Dragon's Sweet Teeth: Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles

This Friday isn't a drink (sorry to say, because I'm thirsty). Today, the Hand of the Kitchen brings you a variation on last week's blueberry lemonade: blueberry lemonade popsicles!

Our hand of the kitchen loves to freeze juices into popsicles during the summer and the lemonade last week was no exception. To make the popsicles extra tasty, though, we've mixed a special batch of lemonade with a little less water so the flavor is nice and juicy.

Fresh Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles

Ingredients

3/4 c hot water

3/4 c sugar

1 c fresh lemon juice

1 c fresh blueberries

2 c cold water 

1 popsicle tray

Step 1: Puree together your hot water, sugar, lemon juice, and blueberries until everything is thoroughly mixed. 

Step 2: Pour your mixture into a pitcher through a fine mesh strainer 

Step 3: Stir in your cold water and pour your juice mixture into popsicle trays, add sticks, and freeze. 

These popsicles are so delicious! 

Fresh Blueberries for Blueberry Lemonade

Although House Cook is located firmly in suburbia, this area near Atlanta is a bit odd. It grew so fast that in some ways the landscape never had time to catch up. Down the street from House Cook is a tangle of trees that hides a fantastic blueberry patch. Many of our neighbors like to tromp into the woods and pick fresh blueberries, and a few days ago we joined them.

Grabbing tupperware and boots, we trooped out into the undergrowth to hunt for delicious, ripe berries.

It was fantastic! Many of the bushes still had berries that weren't yet ripe, but we found plenty that were.

Looking for something delicious to do with the berries besides just gobble them all up before getting home, we've decided to bring you fresh blueberry lemonade.

 Fresh Blueberry Lemonade Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 c hot water

3/4 c sugar

1 c fresh lemon juice

1 c fresh blueberries

4 c cold water (or sparkling water)

Step 1: Puree together your hot water, sugar, lemon juice, and blueberries until everything is thoroughly mixed. 

Step 2: Pour your mixture into a pitcher through a fine mesh strainer (unless, of course, you like the pulp in which case just dump it all in). 

Step 3: Stir in your cold or sparkling water, serve over ice and enjoy! 

Baratheon Bread: Lemon and Poppy Seed Bread

With the gold and black colors of the House Baratheon of Westeros in mind (and Stannis' rather sour personality), today we're bringing you our own Baratheon Bread! This delicious lemon and poppy seed bread is both sweet and tangy. It's light quality makes it a perfect snack, breakfast, or dessert! It's versatile like that.

Lemon and Poppyseed Bread Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes, bake time: 50-55 minutes
Serves: 10-12
Difficulty: Easy

Bread Ingredients

11/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 tsp of lemon zest (grated lemon peal)
1 tbsp of poppy seeds

Lemon Syrup Ingredients

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice


Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350º

Step 2: Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.

Step 3: Place the eggs, olive oil, evaporated milk, and lemon zest in a bowl and beat until thoroughly mixed.

Step 4: Pour the mixture from Step 3 over the flour mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed. Once mixed, fold in the tablespoon of poppy seeds and stir until fully mixed in.

Step 5: Pour the batter into a greased 4 x 8 and bake for 50-55 minutes.

Step 6: While the bread is baking, combine the lemon juice and sugar for the lemon syrup in a saucepan and cook over a medium to low heat until the sugar has fully disolved and has turned to a light syrup.

Step 7: Once the bread has finished, check to make certain it is baked through by poking a long wooden toothpick into it to see if it comes out clean or gooey. If it comes out gooey, give it a few more minutes to finish baking. If it comes out clean, poke lots of holes throughout the top of the bread and slowly pour the lemon syrup over it.

Step 8: Allow about 10 minutes to cool in the pan, then remove and allow another 10 minutes on a plate. Once it's cool, simply slice and enjoy!