Happy May, and Happy Margarita Week! It’s year two for the tequila-fest that Kate over at Hola Jalapeno puts together in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Last year, I contributed these Sparkling Lemongrass Ginger Margaritas. I was still feeling very inspired by all the amazing Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese food we ate while in Asia, so it was only natural to work some of my favorite Asian aromatics into a traditionally Mexican drink.

For this year, I dialed things back a little bit. It can sometimes feel like I’m constantly trying to outdo myself when I come up with recipes. I want the recipes on this blog to be creative and inspiring – I’m not here to write about super simple recipes or cooking basics. However, simple doesn’t always mean tired and overdone. Simple recipes can be a wonderful way to let the flavor of an incredible ingredient shine through. Think burrata cheese, high quality olive oil, and perfectly crunchy sourdough. So while last year’s contribution to Kate’s Margarita Week was exotic and new, this year I’m keeping it simple with Passion Fruit Margaritas. Just a perfect, balanced drink that lets the passion fruit sing accompanied by high quality tequila.

I developed a crush on passion fruit during my first few trips to Colombia two years ago, and since then it’s blossomed into a burning romance. Whilst I burn through some of my food obsessions in a month or two (like when you fall in love with a new song and play it non-stop for two weeks, only to realize that you never want to hear it again after that), others are a slow build. Passion fruit is one that’s here for the long haul. It’s so wonderfully tangy and fragrant, the perfect complement for desserts and drinks. I daydream about the passion fruit gelato at Santini in Portugal, and I can slurp down a fresh passion fruit juice in minutes.

The only downside to my love for passion fruit is the cost. Passion fruit are hard to find and exorbitantly expensive in Boston, running $2 a piece (if anyone in Boston has tips for where to get them cheaper, please share! I’ll bring you a margarita). This might be the only drink I’ve ever made that cost more to make at home than it would have to order at a restaurant.  At least I had a lightbulb moment when reading this post by A House in the Hills that you can grow passion fruit (obviously). True, it typically grows in subtropical places like Colombia and Australia. But we’ve tried lemon trees and avocado trees and olive trees, so why not give passion fruit vines a try? One day we’ll live in California/Portugal/Mexico where we belong. Until then, I’ll be forking out the cash to get fresh passion fruit for my margaritas and desserts.

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Passion Fruit Margaritas

Makes 3-4 margaritas.

• 6 fresh passion fruit
• 1 lime, plus more for garnish.
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 4 oz. white tequila
• 2 oz. orange liqueur
• ice
• coarse sea salt, for rimming glasses

1. Cut the passion fruit in half, being careful not to spill the juice out of the center. Scrape the pulp and juice into a small food processor. Pulse 2-3 times just to loosen the seeds from the pulp. Pour through a strainer into a bowl, separating the juice from the seeds.
2. Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl with the passion fruit juice. Add the sugar and stir to thoroughly combine.
3. For each drink, add the following ingredients to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice: 1 oz tequila, 1/2 oz orange liqueur, 1 oz passion fruit juice mixture. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into a salt-rimmed glass. Add a few passion fruit seeds and a slice of lime for garnish. Serve immediately.

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I didn’t do a very good job taking advantage of my jet lag this morning. I woke up early to gray, heavy skies and thought – what a perfect morning to make a cup of tea and take a blanket to my desk and write. But it turned out that it was also a perfect morning to lie under a pile of down comforters and waste an hour on various forms of social media. And I was only in Europe for a few days so it’s probably my only morning of jet lag. Oh well.

I’ve been wanting to get this post up before it comes irrelevant – I’m sure many of your gardens are winding down, and personally, my morning cravings have turned more towards baked apples and oatmeal than bright green smoothies. But I know we still have a few hot days ahead of us, and there are still 3 cucumbers hanging on the vine, so smoothies it is.

Our cucumber vine flourished this year – I had forgotten just how many huge cucumbers one modest vine could produce. Sadly, more than one beautiful, plump, homegrown cucumber languished and shriveled up in our fridge. I don’t know if the variety we planted had a particularly short shelf life, or if we just don’t really eat cucumbers, but it seemed nearly impossible to keep up with them.

I did find a couple of good ways to use them up, and one of the simplest was adding them to my green smoothies. I’m pretty loyal to my standard green smoothie recipe (although these days I tend to omit the water and add ginger), but every once in a while I switch it up. The flavor of cucumber is super refreshing, and pairs well with lime and mint. I added avocado for creaminess and a little bit of banana and mango for sweetness and body. Oh, and of course, the green part: lovely tuscan kale, another plant that’s flourishing in my garden. It’s not my everyday smoothie but it’s a really good one when I want something a little different.

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Cucumber-Avocado-Lime Green Smoothie

A smooth and creamy green smoothie with lots of vegetables.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 large cucumber, peeled
• 1/2 banana
• 1 c. lemonade
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 c. frozen mango
• 1/2 avocado
• 6 large leaves tuscan kale, center ribs removed
• 5–6 leaves fresh mint

Instructions

Add all ingredients to blender in order listed (you want to be sure the lemonade goes in early to ensure even blending). Blend on high until smooth and creamy. If using a high-powered blender, serve right away; if using a regular blender, you may want to strain it through a fine mesh blender before serving for a smoother drink.

