinary schools, if they don’t already then y’all need to call me to teach it.

For 2 small servings

• 2 cups strawberries, washed
• 1 cup milk
• about 1 1/2 cups chocolate ice cream

Hull and roughly chop the berries.  Add the berries to a blender.  Add the ice cream and half the milk.  Pulse the blender to combine the ingredients, add more of the milk to reach the desired consistency.  Serve immediately.

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Two Problems, One Bite, All Delicious

On a complete whim at the grocery store, I bought half a dozen jalapeño peppers.  The thought even crossed my mind… I have a Serrano plant at home!  Unfortunately, this plant of mine has fallen behind in producing a nice crop of peppers.  Last year I was overloaded with perfect little peppers.  They must need more pot ash, and maybe a tad more TLC…

The second problem was a shortage of bread.  I’ve been trying to lose this darn muffin-top after our second baby, bread is a no-no.  I do keep it around for sandwiches and PBB toast (that’s peanut butter banana toast, just regular toast not Elvis peanut butter and banana & bacon) for the eldest, now five years old.  I decided biscuits would be the fastest thing to make to satisfy that urge to go overturn a Mrs. Baird’s truck.

While assembling the ingredients for the biscuits, the peppers sent me a message… eat me.  I grabbed the fattest one from the bunch and the colby jack cheese next to it in the deli drawer of the fridge.  A smirk slapped itself upon my face.  Outrageous, I would have not only fresh steaming biscuits… they were going to be studded with cheese and peppers.  My mouth felt like it was Niagara Falls. 

I can’t tell you how good these were, you’d have to come over next time this feeling washes in.  Hot steam rushes out of the tender center of the baked mound.  Then there’s the outer crust, dimpled and uneven, showing glimpses of the special additions made at the last second.  If I had sprinkled sea salt over top before baking, the biscuits would have to be heavily guarded by the RCMP.  Next time, my pretties, next time.  As they were, you can see, deliciousness.

Half of the biscuits ended up in the freezer, because this batch was way too good to let it go stale lying around waiting to be devoured.  Freezing was actually mentioned in the cookbook I was using (Better Homes and Gardens) and I’ve just warmed up a couple darlin’s as a midnite snack.

Now I’ve upped the ante.

Oh look, there’s fresh strawberry-mango jam in the fridge.  Jalapeño and strawberry?  Hmmm… how bad could it be?!  Not freaking bad at all!  There’s nothing better than homemade biscuits with homemade jam.  Pair it with a favorite cup of tea and you’ll have yourself a very pleasant nite.

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