Strawberry Maple Floats

OMG strawberries!

I love eating seasonally because I love how nature is like nope, nope, nope, YEP!  And then floods you with something delicious.  And you gorge and gorge and gorge on it because once it's gone you won't see it again for a whole year.

Like everything does, it starts on the farm.

Little baby berries peeking through green leaves.

Fields and flowers and a cloudless sky.

That barn was full of bunnies.  Baby likes bunnies.

My kid are enthusiastic strawberry pickers, but inevitably derailed by the 'eat all you want in the fields' rule.  They contributed about 2 cups of berries.

So I bought a flat to supplement.

Now...what to make with 24 cups of strawberries?

Like I even had to wonder!  Jam, shortcake and hand pies for starters.

But first, something to take the heat off after a day in the fields.

Strawberry maple floats!

It's easy.  It's foamy.  And it tastes like the sweetest part of the most fragrant strawberry you've ever had.

It's even healthy!  Sweetened with maple, the ice cream is homemade with coconut cream in place of whipped (of course you could 100% use normal).

To strawberry season!

Strawberry Maple Floats
Makes 2 cups

2 cups water
2 cups fresh strawberries (frozen will also do in a pinch)
Juice of half a lemon
Handful fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup maple syrup
Soda water
Vanilla ice cream

First, make the syrup.  Bring the water, strawberries, mint, maple and lemon to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Strain out mint leaves, lemon (I squeezed it out then just threw the whole thing in there), and strawberry pulp.  Mush the strawberry pulp through the strainer to get as much berry goodness as possible.

Return syrup to a boil, reduce to a simmer and leave for 20 minutes or until reduced by half.  You should have about 2 cups of syrup.

To assemble floats:
Put desired amount of ice cream in glass.  Pour about a thumb's depth of syrup on top.  Add soda water until foamy and luscious.  Glug glug glug.

Joy Tea

I like herbs.  I dabble in herbs.

Have you ever dabbled?

I made a cough syrup once.  I THINK it helped, or was it a coincidence?

It smelled great.

I've been making my own hand salves too, maybe I'll get around to posting about that here some time.

It's not so hard.

Pretty little plants, pretty little flowers.  They make me feel happy.

This tea is called Joy Tea by its creator, herbalist Rosemary Gladstar.

Such colors!  Such scents and flavors!

But the true test of an herbal experiment: did it live up to its name?  Did I feel joyful afterwards?

I submit that I did.

My kids drank it too, and for tea without milk and honey that is a big win.

Joy Tea
taken from Rosemary Gladstar

2 parts* chamomile
3 parts lemon balm
1 part hawthorne berries and/or blossoms
2 parts hibiscus flowers
2 parts rose petals (unsprayed)
1/8 part lavender flowers
1/8 part cardamom pods, chopped

This is a sun tea, ie one better made by submersing herbs in cold water and leaving in the sun to steep for a few hours than boiling on the stove.  To prepare place 4 - 6 tablespooons per quart of water in sealable container (mason jars!).  Place in direct sunshine.  Let sit for several hours or overnight. Strain and enjoy cold.

*I used 1/4 cup as my 'part' definition, which made just over 2 cups of tea mix.  Lots of tea!  J'approve.

Golden Milk

There is a thin and permeable line between cooking for health and cooking for pleasure.

There is a massive overlap between eating well and feeling well.

Lately my little kitchen experiments have started to spill out of the sustenance realm and into the realm of medicine and healing.

Homemade cough medicine!  Body butters and salves!  St. John's wort steeping in oil on the windowsill, turning it red.

This is the kind of fun I've been having.

This little wonder straddles that line between food and medicine, between health and pleasure.

I'd seen recipes for golden milk on blogs before, mainly from Indian cooks.  It is supposed to bring warmth and vitality, restore emotional balance, and work against inflammation of all kinds.

Warm and sweet and spicy and soothing.

It helps that I won a whole pound of high-class turmeric on the internet a few months ago.

Winning is awesome!

What am I going to do with all of this turmeric??

Maybe this.

I'm from a long line of auto-immune afflicted folks with various manifestations of it.  Mine is the skin rash, eczema.  It comes and goes, but mostly just stays.

I have tried everything over the years and have little hope for a cure any time soon.  Some things work for a while, then stop working, for whatever reason.

But I made this for myself today and you know what?  A particularly bad outbreak I was having on my hand is already fading.

So maybe I have a little hope, at least.

Golden Milk
adapted from Rosemary Gladstar

1/4 c turmeric powder
Almond milk (cow's or coconut are fine too!)
Honey

First, make a turmeric base by combining turmeric powder with 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan.  Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until mixture becomes a thick paste.  Cool it and store in the refrigerator - this paste will make many servings of golden milk!

To make milk:  Combine 1 teaspoon turmeric paste with 1 cup milk and honey to taste (I used about 1 tablespoon) in a saucepan, heat until steaming.  Put mixture in blender, blend until frothy.

This can also be drunk cold or at room temperature, whatever your preference.

Cocoa Tea

Success

You guys, sometimes I just think I'm a little bit different.  Taste-wise (and, I guess, hair-wise).

I like things bitter.  I like them dark, and smoky, and if we could get a hint of something being roasted in there, let's do that.

So I've always had a bad relationship with hot chocolate.  I want to love it, I do (it's chocolate! it's hot! what's the problem!).  But it's always a little too much for me.

Much too much.

The powder packets are, of course, far too sweet and often taste artificial.  So I've experimented the past few winters with making my own.  Melting dark chocolate down, whisking in milk and cinnamon.  And sugar.

Still too much.

So I did it, I threw out convention and made it how I wanted it, which was coffee-like.

Dark, hot, bitter.  Customize-able, like coffee. They're both beans, after all.

You could add anything you want - cinnamon, chili powder, coconut, maple, orange.  Making your own is a great toddler activity.

But I like it white - black chocolate, organic cream.  Bingo.

It's not for everybody, I know that.  But I'm so happy I finally found my chocolate.

Cocoa Tea

Makes 1 cup of tea/hot chocolate

1 tablespoon cocoa (any type will do, but the higher quality the better, well, quality)
1 cup water
Cream/vanilla/cinnamon/chili powder/whatever to taste

Put water in pan.  Put cocoa in water.  Bring to boil, remove from heat (it will boil over!).  Pour in cup, customize to liking.  Repeat daily.