This past week Ryan has been in South Africa for work. He’s been busy working, but not too busy to send me photos of him hanging out by the pool in 80°/27° weather. Needless to say, I’ve been jealous.

So yesterday, Ryan was having an awesome day. I won’t tell you any more about that because I’m saving it for later. Anyway… I was at home in very rainy London doing chores. Not nearly as exciting as South Africa, but to toot my own horn, I dominated those chores. I did everything on my list, which hardly ever happens. I trudged to the super market in my wellies, I did all the laundry, I cleaned the bathroom, I snaked the drain, and I vacuumed. After all that productivity, I wanted a treat to make myself feel like I was on vacation in a warm and sunny place. 

When I think warm and sunny, I think cold drinks and lots of fruit. I wanted this to be pure fun and delicious, and not secretly healthy. (You know how I like to sneak veggies into drinks, but this isn’t one of those times) For whatever reason, I have limes on the brain so I bought a bag at the store. I then thought about what to go with it – because lime alone is too tart. I thought of strawberries, which are my favorite fruit. I went to the frozen aisle to pick some up, because fresh strawberries in February are gross, but the store was out of frozen! They did have frozen raspberries, and I thought, “yeah that’ll work.”

To add a little more depth to the flavors, I used coconut water. You can of course replace the coconut water with regular water, but I think the coconut adds a nice hint of nutty flavor. Besides, coconut water can make you feel fancy since it’s so popular right now. And, it’s a good source of potassium, so that’s good too.

The limes, raspberries, and coconut water all together are nice, but pretty tart. I added a healthy amount of agave nectar to balance the tartness and add some sweetness. I choose agave over honey because it’s a little runnier and I think mixes in more smoothly. But, mostly, I choose it because I was going for hot weather foods and the agave plant comes from the dessert.

Add a little white rum, and you’d have a delicious beach side cocktail. I left it as a virgin slushy, and enjoyed it as a rainy afternoon treat.

Messy level: One spoon. Blended drinks are the easiest thing to clean up – even though cleaning the blender can be really annoying.

Raspberry Limeade Slushy

 

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Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 5 limes, plus one more for garnish
• 2 cups frozen raspberries
• 1½ cups coconut water
• ¼ cup light agave nectar
• white rum, optional

Instructions

1. Juice the limes, and add the juice to a blender.
2. Add the raspberries, coconut water, and agave to the blender.
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Taste and adjust as you see fit.
5. If you're using the rum, add it to the blender a little bit at a time. Blend, then taste, and adjust.
6. Serve with a straw and lime wedge.

3.2.2925

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And she’d look at me, in the smug way parents do when they know better, and she’d say, “yeah, I said the same thing to my mom when I was a kid.”

But then, the other day I had a craving for that very sandwich.

It’s definitely a sign of getting older when you realize you’re like your parents. I mean I’m not exactly like my parents but it’s sort of weird to notice the habits I have because of them. Both my brother and I hoard napkins in the glove compartment of our cars just like our father does. Because you just never know when you’ll need a ton of napkins while driving.  And I see my parents sometimes in the way I say a word, or the way my brother makes a gesture. As I’m saying something or doing something, I get this wave over me of, “whoa, that’s Mom.” or “whoa, that’s Papa.”

Photo by Marcella Treybig Photography

It’s not a bad thing, it’s just surprising to realize. And in fact, it’s comforting knowing I have my family with me even when they are far away. And I’m lucky to be like my parents, and especially like my mom. She’s freaking awesome. She recently won Scientist of the Year from HENAAC, which is super impressive and cool. And in general, she’s always been so loving and energetic and encouraging of everything I do. The picture I’ve posted of her is from my wedding. It’s my favorite.

Now, I’m sure my mom would rather I honor her with a splashier recipe, because she makes excellent apple pie and also a chocolate chip cheesecake. But this is the recipe that is just my mom’s and no one else’s.

Mom’s sandwich is well-known between Papa, Eric, and me because of the unusual combination of ingredients – cinnamon raisin bread, raspberry jam, and cheddar cheese. Yes, I know it sounds off-putting, but somehow it works. Toasted bread provides a light crunch, the jam is sweet and tangy, and the cheese is sharp and creamy. Surprisingly, the flavors meld together and it becomes a very satisfying breakfast. When I told Ryan about it, he wrinkled his nose a bit and gave me a look that said, “are you sure that tastes good?” And I can’t blame him for thinking that.

So it’s tradition. My grandmother weirded out my mom, my mom weirded out me, and I intend to weird out future generations, who will then ultimately crave the sandwich themselves.

Ingredients:

2 slices cinnamon raisin toast

Raspberry Jam

Sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Toast the bread to your liking. (I like a light toast, and also my bread was too tall for the toaster).

2. Slather one side of each piece of bread with the raspberry jam. Put on as much or as little jam as you like.

3. Cut big hunks of cheese and put them on top of the jam on one of the slices of bread. My mom recommends using huge hunks of cheese. Don’t skimp on this step!