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You guys know that I’m in Colombia all the time for work. I’ve been at least once a month so far this year, if not twice. The food in Colombia is amazing, but because I’m on the road so frequently I’ve had to scale back on how much I let myself indulge when I’m gone, even if it means missing out on arepas, empanadas, patacones, and all the other delicious treats. There’s only one thing that I can’t resist having at least once per trip: Limonada de Coco. It definitely falls into the indulgence category, but it’s too good to pass up.

Limonada de Coco is basically a coconut and limeade smoothie. It’s incredibly simple to make – all you need is fresh lime juice, coconut milk, sugar, ice, and a good blender – but the end result is one of the most heavenly, refreshing, craveable hot-weather drinks I’ve ever tried. I usually describe it to friends or coworkers that I’m convincing to order one as “like drinking key lime pie.” Cold and frothy and rich, with just a touch of sweetness and lime, it’s perfection. And too easy not to try at home this summer. I don’t think a splash of rum would be amiss in this, but try it without first – I think its simplicity and purity is part of its charm. But once you’ve given it a chance unadulterated, let me know how the rum thing goes.

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Colombian Limonada de Coco

One of my favorite treats in Colombia – a super-refreshing, icy cold coconut and lime smoothie.

Recipe sourced via My Colombian Recipes and Smitten Kitchen.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 3-4

Ingredients

• 1 can of full-fat coconut milk, unshaken
• 1/3 c. freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 3 limes)
• 4 TBS sugar
• 1 1/2 c. ice cubes

Instructions

1. Open the can of coconut milk and, if it has separated, use a spoon to scoop the heavier coconut cream off the top and into a blender. Then pour about half of the thinner coconut water into the blender. Reserve the rest of the coconut milk for another use. If the can has not separated enough such that you can scoop out the cream, just stir it up and use 2/3 of the can.
2. Add the lime juice, sugar, and ice to the blender. Blend on high until very smooth. Taste and adjust the amount of lime juice or sugar to your liking. Serve cold.

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I have been craving a really good slice of key lime pie since January. It’s clearly not a particularly intense craving, or I would have found a way to get some pie long ago, but it’s there, in the background, every time I think about dessert (which is relatively often). The craving started when we unexpectedly got stuck in Miami during the first blizzard of this epic winter. I had a really incredible slice of key lime pie at a whole in the wall BBQ place during a work trip to Miami about a year ago, and now when I think of Miami, I think of that pie. A two day layover in Miami should have meant that getting some good pie was pretty easy, but it just didn’t happen (I did have a great Medianoche, though, so there’s that).

So, what better time to make something just for yourself than your birthday? I originally meant to make this the day before my birthday, as I was taking the day off to pamper myself, but I ended up spending most of the day out with my mom, and after a late lunch, making pie didn’t feel like the right choice. Saturday, after spending the morning at our house inspection (if that doesn’t make you feel old, I’m not sure what will), Trevor threw me a great birthday party – he did a really delicious BBQ pulled pork in the smoker, accompanied by mac’n’cheese, grilled sweet potatoes, and a towering homemade angel food cake with blueberry jam. Greatest boyfriend in the world, end of story. Sunday, somewhere between recovering from the night before (primarily by eating leftover mac’n’cheese for every meal) and beginning to worry about my trip to Colombia the next day, I decided that it was time for my birthday pie. So I whipped it up, and it was everything I wanted it to be. In the end, it’s probably good that I only had the chance to eat two slices before leaving.

Key lime pie is incredibly simple to make. The only thing it requires is the patience to squeeze 2 dozen tiny key limes by hand (or access to good quality fresh key lime juice). After that, all you do is mix up sweetened condensed milk with a few egg yolks (conveniently left over from the 24 egg whites required for the angel food cake your boyfriend makes for your birthday), stir in the lime juice, pour into a basic graham cracker crust, and bake. The condensed milk does most of the work of making key lime pie, well, key lime pie. I made a slight twist to the recipe by reserving some of the filling and mixing it with Meyer lemon juice, then using a few drops of food coloring to color the lime mixture green and the lemon part yellow, then swirling the two together. The result is mostly aesthetic, but if you don’t mind the extra step, I think it gives the pie a fun ’50s look.

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Key Lime and Meyer Lemon Swirl Pie

Key lime pie recipe adapted from Epicurious. Serves 8-10.

• 9 graham crackers
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 5 TBS butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 9 TBS key lime juice, freshly squeezed (from about 20 key limes)
• 3 TBS Meyer lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• yellow and green food coloring
• 1 c. heavy cream or whipping cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, Place the graham crackers in a food processor or blender and process until finely crushed. Mix the crumbs with the sugar, melted butter, and sea salt, then press into a 9-inch round pie pan. Press the crust firmly into the bottom and up the sides using your fingertips. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and the egg yolks until fully combined. Scoop half a cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside. Mix the lime juice with the batter in the first bowl (the larger amount) until evenly combined. Mix the lemon juice with the batter in the second bowl (the smaller amount) until evenly combined. Stir 2 drops of green food coloring into the lime batter and 4 drops of yellow food coloring into the lemon batter.
3. Pour the lime batter into the pre-baked pie crust. Carefully spoon the lemon batter into concentric circles on top of the lime batter. Use a knife to cut swirling patterns into the batter by running the knife from the center of the pie to the edge and back in again. Bake the pie for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool completely. Chill for at least 2 hours.
4. Before serving the pie, whip the cream into soft peaks. Decorate the pie with the whipped cream or spread a thick layer on top. Serve chilled.

