Lively Blueberry Lemon Smoothie

On a recent trip to Nashville, Oia and I popped into a new juice bar for a little mid-morning snack and shared an amazing smoothie of blueberries, lemon, bananas and cashews.

The smoothie was so filling and refreshing I continued craving its deliciousness long after I left Music City.

This is my version. With blueberries as a colorful, antioxidant-rich base, lemon for invigorating freshness, bananas for sweetness, and cashews for satisfying richness and healthy, filling heft, this is one smoothie that won't leave you crashing from a fruit-only sugar rush.

Lively Blueberry Lemon Smoothie

juice from 2 large lemons
1/4 cup raw cashews
1 (generous) cup frozen blueberries (preferably organic)
1 banana, sliced and frozen

Place all ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend until completely smooth. Pour into serving glass and enjoy.

Serves 1.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Texas Ruby Red Sparkler (non-alcoholic)

Aside from a good margarita or mojito, I've never been much of a hard liquor gal. Beer or wine, yes; Jack and Coke, no.

Nevertheless, there's something about being pregnant in the summer that brings out hardcore cocktail-envy in me. 

Last Sunday we spent the afternoon working in the garden and preparing an admittedly massive Father's Day feast for Hoosband, and between the Texas heat and the general sense of festivity, I knew my standard jug of water wasn't going to cut it. 

We had just picked up some 100% Texas ruby red grapefruit juice, so I grabbed one of the frosty mason jars Hoosband likes to stash in the freezer for his weekend libations and poured half grapefruit juice and half sparkling water over a mound of glistening ice cubes. 

Perfection.

Hoosband wanted one, too--spiked with Texas' own Tito's Handmade Vodka--so I slipped a rubber band around the neck of mine to avoid any confusion. 

Whether cocktail or mocktail, this is one refreshing bev I'll be sipping on all summer. 

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Sparkling Summer Sangria

A couple of months ago, as part of OXO's Blogger Outreach Program, I received a rather impressive box of summer fruit tools.

I was so excited to dig into the box (and into some juicy summer fruits) and see what kind of goodies I could come up with for the blog, but as you may have read in my last post, things have had me a bit tied up this summer.

Plus, in the midst of settling into our new house here in Texas, enjoying the company of visiting family (Hoosband's and then mine), and shopping for a minivan (that's right, soccer-mom-in-training here, people), we managed to severely wreck the one car we already had.

We were going straight at a green light, and someone left-turned right into us. Hoosband, his mom, and I were a little banged up, but the little one was completely unharmed. The car was totaled, but I'd never felt so blessed.

Adventures aside, it's good to be back at the blog. Summer may be wrapping up--the back-to-school aisles are dominating the stores where swimsuits and sunscreen recently prevailed--but there's still plenty of time to send it off sweetly.

So with that in mind, I present you with Sparkling Summer Sangria: a celebration of perfect peaches, juicy mangoes, candy-sweet pineapple, and the ability to kick back--even for just a moment--with some cold sparkling wine and raise a toast to everything we love about summer.

This is a bit of a before-and-after recipe: it starts as a simple sangria with fresh fruit and wine. After the wine has been consumed, the drunken fruit is blitzed in the blender and frozen into Sangria Cubes that can be plopped into the bottom of champagne flutes and topped off with fresh bubbly whenever the mood strikes--even if summer is long gone.

OXO's Pineapple Slicer, Mango Splitter, and Large Fruit Scoop are the heroes of this recipe--I used to dread cutting mangoes and pineapples, but now I leave their skins and cores trembling in my dust!

I used Cava in the first part of the recipe because it is Spanish (like sangria) and tends to be cheap, but I switched to Andre Extra Dry in round two because it is even cheaper (and actually one of my favorites). I like dry (less sweet) sparkling wines best in this application, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

Sparkling Summer Sangria
1 pineapple
1 mango
1-2 peaches (I used a white peach, but yellow would be fine, too), rinsed and patted dry
1-2 bottles of dry, white sparkling wine, such as Cava, chilled

Cut the pineapple into rings, discarding the skin and core, and place the rings in the bottom of a large glass pitcher (or serving vessel of your choice).

