Ice Pop Joy!

Many of my recipes come from trial and error (mostly error at this point!), favorite websites, and the occasional cookbook. The actual recipes usually come into play when I make difficult dishes where I need to follow multiple steps.

So, when I heard about Anni Daulter's book, Ice Pop Joy - a cookbook for popsicles - I was initially skeptical. My method of 1. get juice 2. pour juice in cups 3. freeze had been working so far and I couldn't imagine what I could actually gain from an actual book on making popsicles.

I was wrong.

Daulter's book is a combination of interesting information, stunning photography, and recipes that are a mix of the familiar and unique. I can safely say that I would have never come up with most of the creative popsicle recipes that Daulter shares.

Recipes range from bright and tropical fruit-infused pops to nutrient packed veggie or tofu ones. There are a bunch of chocolate based pops for those with a sweet tooth, and even herbal tea pops useful for soothing sore throats or grumbly tummies!

In addition to the recipes, Daulter includes a lot of interesting and useful information both on the ingredients used, "pop practicalities" (including info on the utensils/tools needed), and the importance of wholesome, healthy eating. There is also a section in the back for resources, in case you can't locate any of the ingredients in your area or want to splurge on some fun pop molds. 

We eagerly flipped through Ice Pop Joy, trying to figure out which recipe to try first. I had my heart set on the "Peace Pops," unable to resist the fruit/carrot combination, and my son chose the quinoa/blueberry pop, possibly drawn in by the gorgeous purple spiral of a pop in the accompanying photo.

While we didn't have any of the nifty popsicle molds Daulter uses, the Dixie cups and wooden popsicle sticks we did use, worked just as well. To show you just how easy these pops really are, I took some pictures when we whipped up a batch of Peace Pops.

Most of our ingredients. Local carrots, yay!

Ingredients are simple: Strawberries, mango, carrots, water & coconut sugar. I was able to find all of the ingredients at our local co-op, including the coconut sugar (which I was unsure about finding).

Carrots getting all steamy & soft

The recipe (like most in the book) calls for a blender, which we don't have. However, our hand blender made quick work of pureeing the fruit, steamed carrots, water & sugar all together without issue. Of course, before we tossed the mixture in cups to freeze, we had to taste it.

Delish!

In fact, the kiddo ended up drinking multiple cups of the Peace Pop mixture as well as the quinoa/blueberry one before they even made it to the freezer. He also exclaimed "I LOVE quinoa!" 

I do have to admit to being a bit wary of the quinoa pops. Never having had grains in my popsicles before, I couldn't quite fathom how it would work, but in the end the quinoa was blended in to the point where it just added a creamy texture and was mostly undetectable.

Yum!

While the pops didn't turn out as bright and colorful as in the book (possibly because I used "blonde" coconut sugar which looks like brown sugar) they were still incredibly tasty and eons better than my (not so) tried and true "freeze premade juice" method.

There are tons of recipes for all tastes, and we're already planning which ones to make next (I'm hoping for the white chocolate/peppermint "Happiness" pop while others might have their eye on the Pistachio Tofu Pop). 

Beyond my excitement for popsicles, I'm happy to share that I have a copy of Daulter's book up for grabs. If you would like to win a copy of Ice Pop Joy, please leave a comment below, telling me what *your* favorite popsicle treat is!

Fall Into Summer

So...that happened. You know, the part when I apparently took over two weeks off from this blog. I'm not quite sure what happened exactly. One huge part of it was that we didn't have potluck for two.whole.weeks.

My heart and belly hurt over that one.

But summer happens. Lazy days and busy weeks...trips, vacations, visitors. And so, sometimes, potluck doesn't happen. We make up for it by seeing the familiar faces during the week. At playdates, farmers markets and in town. And we make up for it by having delicious potlucks in the middle of August when the weather threatens Fall and you're just not ready for it.

Yesterday was grey and rainy and just plain gloomy. Potluck was a much needed event. We hosted and decided to make baked rice - my go to dish in soggy, chilly weather. This time we worked with what we had on hand.

I started by sauteing up some onion and carrots from the farmers market in a little bit of olive oil.

After they cooked for a bit, I added 1.5 cups of a brown/wild rice mix, a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (liquid and all), 2 cups of chicken stock, and a little salt and pepper. Once that came to a boil, I covered it and transferred it to the oven to bake for 40 minutes at 350*.

While it was baking, I prepped a few more ingredients.

I chopped up some dino kale from the garden and a few Italian seasoned veggie sausages. Normally I would use chicken sausage, but this is what we had on hand, and despite my reservations, they actually ended up being quite tasty and held up pretty well in the dish.

After 40 minutes, I added them to the dish, stirred it and let it bake for another 15 minutes.

Perfection.

Yeah. Potluck was rocking it out last night. In addition to the baked rice (in the lemongrass colored Le Crueset on the left) we enjoyed some homemade tomato soup, fresh bread, and a fabulous pine nut & parsley infused couscous salad. Dessert came in two forms...some Dean & Deluca cookies sent to me by a friend and a crazy.amazing.delicious macaroon/raspberry/pistachio tart. The meal was bittersweet as it reminded me of how amazing potluck can be, which makes me all the more sad to be missing it next week when we go camping in Cape Cod. But...Cape Cod. I think we'll be okay!

Also, stay tuned because I've been hard at work this month testing out all sorts of delicious new popsicle recipes featured in Anni Daulter's book, Ice Pop Joy. I'll be reviewing both the book and a few of the recipes. And perhaps there may even be a give-a-way...