When it comes to summer cooking, it’s important to remember what our tools are. We have the grill, of course. The permission to eat only salad for dinner, and a few good dressings ready to go. We have marinades, and homemade ice cream (like salads, you have my permission to eat only that for dinner as well), and we have straight-up raw produce that tastes good without an ounce of work. Then, we have popsicles.
The summer before last, a friend of mine told me the story of the popsicle that saved her. She was in New York with her kids, tromping through the hot streets on one of those days where the pavement radiates heat right up through your whole body. She was hot, parched, hungry, and grumpy, and her kids were in an even more drastic state. Then, as she tells it, a popsicle stand appeared right there in front of her. It was manned by friendly, beautiful people, and it offered just a few flavors of pops–combinations like “nectarine tarragon” and “raspberry basil” all listed on a chalkboard. She said it was the best popsicle of her life.
Oh, Brooklyn, there you go again. And when I finally made it down there that summer, I had one too, and it was the best popsicle of my life (raspberry basil, for the record).
Fast forward to last summer, and it turns out that People’s Pops is making a book. And when Jennifer May (who, lucky me–photographed The Homemade Pantry) called to ask if I’d be willing to help out with props for the shoot, all I could think of was the ENDLESS POPSICLES I would eat in the process. And that’s how I ended up in Crown Heights with the contents of my entire prop cabinet, eating popsicles with my favorite photographer. Now that was a good job.
My copies of this sweet little book arrived a few weeks ago, and before I even got to sit down with it, Sadie had made her first batch of pops.
Now, she’s unstoppable. The book is organized by season, and we’re squarely in the summer chapter now, looking forward to blueberries, peaches, and nectarines. The flavors are so good in this book: roasted red plum, cantaloupe and mint, nectarine, honey, and chamomile. There’s boozy pops too–those are off limits to Sadie, but as soon as the ice pop mold is free, I’m going for it. But it’s the method and the ratios that have really revolutionized pops around here. For years, I’ve been making icy popsicles that you suck the juice right out of. Successful only in that they’re cold and sweet, but disappointing in all other ways. But these pops! By making a simple syrup and combining it with lots and lots of fruit, no more icy pops. And at the rate Sadie’s pumping these out, I’m thinking of putting her in a black T-shirt and a hipster hat out front with a chalkboard that lists her flavors. We could have a bit of New York right up here in the Berkshires (and not the kind that drives slowly and doesn’t use their blinker- we’ve got that already!)
So yup–I’ll say it, this is about all that’s being cooked around here lately. There’s been some potato salad here and there, and a sliced tomato or two. We’ve been busy! Working and running around, and doing our best to get into the river on a regular basis. Rosie’s made herself a bow and arrow, and she’s getting pretty good at it. Sadie’s learned how to do laundry, and so now we all have perpetually unfolded laundry on our beds. So we’ll have popsicles for lunch. In July, this is what cooking looks like around here.
What does cooking look like in your house these days? Do you need some fantastic popsicles for lunch? Tell me all about it. I’ve got an extra copy of this beautiful book, and I want it to be yours. You’ve got till Monday night to enter, and then you could be making pops by the end of the week.
(thanks to Ten Speed Press for the book, and to Nathalie Jordi, David Carrell, and Joel Horowitz for creating such a good one, to Jen May for pulling me into it, and my sister, Maia for taking the photos for this post while my camera is hanging on for life at the Nikon hospital)
Strawberries and Cream Pops
from People’s Pops: 55 Recipes for Ice Pops, Shave Ice, and Boozy Pops from Brooklyn’s Coolest Pop Shop, Nathalie Jordi, Dave Carrell, and Joel Horowitz
Just over 1 pound strawberries, hulled (Sadie used frozen, and that worked great)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons simple syrup (make that and a bit more by combining 2/3 cup water and 2/3 cup sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is transparent)
1/4 cup heavy cream
Optional: 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Puree the strawberries in a food processor. Transfer to a bowl or a large measuring cup with a spout. Add the simple syrup and cream and stir well. Taste the mixture, and if it doesn’t pop enough add the lemon juice. Transfer to your ice pop molds, insert sticks, and freeze for 4 to 5 hours, or until the pops are solid. Transfer to plastic bags to store in the freezer.
