I’m a pretty big fan of lemonade. Last year I finally nailed down a recipe for a delightful home-squeezed version, and I find lots of excuses to make it when it’s hot outside and all I want in this world is a glass of sweet, tart, cold, perfect summer beverage. Mmmmmmm.

I also love orange juice. After my recent trip to San Diego, I brought home five precious pounds of oranges and could think of no better use for them than to squeeze them into juice. So I did and it was perfect and glorious and I had no regrets except that I don’t have a citrus grove in my Colorado apartment complex. I would almost give up my life in Colorado to live in a place with orange trees. Almost.

Have you ever worked with blood oranges before They are just so… provocative. Their skin is thin and blushes slightly, but upon slicing one open, you are met with simply stunning color. They vary: some are flushed with just a bit of red, like an orange with a sunburn, some are bright pink, and some are so deeply purple you can hardly believe they are same species of fruit. On their own, these oranges make the most MAGNIFICENT juice. If you have a happen to have a blood orange tree, please tell me that you make lots of blood orange juice. Also please send me your address so that I can move in with you.

I digress.

Anyway, when I found myself with an abundance of both lemons and blood oranges, I wondered what would happen if I mixed their juices together. The result Pink lemonade orange juice!

The combination of the rich, velvety blood orange juice and the clean, tart lemonade is completely delightful. Suitable for ANY time of day and any day of the year.

Seriously, does anyone have a blood orange tree and a spare bedroom?

Blood Orange Lemonade
Adapted from Simply Recipes

1/2 c granulated sugar
3/4 c water
zest of one lemon
zest of one blood orange
1/2 c lemon juice (juice 3 lemons)
1/2 c blood orange juice (juice of 4-5 blood oranges)
2 c water (to dilute)

Combine sugar and 3/4 c water in a small pot. Scrub all fruits until clean, then pat dry. Zest one lemon and one blood orange and add the zest to the sugar and water. Stir the pot, then heat over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and mixture just begins to simmer. Remove from heat and set aside.

While the simple syrup cools, zest the remaining fruits if you’re planning to freeze the zest (they are much easier to zest before juicing). Juice the fruits and strain to remove all the seeds and if you wish, the pulp.

Combine lemon juice, blood orange juice, and simple syrup in a pitcher. Add 2 cups water to dilute. If you prefer your lemonade even thinner, add up to a cup more.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours, then serve over ice.

There aren’t many things that can break me out of my water-all-time-time beverage habit, but the arrival of summer weather is one of them. And lemonade is usually first in line for my liquid-y cravings. Amazingly, though, I’d never made it from scratch until earlier this spring during the citrus extravaganza following my trip to California.

I can’t believe I waited so long.

Woe to the time I’ve wasted buying lemonade from the grocery. Woe to the powdery mix that’s walking around emulating this precious elixir. Using only a few lemons, you can make the most perfect, delightful lemonade with hardly any effort at all. Please do so as soon as possible.

A misconception I had about lemonade is the quantity of lemons needed. Perhaps from previous experiences making orange juice, which tastes great but takes FOREVER since you need pounds and pounds of oranges to put together even a quart of OJ. Lemonade, on the other hand, is an ade for a reason: let’s be honest, none of us wants to drink straight, undiluted lemon juice, so it takes only a few lemons to provide enough flavor for a half gallon or so of lemonade.

To start, make a simple syrup of sugar and water. I also add a couple lemons-worth of zest to give the final product an extra punch, but you can leave it out if you prefer a softer flavor. The simple syrup allows the sugar to dissolve completely so it doesn’t separate when your lemonade chills.

The simple syrup is then mixed with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and some additional water to dilute the mixture. You can drink it without diluting, but it’s going to be quite intense and sugary.

The final product is the quintessential lemonade: tart, cold, clean lemon flavor with a bit of sugar to elevate it to something more than I ever thought lemonade could be.