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Here in Boston, we’ve reached that point in the year where the warm, crisp fall days have given way to truly frosty, windy mornings when even the brightest sun can’t entice you to stay outside. I’m sure we still have a few nice days left, but we’ve already had snow flurries twice, the winter coats are out on our coat rack, and I’m guessing that this is the last week for those leaves still clinging to the trees. I’m not exactly thrilled at the prospect of hunkering down for the next four months, but one thing I do love about cold weather is the chance to invent and enjoy warm cocktails. On a cold day, there’s little that I find more enticing than the thought of a steaming mug of sweet, boozy cider or a honey-sweetened hot toddy.

I think my love for warm drinks (at least for the alcoholic sort) must have been born during the four months I lived in Prague – I have a very vivid memory of sipping from a glass of piping hot mead at the top of a snow-covered mountain, the steam from the hot drinks and food condensing on the windows of the small wooden cabin. It was a completely blissful experience, at least in my memory. Since then, I’ve been collecting drink recipes from all the cold countries I’ve been to, and I’ve been waiting to share a new one with you since our trip to Ecuador in March. I was first served canelazo, a mixture of cinnamon, naranjilla juice, and aguardiente, when we arrived at our hacienda near Cotopaxi. The altitude in Cotopaxi means that it’s appropriate to serve hot drinks at pretty much any time of day/year. I loved the sweet-and-sour mixture (and perhaps the quick effect it had at altitude), and finished not only my own glass but the extra one on the tray. When I returned to Quito later in the year for work, a co-worker took us up to El Panecillo, a hilltop with a giant statue of a winged angel and a beautiful view of the city. At several of the stands near the statue, they were selling cups of canelazo, and at a price of $0.50, I couldn’t resist ordering one before dinner.

The ingredients for canelazo are a bit tricky to find in New England. Naranjilla, which I mistakenly described as a clementine in my first mention of it, and as a sour orange in my second mention of it, is actually a herbaceous nightshade shrub – not a citrus at all. It does have a sweet-sour citrusy flavor and a bright orange exterior, hence the name “little orange.” Although I read that you can find its pulp in the frozen section of many Latin groceries, and I’m sure I could scrounge some up somewhere in Somerville, I wasn’t in the mood for a grocery store scavenger hunt today, so I used a mix of freshly squeezed orange, tangerine, and lime juice instead. I know that using those fruits may not make for a very authentic representation of the drink, and I’ve also used a much higher ratio of juice to cinnamon water than seems to be typical, but it’s still a bright, warming combination that’s worth giving a try. I did find the traditional aguardiente, a spirit distilled from sugar-cane and sometimes flavored with anise. If you can’t find it near you, either rum or cachaça would be a fine substitute. Now that I have the ingredients, plus a healthy supply of cinnamon sticks, I’m all set to make these babies throughout the winter.

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Ecuadorian Canelazo

Adapted from Laylita and Food.com. Serves 4.

• 3 c. water
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 5 cinnamon sticks
• 2 c. freshly squeezed orange juice, divided
• 1 c. freshly squeezed tangerine juice
• 2 limes
• 4 to 8 oz. aguardiente or white rum
• tangerine slices for garnish

1. Place the water, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, and 1 cup of the orange juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower the heat slightly and simmer the syrup for 30 minutes. The syrup should be heavily perfumed with cinnamon and a dark brown color. Add the remaining orange and tangerine juice to the pot and heat just until steaming, then remove from heat. Ladle the cinnamon-orange mixture into four heat-proof glasses. Pour 1 or 2 oz. of aguardiente into each glass depending on taste. Squeeze juice from half a lime into each glass, then briefly stir. Garnish with tangerine slices if desired, and serve immediately.

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It’s time for our very last Captain’s Table Challenge recipe – a drink suitable for enjoying during the big game this Sunday. I’m not really much of a football fan (understatement; I actually don’t watch sports at all), but I am a fan of parties, whether they revolve around football or not. And although I don’t know much about the sport, I do know that people like to drink beer while watching it, so our contribution to this edition of the challenge is a classy beer cocktail, the Captain’s Lime Shandy. A classic shandy is typically a mixture of light beer and sparkling lemonade, but we upped the potency with a shot of Captain Morgan White Rum, and played off the tropical, lime-y flavors in the rum with a slightly sweetened clarified key lime juice in place of the lemonade. A dash of bitters  added a hint of sweetness and complexity, and we had ourselves a drink worth watching football for. Not too sweet, not too bitter, these perfectly combine the drinkability of a beer with the more nuanced flavors of a good cocktail.

But be careful, these are highly drinkable! A fact we discovered last night when we found ourselves inadvertently tipsy while recipe testing. Perhaps if we had been noshing on these Mini Shrimp Tacos at the same time we would have been better off.

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Captain’s Lime Shandy

Serves 2.