Occasionally I teach workshops, and I have one coming up this fall. Join me and stellar novelist 
In this week’s heat wave, I made a bunch of dressings & sauces one day and we’ve been dressing pastas & salads with them all week long – pesto; sesame-peanut sauce; vinaigrettes; roasted grape tomato/basil compote. It’s great to have them in the fridge ready to go so all I have to do is cook some pasta. I picked up a rotisserie chicken and stretched it for 3 days by combining with the above sauces, pasta, potatoes, etc. We make homemade popsicles too and I’d love a new book!
Dinner at my house is whatever heats up the house least! I use the toaster oven a lot, but summer makes me crave hamburgers. And steak. So we eat a lot of that. Once corn is in, we eat it often too. Couscous salad is fast to make and is good hot, cold, and everything in between. BUT I may just have to switch to pops!
I’ll admit, mostly unashamedly, that last night’s dinner was toast and strawberries.
Deviled eggs, a whole lot of watermelon, cucumber salads in countless variations, grilled meats, seafood and veggies and ice tea, lots of iced tea. I am also not above a big bowl of buttered popcorn and popsicles. Summer is too short in Maine so we spend as much time as possible simply enjoying the season.
Love the idea of these pops. I’ve been making pops with 100% juice and they are icy. My 2-year-old likes them, bit it’d be fun to make others too. I would love that book.
These days we are doing a lot of salads and grilling. Pops would certainly be a cool and refreshing way to finish off a meal. I’m thinking strawberry banana pops would be an excellent breakfast treat!
We had been doing a lot of grilling and making some homemade ice cream. We love experimenting with new flavors. This week was a little unusual because I ended up making soup since both my husband and I managed to get colds in 100 degree weather. Popsicles sound like they’d be fun to make, especially for a cool dessert after grilling out with friends. I have a cookbook addiction and love trying new things!
I’ve been roasting a lot of summer squashes recently. Cut, drizzle with olive oil, and throw in the oven. It could not be easier, which is all I want in the Summer. Dessert has been berries. When they are this good, why eat anything else?
As far as the book, I have been hearing all about it and how amazing their popsicles taste! I have been a lover of the popsicle for as long as I remember. My mom use to tell me that I was allergic to red food coloring when I was little so I wouldn’t eat all that sugar in before bed. She couldn’t keep me out of the freezer! I would love to try some of the amazing flavor combinations in the book. I’m into flavor combinations about as much as I’m into popsicles! 🙂
Dinner has been pretty much revolving around what we got from the CSA this week..last night was corn, kohlrabi and cabbage salad and leftover hot dogs from the 4th. A nectarine popsicles would totally have finished that dinner well!
I work around anything fresh from the garden, and take on the “no-oven challenge”. It’s too hot to have an oven on!!! My granddaughter is coming to visit from SC in a couple weeks. I would LOVE to make popsicles with her!! Our fresh blueberries would work!…and since we throw kale into almost everything, I’d love to see if that would work in a popsicle!!
Mom and I had strawberry short cake with homemade whip cream for lunch today. When I worked as a nanny, my charges and I would sit on the patio and have marshmallows, watermelon, and lemonade for lunch everyday except Fridays. Friday was grilled cheese day. I don’t remember why. I haven’t had a good homemade popsicle in years. Thanks for the recipe.
salads, grilled food, cereal. Though I did get creative and took the toaster oven outside to roast beets.
In Northern California, the peaches seem like the best they have been in years! Peach sorbet and popsicles have found their way into our freezer, and have become our go to sweet snack. Now, as other stone fruit fill the stalls of our farmer’s market, we seem to be living for smoothies! Breakfast, lunch, snack… The boys and I would eat them for dinner if my husband would go for it– he holds fast to our dinner around the dining room table even when the heat rockets (luckily we built an outdoor adobe oven last year).
I would love to win the People’s Pops book! I saw it at our local book shop the other day, and it really is awesome! If we had extra money, I would have bought it then and there. Thank you for posting the recipe on your site. I have strawberries out back that will make fabulous pops!
