Summer is here!! It’s heating up in LA and we’re getting ready for a summer full of barbecues, the beach, and of course, Shark Week. One of my fave snacks as a kid was popsicles, and I am excited to finally delve into the world of making them myself! Now, you can get popsicles at the store, but they’re full of sugar or they’re expensive if they’re “made with real fruit.” So I made these babies with yogurt and berries, at home, easy peasy!

I used blueberries and raspberries, but you could use strawberries, too, if you wanted.

Put about a quarter cup of sugar on the stove (over low heat) with about half a cup of blueberries and a quarter cup of raspberries. Cook over low heat until your blueberries begin to burst – your raspberries will turn into liquid much faster, and you’ll have a jelly-like substance on your hands.

Alternate yogurt, jelly-substance, yogurt, until you reach the top of your mold. They will not expand much like more water-based popsicles, so feel free to fill to the top, then place the popsicle sticks in the top. Let freeze overnight, then douse the outside of the molds with  cold water to get your popsicles out.

Because we’re not to keen on things being TOO sweet around here, these have a tart taste that is balanced with the sweetness of the berries. If you’d like a sweeter taste, add some sugar to your yogurt.

What is your favorite flavor of popsicle?

Hey y’all! Summer is here, so to celebrate, here’s a roundup of our fave summer recipes that just might cool you down…

First, here’s George’s recap of great summer beers to get your BBQs off right. My fave is Shock Top, but you should try them all to see what you love.

Speaking of BBQs, if you’re headed to one this weekend and you want to make sure to impress your friends by bringing something to share, try our Seven Layer Dip that’s healthier (and we think more delicious) than the traditional layer dip.

If you’re looking for a good summer breakfast, try our Peach Smoothie. It’s easy, it’s fast, it’s cold.

Or, if you’re in the mood for dessert and you have a surplus of stone fruit or berries, why not make a Two-Fruit Cobbler? This is fast, easy, and delicious. And it impresses basically everyone.

Finally, if you’re looking for a summer drink as we head into the season where drinking tons of water is critically, try to make your own Vitamin Water.

We hope you enjoy these summer faves of ours – what are yours?

Comment and tell us what your fave summer recipe is!

I posted about the Toddy last summer, but on account of tomorrow being the first day of summer, I figured I’d repost this, so you can read (again) about the joys of a perfect iced coffee. Call it our Throwback Thursday, if you will! I pulled my Toddy out yesterday, and I am brewin’ up this weekend! Enjoy.

So my best friend in the whole world recently sent me a Toddy Cold Brew System. She claimed it would make a lovely, acid-free iced coffee — and she was very, very right.

It’s pretty similar to the iced coffee I showed you earlier in the summer – only this coffee has a filter, so it is less acidic (which makes for a happier stomach!) The coffee is a smidge sweeter than normal iced coffee, which takes a bit of getting used to, but let me tell you my  acid reflux has thanked me (and my taste buds, for that matter!)

Here’s your cast of characters: toddy system, water, coffee, scale.

This is the filter. It’s coffee dirty. Sorry. You dampen, then place at the bottom of the system. Under that is a stopper that keeps the coffee from getting into the glass carafe while it’s brewing.

So you take your coffee and add it to the system, alternating water, coffee, water, coffee, water, coffee, water. The instruction manual is more in detail, but you get the idea.

Then you let your coffee sit for 12 hours (overnight.)

In the morning, your coffee grinds will look like this. Awesome.

At which point you take your stopper out and let it drain.

I let it drain for about fifteen minutes.

The thing about the Toddy is that it makes coffee concentrate, so you need to add water. I use about half and half, although the Toddy suggests you use one third to two thirds water. Whatever floats your boat.

I also like to add a splash of milk, because I like the way it looks, and because it tastes delicious.

See? Delicious, non-acidic, iced coffee.

Come on over, and I’ll make you a glass! Thanks to Lauren for sending it to me to try — you were right, it’s awesome.

When I was younger, summer meant many things. Reading. The beach. Macaroni salad, potato salad, hot dogs, backyard BBQs and days lounging in the pool. Italian ice. Popsicles (my fave is still lime.) And, of course, Icebox Cake.

Icebox Cake is what you see above, only my mom always made it with banana. However, a few years ago I stopped eating non-local produce, as an effort to lower my carbon footprint, and so I no longer eat bananas. I do, however, eat strawberries, and when a flat of them was $5 at the farmer’s market this weekend, I knew what I was making.

All you really need is milk and pudding mix, grahams, and strawberries. Or bananas, if you eat them. Your choice! For this, I used two packages of pudding (six cups of milk), two pints of strawberries, and 12 sheets of graham. 

Lay some graham crackers in a 13 x 9 dish. Meanwhile, make pudding according to the box directions, or from scratch if you’ve got the stuff and the time.

Cut up strawberries and lay ’em on top of your grahams.

Now, add a layer of pudding. Repeat, so you have two layers of each. Feel free to change up the graham to strawberry to pudding ratio as you feel it in your heart.

Chill until set, preferably a few hours or overnight so the graham gets soft and delicious. Eat cold out of the fridge with a tall glass of milk!

What is your favorite summer treat from your youth?

You guys, I made sun tea this weekend and it took one minute to put together, and was so easy! All you need is water, and tea, and maybe mint. Oh, and the sun, but I bet that was implied?

Take these bad boys and put them in a pitcher of water in the sun.

Wait two to three hours. BAM. Tea. Now stick it in the fridge for an hour to chill, and add maybe some lemon. I feel summer, peaking around the corner…

And, if you feel like it, add blueberries (frozen) as ice, so you don’t dilute any of the goodness! What is your go-to summer drink?