A Summer Treat

Happy Summer!! It is by far the best season of the year (excuse my bias, I'm a summer baby). These beautiful long days with sunshine and a light breeze are what make me love this time of the year so much. I'm back in Happy Valley, which makes me even more happy! This summer I will be blogging without a kitchen unfortunately, but nonetheless that still means plenty of posts! I was reading some random recipes on how people are beating the heat and fell in love with this fresh fruit popsicle that I thought was worth sharing.
In this gorgeous season, the amount of fruits that are readily available puts a smile on my face. Everyone should replace their afternoon snack with some watermelon, strawberries or pineapple according to me. I'm not a health freak, but I love me some fresh fruits. This recipe encompasses my love for fresh fruit and my desire to stay cool in this summatime heat!
Recipe:
4 cups fresh strawberries (pineapple works too! watermelon might not be as flavorful because they have a lot of water already in them.. hence the name!)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup water

This is probably the simplest procedure ever...
In a blender, throw in the strawberries and honey and lime juice. They them mix and mingle and become a sort of thick liquid, a little more runny than a smoothie though! Add in the water and continue to mix until they are fairly runny. Pour them into popsicle molds and put them into the freezer for some chilling. Wait as long as you can ( I know, it'll be hard) but you want to make sure they are completely set before you start to eat them! If you replace them with any fruit, let me know and tell me how it goes! :)

your final product should look a little something like this!

 

A Throwback Classic

Happy Fathers Day! To all those fathers, new and old - we wish you a day of relaxation! So for this lovely fathers day, I made my dad an early breakfast! Aren't I a good daughter? Well, I know he loves fruits and combining something light and fluffy and easy to make with some fruits seemed like the way to go. I chose to make simple blueberry pancakes; nothing too fancy added at all, I know my dad and he does not like when there are a lot of flavors - he wants the point and that is all. He's also the type that always wants some sort of spice in his food (yes including breakfast) so it took me a little while of listening to him say he wanted vegetable pancakes (didn't know those existed?) instead of these blueberry ones. But once I had them sizzling on the griddle, he was just as excited as I was.

The recipe is very simple:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of (room temperature) milk
2 handfuls blueberries - you can really eyeball this based off of your own blueberry appreciation
*zest of a lemon/1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice* optional but would be delicious with the blueberries
*1 teaspoon vanilla* just to flavor the pancakes more

In a bowl mix your dry ingredients and then slowly add the milk. Make sure you're mixing everything in between of adding the milk, it'll make it easier for you to make sure the consistency is correct. You want a consistency that is runnier than cake batter; The aim is for you to pick a spoonful and with a flick of your wrist - have the batter fall off your spoon gracefully. You don't want to be spooning and spooning more and more batter into your little pancake. Once you have reached the perfect consistency, add your blueberries! I used a griddle just because my household is fancy and has these types of appliances but in school I would probably just use a nonstick pan.


If you are using a griddle, heat it up to about 350F and if not, just place your nonstick pan ontop of the burner and let it heat up. With whatever you use make sure you use a cooking spray so that your pancakes don't stick! Spray it...generously. Drop a little drop of the batter to see whether the griddle or pan is hot enough, if you hear it sizzle and then simmer out - you're good to go. Drop about 2 quarter sized dollops of the batter and just let it spread! It'll take about 4 or 5 minutes on each side depending on how hot your griddle/pan is and how big your dollops were.

Let each side cook thoroughly, with a spatula randomly check the bottom by just sliding your spatula underneath each pancake and peaking at the color. You're aiming for a golden but not completely brown side. If you hear the pancake randomly sizzle and then stop, don't worry its because the blueberry has exploded inside your little cake and the juice is oozing into the entire thing. Sounds weird, but it is absolutely delicious. 

Look at all those blueberries! :) If you taste your blueberries before throwing them into the mix and realize they aren't as sweet as you'd like - add another tablespoon of sugar! And another half teaspoon of vanilla and these pancakes will be even better! Enjoy! :)




Note: Super sorry about the lack of posts from the India, I managed to forget my camera on my desk at home which makes it quite difficult to take pictures of all the delicious food I ate and even made! 
Hope everyone is enjoying their last week of spring and entrance into summer!