It is hot, hot, HOT in the Bay Area this week! I was at the farmer’s market this morning and found myself sweating buckets before I finished buying my first bag of white nectarines! In times like this, I find myself mulling over which beverage I’d find most refreshing: Milk tea? Iced coffee? Fresh watermelon juice? Frappucino? Smoothies? Of course, ice cold water is probably the cheapest and healthiest, so I most frequently turn to my trusty Hydro Flask
But it only temporarily satiates the desire for something chilly, sweet, and delicious slipping down my throat. So whenever I am able to carve out some time, I love to treat myself and Ben and our friends to one of these delectable beverages! They are each a favorite in a different way, so I highly encourage you to give them all a shot sometime! Now for the summer drink roundup:
Guys, this is my fourth post ever in the “homemaking” category. I’m not sure whether to celebrate that or be embarrassed by it. You may not have even realized I used to have “homemaking” as one of my blog categories, along with education, parenting, food, and marriage. That’s because one day, I realized that I had dozens of posts pertaining to my other passions, but only three– yes, 3– on homemaking. And that’s when I realized I’m nowhere near expert at making homes. But HEY, I got my craftsy on today, and I made the home look brighter and fresher with these new envelope pillow cases!! Isn’t that a remarkable face-lift?!
I’ve never thought of myself as much of a grape person, but when my friend Hanna told me about this recipe, I knew I had to try it. Because I will pretty much do anything Hanna tells me to do. She has never steered me wrong.
Plus, it seems grape sorbet and I were fated to happen. You see, one Thursday, I was at Costco, and this sample lady kept calling out, “THE SWEETEST GREEN GRAPES YOU WILL EVER TRY IN YOUR LIFE! HAVE SOME GREEN GRAPES! THEY’RE THE SWEETEST GREEN GRAPES YOU WILL EVER TRY…” So of course I had to have some.
Maybe it was the clever packaging–they were called Cotton Candy Grapes–but seriously, when the juice squirted into my mouth, I felt like I was transported to a carnival. It may have just lasted for a second, but I swear the cotton candy taste was there. It made me very suspicious of the grapes, actually… but since they said ORGANIC and I happen to trust Costco very much, I picked up a basket.
Good decision, JoEllen. Because that left me with plenty left over to eat, even after tripling the green grape sorbet recipe.
The sorbet was bright and refreshing and would make an excellent palette cleanser. It was also very easy to make. I thought my grapes might be sweet enough without the extra sugar, but something about freezing foods makes them taste less sweet, so I’m glad I kept the sugar in the end.
HELLO EVERYONE!!!
I am SO EXCITED!!! I am just finishing up the last tidbits of my blog’s new look and feel, and I am SO PROUD OF IT! Not sure if you visited the actual blog page much before, but it used to be a darker background of grey with black headers and red highlights. It wasn’t at all what I had imagined when I originally selected “Sorbet” (yumyum!) as my blog theme, but it took me this long to get around to updating things.
And I love it!!
Now, thanks to a theme I bought on Etsy, a brilliant computer science husband, and a generous friend with an eye for design, I have a completely new look and feel. Oh, and I finally added a photo of myself, in case you were imagining that I was Caucasian all this time. Because according to Google image search, “joellen” is a predominantly… non-Asian name.
“The couple that plays together stays together.”
This quote conjures images of smiling, happy, sunglassed couples hiking green mountains together, biking together, and having adventures together out in nature. I picture my elderly neighbors down the street, who often work out in the front yard gardening together. It’s so cute. I think about my engineer friends with their gamer wives that team up together and regularly play Starcraft or WoW together. (Nerd points for anyone who knows what WoW is!). This quote probably even applies to the couch potatoes who have a routine of vegging together after work, watching Netflix or Hulu or whatever you call TV these days.
Ben and I do few of those things. He enjoys programming. I cannot. I enjoy baking. He… eats baked stuff. He enjoys biking. I love team sports. I enjoy going out, but he’s one of the biggest (extroverted) homebodies I know.
According to conventional wisdom, it appears that we are doomed.
Wanna know what the best thing I ever baked was?
A little bun in the oven! And for the last few months, I have been very, very busy “baking up” another one! That’s right, we’re due to have a BABY BOY in October! 😀 We just had our big ultrasound yesterday morning, so you’re some of the first to know!
These lemon bars are by far the most requested item I make. My friends love the buttery-tart combination and recently, I was asked to make a whole bunch of them for a wedding! Since I had to mass-produce these guys, I decided to go with… bottled lemon juice, something I hadn’t done for nearly a decade. However, in so doing, I discovered that bottled lemon juice is the key to making these lemon bars consistently tart and perfect in consistency!
Do your best.
It was a mantra repeated to me again and again throughout my upbringing. Before piano recitals and exams (and I had many), my mom would smile encouragingly and say, “Just do your best!”
I remember asking my mom one time, “What would happen if I got a B on my report card?” I peered over at her with wide eyes, trying to gauge her reaction.
“As long as you did your best, that’s fine,” she said matter of factly.
“Really?! What if I got… a C?!”
“As long as you did your best, that’s fine.”
“So, if I came home with a D, you wouldn’t be mad?” I pushed.
“If you really did your best, then no. But I also know what you’re capable of and it’s usually better than a D, so if that happened then maybe you didn’t do your best.”
I sat, pondering this silently.
I can’t say I’ve always lived it out. By high school, I was the do-what-you-need-to-get-the-A student, and that oftentimes took a lot less than my best. When it came to things I really cared about, though–a basketball game, preparing a presentation in front of peers, leading a club–I gave it my all, my 100%. It was like I didn’t know how to slack off or tone it down when it came to these things, and I often pushed myself long and hard into the night to make sure everything was done in excellence.
Thanks for letting me go on vacation for a week :). (And thanks for not unsubscribing! :D) Here’s one more photo of what I’m enjoying today here in Paris!
G. Detou, a foodie’s dream shop full of nuts, honey, jam, mustards, baking chips, and a lot of other things I couldn’t read in French. So fun!
‘ello mate! Cheers from the UK! This week I’ll be taking a break from the usual posts so I can more fully enjoy my time abroad :]. We’ll be back to our regular topics next week!
Here’s a peek at what I was up to today, at the lovely Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon at Fortnum and Mason!
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