• 2 shots (1 1/2 oz. each) Captain Morgan White Rum
• 1 shot ( 1 1/2 oz.) Clarified Key Lime Juice (available at WholeFoods, or use a mix of fresh key lime juice and sugar)
• 4 dashes Fee Brothers bitters
• ice
• 1 bottle light bodied beer, chilled
• sparkling lime soda, chilled
• key lime slices, for garnish

1. Add the rum, key lime juice, bitters, and ice to a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds, then strain into two Old-Fashioned or juice glasses. Pour the beer over the liquor to fill the glasses almost to the top, then top each glass off with a splash of sparkling lime soda. Stir briefly to mix, serve immediately.

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Merry Two-Days-After-Christmas! I’m sorry I didn’t get to pop in again before the big day and share some last minute sweets – after 6 months of intense work, travel, and just generally keeping it together, my body finally called for a time out, and I was out cold with the flu from Friday afternoon until Wednesday morning. I’m still taking it pretty easy, but I’m on my feet again and actually grateful for all the time I’ve had to rest. Time to do a few little things I’ve been meaning to get around to forever, like order a new bed and organize my photos from this year. And more importantly, time to reflect, to think about all the accomplishments of this past year and to take stock of what I’d like for myself in the next one. Although having the flu isn’t the most ideal of circumstances for vacation, I’m glad I’ll start the new year refreshed and refocused.

I made this simple black bean soup the other night to eat while snuggled up in front of a movie. I’m thinking ahead to my annual winter cleanse and testing out new recipes to see if they’re worth including. This soup seems to fit the bill – meat and grain free, low fat, flavorful, quick and easy to put together from cupboard ingredients, and filling enough for dinner on a cold December night. The soup itself is not very complex in flavor, but all the add-ins – feta cheese, pumpkin seeds, and lime wedges – add good contrast and brightness to the smooth and spicy broth. Be warned, the poblanos are surpisingly hot! They look sort of non-intimidating, but they pack a punch.

Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblanos

Adapted slightly from Bon Appetit. Serves 3-4.

• 2 fresh poblano chiles
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 large dried ancho chile
• One 14.5 oz can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 3 c. chicken or vegetable broth
• 3 c. cooked black beans (about two 14.5 oz cans, rinsed and drained)
• kosher salt to taste
• 4 TBS roasted, salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese
• 1 lime, cut into 4 wedges

1. Preheat the broiler. Place the poblanos on a foil-lined baking tray, and broil for 8-12 minutes, turning every few minutes with tongs, until the peppers are blackened all over. Remove the peppers from the oven, and place them in a bowl, covering the bowl immediately with plastic wrap. Let the peppers steam under the plastic wrap for 15 minutes, then peel off and discard their skins, remove and discard the seeds and stems, and finely dice the pepper flesh.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and crushed garlic cloves and saute until onion is golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Remove the seeds and stem from the dried ancho chile and discard. Place the ancho chile in the pan with the garlic and onion and cook, stirring, until chile has softened and become pliable, about 1-2 minutes. Add the garlic, onion, ancho chile, and tomatoes to a blender and puree until smooth, then return the puree to the saucepan. Stir in the broth, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer until the soup is thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in the beans and the diced poblanos and cook until heated through, about 3-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
3. Divide the soup between 3 or 4 bowls, topping each with 1 TBS of pumpkin seeds, 2 TBS of crumbled feta cheese, and a squeeze of lime juice. Serve immediately.

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It’s official – it’s summer. The sun is up early and the promise that a summer morning holds is so tangible in the earliest hours, when the light is golden and filtered through the leaves, the streets are quiet, and the breeze is fresh with overnight dew. Well before the droopy, heat-baked hours of the afternoon, the morning is energizing and opens the world up, and I daydream of late afternoon beach picnics, cool dips in the lake, panoramic mountain-top views, and drippy ice cream cones. Most days, I instead have to go sit in a climate-controlled office all day, and on those days I try to make the most of my early morning runs, park bench lunch breaks, and evening walks home. But on the days when I don’t have to don a suit, I want to be outside embracing the season as much as humanly possible. And so, I write this bucket list. I never get to everything, but I like to write it down and do my best.

Some of the things on last year’s bucket list are making a second appearance this year. Of the five things that were left on my list last year, I have since done two of them – planning a trip (and I’m already working on next year), and just this past week I made it out to the Harbor Islands for a company-sponsored day of service (spending three hours weeding and pruning trees and planting flowers felt more like how I like to spend my free time than service – I’ll take it). Grilling is sticking around for this year, and I already have at least one day planned at the Cape… but I’d like it to be more than that if possible. Of course there’s also some new things, because goals evolve. And so:

1. Go camping. I got a tent for Christmas this year, and I want to use it. Rain or shine. I sometimes think of myself as this super-athletic, outdoorsy, idealistic version of myself that I’m really not at all, given that I haven’t gone camping in years. But I can change that! I just have to get Trevor on board.
2. Go to the beach. Summer used to be synonymous with the beach for me. Besides the two weeks we spent on the Cape, we’d also regularly make the journey to Crane’s Beach in Ipswich, often in the second half of the day after the morning crowds had dispersed. I love swimming, I love being in the ocean, I love walking on the sand. I had a few hours of beachy happiness in Italy, but I want to make that happen more than once, if possible.
3. Ballet camp. I’m already signed up for this one, so that’s half the battle, but I really want to make sure I go – and make the most of it. The plan is that for two weeks in August I’ll be doing four hours a day of dance after work. I’m prepared to be exhausted, but I’m really excited about the opportunity to do something with so much focus. And hopefully get a little svelter in the process.
4. Spend time with my brother. My little brother just graduated from Cornell, and in August he’ll be headed out to Seattle. I’m excited about visiting him there, but before he leaves, I want to make sure we got some quality sibling time while we’re both on the same coast. Starting with drinks this Wednesday.
5. Learn video. Video seems like it may be the way blogging is headed, and it’s a little intimidating, I’d like to start learning. My new camera has decent video capabilities, and you have to start somewhere – why not the beginning. Also, my friend Tracy has promised that she’s going to make me a YouTube star. So we’ll see how she does on that.
6. Grilling on my own. Grilling. Fire. It’s still so scary. I’ve got to get over this one and do it by myself. So far I managed to kind of light the grill on my own, but then Trevor took over. See these steaks as evidence.
7. Preserve our harvest. I really, really hope we have enough of a harvest to merit preserving – I would 100% consider our garden a success if it happens. So far, it looks like we’ll have plenty of peaches and blackberries (knock on wood), although the stupid deer are starting to go for the peaches. A good reason to eat more venison. If I’m eating homemade blackberry jam next January I will be the happiest.
8. Practice driving. I used to be a decent driver. You know, not great, but I drove all the time and I was fine on long trips to and from Maine and Vermont and the like. But over the past three or four years, I’ve almost completely stopped driving, partly because I don’t have my own car, partly because Trevor prefers to drive when we go somewhere together, but also partly because I’ve convinced myself that I can’t do it. And I do not want to be some 30-year old woman with a mental block that keeps me from getting in the car, so I have to start reversing that mindset. Now. With practice.

There are a few other big things on the horizon that aren’t exactly of the bucket list sort – for example, starting July 1st, I’ll be moving to a new apartment to share with Trevor, a big and exciting and kind of scary change for both of us. There is also a possibility that I might be doing some travel for work, but I don’t want to jinx it by getting overly excited until it’s a sure thing. All told, it’s shaping up to be a busy summer, but hopefully in a good way.

To celebrate this list, I’ve made Strawberry Lime Agua Frescas, because the fact that the farmer’s market is flooded with strawberries this week is a sure sign of summer. Also, it’s quite warm in the Northeast, and I don’t feel like consuming much of anything that isn’t a cold liquid. Three of these strawberries are from my garden, but that’s not quite enough to do anything with other than eat in the yard, staining your fingers red, so I picked some others up at the Davis Flea this morning. They’re very good, red all the way through and sun-sweet. This agua fresca is not too sweet and extremely refreshing – the perfect thirst quencher. Of course, if you wanted to make it a little bit more adult, I’m sure a shot of tequila wouldn’t be bad at all.

Here’s to summer!

Strawberry Lime Agua Fresca

Recipe from Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales. Makes about 6 cups.

• 1 lb. fresh strawberries, hulled
• juice from 2 limes (about 1/3 cup)
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 4 c. water
• ice

1. Add strawberries, lime juice, sugar, and water to a blender and blend until completely pureed and smooth. Pour through a strainer into a large pitcher, pressing the fruit pulp to get as much juice out if it as possible. Skim the foam off the top of the pitcher and discard. Taste the juice and add more lime or sugar to taste if necessary. Cover the pitcher and refrigerate until chilled. Stir before serving, then serve over ice, with a slice of lime and a fresh strawberry for garnish.

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A day with two different drinking holidays occurring simultaneously is a good day.  Especially when you’ve had the week I’ve had (which involved multiple nights working past 9, as well as multiple nights with cereal for dinner.  Not ideal.)  Personally, my preference falls towards the tequila-drenched holiday rather than the more upstanding mint julep-y one, but if you’re celebrating both, more power to you.  Although I’d recommend starting with the mint juleps before moving on to the tastebud killing tequila shots.

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Last week my little brother turned 21.  So obviously, I had to send him alcohol related things.  Because 21 is your last important birthday.  And by important, I think I probably mean fun, as I imagine your 50th birthday feels pretty important but not necessarily that fun.  Or maybe it’s actually a blast.  I wouldn’t know – I’m just gearing up for 23.  But the point is, 21 is a big one.  And it’s a big one because of the boozing.  Although I don’t think I personally know anyone who didn’t drink before turning 21, it doesn’t make it any less exciting when it becomes official.  You can walk into a bar and order a beer, or a kamikaze, or a shot of tequila, and no one can stop you.  It’s kinda cool.  At least, it’s really cool at first, and then it just becomes a sorta nice extra freedom – like, I can buy a bottle of wine whenever I want, or order a beer with a hamburger, and it’s no big deal.  Really, I don’t know why the drinking age is so high to begin with, but I think I’ll avoid getting into that just now…

