Your blender can be the adult equivalent of a visit from the Good Humor man. One day you can enjoy a nice long-lasting cup of lemon Italian ice, and the next a raspberry pop. Tomorrow a Toasted Almond, and on Saturday a chocolate eclair ice cream bar. One benefit of being a grown up is that you don’t have to save your allowance to enjoy these deelish summer treats. And not all of them rely on booze, so you can be cool AND respectable.
Julia Turner, ace editor of Slate magazine, waxed poetical about Nose-to-Tail Lemonade just about a year ago, during a hot spell in New York City on the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast – it must have been a slow culture week. She was enchanted by the notion of tossing entire lemons (minus the seeds) with some sugar and water into a blender, and the results being absolutely delicious and refreshing – the perfect answer to protractedly blistering summer afternoons. https://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/culturegabfest/2015/07/slate_s_culture_gabfest_on_catastrophe_the_grateful_dead_s_fare_thee_well.html
New York Magazine published the recipe:
Quarter one lemon. Remove the seeds and some of the thick pith at the ends and sides of the slices. Place in a blender with two tablespoons of sugar and some ice cubes. Cover with ice-cold water (about 1 1/2 cups), and blend on high for a minute or so until smooth. So efficient.
https://www.grubstreet.com/2015/06/summer-food-guide-2015.html?wpsrc=nymag
While it is not exactly a raspberry ice pop from my youth, I think this multi-multi-step recipe for Frosé from Bon Appétit Magazine will refresh your parched summer soul:
https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/article/how-to-make-frose-rose-slushie
The next drink calls for some cooking – roasting the almonds – so I am avoiding it, but you go ahead and try it.You probably won’t break a sweat, and that is something to brag about this week! https://blog.westelm.com/2014/08/21/toasted-almond-amaretto-milkshakes/
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh was a seminal book for me. Harriet was not one of the cool kids. She was a loner, who enjoyed writing, tomato sandwiches, and sometimes an egg cream. I was bitterly disappointed when I got off the leash in New York City for the first time, and beelined into an Orange Julius to try my inaugural egg cream. It was not the stuff of my imagination – which leaned heavily toward Rococo and hyperbolic.
A simple, classic egg cream is just the perfect, easy, cooling non-blender drink that does not rely on fancy, can-only-be-gotten-at-Whole-Foods ingredients. No fuss, no muss, just like those tomato sandwiches – which could only be improved with a couple of pieces of bacon, I think.
To make an egg cream you will need…
Unflavored seltzer water
Milk of your choice
Chocolate syrup
Glass
Straw
Stir.
Practically poetical.
Our lovely and endlessly inventive friends at Food52 have a no-recipe milkshake primer that will get you ready to be creative with whatever you have on hand to make a delicious milkshake or two or three. You’ll need your blender, some ice cream, some milk and your imagination. Add alcohol or not. Bananas, graham crackers, blueberries, maple syrup, chocolate syrup, Oreos, cinnamon, M&Ms, leftover brownies, whipped cream – the world is your blender. Use it! https://food52.com/blog/10991-how-to-make-the-perfect-milkshake
It’s almost August, so we are halfway through the sizzling summer. We need lots of ingenuity to get us through these hot dog days. Persevere! Be resourceful! Make shakes!
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
– Henry James
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