Strawberry Mint Lemonade

Memorial Day was perfect in NYC.  It was 73 and sunny – a great day for grilling and sitting outside.  I decided it would be great to grill up a bunch of meat, and serve macaroni & cheese, bbq baked beans, and cole slaw on the side.  To top it all off, I had to find a refreshing drink that would bring about thoughts of summer, cookouts, and good ol’ fashioned fun with friends.  And since I’ve got a bun in the oven, it has to be virgin :)

There is a fantastic restaurant in Harlem called Evelyn’s Kitchen.  The place is blowing up!  It has definitely become one of our favorite spots to grab brunch or dinner.  You are assured great food but also great drinks!  The owner makes an amazing rosemary mint lemonade and that inspired my strawberry mint lemonade I made for Memorial Day.  Not only was it delicious – it was GORGEOUS!

Strawberry Mint Lemonade

2c sugar

2c + 2.5qt water

15-20 mint leaves plus more for garnish

1c fresh squeezed lemon juice

lemon slices (for garnish)

strawberry slices (for garnish)

lemon-lime soda (optional)

Combine 2c water and 2c sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add mint leaves and bring to a boil.  Lower heat to medium-low once sugar is dissolved.  Heat until it thickens and turns into a syrup (about 10 minutes).  Pour into a separate bowl and discard mint leaves.  Allow simple syrup to cool.

Technique: When making lemonade or iced tea or any sweet drink that is served cold and requires you to dissolve sugar in water, it’s best to make a simple syrup.  Typically it’s made with a 1:1 water to sugar ratio (which I find to be plenty sweet) but you could also use double the amount of sugar to water if you need something potent.  Using simple syrup as a sweetener allows you to steep flavor additions into the sweetener (like mint) and prevents sugar granules from collecting at the bottom of your pitcher. 

Combine lemon juice, mint simple syrup, and 2.5qt water.  Stir to combine.  Add lemon slices, mint, and strawberries to lemonade about 6 hours before you’re ready to serve.

Optional:  Fill glasses with ice, a little lemon-lime soda, and lemonade (and even a little vodka) for serving.

Adding soda to the lemonade really puts the icing on the cake and gives it a “sparkle”.  For adults (and non-preggers) you can add a shot of vodka to the glass.  Our guests had it all three ways and all three were a knockout!

Hot Chocolate Mix with Dark Chocolate Bits

Hot chocolate is my way of keeping my sweet-tooth in check during the winter.  And since I need something sweet after almost every meal, I drink ALOT.  Don’t judge me, lol.  Before I created this recipe, I drank hot chocolate made with store-bought mix – some of which had ingredients I had never heard of or artificial sweeteners.  I try my best to limit these things so I couldn’t wait to try my own recipe with NOTHING artificial.

This mix has 5 ingredients and who doesn’t love recipes where you throw everything in a bowl, mix it up, and you’re done???  It’s the best!  The hardest part of making this is the cleanup.  All of the powdered ingredients get everywhere!  But it is so worth it.  I think I’m still breathing in cocoa powder :)  I was really intrigued by the flavor of this hot chocolate.  The dark chocolate gives it richness that I love and prevents it from being overly sweet.  I had mine with water and milk and both were amazing.  Choose water if you want to lower the calories.  Choose milk if you want it to have a rich and creamy texture.  Or, maybe mix the two???  You can’t beat this.  I plan on having some at home and at work…just for those times where I need a little sugar fix.

Hot Chocolate Mix with Dark Chocolate Bits

Ingredients:

3c nonfat dry milk powder

4c powdered sugar

1 ½ c unsweetened dutch cocoa powder

1 ½ c dark chocolate chips

2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Split into two large portions.

Tip: Some baking cocoas can be very bitter.  Using a good dutch cocoa prevents any weird after-taste you may get with other baking cocoas.

Take the first portion and add to the bowl of a food processor.  Process until dark chocolate bits are fairly ground up.  Some bits may remain.  Move processed mix to a large bowl.

Repeat previous step with the other half of the mix and place in the same large bowl.  Mix with a large spoon and store in an airtight container.

Mix ¼ c of mix with 8oz of hot water or milk.  Top with whipped cream or marshmallows.

Makes ~9 cups

I was making hot chocolate for 3 days between building the recipe and making enough for 12 co-workers.  I made cute little hot-chocolate kits in lidded glass jars as Christmas gifts.  They loved them!  Since I was making them for others, I took into account different palettes and didn’t add too much sugar.  I don’t like my hot chocolate too sweet and people can always add sugar to it if they would like.  If this is not sweet enough for you, add another cup of powdered sugar.  For me, this version was absolutely perfect with a whipped cream topping.