Anyway.  Back to Ryan.  Ryan and I are only a year and a half apart, and we’re buds.  Our buddiness goes through phases – we were totally buds at ages 1 and 3, when I slapped my mother for making him cry while changing his diapers.  We were OK buds from ages 4-9, when we shared a room with pink, flowery wallpaper and I drew imaginary lines to demarcate whose side was whose – mine was the side with the door, obviously.  We were not such good buds when I was trying to be cool in middle school and he was just a 5th grade baby, although I secretly loved playing pokemon with him once I got home.  No shame.   And we became really good buds once I got my license and I drove us to school every day – 20 minutes of uninhibited, unchaperoned conversation every day for 2 and 1/2 years can make people pretty close.   Now it’s harder to stay tight – he’s at Cornell, and busy playing frisbee and programming computers and being a little bit fratty, and I’m here, busy working and blogging and trying to stay balanced.  But I’m not worried that we’ll ever be those awkward, estranged siblings who never quite figure out how to interact as adults – we get along too well when we actually are together.

Although I haven’t actually heard how his birthday went, due to our extremely poor communication skills when we’re not in the same room (for which I’m giving you 70% of the blame, Ryan), I know he survived, I’m assuming he had a good time, and I know he got my package.  Which contained, among other things, Dark and Stormy brownies.  Lately I find myself drinking a lot of Dark and Stormies – a combination of Gosling’s dark rum, Gosling’s ginger beer, and lime juice.  They’re spicy, flavorful, and moody – they somehow seem very appropriate for this time of year (or maybe I just think that because of the name).  Either way, I have had a recipe from Ideas in Food for these brownies bookmarked for a long time.  If you’ve never checked out Ideas in Food, I’d definitely recommend it.  They are a husband and wife team that generates some of the most interesting and creative material on food I’ve seen, anywhere.  Sometimes I’m sort of turned off by some of their suggestions, as they really push the boundaries of traditional uses for ingredients, and sometimes I wonder how on earth no one else came up with some brilliant idea of theirs earlier, but I’m always totally intrigued by their work.  Part of the fascination for me is the techniques they use – a lot of them are high tech and inaccessible to the casual chef, but a handful of them are totally doable as well as great ideas.  They also have a cookbook, which I haven’t checked out yet but it’s high on my list.  Anyway, these brownies were the first actual recipe of theirs that I tried.  The flavor of the brownies was amazing.  Perfect.  So powerful.  However, the texture was decidedly weird.  They were moist and dense, both pluses, but also very crumbly.  They barely stayed together when I took them out of the pan, and they had a dense, cocoa-y mouthfeel.  Not totally unpleasant, but not very transportable, and not the brownie I was looking for.  The incredible flavor of the brownies came from simply pulsing fresh ginger and lime peel (they suggest lime oil, but I couldn’t find any) with the sugars in a food processor, and of course, adding a bit of rum.  Pretty transferrable techniques, so I decided to apply them to a brownie recipe with a better texture to get the flavor-texture combo I was looking for.  I bet you could even use these tricks to doctor up a batch of boxed brownies, sacrilegious as it may sound.  If you try it, definitely let me know the results.  And Ryan, I hope they stayed in one piece for you and that you enjoyed them – if not, I’ll make you some new ones when you get home.  Happy 21st!

Dark and Stormy Brownies

Inspired by Ideas in Food.  Brownie recipe adapted from Crustabakes.

• 7 oz semisweet baking chocolate
• 1 stick salted butter
• 3 TBS cocoa
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• zest/peel of 1 lime
• 3 inches fresh ginger, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 TBS Gosling’s dark rum
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c. flour

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.  Set aside
2. In a small saucepan, gently melt the chocolate and butter together over low heat, stirring all the while.  Alternatively, you can do this in a bain-marie or double boiler – the point is to keep the chocolate from burning or overheating while you melt it, but you can do this carefully without using a double boiler.  Whisk the cocoa powder into the melted chocolate and stir until smooth.  Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Place sugars, peeled ginger, and lime peel/zest into a food processor, and pulse until the ginger and lime are cut very fine and evenly dispersed throughout the sugar.  In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, ginger-lime-sugar, rum, and salt until combined.  Whisk in warm chocolate mixture and stir to combine.  Finally, fold in flour, stirring gently until just incorporated.  Spoon the batter out over the prepared pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, then check for doneness – a toothpick inserted into the center should have a few moist crumbs attached to it.  PLEASE NOTE:  I previously made these brownies in an 8×8 pan and thought they were overdone at 37 minutes, as well as too thick.  I think they would be better in a 9×13 for a shorter cooking time, but 25-30 minutes is really my best guess at cooking time.  It may be worth it to start checking them at 20 minutes, although I doubt they’ll be done that quickly.

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In an ideal world, I would have time to bake 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies, and then come Christmas day lay out a beautiful plate of differently shaped and colored and flavored treats.  (Yes, this is actually something I fantasize about.  I also fantasize about normal things like inheriting a villa in Italy and spending all day in a king-sized hotel bed with 15 pillows, but occasionally I fantasize about having perfect displays of baked goods.  C’est juste moi.)  In the real world, I have time to bake exactly 0 kinds of Christmas cookies, meaning that I will probably end up making 2 to 3 different kinds at odd hours of the morning when I should be studying for my steel final or writing the research term paper that I’ve been procrastinating literally since September.  Oops.

