Sunday, April 26, 2009

fresh strawberry lemonade


fresh strawberry lemonade

1 package of strawberries, hulled (i used 35-30 berries)
the juice of 2 lemons
the best part of a tray of ice cubes
1/2-1 C of sugar (depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)

blitz it all up together in a blender.

pour into a pitcher.

add to it half a large bottle of sparkling water.

serve immediately. make more.

would make a mean margarita with tequila or a daiquiri with rum.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

riding in the sunshine

today, sabin rode dizzy, a different horse than usual. she was a bit more spunky and less of a follower than our old trusted steed silver star. i'm really impressed with the lesson horses at this riding school. they're good, dependable, sweet, even-tempered horses that are well taken care of. but today, for the first time, someone started talking about having their own horse...we're on the slippery slope.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

would someone please...

...get this child a modeling contract? it helps that the sunset light of spring is totally amazing...

Saturday, April 11, 2009

beautiful day at møn's klint

sabin and i went to møn's klint today. it was sunny and just perfect (except for all the other people). it's better to go there on a nice day in january when no one else is there. but we still found plenty of stones to carry up all those stairs and home. and we even took a few down with us, just to take their picture (as irrelevant as that may seem). it did make us happy, so that's what matters, irrelevant or not...

here are some highlights:

the pooka with the D60 around her neck.
she's quite the budding photographer.
this is a little lizard that sabin made at school.
we thought he'd like to spend some time at the beach.
here are some of the stones we took down with us.
and these are the fossils from a previous trip
to møn's klint.
i sent them to canada
where they got these clothes made for them.
what a long trip they've been on.
* * *
we did more fun things that i'll share tomorrow.

Friday, April 10, 2009

gin & tonic sorbet



i was asked recently to express myself as a flavor of ice cream. i said that i would be a gin & tonic sorbet--grown-up, sophisticated, relaxing, refreshing and with a bit of sass. something you'd like to spend time with every day. plus, it's spring and in spring one's thoughts turn to cool drinks sipped in the sunshine.

gin & tonic sorbet

first, make a sugar syrup by bringing 3C water and 1C sugar to a boil.

allow the syrup to cool.

then stir together the following in small, flat dish that will fit in your freezer. i used a flat 1.5 inch tall by A4-sized tupperware container with a lid:

1 C of the sugar syrup
1 half liter bottle of schweppes indian tonic (do not be cheap about your tonic, only schweppes will do)
the juice of 2 limes
1/2 C of gin (i used g'vine, a posh french small batch gin)

i let mine freeze overnight, but it likely would have been ready sooner--the gin keeps it from freezing into ice cube-like consistency. then, you take a fork and rake it across until it's a lovely slushy consistency, put it in a glass with a slice of lime and serve in the sun.

it's heavenly. i promise.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

berry trifle dessert


this was a big hit here this evening

1/2 liter of whipping cream
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 package frozen mixed berries (a small one is ok)
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 package meringue cookies

whip the cream until it's almost as you'd like it for whipped cream (but not too stiff), then add most of the can of sweetened condensed milk and whip it some more. i didn't add quite all of it. it whipped into soft, creamy peaks.

mix the berries together with the sugar and let them thaw (tho' they don't have to be totally thawed before you put it together).

crumble 3 small meringue cookies in the bottom of a tall glass (i used our latte glasses from ikea). add a large dollop of the cream mixture, then spoon in the berry mixture, followed by three more crumbled cookies and another dollop of cream. save a few berries for on top or use fresh berries.

would be great with any fruit...fresh strawberries, fresh peaches, blueberries. i used frozen berries b/c it was what we had on hand. they were still a bit frozen when we ate it and that was actually really yummy.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

lesson 6 and we've movin' on up


sabin was invited to move to the next level at riding lessons today!  so next time, we'll go half an hour earlier and ride with those who've been riding a bit longer. she was really proud of herself, it was so sweet!


so this was her last lesson on silver star. next time she'll ride a zippy little arab called "milton"