Better Home Cooking Basics: #71 Cool Down Summer Drinks with Frozen Fruit Instead of Ice.

If you didn't know - summer is here! I'm keeping cool with ice cold drinks except I'm swapping out traditional ice cubes for frozen fruit. Lately, I've been really into filling my glass with frozen strawberries, mango & peaches & then pouring a can of limonata (a fizzy lemonade) on top of all that goodness. As the fruit defrosts it adds more flavor to the limonata & cools it down at the same time. Then at the end I have a nice fruit cocktail to snack on. Plus, it looks really pretty.

I also use frozen fruit in my smoothies. That means I skip the ice cubes all together & just blend up frozen fruit. It adds flavor without watering it down. I'd opt for smaller sized fruit when making smoothies. Larger pieces like peach segments should be cut in half as they can sometimes get stuck in the blender & don't chop up as evenly as small chunks of mango would.

PS: Frozen fruit also works like magic for wine & cocktails. Try frozen grapes in your favorite glass of white wine or prosecco.

How are you staying cool this summer?

Get more of my better home cooking basics here.

Watermelon Juice

My sister introduced me to Num Pang a delicious Cambodian sandwich shop.  Besides having one of THE BEST shrimp sandwiches I've ever eaten they also have awesome watermelon juice, which my sister (she is in the know about a lot of things) told me how to make.  Turns out you need just 1 ingredient: watermelon. You don't need a fancy juicer, just a blender. I'm pretty sure you could do small batches in a food processor too if you didn't have a blender. I used my immersion blender.

SweetGreen's Blueberry Basil Lemonade

A few weeks ago I spent some time in DC for work.  At the recommendations of my coworkers I tried & became obsessed with SweetGreen, a fabulously fresh local salad joint. Besides their super fresh salad toss-ins that are locally sourced and prepared by (maybe) angels themselves, they also have this ridiculous blueberry basil lemonade.  Yes it is as good as it sounds.  I was really missing it when I got back home so I did what every good food blogger does, I googled it.  I didn't look long since SweetGreen actually gives you the recipe on their blog! (read: I officially love SweetGreen more.)  In honor of their awesomeness and a scorching heatwave I made a batch myself & loved every sip.



PS: SweetGreen is slated for the streets of NYC so be on the look out (or I'll just tell you when it hits!).

Minty Grapefruit Cocktail

Hi! it's been a while. This week has been a bit of a whirl wind. I haven't done much cooking in the kitchen because I've been working on location with my team to create the next big thing for Shobha (follow me on Instagram to see what I'm talking about!). Since I haven't had time to cook i thought it would be appropriate to share this cocktail recipe which is nice & refreshing at the end of a long hot day.

Cheers!

Ingredients

• handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped
• water
• 3 parts grapefruit juice
• 1 part vodka

Make it!

1. In the morning before you head to work place mint leaves in an ice cube tray, cover with water & freeze like regular ice cubes this will probably take an hour or two.
2. When it's cocktail time mix 3 parts grapefruit juice with 1 part vodka (or make it stronger if you've had a longer day). Mix or shake well.
3. Pour mixture over minty ice cubes & enjoy!

San Francisco Food Inspiration

A few weeks ago Chris and I took an awesome trip to San Francisco. I think it's safe to say that we pretty much ate our way through this fabulous city. Here are some of the foods I found inspiring and maybe easy enough to recreate (or at least parts of them).

Berkeley Bagel home-made hummus, avocado, sprouts, sliced red onion & tomato at The Grove Cafe

Chris's favorite: Local Crab & Shrimp Sandwich on toasted sourdough bread at Pier 23

PIMM’S CUP made with 
pimm’s no 1, gingerbeer, cucumber. I love that they garnished this cocktail
with a shaved cucumber (kind of like this salad! totally trying this) at Pesce

The CRAB TOWER of Dungeness crab meat with avocado, cucumber,
tomato, basil and red wine vinaigrette at Pesce

Gilroy Garlic Fries at AT &T Park