Now I could definitely drink the whole batch in one meal. But I want to experience this perfect lemonade whenever I want, so I opted to drink one glass and then make popsicles out of the rest. I had no idea how they would turn out, but this was one experiment that totally worked!

Now, wrapped in foil, I can have a little serving of sunshine whenever I like. Wanna make your own Here’s the popsicle-maker!

Basic, Perfect Lemonade + Lemonade Popsicles
Adapted from Simply Recipes

3/4 c granulated sugar
1 c water
zest of one lemon
1 c freshly-squeezed lemon juice (about 5 lemons)
2 c water (to dilute)

Combine sugar and 1 c water in a small pot. Scrub all five lemons until clean, then pat dry. Zest one lemon and add the zest to the sugar and water. Stir the pot, then heat over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and mixture just begins to simmer. Remove from heat and set aside.

While the simple syrup cools, zest the remaining lemons if you’re planning to freeze the zest (they are much easier to zest before juicing). Juice the lemons and strain to remove all the seeds and if you wish, the pulp.

Combine lemon juice and simple syrup in a pitcher. Add 2 cups water to dilute. If you prefer your lemonade even thinner, add up to a cup more.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours, then serve over ice with slices of lemon if you like things pretty.

To Make Popsicles: Pour the lemonade into a popsicle mold and freeze solid. Remove from the mold and wrap pops individually in foil. Freeze until you’re ready for a refreshing summer snack.

The last three days, I think I’ve been on my first faux-cation. That’s right. A vacation that’s not real. It’s not like I’m actually even on vacation but just not going anywhere, which is a staycation. I’m not on one of those. I just emerged from one of the more intense periods of work I’ve ever experienced, culminating in a hugely successful film festival. It was fun in that mind-bending, 17-hour work day sort of way, ya know Rewarding, exhilarating, but exhausting. And since we wrapped up late on Sunday night, it has been nearly impossible to force myself to do ANY activity that remotely resembles work: putting dishes in the dishwasher, cooking at all (seriously, I feel like I’m at the beach, we’ve been eating at restaurants with patios to take advantage of the nice weather), grocery shopping, nothing. Each time I’ve tried to get something done, I drift into daydreams of real beach vacations, lazy days in the sun, and the slower pace that simply MUST be coming soon.

But I miss you guys. I miss testing recipes, playing with food, editing photos, and writing to you. So I finally got myself back on track, though admittedly, the “recipe” that follows is vacation-inspired, and possible even in a stress-triggered faux-cation.

I made some dang strawberry ice.

Why Because summer is coming, which brings lemonade. And strawberry lemonade is the best lemonade, and hiding strawberries in ice cubes seemed like fun! It’s an easy, splashy way to step up your beverage game at summer cookouts and spring brunches. And all you need to make it is ice, sugar, water, and your favorite ice cube tray.

Now I know what you’re thinking: why do I need to add sugar to strawberries that are going to be in an ice cube Aren’t they sweet enough already And the truth is yes, they probably are. But adding just a little bit of sugar to fresh-cut berries will allow their juices to release, providing a slurry of perfectly sweet strawberry juice in every ice cube. It will be the first thing to melt when added to your drink, giving an instant strawberry surge to your lemonade, sparkling water, or other favorite beverage.

The strawberries are divided into the cubes and then topped off with water (obviously). I froze mine overnight, but if you have small ice cube trays and a killer freezer, you might be able to get away with a shorter period of time.

And then, you have ice! Scarlet-studded gems of just a bit of sweet and just a lot of fruit. They will freeze solid, but may be a bit sticky (sugar doesn’t freeze) on the outsides. Admittedly, I think I was prepping the photo above just before Kevin Ware’s leg broke, and I got a bit distracted. Hence the puddles. So I promise they won’t melt immediately, but once they’re out of the tray, into the drinks they should go.

On vacations and faux-cations for all.

