It’s Sorbet Season

We were generously gifted with the ice cream attachment for our KitchenAid for Christmas. We excitedly put it in the freezer and left it to stew for a few months.  I poked around dairy-free ice cream recipes and regular ice cream recipes, and planned and schemed and never actually poured anything over the swirling paddles of the ice cream maker bowl.

Until this last week, when I realized that sorbets might be the perfect intro.  They are dairy free without being forced into it, and super easy That is how over the course of the last two day weekend I made two sorbets, after having the maker sit uninitiated in my freezer for 4 months.

The first one I made was Lemon Blueberry Sorbet. It tastes like frozen blueberry lemonade.

The next day came Mango Orange Sorbet. Wow. We put a scoop of it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it was the best orange creamsicle you’ve ever had.

I will now be eating sorbet almost everyday for the rest of the summer. Any juice will do. Simple syrup is a nice additional if you like the kick of sweet, but any juice will do without the added sugar. Then you could really taste the fruit.

Lemon Blueberry Sorbet:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup simple syrup (1 cup water heated with 1 cup sugar until dissolved)
1 1/2 cup blueberries, pureed and pressed through a fine mesh sieve.
about 1 cup orange juice

Mix together, chill, and freeze according to the ice cream maker instructions.

Mango Orange Sorbet

1 pint Mango Orange Smoothie (I used Naked brand)
1 pint orange juice
1/2 cup simple syrup

Mix together, chill, and freeze according to the ice cream maker instructions.

Easter Snapshots

Easter sneaks up on me every year.  Maybe because it comes in the midst of planting seeds and soaking up chilly spring rays and busy days at work for both Ryan and I. In the middle of it all I forget to put any Easter reminders into our house until it’s already Holy Week and we just celebrated Palm Sunday and the means Easter is on Sunday!!

I did sneak in a chance to dye a few eggs and put them in a tall glass jar.  So our house has one tiny piece of Easter on top of the desk.

My favorite dye is made with red cabbage.  It colors the eggs into deep marbled blue. I could sit and stare at the color for hours. Someday I am going to paint a wall this blue. Or maybe a whole bathroom.

The yellow is dyed with turmeric, and the brownish plum is from blackberries.

This year we also tried paint pens on brown eggs.  The white paint idea was my favorite, simple and sweet.  But…surprise surprise…the white turns out better on Pinterest than in real life.  The silver paint was much more vibrant.