POPSICLE WEEK 2k17!

Sometimes it's so strange to think of who we used to be, how our habits have changed and we moved around a lot to find new ones. How the dogs have grown up. How Milo, who I found in a trash can a little over two years ago, has become this boy that smiles when we catch his eye. How money doesn't matter as much now and I can call my sister to ask how she is and that I love her. How Nolan and I worked and worked and worked on ourselves to be the people we are now. How we stopped paying rent and bought a home. "Five acres guarantees no neighbors," a coworker told us this weekend. That's heaven for me, the echoing footsteps and no one to answer them back.

We eat at home most days (or try to, anyway). I live in my own head. I'm quiet except to answer a work call or to call the dogs in when I'm bored. I pick orange flowers that grow by the roadside and I did the dishes on my lunch break. Nolan works long hours; but we are self sufficient in our own right.

So different than two years ago, So different, you could say, from when I first participated in Popsicle Week.  Then, I cared about money. Then, I cared about Los Angeles. Then, we spent our money at bars and I didn't drink beer then, so I drank whatever was on the menu. Then, Nolan got a Pimm's Cup for the first time and it's been his favorite since. Then, we would be in silence for two hours on the way back home.

Then, I was looking for ways to escape.

But two years can change a person and I found out I'm better suited for Pennsylvania. We both are. The humidity doesn't bother us. The dogs change with the seasons and we do, too. And that's okay; because we finally found a reason to settle down and enjoy a drink on the porch swing for a minute or an hour.

And so, for this year's popsicle contribution to the zeitgeist that is Wit and Vinegar, I wanted to pay homage to how this tradition has been something to look forward to amid all that has changed. And so, I looked back on Nolan and us and his favorite drink in LA and made a Pimm's Cup popsicle--it's easy, it's fruity, and it's a little bit cold (just like me!).

Enjoy! And check out all the other recipes here! And check out my previous contributions here and here!

Pimm's Cup Popsicle!

Feel free to use your favorite ice molds, but know that the volume measurements below will be way off! I used these! (Can you tell I love Amazon?)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Pimm's
• 1/2 cup lemonade
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup ginger ale
• Juice of one lime
• 1/4 cup cucumber, chopped
• 4 strawberries, chopped
• 6 mint leaves
• 1/4 cup orange, chopped

Directions and Assembly: In a measuring cup, mix together Pimm's, lemonade, water, ginger ale, and lime juice. Prep eat popsicle sleeve by manually inserting a bit of each fruit and one leaf of mint. Pour mixture over fruit and seal. Place in freezer for a few hours to freeze completely and enjoy! 

Popsicle Week 2k16: Summer, and this Mango Chili Popsicle

There are more seasons than four.  Summer is a procession of seasons. The Dandelion Season, the Firefly Season, the Stone Fruit Season. They’re signifiers, signaled by the Appalachian muezzin of the spring peeper’s call. They get us through the long stretches of daylight. The sun doesn’t set until 9:04 tomorrow.

I spent the better part of last week drunk, asleep on a couch and laughing with my family. We spent the week in North Carolina, in a house that used to be owned by my brother that is now a second home to my parents. I ate strawberries with my fingers and fed my dog the egg yolks my mother wouldn’t eat. I got a sunburn that turned my shoulders copper. I didn’t cry when I said goodbye to anyone in particular, but I cried a hell of a lot when I found out my sister was having a girl.

It was 2 hours to the beach each way and the ice melted in the cooler by the time we got there. My grandfather in his jeans, smoking a pipe on the beach. Anachronistic, misplaced, his very presence sitting in the lawn chair representative of every conversation we have together. My mother and aunt tanning on a quilt made by a great aunt, falling asleep with canned margaritas in their hands. We stayed until the gulls came too close. My uncle complained that the seashells were nicer in Florida. My mother complained the taffy was cheaper last year, but she bought four boxes anyway.

This is summer to me. The laughter, the sweat, the incandescent horseflies that reflect the pool tarp. Lazy, awkward, uncomfortable. Each moment was one I used to treasure when I was still in school; and if I didn’t have these small signifiers, they’d all bleed together into one long season.

And between Canned Margarita Season and Fireworks Season, there is Billy from Wit and Vinegar's Popsicle Week. Last year, I made Caramel Corn popsicles, and this year I opted for mango and chili. A chorus, a solstice, the melting of velvet on the tongue. Make these to combat the summer heat; make these to celebrate it.