Strawberry Ice
Adapted unabashedly from Joy the Baker

1 pint fresh strawberries
2 T granulated sugar
water

Slice strawberries into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and stir gently with a spoon. Set aside in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow berries to release their juices. Spoon berries into an ice cube tray, evenly distributing them until used up, filling each cavity about 3/4 full. Add water to tray until each cavity is full. Freeze overnight.

Use cubes to chill lemonade, sparkling water, or any other strawberry-worthy cold beverage.

And even I have this conflict. The desire both for thick, warm soups that shut out the cold of January but also for light, fresh meals that taste like the spring and summer to come.

Plus, Santa brought me an immersion blender for Christmas, and what better way to break it in than by crushing the heck out of some frozen raspberries?

This is a little smoothie. I can never get through a full-size smoothie, so this recipe is for about a half-pint. You can easily double it if you are full-size smoothie drinker.

I like using frozen fruit in smoothies rather than fresh fruit and ice. It makes for a nice, thick smoothie that doesn’t dilute and is bursting with fruity flavor.

The sweetness of the raspberries is complimented nicely by the acidic orange juice and the tart punch of the lime sherbet. It’s thick and filling but still light and fresh.

And it perfectly appeases one half of my confused January appetite.

Raspberry Orange Smoothie

1/2 c orange juice
1/4 c plain yogurt
1/4 c lime sherbet
1/2 c frozen raspberries

Combine all ingredients, starting with the orange juice, in a blender or the cup of an immersion blender. Blend until smoothe. Serve immediately.

I’m not entirely sure where November went, but December (and with it, the holiday cooking season) seems to have arrived quite suddenly. Before Thanksgiving, I felt like I was finally on it for my holiday planning: I had lists, I had a rough cooking schedule (don’t judge me), I had some hard-to-find ingredients ordered. But now we’re here, hurtling through the first week of December, and I feel overwhelmed and scrambled and concerned that I won’t get everything done. As usual, I’ve probably scheduled waaaaaay too many recipes to try, I decided months ago that throwing a food-filled holiday party this weekend would be a good idea, and I have a fantastically busy schedule at work.

However, at least one of my gift-giving projects is already under way and is actually right on schedule. And just in case you think it’s a swell idea too, I’m gonna go ahead and ruin the surprise for those of you on my Santa list this year.

Everyone on my list is getting homemade mulling spices! And, because it’s fun and I like sharing, I’m hosting a little giveaway so that three of you readers can have some too!

Last year, my holiday crafty-gift-project was making these little hot chocolate sticks. They were a hit, and they make a mean mug of hot chocolate, but this year I wanted to come up with something a bit more versatile. After seeing tiny containers of mulling spices being sold at a market in Ohio, I knew I had found my next project.

Mulling spices, if you’ve not heard them called that before, refer collectively to the spices generally used to turn apple cider and red wine into mulled cider and mulled wine. I’ve seen dozens of recipes, and used a few myself, but mulling spices typically include cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, orange peel, and lemon peel in a variety of combinations.

The first step Buying those dang spices. And lots.

I already buy most of my herbs and spices in the bulk spice section of the co-op grocery store, which is MUCH less expensive than buying them one bottle at a time, and I knew I could pick up a cup or two of many of the spices I’d need that way. But the dried orange peel, lemon peel, and candied ginger were not available. But it turns out you can order whole bags of these in bulk, and they’re fairly reasonably priced. Hooray for Amazon!

With spices in hand, I now needed a way to make tiny bags of them. You can use cheesecloth and tie it up, but I wanted to use something with a more finished look. T-sacs, which are essentially empty tea bags, seemed to fit the bill just right.

With spices and satchels in hand, all that’s left is mixing and constructing. The cinnamon sticks and nutmegs require just a bit of breaking, which can easily be achieved with an old, heavy pot and a freezer bag, and the ginger needs to be chopped, but that’s all you need to get all your spices in a bowl and turn them into mulling spice.

Once the mix is ready, each tea bag gets two heaping tablespoons of the mix. Then each bag is pinched closed, tied off, and trimmed of excess paper.