My “Almost Two!” year old is discovering the wonders of popsicles this summer. Would love to wow her with varieties like roasted plum!
Dinner lately has often been homemade frozen yogurt or ice cream, but last night I worked up the courage to blister some zucchini in my cast iron pan. It was so satisfying to cook, despite the crazy heat we’re having.
Last night all we had was baked potatoes. I made them in the slow cooker so I didn’t really have to cook at all.
The book sounds great!
Here in the Pacific Northwest, the weather just started turning nice. So to warm up from the chill outside we baked a banana cake for the 4th…
The business of it all has us making pesto pasta, then eating leftovers as pasta salad along with grilled things – and since the Sockeye are in record numbers (smoked) salmon is becoming a staple (sadly not smoked by us, I’m not that adventurous yet).
Pops sound awesome and these sound like a perfect introduction for my 16 month old!
Thanks for your inspiration!
I L-O-V-E popsicles! And the flavors here sound incredible! Thanks for the opportunity!
Ah dinner, alas we are not on good terms these days:) I did make a good bbq chicken that was marinaded in yogurt, but other than that we have been doing quesadillas and burritos. They make everyone happy:) This book looks great- I too am done with icy pops. Thanks for the chance.
We started making popsicles from our smoothies a couple weeks ago out of necessity b/c our two year old had this horrible hand foot and mouth virus. And now I am hooked on all things popsicle. Seems like the fancy “adult” pops are getting more popular as I’ve seen lots of recipes around the web and in the city paper. I can’t wait until my watermelon and cucumbers ripen so I can quickly turn them into these yummy treats.
We’re mostly grilling. My current favorite dish is grilled zucchini, sweet onion, and bell pepper tossed with pasta and a bit of parmesan and butter. SO GOOD.
Yes, cooking at my house is either outside, on the grill and a cold salad or… well, yes, we eat ice cream sometimes. Every night I go pick something from the garden and make it into a chopped slad or a greens salad, I whip up a new dressing if we’re out and my husband grills some meat. If we need a hot side it goes on the grill in a cast iron pan. Too hot! The husband and I would both love a popsicle book! I hate the ones I’ve tried to make. All ice- you’re right!
Lettuce wraps! Tofu marinated in the fridge, grated carrots, shredded cabbage, chopped peanuts, peas, cilantro all tossed with some seasoned rice vinegar and wrapped up in some cool, crisp lettuce. The only heat is from a little spicy chili dipping sauce.
Whatever can be thrown on the grill…bison burgers, vegetable kabobs, colorful fingerling potatoes, Romaine, homemade lavosh…you name it. Picked a bushel of strawberries so had to finally break down and use the oven for shortcakes from scratch…not sure how to manage those on the grill!
CousCous, with whatever veggies are on-hand/in the garden/at the farmer’s market…Last night, it was the first zucchinis of the year, with onion, oregano, and cherry tomatoes. Half stock, half (last year’s) home canned tomato sauce for the liquid.
I totally agree with just salad or even just a chunk of cheese with white wine as a summer dinner. These Popsicles sound delicious!
We’re only just into the hot sunny weather here so I haven’t yet gotten into the summer cooking mode… but I have been doing a lot of grilling lately and I’m sure I will be making rice paper salad rolls at some point this summer. Growing up, I ate a lot of popsicles (fruitsicles, they are called – homemade with fruit and yogurt and love) at the local Saturday Market, but have never managed to make anything as good myself. This book sounds like it would change that!
I’ve been so lazy lately! Dinner has been lots of chicken, light salads and fruit! Anything where I do NOT need to turn on the oven!
Cucumbers! And I love zucchini and squash sauted with a tomato over couscous! YUM! Not so much with the oven. But have done some canning. Thank goodness for fans and air conditioning during canning sessions.
We are in the middle of a serious heatwave so anything heavy just doesn’t appeal to us. We have been eating lots of fruits and vegetable plates topped off with the occasional pint of Ben and Jerry’s. I could use this book.
This summer we’ve been feasting on veggie-provolone baguette sandwiches with balsamic vinaigrette. Everyone gets to build their own sandwich so everybody’s happy! So easy, so tasty, and the oven stays off! Homemade popsicles would be the perfect ending to our favorite hot-weather meal!