I can’t decide how much of a problem my tendency to use baking as a form of procrastination is.  I don’t really think it’s normal – most people are content with facebook and reruns of Modern Family – but at least it’s semi productive.  Or at least that is how I would like to justify it to myself.  For example, the night before fall break while working on yet another impossible matrix structural analysis problem set (yeah, I’m trying to impress you with the names of my classes), I decided at midnight to make 2 different kinds of apple muffins to bring with me to Tim’s house the next morning.  A nice, really poorly timed idea.  Then, the night before my steel midterm, which I began studying for at 9pm, I made an executive decision at 11pm that making banana bread would take approximately 5 minutes and be a great study break.  If you are ever thinking of making the same executive decision here are a few notes.  Note 1: making banana bread takes more than 5 minutes.  Note 2: once you make the banana bread you might find that it’s 11:45 and you feel kind of like taking a shower.  Note 3: after your shower it will be 12:15 and you will need time to eat 4 slices of banana bread.  Note 4: after eating too many slices of banana bread you will fall asleep, fat and happy and totally unprepared for your steel midterm.  Note 5: you will now need to do exceptionally well on your steel final and abstain from absolutely all baking for the 24 hours beforehand.  Period.

Occasionally, however, I behave like a responsible human being and set aside an hour or two of weekend time to bake.  For example, this morning.  When I made these shortbread cookies because shortbread is this month’s challenge over at Have the Cake.  I actually got really excited when I saw this challenge, especially since I haven’t been able to participate for a few months and I knew something as simple but changeable as shortbread would get me in the kitchen stat.  There were several shortbread recipes I wanted to try, and I might still try the savory parmesan-rosemary recipe I found, but in the end I decided to go with these lime and white chocolate shortbreads because they seemed festive enough to fit the bill of my first holiday cookie.

I think I would give these cookies a 3.5 out of 5 – there’s room for improvement.  I liked the flavors of the cookie and topping, but the texture of the lime zest in the cookie threw me off.  It made the cookies a bit crunchier than I thought they should be.  These cookies are also fairly crumbly, but since this is my first time making shortbread, I’m not sure how much of that is because of my technique and how much because of the recipe.  I would like to try these again omitting the lime zest from the cookie and using concentrated lime oil or lime extract instead of the almond extract, as I think that would give the cookies more flavor and a better texture.  I would keep the topping the same, as it was quite yummy and went well with the buttery cookie.

Lime Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate and Almonds

Adapted from Bon Appetit.  Makes 24 cookies.

• 2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 sticks chilled, unsalted butter
• 3 TBS lime zest, divided
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 4 oz. white chocolate
• juice from 1 lime
• 1/3 c. sliced, blanched almonds, toasted until golden then chopped

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.  Butter a 13×9 metal baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, powdered sugar, and salt.  Mix in 2 TBS of lime zest and almond extract.  Cut cold butter into flour in small pieces, then use pastry cutter or hands to blend until even and can be pressed together into a loose ball.
3. Press dough evenly into prepared pan.  Use a fork to poke holes all over dough.  With a sharp knife, cut evenly sized triangles into dough, cutting all the way through dough.  Bake cookies for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown and firm.  Upon removal from the oven, immediately use knife to recut through earlier markings.  Let cookies cool in pan on rack.  When cool, carefully remove from pan.
4. Bring a medium pot of water to a gentle simmer.  In a smaller pot, place white chocolate, remaining 1 TBS of lime zest, and lime juice.  Melt chocolate over simmering water, stirring all the while.  When thin enough, use a fork to drizzle lime-chocolate mixture over cookies, then top cookies with toasted almonds.

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Margie – [Pronounced Marrrr-ghee]  A hilarious species native to Israel.  I mean, New York.  Known to carry a large camera, abbreviate most words in the English and Hebrew languages, and ask for crowns relentlessly.  Often seen practicing Judaism and stealing bagels at the Freeman center.  Adapts easily to some external habitats, but will stagnate in others, most notably the park in Budapest and dirty hostels in Cesky Krumlov.  Is much better than Helen Wang at carrying large bags of groceries.  Enjoys Taylor Swift, Mika, Steph Wells, Miley Cyrus, and no other musicians.  Highly lovable.

Seriously, Margie and I are Praha besties.  Sophomore year we actually lived on the same hall as each other and didn’t speak for the entire year, except for one time – a time which I remember vividly and she remembers not at all. I cut my hand on the espresso machine at the coffeehouse during a late shift, and when I got back to the Crave Megan was already sleeping and I couldn’t find my bandaids without the light.  Bleeding, exhausted, I was standing in the bathroom at 3 in the morning, when Margie pads in in bright red feetie pajamas, looks at my hand, and runs back to her room to get a bandaid.  I thanked her, she went on her apparently exceedingly merry way, and we never spoke again.  That is until I showed up in Prague and saw her name on my apartment door.  Awkward.  Good thing she rules, and we quickly bonded over the fact that we’re both kind of cheap and occasionally grouchy and bigoted.  Especially when it comes to Asian roommates.  Kidding!  We love you Helen, even though you can’t cook rice and store food in the dishwasher instead of dishes.

