Household Ways: Summer Recipes

Showing posts with label Summer Recipes. Show all posts

Strawberry Paletas

"The word Paletas derives from Palo, meaning stick, a reference to how they are made and eaten. They are essentially ice pops: delicious flavored liquids frozen with a stick to hold as you eat them...The most popular type (of Paletas in Mexico) are paletas de agua, which are typically made with fresh fruit, water, sweetener (typically made from sugar cane) and sometimes other flavorings."-Paletas by Fany Gerson

4 cups fresh, ripe strawberries, tops cut off and quartered
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
juice of one lemon

Stir the prepared strawberries and sugar together in a bowl. Let them sit for 15 minutes or so. This gives the berries a chance to soften and release their juices. Transfer the berries to a small saucepan, and add in the water. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.Pour the strawberries into a blender, or food processor and add the lemon juice. Blend until the texture you like -smooth or some chunks remaining, process less}. Divide the mixture evenly between the molds, and follow the popsicle mold manufacturer's instructions. Freeze for about 5 hours, or until completely frozen. If you don't have molds, you can make these in paper cups. Let the pureed mixture freeze inside the paper cups for about 2 hours, insert the popsicle sticks in the center of each pop, then freeze for the remaining 3 hours, or until firm.

source: The Parsley Thief via Little Wonder's Days and Paletas by Fany Gerson

Rainbow Fruit Pops

from Kitchen Daily

Remember the fruit we used in the Rainbow Fruit Pizza? Well, we had lots of fruit left over and we couldn't let it go to waste, so I used it in this lovely treat. The Capri Sun drinks are almost clear, which lets the beautiful colors of the pops show through. This is a healthy and refreshing drink for summertime, too.

About 3 cups of any fresh fruit you like or have, cut into bite-sized pieces, such as seedless green grapes, strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, kiwi,

2 6-ounce Capri Sun pouches or 1 1/2 cups fruit punch

Combine the fruit in a large mixing bowl. Spoon the mixture into 8 popsicle molds. Fill each mold with enough punch to reach the fill line. Add the popsicle stick and place in the freezer. Freeze for at least 4 hours up to overnight, or until the popsicles are frozen solid. Allow the molds to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes or place under warm running water for 10-20 seconds to remove popsicles. Serve immediately.

By the way, these can also be made with any juice you have on hand, it just won't be as clear as with the Capri Sun juice pouches. Here are some I made with Minute Maid Cherry Limeaid.

Pink Lemonade Pound Cake

source

1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pink lemonade concentrate
4 drops pink or red food color, optional

Glaze:
1 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup white sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour one 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan.
Combine the cake mix, lemon pudding mix, eggs, vegetable oil, 1/2 cup lemon concentrate and the milk. Mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
Remove from oven and prick cake all over with a fork. Immediately pour lemonade glaze over top of cake.
Let cake stand in pan until almost cool.
Make glaze by combining the remaining thawed frozen lemonade and the white sugar. Mix thoroughly and pour over still warm cake.
Source: Sugar Baby Aprons

Watermelon Waffles for August 3rd, National Watermelon Day

These cute watermelon waffles are just chocolate chip waffles...

made with your favorite waffle batter dyed pink and green.

A great addition to our watermelon week!

This idea comes from Random Thoughts of a Supermom.

Watermelon Pie for National Watermelon Day {August 3rd}

For this watermelon-look-alike dessert, I combined the ideas of the Edible Layers of the Earth project and this recipe from Catholic Cuisine.

We used:
Lime Sherbet
Pineapple sherbet (you could use vanilla ice cream instead)
Raspberry Sherbet
Mini chocolate chips

Line the inside of the bowl with a layer of lime sherbet, about 1 inch thick. I am not giving amounts here because the size of bowls will vary.

Place bowl into the freezer for a few minutes until the sherbet hardens a bit. At the same time get the pineapple sherbet out of the freezer so that it can soften a bit while the green layer hardens.

Add a thin layer of pineapple sherbet about a 1/2 inch thick on top of the lime sherbet.

Return bowl to the freezer until hardened, and get out the raspberry sherbet.

Once the raspberry sherbet has softened, mix chocolate chips into a small bowl of it so that it looks like the seeds in a watermelon.