In our household here in Western Mass. we enjoy grilling veggies from our garden and farm share, eating kale salad almost every day, and making grain salads.
Simple sandwiches with whatever produce we have on hand. It’s been hot in CO and we haven’t wanted to turn on the stove. I did manage some slow cooked beans for the 4th though. That Popsicle book looks nothing short of amazing!
YUM! Reminds me of my childhood. We’re definitely going ot make some!
We’re having bbq lots, salads galore from our garden and anything simple!
I love meals of “little bites” in the summer. Things like toasted or grilled bread topped with cheese and/or veggies, salads, fruit, etc.
Summer for us right now is kale salad, often with small onions from the garden. Soon, with tomatoes! Garlic scape pesto on everything. And I cannot wait for caprese salad!
I recently received my People’s pops book, and I love it! The pops are popular among all in the family. One day, we actually had pops for a sort of pre breakfast (lovely for a little teething girl).
I’ve tried several molds for the pops, but yours seem by far the best, and inspired by you post, I just ordered a similar set of molds from ebay.
By the way, I’m reading your book at the moment (I love that it’s a book you can just read in addition to being a cookbook), and it’s inspiring me to try to make things from the basics as much as I can (or more accurately, as much as I have time to). The eating habits in Norway are a bit different from yours, so my husband and I are having fun trying to adapt your thinking to our kinds of food. Thank you for making such a beautiful book and sharing your ideas and writing 🙂
We’ve using the bbq a lot and eating tons of fresh fruit and veggies. I can’t wait to try this recipe. My attempts at making popsicles before sound much like yours…you can suck the juice right out of them.
Cooking consists of going out to the greenhouse for salad fixings, making a baked potato or potato salad and eating by an open window. Too hot for anything else!
Thanks for the chance to win.
We love pops around here! I have 3 melons on the counter right now, waiting to be cut and blitzed and frozen into pops! The grill has been getting a good workout this week and pasta seems to be tossed with anything that looks good for a quick side dish and left overs make a great lunch the next day.
We’ve come up with a million different things to throw on top of greek yogurt. My favorite at the moment is key lime yogurt with a graham cracker smashed up and sprinkled on top…. very cold please! A pop would be the perfect dessert for our yogurt meals 😉
Cooking has not been at its best around here lately. I’m 8 mons along and we are stationed in the equator hell that is Guam. So energy has been hard to come by 😛 I had these really grand plans (back when I was under the influence of the 2nd trimester spry over-confidence, lol) to freeze a ton of prepared meals for when Maggie gets here in August. I’m still going to try stocking the pantry, but we shall see! I need the Gusto Fairy to sprinkle some “Asses & Elbows” on me while I sleep! But these pops look and sound deeelicious and Easy! The heat says it’s Time to get a Popsicle tray! Thanks Alana, you delicious Popsicle Pusher you 😉
Gazpacho, gazpacho and more gazpacho – wonder if I could turn my cold soup into a frozen pop – hmmmm…
I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a not-icy popsicle! We eat whatever’s easy, but what I love most right now is salad, salad, salad. (I’m in Seattle so the greens hang on longer here than elsewhere!)
It is a hot summer out there and even hotter in my kitchen as I have been canning up the bounty of the season. Most recently, apricot jam! Summer squashes have been on our daily menu of late–oh, dear, we can’t even give them away as everyone around here already has too many of their own. We are eating fresh plums off the tree. We have friends with blueberries and friends with blackberries. I’d love to switch to a cool treat with the help of this new book on making popsicles!
Hello Great write-up, I’m regular vitisor of one’s blog, maintain up the nice operate, and It is going to be a regular vitisor for a long time. Good nonsense is good sense in disguise. by Josh Billings .
no stove when it gets hot! i made cold sesame noodles when it was cool so we would have them when it hit 95! ugh the humidity is horrible…! 😉
My husband and I are getting ready to each move into separate apartments (we’re going to different grad schools), so dinner lately has revolved around trying to use up the the little odds and ends in our pantry and freezer while also taking advantage of the wonders of summer. Yesterday I made a meal of a chunk of watermelon!