And look! Each little bag is perfect for mulling one bottle of wine or one 1/2 gallon of apple cider. I tested a bag for myself in apple cider, and the result was perfect. The tea bags are thin enough to allow the flavor of the spices to flow through the liquid, but sturdy enough to stay in the pot for 30 or 40 minutes while the cider simmers.

Now the bags are ready to give away as is, but I’m giving mine as sets of four in these cute little quarter-pound candy boxes I found online. Along with some pretty ribbon, I added a label for each box with instructions for making both mulled cider and mulled wine.

So here they are! Little packages of mulling spices to perk up your holiday party beverages. My friends and family will have to wait for Christmas to receive theirs, but not you! I’m doing a little giveaway and mailing a box of these little spice satchels to three readers. Want it to be you Here’s how to enter:

GIVEAWAY CLOSED: How to Win A Box Of Mulling Spice Mixes

1. Leave one comment on this post to answer this question: What is your favorite holiday party treat or drink?
2. BONUS! To enter twice, head on over to 30 Pounds of Apples on Facebook and like the page. Then, come back to this post and leave me a comment saying you liked the Facebook page, and you’ll be entered twice. Fancy!
3. Enter before 11:59pm EST on Sunday, December 9. Winners will be announced on Monday, December 10.
4. Open to US residents only (sorry to my international readers, shipping is so dang expensive!)

Homemade Mulling Spice Mix
Adapted from About.com

Makes 32 spice bags

Supplies
32 empty tea bags (I use #3 T-sacs)
cooking twine
quarter-pound candy boxes (optional)
instruction labels (optional) Here’s the template I made!
ribbon (optional)

Ingredients
6 oz whole cinnamon sticks
10 whole nutmegs
2/3 c dried orange peel
2/3 c dried lemon peel
3/4 c whole cloves
1/2 c allspice berries
1/3 c finely chopped crystallized ginger

Place cinnamon sticks and nutmegs in a zippered freezer bag and close, pressing out all the air from the bag. Place the bag on a cutting board and pound with a heavy pot or frying pan until sticks and nutmegs are broken into pieces. Chop ginger into small pieces.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside. Cut kitchen twine into 32 six-inch pieces. Place two slightly heaping tablespoons full of spice mix into each tea bag and tap gently on a hard surface to settle the spices in the bottom of the bag. Fill all bags until spice mixture is completely used up.

Pinch each bag closed about one inch above the top of the spices so they have enough room to expand and move around while in the liquid. Tie a double knot around the pinched point with the kitchen twine, and add a bow if you like.

If you are giving these as gifts, make sure to include the instructions below for your recipients.

To Make Mulled Apple Cider
Combine 1/2 gallon apple cider and 1 spice bag in a crock pot or a large pot on the stove. Heat for 30-40 minutes or until hot. Remove spice bag and discard. Serve hot.

To Make Mulled Wine
Combine 1/3 c sugar and 1/2 c water in a large pot on medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add 750 ml of red wine and 1 spice bag. Reduce heat to low and heat until wine is hot. Remove spice bag and discard. Serve hot.

Apple cider. It is,without question, my favorite thing to drink. I’m rather fond of apple cider cold and unpasteurized, straight from an orchard, but I also believe that apple cider is truly at its best served warm, in a cozy little mug, for a soothing drink on cool nights in the fall and winter. From early October to New Years Eve, I need only the tiniest hint of a social gathering to bust out the crock pot and a half gallon of cider and am forlorn when parties I attend elsewhere don’t feature this essential holiday beverage.

The singular challenge I face with my affection for spiced hot cider Unless I am hosting a party, I simply need one mugful. I’ve tried various packets of instant cider mix, but I usually find them far too sweet and not apple-y enough for my tastes. And the Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks Tasty, but not good for the wallet. And again with the too sweet.

