Sunday, June 12, 2011

Kiwi Lemonade Shandy

The children and I made lemonade the other day. There was a sale on fresh lemons so we grabbed them. We used this recipe:

Lemonade

Simple, refreshing lemonade that even the youngest child can make!
Source: MOMYS Cookbook
Course: Beverages

Ingredients

  • 3 lemons
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 gallon water

Directions

  1. Wash the lemons and roll them on the counter gently to make them juicer. Slice each one, making the slices about 1/4 inch thick. Place the sugar in the bottom of a large pickle jar or jug. Drop slices into sugar and them make sure your hands are clean. Squeeze the sugar and the lemon slices until you get a nice blend of juices with the sugar. Add water to top of jug and let sit for 3 hours (if you can wait that long!). Strain juice from the lemon slices and seeds. Keep lemonade in the refrigerator. Add small amounts of other juices for variations.
It was the most refreshing lemonade that I have ever tasted! From here on out, I will always use this method for making homemade lemonade. That said, I am also participating in the Progressive Menu at Kitchen Play so when I saw the cocktail recipe, it really got me to thinking how I could incorporate my lemonade and the Zespri kiwi into a cocktail. A quick Swagbucks search educated me on lemonade cocktails, one of which is called a Shandy, half lemonade and half beer. Well, since the original Progressive Menu cocktail recipe involves mead, I decided to try making a Kiwi Lemonade Shandy! 

I set my girls to work making the lemonade. 

This is the two-year-old "helping".

We added kiwi slices to the mixture of lemon slices and sugar and then my 7-year-old Curly Top, went to work with her petite hands, squeezing and pulverizing the mixture. 


We then filled the jug with filtered water and let it set for 3 hours.


Next, we strained the kiwi infused lemonade through a metal sieve. At this point, we had a lovely kiwi lemonade, perfect for hot, sunny days. The girls all enjoyed sipping on it. 

Mommy and Daddy however, mixed it with Shiner Hefeweizen, equal parts and we tried our first ever Kiwi Lemonade Shandy! 


Delicious! You really must try it. And, please, please do make the plain lemonade recipe. It is amazing and your children will love you for it!

Good Summer eating.

Summer is here, which means fresh produce from our garden! I look forward to it every year.

We have been eating fresh lettuce and spinach from our garden for about a month now. It doesn't get any better than this. Well, if someone would come weed the garden for me...that would be better!

Kitchen Play has given me yet another excuse to gather lettuce and spinach from the garden. The Progressive Menu this month features kiwi and the salad recipe includes spinach, my all time favorite veggie. Zespri is sponsoring this month's menu and I have to admit that I don't buy kiwis too often, mainly because I don't really know what to do with them! Other than the obvious fruit salad, I have not experimented much with these delicious fuzzy fruits.

I decided to try the salad as my first entry. It was the obvious choice, especially since I have all that lovely spinach in my garden. I did make a few changes to the recipe. Instead of a spinach salad with orange poppy seed dressing (which sounds wonderful, does it not?), I made a cranberry vinaigrette. I did not have any fresh raspberries either so I opted for dried cranberries. I was hurrying to get supper on the table so I did not take the time to make the sugared almonds (although I plan to soon), but used a sprinkling of raw sunflower seeds to top the salad off. Here is the finished salad and yes, it was just the right salad for a hot summer day!


Salad:
Fresh spinach and/or any other lettuces that are plentiful
2 kiwi fruits
Small red onion
Handful of raw sunflower seeds

Dressing:
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Couple grinds of black pepper
Generous pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. water

Arrange salads on plates. You could toss all the salad ingredients together, but I found that I like to lay the kiwi slices on top, drizzle with dressing and then sprinkle with sunflower seeds. For the dressing, just whirl it all together in your blender.

I hope this inspires you to visit Kitchen Play. Pick out a recipe from the Progressive Menu, pick up some Zespri kiwis and get cooking! You may even win $100!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

What "virgin" do you read?

Our five-year-old son was packing his backpack for church and daddy told him to put his Bible in the pack. Jobo (that's one of my nicknames for him) searches for all of 2 minutes and declares that he can't find his Bible. He quickly picks up another Bible and starts shoving it in his pack. Meanwhile, mommy (that's me!) finds his Bible and I hand it to him and tell him that I found his Bible. Jobo looks up at me, grabs his Bible and starts shoving it too in his pack. I've found that you have to be very specific with your instructions when talking to young children, so I tell him that he no longer needs the other Bible because I had found his and that he could now take the other Bible out of his pack.

He looks up and says, "Well, I'm going to take both of them because this one is a different virgin than this one."

Well, okay then. Take both Bibles son, for I wouldn't want you to have the wrong virgin at church, would I?

So what "virgin" do you read???? :o))))