I’ve been really pining after this book. I have to confess to having never actually made popsicles at home (not since I was a child, anyhow), but it’s something I’m excited about incorporating into my life, particularly as I move into the school year and start having opportunities to serve them when friends come over. Popsicles are awesome in general, but *boozy* popsicles?! Yes please!
Tonight, we ate out 🙂
I’m not feeling particularly inspired in the kitchen lately, but for those strawberry pops? I would dust off my apron in a heartbeat! I’d love a shot at winning that book.
Oh, anything that doesn’t involve getting hot. And of course dinner these days has to be topped off with ice cream. We somehow haven’t gotten ourselves together yet to make ice pops, though the heat wave is killing us (and, sadly, many of our plants – but the flowers on the front stoop rebounded after a few hearty waterings, so maybe the vegetables in the garden can do the same). We did make mulled cider ice pops last summer that, while tasty, were just wrong. Cider shouldn’t be cold. Oh well, live and learn.
Cooking around here is some salad, grilled burgers, and crockpot dishes. I have two batches of fruit macerating in the fridge because it’s been too hot to water bath can yet…and must be done ASAP. I would love to have this book to make some pops to cool off here with! Thanks for the entry 🙂
Our summer meal rules sound much like those of your gang ! Salad is absolutely a meal unto itself AND we eat lots of ice cream at any opportunity. For each birthday in our family, we eat ice cream cake for breakfast. One of our favorite traditions, but one I’d be tempted to “adjust” for our August birthdays if I had just the right cook book to teach me to make amazing Popsicles!! They would have to be called Birthday on Ice Pops, of course!
We are living on fourth of July BBQ left overs. You make a huge amount of awesome food for one day, then you eat it until you are sick of it for days on end. Best part it no cooking or cleaning up after the fourth! Just R&R by the pool!
It’s winter in Australia and there’s been a lot of soup at our place lately. It’s one of the few things my toddler will reliably eat! I’m working a lot at the moment, so the freezer has been our main provider.
Last summer we made banana ‘ice cream’ by blending frozen bananas in the food processor – my son loved it. I can’t wait to make him some popsicles (or as we call them, ‘icypoles’) next summer.
Gazpacho, all kinds, whatever I get from the garden or farmer’s markets–watermelon-tomato, cucumber-peach, really giving my blender a workout!
cooking these days – lots of cold salads, eggs, & grilling – thanks for the chance on the book -)
These appear to be so much healthier than the standard popsicles I often buy at the grocery store. I really want to try the raspberry & basil — sounds delicious!
Popsicles!! My 5 little munchkins would LOVE for me to have that book! (and I’m sure I’d enjoy it too). Dinner around here is a bit of an eclectic fare. I have (unfortunately?) just found your book, so I’ve been cooking up a storm from it! And while it’s hot in the kitchen, the eats are good!
Tons of salads with pasta and quinoa; zucchini are prominently featured, since our plants are producing like champs.
I just bought ice pop molds yesterday! I have some chocolate coconut pudding-like pops on deck next. Cherry yogurt after that. I’d love more ideas! The pizza last night–though quite tasty–was definitely NOT a good idea for summer cooking.
Dinner for us is a mad dash to eat all the veggies in our farm share before the next batch comes. On pickup day, we always eat a big salad, and try to use the things that won’t last in the fridge. So dressings and pestos and harissas are made. We take big salads for lunch virtually every day, and eat roasted/grilled vegetables over some kind of grain or pasta most nights lately. Followed by an ice pop for the kids. I’ve been wanting to make homemade pops for the last month, but haven’t done it yet. I have the molds and everything! Now I know that simple syrup is the secret….
We definitely need some more popsicles around here for lunch! And breakfast and dinner, too.
My latest popsicle hit was pureed watermelon – straight up. Soo refreshing!
We’re cooking chili here, and sausages, and burgers and hopefully, quiche 🙂 But, I too think ice cream for dinner is absolutely right this time of year.
For some reason I crave bold spicy things in the middle of July. Hot chai in the morning and hot hot hot spicy stew for dinner. The exception being caprese salad, which I could eat everyday.
