Peach Strawberry Smoothie

Hot days just make you want a smoothie. I have not had much luck making smoothies at home - they seem easy enough to make, but for some reason I could never make one that I was really satisfied with. My husband thought it was silly that I would look for smoothie recipes online ("Just take some fruit and yogurt and throw it in the blender Ruth"), but I didn't want to waste good fruit on a so-so smoothie.

I bought peaches and strawberries from the farmers market yesterday (from South Carolina, so at least they were kind of local...) and wanted to make a good smoothie out of them. I found this recipe that is so simple, yet made an excellent smoothie. Previously I had been using fruit, ice, and yogurt to get the texture that I wanted, but the smoothie always tasted diluted. I want my smoothies to burst with fruit flavor. Then I found this recipe and I realized - duh! Frozen fruit. I could achieve the consistency and coldness that I wanted if I just used frozen fruit. So I cut up a cup of strawberries and a peach, froze them for an hour, and then blended them with some soy milk and some vanilla extract. Delish! I've found what I have been looking for in a smoothie recipe. We always have soy milk and vanilla, so I don't have to buy any extra ingredients when I'm hankering for a smoothie. The freezing the fruit thing does require a little planning, but worth it to avoid adding ice and getting a more intense fruit flavor.

Tip: One kitchen item that I love having, especially for smoothies, is a stick (handheld) blender. I got one for Christmas and I love it. It's so easy to use, and you can make smoothies quickly and with little effort. I have one that comes with a beater attachment and a food processor attachment, and also used it this weekend to make homemade whipped cream and to chop up fresh cranberries for scones. I highly recommend one if you use a blender, hand mixer, and/or food processor on a regular basis.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp

We got rhubarb in our CSA basket last week - I've never cooked with it, so this was an adventure. I've only had rhubarb once and I didn't like it - it was a strawberry rhubarb pie and it was way too tart. But I needed to use it, so I found this recipe and made this crisp tonight. I used orange juice instead of orange liqueur but otherwise stuck to the recipe. It was delicious - just the right balance of sweet and tart. Call me a rhubarb convert! My culinary world has just expanded.

Strawberry Sorbet

I made another David Lebovitz recipe, this time from his sorbet section of his book The Perfect Scoop. I picked up a pound of fresh strawberries from the grocery store since they were on sale. I prepped everything the day before so that I could have the pureed strawberry mixture chilled overnight. I think the old adage "patience is a virtue" was spoken in the context of making homemade ice cream. When the instructions say that the mixture needs to be chilled overnight, it needs to be chilled overnight. Not for two hours like I have before because I was impatient and wanted ice cream already.

This sorbet has a fresh, intense strawberry flavor - this one will get repeated in our house! It was still good the next day too. I don't know how it is two days later, since it was all gone by then!