Cut the mango into slices, discarding the skin and core, and place in pitcher on top of the pineapple.

Cut the peach(es) into slices, leaving the skin on but discarding the pit, and place on top of the mango--reserve a few extra-thin slices of peach for garnish, if desired.

Slowly pour the sparkling wine over the fruit, pausing to allow bubbles to subside as necessary.

Use a wooden spoon or plastic tamper from a blender to muddle the fruit if desired--this will distribute the flavors of the fruit into the drink more quickly but will greatly increase the amount of pulp in your poured beverage. The drink can be strained to remove pulp before serving if preferred. Garnish champagne flutes with reserved peach slices, if desired, and serve immediately.

Once the sangria has been consumed, transfer the drunken fruit to a blender and blend till completely smooth. Pour this mixture into ice-cube trays and freeze. 

Transfer the frozen sangria cubes to a large, freezer-safe zip-top bag and store in the freezer until ready to use. 

To serve, place two sangria cubes in each of the desired number of champagne flutes.

Pour chilled sparkling wine over the cubes, pausing to allow bubbles to subside and topping off as necessary.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Malibu Mojito Float

The Setting: A warm and breezy Dallas day.

The Soundtrack: Oia, who has learned that a ball and a cup are all she needs to form a one-woman band.

Steaming up the Oven: Beer-Caramel Pretzels.

The Scenario: A simple twist on Jeni's mint ice cream takes it from the backyard to the beach...somewhere between Malibu and Miami.

As much as I love Jeni's Backyard Mint ice cream all by itself (or with a drizzle of warm chocolate ganache), it's been hard to shake the craving for some accompanying lime and rum on these hot summer days.

Maybe it's because I miss Miami or maybe it's because rum with muddled mint and lime is summer in a cup.

Either way, I simply had to make another batch of Backyard Mint, this time mojito-style.

The plan was to add a bit of rum to the ice-cream base and include the zest of a couple of limes along with the handful of mint in the steeping process.

I eagerly poured milk, cream, and sugar into a pot on the stove, and then it hit me: my arsenal of alcohol was back in Notre Dame.  Besides a couple bottles of Texas red, my Dallas kitchen was as dry as a Baptist convention center.

And, as I discovered when I went to make a quick rum-run, the rest of my new town was, too.

Unwilling to venture into wet territories without the help of MapQuest or Hoosband (I have no GPS, and my phone is app-less, map-less, and hapless), I returned home to make mint-lime ice cream.

Remaining fully committed to my ice-cream-mojito dreams, I swerved into a liquor store a few days later when driving through the smuttier part of town and picked up a bottle of coconut rum.

It might not have made it into the ice cream, but it would certainly make it onto the ice cream.

"Hold up," you might be tempted to say. "Coconut rum is not traditionally used in mojitos."

Well, that's where the Malibu part comes in (though, technically, this time it's Parrot Bay...).

I tend to buy two kinds of rum: Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum and coconut rum (generally Malibu). I don't have much use for plain white rum in my kitchen since most of the things I'd use it for taste even better with a hint of coconut, mojito floats included--of course, that's just me.

To make the float, just scoop some mint-lime ice cream into a lowball glass, pour a couple capfulls (or more, to taste) of coconut rum over the top, and serve with a spoon. To make it even more of a float, top with club soda, spoon optional. To serve frozen-drink style, blend until smooth and serve with a straw (little umbrella optional).

Check out Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books) for Jeni's Ohito Sundae and Mint Julep cocktail, also featuring Backyard Mint Ice Cream.

And be sure to stay tuned for more of Jeni's tasty ice creams, coming soon!

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.