The Last Word

Good afternoon, my friends. You didn't think I was finished writing when I said I was signing off yesterday, did you? You guys know me too well. I just get words piling up in my head, and I must expel them at the first opportunity...which happens to be now. Besides, I had pictures on my camera, and I wanted to start our trip with a clean slate in the form of my camera's memory card. I knew you'd understand. 

Just a few things have happened since yesterday's post. First, I stitched and filled my hoop this morning on the Joyful Journey block.

Now, I've hooped the last of it. I should have this finished in the next day or two.

Now here's the thing I was most itching to tell you about. Let's back up a week or two when this headline came across my email from The NYTimes Magazine.

Well, I don't know about you, but when I see something like that, I simply must have the recipe, and I simply must make it as soon as possible. So, on our last trip to the grocery store, I picked up all the items I needed: three cans of strawberry soda, one box of strawberry Jello, one can of sweetened condensed milk, and one can of evaporated milk. I couldn't find any "pure" strawberry sodas, and so I decided on this "strawberry lemon" variety.

There were a few steps involved to get it going, and so I did the initial mixing before heading out to the farmer's market yesterday. When I got home, enough time had passed that I could mix up the rest and put it in the freezer. We had it for dessert last night. It was very tasty.

So this was super easy to make. It just took a little time between steps to give things time to chill and set up. It's like a sherbet, but the author of the article I was reading refers to it as an "Icee." It makes sense because it is an icy treat...a little like a Slurpee, I suppose, but maybe more solid like sorbet. In this hot weather, it was very tasty and nice. 

So the author reneged on her promise to keep the recipe a secret, and I'm just about to share it with you right here. Make it and enjoy.

Hawaiian-Style Sherbet

Recipe by: Neale Asato and adapted by Ligaya Mishan of the NYTimes

Yield: About 9 cups or 18 servings

Ingredients:

3 (12-ounce) cans strawberry soda (or the soda flavor of your choice), 1 at room temperature and 2 chilled

1 (3-ounce) box strawberry Jell-O (or the Jell-O flavor of your choice, matching your selected soda flavor)

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk (optional; see Tip)

Directions:

Bring the contents of the can of room-temperature strawberry soda to a boil, either in a microwave in a medium, microwave-safe bowl for 2 to 3 minutes, or in a medium saucepan on the stovetop.

Remove from heat and whisk in dry Jell-O mix until thoroughly dissolved, then whisk in condensed milk and vanilla extract until well combined.

Refrigerate, uncovered, overnight, or freeze for 2 to 3 hours, until thickened. When it’s ready, it will have a texture akin to a loose jelly.

Whisk the mixture using an electric hand or stand mixer on high speed for 3 to 7 minutes, until it starts to lighten in color and almost doubles in volume. (If you do not have an electric mixer, whisk by hand for about 10 minutes.) Whipping the gelatin helps to stabilize the mixture and introduces tiny air bubbles, which make it less icy once frozen, and easier to scoop.

Turn the speed to low and stir in the remaining 2 chilled cans of strawberry soda, followed by the evaporated milk (if using).

Transfer the mixture to a container with a lid or cover with plastic wrap. Freeze overnight or for at least 12 hours before scooping and serving.

* * * * *

Okay, so I needed to hoe the garden one more time before we take off. I was discouraged to see yet more gopher activity among the beets and carrots. I decided I needed to harvest the beets or lose all of them. It's a small harvest, and a little early, so the beets are small. Still, I have enough here for a few jars of pickled beets. I'll refrigerate them while we're gone, and get busy on that when we return.

What carrots are still growing, I left in the ground. I found some nice ones at the farmer's market yesterday, and so I'll add those to the list of things to pickle when we return. I'm still hoping I'll get some from my own garden, but I'm not really counting on it. The rest of the garden is fine. Mr. Gopher seems only interested in the root vegetables.

In other gardening news, I'm seeing more flowers on the purple hydrangea. I expect it will be in full flower by the time we return.

The echinacea has more flowers too...

And the pink ones are close to blooming.

Just as I was getting ready to return to the house, a Shasta Swallowtail butterfly flew by. I watched and watched him. They're hard to capture in photographs because they don't often light anywhere. He finally lit across the yard from me. I knew he'd fly away if I approached, and so I zoomed in as close as I could for this picture.

Okay, and so that really is the last thing I have to tell you. We'll take off tomorrow. The kitties get nervous when they see us bring the RVs around, and so they've been making themselves scarce. For one final kitty fix, I grabbed a couple of photos from the archives.

Originally, we thought we'd take them with us, but decided against it. It will be a hot ride to Eastern Washington, and even hotter coming home. It seemed they'd be better off staying here. They have a litter robot that keeps their litter box clean, and they have automatic dry food and kitty treat dispensers so nobody will go hungry. And, of course, they can get some outdoors time on their catio. We'll leave them plenty of food and water, and they'll be better off here in cool and familiar surroundings.

Okay, so I'm hot a sweaty from a day of gardening and packing. A shower is sounding pretty good right at the moment. Now I really am signing off. See you on the other side.