Mango Chili Popsicles

Makes 4 popsicles (as that is what my mold yields), but the recipe can easily be multiplied.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut cream solids (I had to use 2 cans of full-fat coconut milk for this)
• 1 mango
• 1 TB olive oil
• ¼ cup honey, separated
• 2 TB brown sugar
• ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 TB orange juice
• ½ TB vanilla
• ½ TS paprika
• 1 TB chili powder, plus more for sprinkling
• 1 TB white sugar, for sprinklin

Directions:

1. Prior to beginning, refrigerate your cans of coconut milk for 8+ hours until solids separate
2. When ready, making sure not to shake the cans, gently spoon out the coconut cream and put into a bowl
3. Turn your broiler on high and prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil
4. Slice your mango in half and coat with olive oil, one tablespoon of honey, and the brown sugar
5. Broil for 5-7 minutes until top is browned
6. Remove and allow to cool briefly before spooning fruit into the bowl of a food processor
7. Pulse 10 times or until smooth
8. Add confectioner’s sugar, orange juice, vanilla, paprika, and chili powder
9. Pulse once or twice to combine
10. Finally, add your coconut cream and blend for one minute to aerate the mixture slightly
11. To make this extra smooth, put mixture through a sieve into a measuring cup (for easy pouring)
12. Pour into your molds (this makes four)
13. Mixture is thick enough to add popsicle stick before setting into freezer for 6+ hours
14. When ready to eat, dip mold in hot water for 5-10 seconds and it should slide out
15. Sprinkle with more chili powder and some sugar and enjoy immediately –this is a soft popsicle and will melt fairly suddenly
16. Enjoy!

Make sure to check out all of the other exciting popsicles this week!

Caramel Corn Popsicle (in honor of Popsicle Week!)

My parents left on a plane yesterday and I am not sure if I will see them next at Christmas or in the summer of next year.  It was a good trip, bittersweet in its shortness and seeing more lines crack around my dad's eyes.  Wounds run as deep as roots in my family, and I can't speak on their absence much right now.  

Except those small sidestories my mother told to fill the gaps in conversation reminded me of home.  Even the trip to Wal-Mart right after they landed reminded me of home, the amount of snacks they bought, their insistence to pay for everything.  I remember when I brought my first boyfriend to my parents' home in Pennsylvania, I was 15.  He grabbed a handful of snack cakes and a bag of chips and we hid ourselves in my room, watching movies and holding hands in the blue light of the TV set.  I remember when I took a boy to New York for Christmas the first year we dated and we took a bus back to my home at three in the morning.  We sat up watching a dog show and eating pickles and caramel popcorn out of those old holiday-themed tins.

It all came back to me, because those times were relics of home.  The old brass bed I slept on, cradled in boys' arms.  The trips to New York.  Bags of groceries from Wal-Mart.  Those old tins of popcorn that were reused as robot bodies and yarn storage.  My mother knitted me a scarf once in the dead middle of August, making use of her sabbatical from the candy store and I sat in the air conditioned room and modeled it for her, my peach slices in one hand and a popsicle in the other.  She had some leftover candied popcorn from my brother's wedding the month before and munched on it while we watched TV.  It was caramel-flavored, "just like the kind you." 

Home has become sense-memories now.  It can get confused between season and even year.  Novelty popcorn in old dented tins, syrup running down my wrist.  The TV in the background and the love for home in the foreground. I realize I won't have those moments back anytime soon, they left on a plane, departing San Diego to Albuquerque in the second terminal a little over twelve hours ago.

View fullsize

And to fill the time today, I made popsicles for Billy's Popsicle Week.  I might not have found my home yet, but I am amassing a community of bloggers that keep me distracted, entertained, inspired, and laughing all at once.  Wit and Vinegar is one of these bloggers.  Because of this, I was happy to recreate a memory through this popsicle, to make a caramel corn popsicle that was a fun twist on a classic from anyone's childhood.  Maybe home is just in sense memory, but maybe I can recreate those moments whenever I want.  And you can, too!  Recipe is below.

And if you don't know what Popsicle Week is, then go check out Billy's blog for more details.  Here's last year's list of participants, and I am so happy to be a part of it this year! 

Caramel Corn Popsicle

This recipe is for four popsicles, because that's as many as my mold made, but you can double this recipe easily

View fullsize

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup coconut cream
• Kernels from two ears of corn
• 2 tablespoon honey
• Store-bought or homemade caramel, brought to the softball stage for dipping (approx 1/4 cup)
• Pinch of flaked sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450*F and roast kernels on a baking sheet for 10-15 minutes until fragrant
2. Take out of oven and allow to cool
3. In a blender, blend cream, honey, and roasted kernels until as liquified as possible
4. Use a fine mesh strainer to remove any large fibrous bits of corn, but reserve corn-infused cream mixture in a bowl or measuring cup (for easy pouring)
5. Lay out popsicle sticks onto a sheet of parchment paper and dip then halfway into a cup of caramel, return to parchment and allow to dry as much as possible
6. Pour strained corn mixture into popsicle molds and freeze
7. Allow to freeze for 45 minutes to one hour before putting sticks in, to ensure they are frozen enough to hold the sticks up
8. Allow to freeze 6+ hours or until hardened
9. Sit at room temperature for 3 or so minutes or dip in warm water for a few seconds.  Remove popsicles from molds and sprinkle with a little salt.  Enjoy!

View fullsize

View fullsize