Cooking in our house is trying our best not to turn the stove on! We had a delish corn salad with basil and a big farmers market salad for lunch today! Salad had blueberries, raspberries, apple, avocado, shaved yellow and green squash, tomato, green and wax beans and a home made dressing.
We also just spent a week doing vacation cooking in Maine… Lobster, Crab Cakes, corn, salsa, mussels and some evening cocktails!
The cantaloupe pop sounds awesome! So does raspberry basil. We have tons of basil in the garden right now. We’ve been eating tons of tomatoes with basil and fresh mozzarella. Just got my first cheese making book so maybe I can make it fresh next time. We’ve also been eating steaks, corn on the cob and cucumber salad with sour cream! If I don’t win, the book I will have too look into buying it! Love that it’s broken up by season! Hope there’s a sweet potatoe pop in the book too!
Cooking around these parts in this heat is based on a few simple rules:
Hot food must come from the grill
unless it is too good to miss for a few months (ice cream, pudding, yogurt, bacon or pancakes)
And a minimum of 2 salads must be eaten by each of us everyday to keep up with our nutrition (seriously see above mentioned list for what else we are eating) and keep up with the farm share. As i refuse to let anyone’s hard work to to waste.
I have been waiting for this book since I first hard about it. My mom spends a good portion of the summer with us and she lives on corn, tomatoes and popsicles. She’ll be here in two weeks and my goal is to resinreduce or waste by making better than store bought pops.
I can’t believe I am saying this but there have been a few days here that it has been too hot to even grill – unless you want to wait for dark. So something quick on the stove and fruit for a “side dish”. Salads, which I actually really love but hardly make (lettuce averse six year old doesn’t help) have also been showing up and grilling early when my brain plans far enough ahead – as in just after breakfast early – and then eating room temp or hello microwave. Too early for tomatoes from our garden or we would have been living on tomato sandwiches.
With all the plentiful produce around these days our meals consist of lots of veggies. Even our desserts are getting in on the action with cherry ice cream and blackberry sorbet. I recently purchased some fun push up-type popsicle molds and look forward to making lots of fruity pops.
Cooking around here rockets among whatever fruit is in the house and can be eaten out of hand, large batches of garden goodness being put away for the long winter, fresh salads, grilled anything and leftovers that didn’t fit!
It’s been so hot lately, that cooking has been pretty minimalist. Lots and lots of salads.
eating our dinner outside is our way of making everything taste better! I got a new tablecloth for our table and have been making the extra effort it takes to move the dinner outside for an alfresco experience. So much fun!
Thanks for doing this nice post and book giveaway!
Cooking? I’ve been doing lots of preserving and putting up for the winter, but hardly any real cooking. I make all of our own breads, so I try to get that out of the way in the morning before it gets to hot. I have been making lots of pasta with pesto sauce and pasta with fresh tomato sauce because tomatoes are starting to really roll in.
Cooking in my house this summer involves lots of soups and salads… keeping things light and trying to use up all of my veggies each week! Thanks for the opportunity to enter to win the AWESOME popsicle book!!!
I’ve been all about salad with tasty meats. Taco meat last week, steak this coming week. And so many popsicles. But I need more recipes!
I so want to win a copy of the popsicle book.. With the days so hot I’ve resorted to limiting my cooking to firing up the waffle iron or grilling outside.
After making coffee in the morning I take whats leftover adding some cream & freezimg it to have poolside which is where we eat most days. At a recent pool party a friend brought a watermelon that she injected with Tequila. She then cut it with a melon baller & served it with a dash of black lava salt & lime. So I’m now inspired to make Watermelon Tequila popsicles.
Not cooking too much these days. We piked this awesome heat wave to move in. So sadly, we’ve ordered out a lot. :/
Today, though, I made bread, butter, and crepes stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, and eggs and topped with hollandaise sauce.
I love the sound of raspberries and basil or cantaloupe and mint popsicles so People’s Pops by Jennifer May is on my wish list.
Lot’s of grilling. It makes dinner making more relaxing.
We changed the heavy cream to organic french vanilla yogurt at our house. It was amazing, sweet not too sweet. Best popsicles I’ve ever made. A book of more recipes would be great.
