Summer Drinks: Flavored Ice Cubes

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It seems summer is all over us these days, it's getting so hot you just wanna live underwater or in a fridge.

Summer drink will help us get through though. Previously I showed you some ideas to flavor your ice cubes to get a refresing cold coffee/ mik drink. Below you have 3 alternatives for your lemonades, ice tea or fizzy water.

This time I added mint, lavender flowers and grapefruit juice.

You just have to fill an ice cube tray with water or lemonade and then add mint leaves or lavender flowers. For the pink grapefruit one, my favorite, just fill the tray with grapefruit juice with or without the pulp, however you like it.

Here is an example of some fizzy with the grapefruit cubes. You really feel like in a spa and the effort is minimum.

xoxo,

Mrs.G. Mixes (1): Vodka Soda with Grapefruit

We posted a photo on Instagram, announcing this post, basically a drink post, so here it is.
For the first alcohol cocktail presented on this  blog, we tried to keep things simple and show a easy peasy one, that would actually go perfect with  our passion for Italian food, proven numerous times on youvegotmeal blog.

This drink is awesome because it has no sugar added, so you won't wake up with a headache the next morning, is really simple so it is most likely all of your guest will enjoy and it does not require special bartending skills.

In a glass with ice cubes pour around 50 ml vodka, then add sparkling water until you fill the glass. San Pellegrino would work great, I couldn't find it simple, without flavours and I couldn't resist this limited edition Perrier by Andy Warhol. Of course you can use any sparkling water, don't judge my snobbish moment, we all have those.

After you added the water, add a splash of grapefruit juice, just a splash, don't make it all about the grapefruit. Garnish the glass with a generous piese of mint and you're done.

I find the mint extremely important in this drink, it adds freshness and makes it more suitable for summer and for light meals. You have to try it!

Cheers,
Mrs. G.

Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup

For the past 24 hours we've been having tremendous amounts of rain falling, a matter very difficult especially for our ceiling, that decided that it had enough and made us a gift in the form of a couple of leaking spots. In this dire situation I did what any foodie would do: I cooked some comfort food, more precisely an Asian style chicken soup.I just love this type of cooking soup, that beautiful way in which they manage to combine great tastes. A very special combo for me is one that brings together spicy, sweet and salty in perfectly balanced dish.



For a rather rich and otherwise thick soup I used: 

2 packages of pho noodles, 2 tbs of canned bamboo slices, 2 green onions, a thumb size of ginger, 2 green chillies (use red for a nicer coloring), 2 garlic cloves, 3 tbs of black chanterelle mushrooms,2 tbs of canned mung bean sprouts, some sweet corn, soy sauce, 200 grams of boiled and finely diced chicken meat, mint leaves for garnishing. 

Start by heating up 3 tbs of vegetable oil and cooking in it the diced ginger and chilli for 2 minutes. Add the chopped onion, diced garlic, corn and  mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the soy sauce and mix for another minute, after which  add the stock, bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes more. Turn of the heat and add the chicken and the noodles that will cook in 3 minutes. Pour in a soup plate and garnish with mung bean sprouts and mint leaves (add some more extra soy sauce if you need salt). 



So there you have it, the perfect way to admire any leaking walls: with some comforting chicken soup. You won't think about the amount of work needed to repair the damages. That's what I call eating your problems away.

Take care,Mr. G.

Fried Ricotta-Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

My parents went to my granny's house this weekend and brought us some zuchini blossoms. To me honest it is the first time we tried preparing these, although we wanted to do it for a long time.

We chose a fresh recipe, one that will also be simple, just for us to understand the taste and the possibilities of these blossoms.

We had six blossoms with the tiny zucchinis attached. First, although we were quite scared of how delicate they seemed, we took out the pestles from each flower,  and washed them.

The filling:

200-250 g Ricotta cheese
1/2 bunch of mint
30 g Parmesan
chopped dry chipotle to taste
salt and pepper
Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Because we used Ricotta the filling turned out pretty soft, so we found that the best way to fill the blossoms was with some baking sheet rolled into a piping bag with the end cut off. Of course, you could use a piping bag or even a teaspoon if you are the handy kind.

In order to fry them we used a simple batter made of 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sparkling water. You can always add more water  or flour if necessary. The point is that the batter should be thick enough to stick to your finger when you dip it in, but thin enough to drip slowly.

After dipping them in the batter, fry them in vegetable oil until they turn golden and crispy, about 3 minutes on each side. We served them with lemon juice on top, this dish could go with a sour note, so you could prepare a vinaigrette or a salsa.

This was a really nice suprise, we must say. The filling was very fresh and light and the blossoms are definitely a seasonal ingredient that we will look for from now on.

Oh...and the tiny zucchinis attached to them were exceptional. Now, that is something worth mentioning.

Enjoy,
Mrs. G.