Fill the cavity that is left with the raspberry-chocolate chip sherbet. Press down firmly.

Cover with plastic wrap and freeze solidly (for a few hours.)

When you are ready to serve set bowl in a larger bowl of hot water for a minute to help it slip out of the bowl. Turn over bowl onto a platter or plate and cut slices out to serve.

You can see that it is easy to make the white layer too thick. That layer should be very thin.

Watermelon Sherbet Pie!

Watermelon Slushie {National Watermelon Day is August 3rd}

2 cups frozen watermelon

juice of 1/2 lime or lemon

1 ripe banana, peeled (not frozen)

Place everything in a blender and let it blend.

Watermelon Shark

This idea comes from the Watermelon Promotion Board, and Sun Scholars has a photo tutorial on how to make it.
Just in case the links break in the future, I have included the instructions here.
National Watermelon Day is August 3rd.

1 oblong watermelon
Large knife
Smaller utility knife
Large spoon
Paring knife or the tip of a vegetable peeler
2 blueberries
Toothpicks or wooden skewers

Swedish fish candies

Wash and dry the watermelon. Cut off 1/3 of the watermelon at a diagonal angle.

Stand the remaining 2/3 upright on your work surface and cut a line for the mouth and eye sockets. Make sure here that you are adding about an inch or so for the teeth you will be cutting out of the rind. Cut out the mouth. Make sure you save the mouth wedge for the fin.

Next, with a small knife, carefully score around your shark mouth, about a 1/2 inch up and only about 2-3 millimeters deep. This will help you to peal off the rind down to your cut so you can begin to form the teeth. carefully cut away the green rind down to your score lines around the mouth, and set it aside to use later.

Use a large spoon to scoop out the watermelon flesh, leaving 3" intact at the base.

Cut out triangles for the teeth, using a smaller utility knife.

Use small knife and a melon baller to cut into the rind, being careful not to cut all the way through, to make an eye socket and the lines for the gills behind the mouth. Use a paring knife to trim the green area around the eyes. Break a toothpick in half and used that to attach a blueberry to the center of each eye.

Take the wedge you cut to form the shark mouth to make your fin. Cut wedge into triangles to make the fins. Remove the watermelon from the other side. You might need to cut a bit of a curve on the bottom side to have it fit.

Fill the mouth with triangle shapes of watermelon, accented with Swedish fish. Now you have a shark!

Homemade Ice Cream in a Can

You must be careful if you are kicking or rolling the can on a trampoline.

1 pint of cream or half and half
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons of your favorite instant pudding mix
about 10 cups ice
1 1/2 cup ice cream rock salt
1 ziploc baggie
3-pound coffee can, emptied and rinsed
1-pound coffee can, emptied and rinsed
Duct tape

Put the cream, sugar and instant pudding mix into the baggie. Seal well and gently shake bag to mix ingredients. Place inside the 1-pound coffee can, cover the can with it’s corresponding lid and seal with duct tape. Place 1-pound coffee can inside the 3-pound coffee can. Surround the smaller can with ice and salt by layering 5 cups of ice with 3/4 cup of salt. Use duct tape to seal the 3-pound can with its corresponding lid and start rolling. Here is where you can get creative on the most fun way of keeping the can rolling. Have the kids face each other and roll the can back and forth on its side for 20 minutes. Play kick-the-can or a relay race.What creative way can you come up with?

After 20 minutes, open the cans and check the ice cream. If not solid yet, reseal the lid on the smaller can with duct tape, and set it aside. Quickly dump the melted ice water from the large can, and place the smaller can into the larger can again. Now you need to surround the smaller can with remaining ice and salt as you did before. Once that is done, put the lid on the larger can and seal with duct tape again. Roll the large can for 20 minutes more.

This recipe comes from Kaboose.

Butterfly Lunch

tutorial for how to make this chicken nugget and chips butterfly at Hungry Happenings

In the summertime I like to take a little extra time to make meals and snacks more fun. Today we had these chicken nugget and chips butterflies for lunch. I made the first one for them, and then put the rest of the chips, nuggets and chow mein noodles on the table and let them make their own butterflies. They had so much fun making and eating them!