Anyway, being together in Prague was a blast, and now I have an incredible friend at Duke too.  Honestly, that was not at all something I was expecting when I escaped to Prague via NYU, but it definitely worked out in my favor.  And Margie’s too, because I rule.  Now, on to the birthday part.  I’m really glad Margie’s finally 21 … I think I may actually have been looking forward to her birthday more than she has.  People like my parents and Steph and Trevor keep asking me how I’m doing, and I’m like “great, Margie’s birthday is in 15 days!”  And they sort of pause awkwardly and decide to just move on.  What can I say?  I really like Margie and I really like birthdays.  And I really like making cupcakes, and this time around, I went with mini key-lime and raspberry cheesecakes.

All the components of these cupcakes have a reason behind them – the key lime is because she ate all of my break-up key lime pie out of the freezer, the cheesecake is to pay homage to the one I made her in Prague a year ago (it was a serious feat considering they don’t have cream cheese in the potraviny), and the raspberry swirl/white chocolate layer/almond crust is for keeping it classy, like her.  D’aw.  These were delish – they taste kind of just like you would expect them to taste, given the description.  You can taste all the components, and they go well together.  And that, my friends, is the end of the cupcake extravaganza.  I’m going to go have a salad.

Mini Key-Lime Cheesecakes

Makes 18.  Recipe adapted from Modern Comfort Food.

• 1 c. graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 c. sliced almonds
• 4 TBS butter, melted
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. white chocolate chips
• 8 oz neufchatel cheese, room temperature
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 4 oz (1/2 c.) key lime juice
• 1/2 c. frozen raspberries
• 2 TBS sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.  In a food processor, pulse graham crackers, almonds, and sugar, until fine.  Mix in melted butter and stir or pulse until all crumbs are moistened.  Press a tablespoon of crust mixture into the bottom of each cup.  Top with a few white chocolate chips.  Bake for 3-5 minutes, and remove from oven.  Immediately spread white chocolate chips into a layer over the graham cracker.  Pop into the freezer while you prepare the other components.*
2. In a large bowl, beat neufchatel (cream cheese), sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks, until combined.  Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm raspberries and sugar, stirring constantly.  Break up the raspberries with the back of your spoon.  Cook until all of the raspberries have broken down and have formed a slightly thickened sauce.  Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Remove muffin tin from freezer.  Place 3 tablespoons of cheesecake batter in each cup.  Using a 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, spoon 3-4 tiny dots on top of each cheesecake cup.  Take a toothpick and gently swirl the raspberry into the cheesecake batter, forming a marble pattern.
5. Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes, until set.  Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.  Serve cold.

* If anyone can think of a better way to do the white chocolate layer, let me know.  I tried heating the chips with a small amount of cream to form a makeshift ganache, but it soaked into the graham cracker layer.  Ideally, I’d like a crisp layer of white chocolate over the graham cracker firmly separating the crust from the cheesecake.

Want some more?

Cupcake Lovin’, Part One

Cupcake Lovin’, Part Two

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The weather patterns in North Carolina have been pretty consistent so far this summer: sunny, 97°, humid, with an occasional switch to sunny, 100°, and humid.  I don’t mind that much – we have air conditioning, and there’s a rumor that the apartment complex I live in might actually open the pool now that it’s July.  However, the past few days have been a beautiful gift: it’s kinda cold.  I sat outside the other day and got goosebumps on my arms.  It’s 73°, clear, and dry, with a breeze that is so cool and strong and refreshing it must have come all the way from Canada.  So thank you, Canada.  I want to bathe in this weather.  I want to roll around outside and revel in the fact that not a single part of me is sweating.  That I don’t have to bury myself in a corner of the library next to an AC vent.  That I don’t have to unstick my pants from my legs when I get home.  I’m so, so pleased.

This weather doesn’t really make me want to eat anything in particular.  Well, except maybe a bowl of fresh cherries and seven ears of corn on the cob.  Mostly what it makes me want to do is skip.  Explore.  Swim.  Go on adventures.  Dance.  And take on huge kitchen projects like making my own mozzarella cheese.  Which is what I was going to write about… but then it didn’t really work.  I mean, the final product is definitely something more than milk, but I’m not sure as I would go so far as to call it cheese.  We’re gonna try again though, so once we find the secret, get ready for some delicious homemade cheese recipes.  Until then, I have something far simpler to share.

This is my absolute favorite summer drink.  I invented it myself and it’s infinitely refreshing.  I’ve been wanting to share it for a while, but was waiting for the perfect weather, and this is totally the perfect weather.  It’s limeade and grenadine and flavored seltzer.  Vanilla seltzer is the best, peach seltzer a close second.  Simple, bright, refreshing, beautiful.  Also, Happy Fourth of July!  I hope you’re doing something wonderful.  We’re going on a bruschetta picnic at my new favorite place in North Carolina (more on that soon…) and then to the drive-in to watch Toy Story 3 and Twilight.  Too good.  Anyway, enjoy this drink, enjoy today!

Sparkling Cherry Limeade

• 1 1/2 c. limeade, homemade or store bought
• 2-3 TBS grenadine
• 1/3 c. vanilla seltzer
• limes and cherries for garnish

Pour into a glass in the order listed for best appearance.  Drink. :-)

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