But fortunately, Marisa over at Food in Jars has my back. Last year, after my fall supply of apple cider was gone, she posted this incredible recipe for an apple cider preserve. Not a preserve that tastes like apple cider but is actually spread on toast, but a preserve with which one can make “instant” apple cider all year long! The apple cider syrup, which is essentially reduced and sweetened apple cider, is spooned into a mug of hot water to create a delicious cool-weather drink whether apples are in season or not. I added it to my MUST MAKE NEXT YEAR list and waited, patiently, for this October to arrive.

And arrive it has. When I made my annual apple-picking journey in the last days of September, I picked up a gallon of cider and couldn’t wait to boil it down into syrup. Added a couple of extra spices as well, but did not want to can them into the finished product. Even when making a crock pot of spiced cider for a party, I’ve found that making a little baggie of spices tied with kitchen twine makes serving much easier, so I used the same technique here.

The cider will need to reduce by more than half. Once it does, the spice bag is removed and sugar is added to help it become a syrup. How do you know when you’re there Get. A. Candy. Thermometer. They’re pretty cheap at most home goods stores, and I find I use mine for many applications. It is very important to get this syrup to 218°F, but not to 220°F. Below 218, and your syrup will be too runny. Above 220, and it will turn into jelly (which sounds tasty, but not what I wanted). So keep an eye on that thermometer, and keep on stirring!

Fair warning: this syrup is not a thick, gooey, maple syrup-y syrup. It’s rather thin, actually, more like a simple syrup than anything else. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use it as a syrup. With a bit of additional thickening (try adding a bit of cornstarch immediately before serving, not before canning) this is a dream over ice cream. It’s probably phenomenal on pancakes, or even over pound cake. Add a few spoonfuls to apple pie filling. Dip a doughnut in it.

But for now, I’m gonna stick with my favorite use for it: a way to drink spiced hot cider all year long.

Apple Cider Syrup
Adapted just a smidge from Food in Jars

Makes 3-4 pints (I used quarter-pint jars, but half-pints would be lovely too)

Note: I used fresh, unpasteurized apple cider, and I have yet to try it with pasteurized. As with cold apple cider, apple sediment settles on the bottom of each jar as it sits. Simply shake up the jar before using. It doesn’t necessarily make the prettiest jar, but it is mighty delicious.

3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp allspice berries
1 tsp whole cloves
1 gallon apple cider
2 cups granulated sugar

Wrap cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, and cloves in a square of cheesecloth and tie securely with cooking twine. Pour the apple cider into an 8-quart (or larger) stainless steel pot along with the spice bag. Place pot on the stove over high heat and bring the cider to a boil, then reduce heat to medium high. Allow cider to boil steadily for about 75 minutes, uncovered, until it has reduced by a bit more than half.

Once the cider has reduced, remove the spice bag and discard. Add the sugar to the pot and stir until dissolved. Increase the heat to high and place a candy thermometer in the pot to monitor the temperature. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to 218°F. Be careful not to reach 220°F, which will cause the mixture to set into jelly when it cools.

Ladle the syrup into sterilized jars, wipe the rims, and place a fresh flat lid on each jar. Spin on the rings until they are finger-tight. Process filled jars in a boiling water bath for ten minutes. Remove jars and allow them to rest for 24 hours before removing the rings and storing.

For Making “Instant” Cider
Heat 1 cup of water in a mug in a microwave (or boil 1 cup and add to a mug). Stir in 3-4 tablespoons of apple cider syrup. Drink up!

I’m about to get real crafty on you.

I love making gifts. Buying a gift is fun, especially if you get to see the recipient open it, but making gifts is hugely entertaining. For me, it’s an excuse to try ridiculous and absurd and totally unnecessary edibles. Like this.

I’ve been wanting to make homemade hot chocolate as a gift now for some time, but felt somewhat neutral on the idea of mixing together cocoa and sugar in a jar to create a mix. Finally, I found what I was looking for: a cube of chocolate ON A STICK melted into hot milk, for a creamy, interactive hot chocolate experience. After making a double batch for my friends and family, I most certainly now want to make a batch for myself, and I thought you might, too.

