Cooling Off with Smoothies

It's hot. Really hot.

Although I squeezed in some June baking, I spent most of the month trying to cool off from hot days on the farm. Instead of heating up the kitchen with a hot oven, I have been snacking on cold, crispy cucumbers and carrots, and drinking smoothies. Smoothies are like granola. You can hardly ever mess up and can make something delicious from whatever you have in your cabinets (or in this case, the refrigerator). Below are two of my favorite go-to drinks.

My summer office and classroom.

Kale and Mixed Berry Smoothie

1/4-1/2 c. fruit juice (orange, cranberry, lemon, etc.)

1 c. berries (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries)
1 medium banana

small handful of kale or spinach

1 c. Greek yogurt OR a handful of ice

Combine ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Kale and Mixed Berry Smoothie

Experimenting with Infused Honey

Honey is one of nature's best gifts (if not the best). Between school, working as an environmental educator, and baking sweets, I've had the pleasure of getting up close and personal with honey bees and local honey. 

I found myself back on Swarmbustin' Honey's website (West Grove, PA) this week thinking about their flavored honey (did someone say GARLIC honey?!). Although I've tried several different varieties of honey, I have yet to try flavoring my own. That's the inspiration for this post. 

Extracting fresh honey for some excited taste testers at the 2011 Philadelphia Honey Festival.

I spent some time visiting a number of websites, mostly from fellow bloggers, about how to flavor and infuse honey. You have two choices in the infusion process but both end in the same delicious results. Think mint honey in your tea, lavender honey on vanilla ice cream, orange honey on your morning scone, pepper honey on your cheese, or cinnamon honey on your oatmeal. If that doesn't sell you, than you might be hooked on the perfect little gift for a hostess or your next best skin product.

Germantown Hives: For best results, use local honey! 

Flavoring Ideas

Lavender: up to one cup of lavender buds

Vanilla: 2 split beans 

Orange: zest of one orange (could also use lemon or grapefruit)

Mint: 1/4 to 1 cup loosely packed leaves

Ginger-Lime: 10 quarter-sized slices of peeled fresh ginger, zest of 2 limes

Cinnamon-Clove: 5 cinnamon sticks, 1 tablespoon cloves (let stand 24 hours before straining)

Hot Pepper: peppercorns or red pepper flakes