We made a huge spread for a 4th of July party, and decided to have it yesterday. Unfortunately yesterday the heat wave peaked and it was 110 degrees so nobody came. The up-side if that is I won’t have to choo for at least a week! Pulled pork, potato salad, pasta salad, and Cole slaw will most have to tide is over! It’s going to be tough, but I think we’ll make it! 🙂
With no air conditioning anywhere near my kitchen, there hasn’t been any cooking going in in my home so far this July but that hasn’t been stopping me from drooling over your book which I just picked up last weekend. I made butter on the 4th, though. And I’ve made the Blueberry Moonshine Popsicles sans moonshine (from People’s Pops book) after the recipe was posted on Serious Eats. They are AMAZING and have provided a bit of heat relief during this crazy heat wave.
Your blog is a pleasure to read and so happy to have discovered it through your family @MSB! After looking over the comments, I am a bit reticent to admit that I force my former single girl eating habits onto my family during these hot days: cold cereal. The gems from this book would compliment this lazy lifestyle perfectly 🙂
Right now, with how hot it’s been, we have been having cheese, crackers and fruit. We have been cooking as little as possible.
We have been having a lot of CSA salads and homemade dressing.
I’ve just gotten out the solar cooker for a batch of potatoes. I’d like to say I made the cooker myself — they’re not hard to make — but the truth is that one day I realized that I’d been meaning to make one since I was ten, and that I was never going to get around to it. So I bought one from the Sun Oven people, and it’s been great. No heating up the house; no smoke; no hot coals to stand next to.
Cooking is hit or miss at our house lately – I’m in my first trimester and no foods look all that great 🙁 We also just got our power restored after a week without in 90 + degree weather. I know my two year old would LOVE to make some homemade popsicles with me!
Oh, geez. It’s been so hot here in WI that dinner has been whatever we can scrounge without creating any extra heat in the house (we don’t have a/c). Lots of lettuce-wrapped turkey & cheese, raw fruit or veggies, one night we had homemade fruit ice cream straight from the food processor. I would LOVE some popsicle recipes that involve whole ingredients! And, not to suck up at all I swear, I took your book with me to work that other day and now 3 more copies has appeared with the gals there! Thank you for offering more ways to feed out kids well!
Summer!!!! I live in the mountains, and there are a ton of lakes nearby, so lots of picnics. My son (7) has a fascination with all things egg lately. Loads and loads of devilled eggs…great picnic food. We were just at the store looking for some bpa free popsicle molds today. Didn’t find any:( Would love love love a book on pops! It’s funny cuz he was in Brooklyn with his father for the 4th. Says he didn’t see any popsicle guy though!
We have had such a heat wave lately (yay for the little bit of rain today) that as little cooking as possible is going on. Everything is coming out of the garden or off the farm. Popsicles sound wonderful! I haven’t made them in forever since the kids are teenagers now but I’m definitely going to get started with the recipe you shared. Thanks!
Sunday night dinner was a bits and pieces meal. All of the leftovers from the last few days were out on the table for a mini buffet.
Popsicles aren’t really the food of choice here at the moment as the temperature is starting to drop, but by the time the southern hemisphere summer comes around, icey poles are a must-have.
We have been scraping by on meals lately. Cooking is done in the morning before it gets to hot. I also turn to fast prep Thai meals when the leftovers run low.
I took our Popsicle molds on vacation with us last week, but they have been sorely underused this season. I need some inspiration!!! Thanks for this post.
We just returned from a camping trip in the San Juan Mountains where open fires were restricted due the the wild fires around the state of Colorado. So… cooking was a little tricky! We enjoyed local farmers’ markets and pounds and pounds of peaches and cherries! Now that we are home, I was looking to your website to get some ideas for this week’s menu! We would love to try the popsicle recipes in the book – they look delicious and our basil is huge having enjoyed some rain while we were away! One question: What kind of popsicle maker do you use? Thanks!
My current faves are kale salad with pecorino and apple and spicy pecans, and thai cabbage salad. Current favorite frozen item, wild ginger ice cream and chocolate peanut butter bananas.
one word: canning, i guess there is also freezing and dehydrating, various forms of putting food up for the winter.