The concept is simple enough: take a really, really good chocolate, melt it, add cocoa and powdered sugar, pipe into mold, add a stick, and call yourself Willy Wonka.

But first, let’s talk about chocolate for a minute. Or rather, melting it. When melting chocolate, water is like poison: a single drop can cause the whole batch to seize up, leaving you with an awkward, clumpy glob. The common impulse at this point is to increase the heat, which only makes matters worse. Traditionally, home bakers have melted chocolate in a double boiler, which produces steam and as you may know, steam is WATER. Not really good for steam to billow out from a double boiler only to collapse immediately into your chocolate. Solution Microwave. Not the most sophisticated sounding solution, but definitely the easiest and fastest way to get chocolate that is perfectly melted.

Yummers.

Next! Your beautifully melted chocolate is about to turn into a thick, brown, glob that seems unusable. This is exactly the way that it should be. Remember, we’re not going for chocolate milk, we’re going for a rich, thick, creamy mug of miracle, and the cocoa and powdered sugar push us closer to that end.

Getting the chocolate into the molds (these ice cube trays work perrrrfectly) is the next challenge. My first batch was a bit too thick with too many dry ingredients, which produced a sensation in my arms that I was actually squeezing mostly dry concrete out of my piping bag. Keep those dry ingredients loosely packed for a more successful project.

Then prod each with a stick and add four little marshmallows to the top. The marshmallows are not technically required, I suppose, but they do make them look a lot more like hot chocolate and a lot less like a chocolate lollipop. Right Plus who doesn’t like a few little mallows?

After a few hours of waiting…

*waiting*

*waiting*

they can come out of their little mold, solid as a rock.

Now I suppose you could stop here. But after making such a clever little gift, shouldn’t you give it the courtesy of some fancypants ribbon and some little instructions?

Yes. Yes you should. You’ll have a whole little fleet of gifts so purty you won’t want anyone to unwrap them.

Except that you do. Because otherwise, there would be none of this. Which is really just quite unacceptable.

Hot Chocolate Sticks
Adapted from Giver’slog

Makes 15-16 sticks

Update: It seems that some people have had trouble with the consistency of the mixture becoming too thick. I made another batch and weighed the dry ingredients and have included the measurements below. This should help to remove any issues caused by inconsistencies in measuring cup sizes or method of packing those cups.

Supplies
sticks (at least 5 inches long)
piping bag or sandwich bag with 1/2″ corner cut off
ice cube tray or deep candy mold, each cavity approximately 1 ounce

Ingredients
9 oz. milk chocolate (not chips)
7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (not chips)
1/2 c (1.5 oz) loosely packed cocoa
1 c (4.5 oz) loosely packed powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
mini marshmallows

In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, powdered sugar, and salt. Set aside

Chop chocolate into small pieces (no larger than about 3/4″ inch long) and combine in a glass bowl that is completely dry. Microwave in 30 second bursts on 50% power, stirring between each burst, ensuring that your spatula is also completely dry. Once chocolate is about 2/3 melted (there are still some chunks in the melted chocolate), stir until remaining chunks melt. This prevents the chocolate from getting too hot.

Pour melted chocolate into the mixing bowl containing the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Mixture will be very thick, similar to brownie batter. Spoon mixture into a piping bag (no coupler or tip is needed) or into a sandwich bag with the corner sliced off. Pipe the chocolate into an ice cube tray.

Once all chocolate has been piped, pound the tray lightly on the counter to eliminate air bubbles and to flatten the tops of the cubes if they are uneven. Working one cube at a time, insert a stick and place four mini marshmallows onto the top of the cube. Once all cubes are complete, set aside until cubes are completely dry. You can also place them in the fridge if you are in a hurry.

Once all cubes are dry, remove carefully from the molds. Wrap pretty and store in the cupboard.

To Use:
Heat up 1 cup milk (approximately 1 ounce of chocolate should be used for each cup of milk, so adjust based on the weight of your cube) and stir in. Cube will take several minutes to dissolve completely.