Red, White and Blue Strawberries

Aren't these adorable for the 4th of July? They are so simple to make, it is not too late!

Just like any other chocolate-dipped strawberries, the method for making these is very easy. There is only one additional step; dip the tips of the strawberries into some blue sprinkles or blue sanding sugar once they have been dipped into the chocolate. Blue sprinkles or jimmies have a bold color to them and look cute on the strawberries, but blue sanding sugar, which was used for the strawberries here, gives the berries a little bit of a sparkle. The color of the sprinkles will not stand out well on milk or dark chocolate, and you won’t get the same visual effect as you do with white chocolate. However if you really want milk or dark chocolate, just double dip the berries; first into the chocolate of your choice, let that layer set up, and then dip a second time in the white chocolate. Store the berries in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat them, as white chocolate is a little more heat-sensitive than other chocolates. The berries are best within a day or two of being made.

This idea comes from Baking Bites and you can get the full recipe here.

Watercress Sandwiches

Watercress sandwiches are so much fun to make and eat. They are great for tea time or for a light summer lunch. All you need is a bunch of watercress, cream cheese and rye bread. I usually use mini cocktail loaves of rye bread, but this time I just used regular rye bread and cut the sandwiches into quarters. Some people like to cut off the crusts, but I think they are the best part of the sandwiches!

These are so simple to assemble! Just spread two slices of rye bread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Pull the leaves off the stems and top of the slices of bread with the watercress leaves. Sprinkle generously with salt and a sprinkle of pepper and you are done! Cut into quarters and layer on a plate.

Homemade Ice Cream in a Homemade Ice Cream Maker

2 Tab. L sugar 1 cup half & half (or light cream)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or any other flavoring you wish)
1/2 cup coarse ice cream salt
ice
gallon-sized Ziploc bag or a large coffee can and one small coffee can
pint-sized Ziploc bag

If you are using coffee cans, get them good and cold by putting them in the freezer while you prepare the ice cream ingredients. Mix the sugar, half & half and vanilla extract together in a pint-sized Ziploc baggie. We held ours upright by putting it in a cup and folding the edges over the edge of the cup. Make sure it seals tightly. Now take the gallon-sized Ziploc bag or large coffee can and fill it up halfway with ice and pour the salt over the ice.

Now place the cream filled bag into the ice filled bag or the small coffee can and seal. If you are using the coffee can, you will then need to put the small coffee can into the large coffee can with ice.

Make sure it is sealed tightly. Place the bags in a towel or old shirt and have a child each take an end of the shirt and start swinging and shaking. Or, if you are using the coffee cans, you can roll them back and forth to each other across the floor. (Be aware that this may leak water as the ice melts, so making this on a porch or a floor that is easy to wipe up is suggested.) Shake, swing or roll for about 5-10 minutes. You might have to trade off people when one gets tired.

"Is it ready yet?"

When this time has passed, open the gallon-sized bag (or the coffee cans) and check to see if the ice cream is hard, if not, drain any water, add more ice and keep shaking. Once the ice cream is finished, quickly run the closed pint-sized baggie under cold water to quickly clean the salt off the baggie. (You won't need to do this step if you use the coffee cans.)

Open the baggie and pop in a spoon.

Want to make this a science experiment? Click here for the details.

Lemonade or Raspberry Lemonade: August 20th is National Lemonade Day

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons -Alfred E. Newman Forgive me if I am posting a recipe that everyone knows, but I make this all the time during the summer and I am surprised at the amount of people that don't know how to make lemonade. It is almost as easy as Country Time and oh, so much better! Perfect for National Lemonade Day on August 20th.

1 cup lemon juice either fresh squeezed or Real Lemon in the green bottle (no substitutes or store brands -they are different)

1 cup sugar

Put these two ingredients in a 2-quart pitcher and fill it up with water or water/ice combination. Serve ice cold. That is all there is to it.

For Raspberry Lemonade: Add 1 cup of fresh raspberries to the above recipe by crushing them in a sieve.

Buttermilk Cake

This recipe is from the Smitten Kitchen. It makes a one-layer cake than can be a dessert or eaten for breakfast.

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 large egg

1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 cup fresh raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or any other fruit you like

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter fruit evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate. Serve plain or with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. Heavenly.