It has finally cooled down around here and I am hoping to make the fig bars from your fabulous book. I also have some roasted beets from the farmers market ready for a salad tonight. And I’ve been thinking about popsicles – we may have to try these strawberry ones! Thanks for the great ideas!
We grill out year round. Yesterday we had chicken with grilled red, white and orange carrots, pattypan squash and onions. I steamed the broccoli only because I couldn’t fit it on the grill. We had leftover ears of corn that we nuked too. Plus a nice little, though very spendy, bowl of blackberries for desert. It was all delish. Thanks for the book giveaway. Good luck to all.
We live in a very small place so cooking inside during the summer is just not done. We have a place outside where we take our single burner and countertop oven to do any cooking. We also have a gas grill. Most of the time we cook something from the garden, make cold salads, couscous and grilled chicken. The popsicles sound really good and would be wonderful to make on these hot days.
These look so amazing! Just what we need in the hot DC summer.
I am always doing something with tomatoes. I love my tomato garden – love to eat them right off the stem. My husband and I will sit on the deck in the morning with a sausage biscuit and tomato, and take turns taking a bite of each. Mmmmm……. Just found your book and am loving everything I’m reading. We are popsicle people – we love the real fruit ones, especially mango. Just found your blog and can’t wait to look around.
Been making lots of popsicles around here, too. Pureed fruit + honey-sweetened yogurt. Either layered or swirled together. Would love to try some new recipes.
I love this idea for a book. Sounds like great fun. I never have even thought be make Popsicles . Lucky you that you have a little popsicle maker right in your house with you! My house is more of a grill house these days.
My mom “accidentally” planted nearly 20 tomato plants earlier this year, so she thrusts her bounty upon us frequently. And we graciously accept!! So we make a meal of (baked) chips and salsa around our house. Yes, a meal. We’re very serious about our salsa. We might add some tacos if we’re feeling ravenous. Luckily for me, my babies (almost 2 and almost 4) love spice! And also luckily, my mom grew an abundance of jalapenos as well. We also snack on frozen blueberries for a frosty treat. Then there’s the pear and fig trees that came with our yard when we moved. Long story short, lots of fresh fruit for us around our house.
I stumbled upon your Homemade book yesterday in the bookstore and I just loved it!!! I wanted to buy it right then and there but alas I must wait until payday. In the meantime I rushed over here to your website and am catching up on early posts. I would love the chance to own a copy of this Pops book 🙂
Summer cooking around here is some kind of grilled meat and a salad from the garden.
Cooking ’round here has been practically non-existent. We’ve been doing lots of cashew butter and jelly sandwiches, hummus pitas and anything you can put in a wrap. And yes…popsicles whenever possible, along with slushies, smoothies and all things cold and yumful. 🙂
Grilling, grilling, and more grilling. Oh, with the occasional crockpot meal. Too hot to turn on the oven! Thanks for the giveaway!
I just got my copy of the book in the mail yesterday. My little girl is so excited to start making ice pops! The books looks amazing, I was so happy to find your review, it made me feel I had made the right choice in ice pop books.
My family started canning last month, beginning with your strawberry jam, and we can’t stop! It is our first year participating in a CSA, and we are truly enjoying our organic bounty and preserving some of it for the colder months. Summer at our home consists of leafy salads each night, with whatever we received in our farm box for the week – green onions, mesclun greens, herbs, summer squash, mushrooms, you name it, it’s in there! Our kitchen has become a classroomand laboratory – and my husband and I am learning along with our twin pre-K boys exactly what all these veggies are and how to use them. So it has become the summer of staying home to eat, and enjoying our time together so much more. We have a great Cantaloupe Granita (the kids call it ice cream!) in the freezer (from Put Em Up!) and would love to try our hand at popsicles : )
Also wanted to say we love your book. I found it by accident, which makes it even sweeter ; > I only found your blog because of the book! We plan to work our way through many of the recipes in the coming weeks. Thank you for the inspiration!
Last night I made pesto pizza in my oven and nearly passed out from heat stroke. This week I’m going to do a much better job of planning salads and and other cool, cool foods.