4. Put the other piece of bread on top, jam side down. Cut in half. Eat it and be surprised.

Messy level:

This is the least messy thing I’ve ever posted about.  At least I think so. You can make this in 3 minutes and clean up so easily. It’s awesome and filling, and that’s sometimes hard to do at breakfast time.

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My lovely friend Charlotte, who is so supportive and helpful with my blog, suggested I post my first-ever salad recipe. When I read her email, I thought, “ugh, salad.” I seriously dislike making salads and I prefer what I can buy at a restaurant. I don’t have all the diverse and exotic ingredients they have. And I’m just incapable of coating my salads in dressing like restaurants do. I always have a dressing puddle at the bottom of my plate. But if the purpose of my blog is to push myself to expand my cooking horizons, then I should get over my aversion to salad-making and just make a darn salad!

Today’s recipe I call, “Lisa’s Mom’s Strawberry Salad.” Now Lisa, is one of my oldest and best friends, and I’ve known her for literally over twenty years. Her mom’s name is Ellen, and Ellen calls this recipe “Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad,” and we’ll go with that since it sounds more elegant. This recipe is one of the three or four staples (along with veggie pizza and 7-layer dip) that I associate with parties at Lisa’s house, and it’s become one of the dishes I look forward to. And I’ll admit it, I’m nostalgic. I like this recipe because it reminds me of my friends and all the great parties we went to at Lisa’s house when I was growing up.

But, the real reason this is special to me because it is the first recipe I ever asked someone for. Today I’m always asking people how they make something, what ingredients they used, and how they cooked it. But, I asked for this recipe when I was in high school and never cooked anything. Seriously, never. I do recall I made this once or twice at home, but somewhere in the 10+ years since high school I lost the recipe.

When Ellen sent me the recipe this time, my eyes bugged out a little when I saw mayonnaise in the dressing ingredients. Sixteen-year-old Mariel was unbothered by this because she didn’t know what ingredients were in anything, and she could eat whatever she wanted. But twenty-eight-year-old Mariel has a slower metabolism, and is afraid of mayonnaise. And I don’t really know why I’m afraid of mayonnaise. Mayonnaise, when made from scratch is largely oil and if a salad dressing called for lots of oil I wouldn’t bat an eye! So I decide I would make the dressing as Ellen instructed, and I’d also try to make my own oil based vinaigrette. And the winner was the mayo-based dressing! I felt like the oil overpowered the tangy raspberry sweetness I wanted in the dressing. Also, the mayo dressing wasn’t heavy at all. I liked the light sweetness that it added to the salad.

I had the perfect opportunity to make this salad the other day when Ryan was going out with friends to watch a soccer game. Solo-girls-night at home is about the only time a reddish-pink, vegetarian salad is going to be dinner in my house. When Ryan came home a few hours later he found me on the couch watching The Big Bang Theory with our baby-polar-bear-soft blanket pulled up to my nose.

Ryan: How was your salad?

Me: Great!

Ryan: You didn’t watch the game?

Me: No

Because solo-girls night means no sports on TV and a vegetarian dinner. Might sound terrible to you, but it sounds awesome to me.

Anyway, back to the recipe. At the core this salad can be made using just romaine, red onions, and strawberries. I decided to jazz it up a bit and I added goat cheese and crushed almonds. The sharp tang of raw onions, with the creamy cheese, the crunch of the almonds, and bright juiciness of the strawberries makes for a vibrant combination of flavors. I also think it makes the salad more filling. And tastier.

It was so tasty and filling, in fact, that I had this salad for breakfast the next day. For real, I ate salad for breakfast. I guess I don’t hate making salad anymore.

Ingredients

These amounts are if you’re making the salad for 4+ people

Dressing:

1/2  cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp poppy seeds

1/4 cup milk

2 tbsp raspberry vinegar

Salad:

1 large head of Romaine lettuce (I used a bag of mixed greens)

1 quart strawberries

1 small red onion

1/3 cup almonds (or to taste)

goat cheese (to taste)

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise and sugar thoroughly. Add the poppy seeds. Mix. Add the milk. Mix. Add the raspberry vinegar. Mix. Set aside.

2. Wash the lettuce and roughly chop. Put in a large bowl.

3. Wash the strawberries. Cut into thin slices. Put them on top of the lettuce.

4. Slice the onion in thin strips. Put them on top of the lettuce.

5. You can crush the almonds in a food processor. Or you can put them in a plastic bag and hit them with a rolling pin. The second way is fun, and you don’t dirty any dishes. Sprinkle crushed almonds on top of the lettuce.

6. Cut the goat cheese into small dime-sized blobs. Place them around on the salad.

7. Serve!

Messy level – 1 spoon! All you need for this is a knife, cutting board, two bowls, and a whisk to mix the dressing. So very easy.

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