Gooses...geeses

 

I want a goose to lay gold eggs for Easter. Okay, I could quote Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, obvi) all day but it has nothing to do with this pop. I love the Green City farmer's market. Thankfully, I walk and can only carry a fixed amount home. Otherwise, I would most certainly go overboard.  I recently purchased a box of unhusked gooseberries. I had never seen them in their delicate little husks before. I was intrigued.

Gooseberries have a strange flavor, sort of a cross between a berry and a tomato. To make GOOSEBERRY POPS, I needed to add another strong flavor. I decided on lemon. I combined:


1 box gooseberries
3 oz Greek yogurt
1/2 lemon, juiced and zested
1 tbs raw honey

I love these pops! They're tart with an interesting and unique undertone. What should I grab this weekend at the farmer's market?

L'Shanah Tovah!

Happy New Year! I recently bought a mini two-pop Zoku to bring to Cape Cod. Unfortunately, we all remember the broken freezer incident. I decided to give it a home at my parents' house, should the *popping* mood strike me there.

I was home celebrating Rosh Hashanah on Wednesday evening and decided to make
APPLE AND HONEY pops! Apples and honey are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah to ring in a sweet new year. I blended:

1 Granny Smith Apple
1 tbs lemon juice
2 oz goat yogurt (my mom's fav)
water for blending

They were quite good (although they could stand to be tarter). I hope everyone has a *pop*tastic new year!

Failure in the Freezer

It's only mid-September and pumpkin flavored pastries are already *popping* up everywhere. I was planning to make PUMPKIN POPS for Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't wait! And I'm glad I didn't. This recipe needs some serious tweaking. I combined:

1 can unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbs orange peel
1 tbs raw honey

The pops are decent. They're edible. But I'm disappointed. Next time I'll add yogurt for a creamier consistency. The clove flavor is quite strong and overpowers the pop and think I may eliminate cloves all together in the next batch. I'll try again and update ya'll on my pumpkin pop progress.

popcessorizing

 
I love kitschy needlepoint. It's retro and whimsical... two of my favorite design descriptors. I have a phenomenal Jonathan Adler lemon pillow on my loveseat. I just stumbled upon this adorable Christen Maxwell Popsicle Mini Throw. Can't you picture it in a little girl's room? I'm pretty sure Miss Silbert would buy one for her own room.

Jam Pops?

I just picked up this delightful cookbook on One King's Lane. I will post on my jam making endeavors in a few weeks. Currently, only the labels have been completed (well...designed).

I've been paging through and I'm quite impressed with the flavor combinations. Many of them would make excellent pops. Orange kumqat with cardamon sounds especially delicious....

Presidential Pops

While on Martha's Vineyard a few weeks ago, Dr. Cornelius procured some of the most delicious pistachio ice cream. It was the perfect creamy to crunch ratio; perhaps the creameries had stepped up their game for the Obamas. Or for us. We're almost as important...

Anyway, Miss McNitt recently purchased some pistachios at Costco and I thought I'd give PISTACHIO POPS a whirl. I blended:

25 pistachios, shelled and minced
6 oz Greek yogurt
1 tbs raw honey






I couldn't find chopped pistachios, and they likely would not have been chopped as finely as desired. I used my mezzaluna. My culinarily inclined brother purchased it for me and I use it at least 4 times a week. It's great for herbs, nuts, veggies and especially onions. I usually cry on first slice but I can now chop half an onion without tearing up.

The pops turned out quite well. I think next time I'll up the pistachio content and add some minced nuts after I blend for textural variation.

Just Beet It

I'm admittedly one of those people who detested beets as a child. It wasn't even predominantly the taste but rather the aesthetics. Yes, beets are beautiful. But they color, LITERALLY, everything around them. They cause mushrooms to look especially diseased. Thankfully, I have gotten over my fear of beets. I was a little skeptical of making BEET POPS, but decided to forge ahead. Dr. Cornelius suggested a currant pairing, citing currants as an incredibly underused ingredient. I took his advice and concocted:

1 can of sliced beets
6 oz Greek yogurt
2 tbs black currant preserves
1 tbs raw honey

As you can see, the color is magnificent. They are pretty delicious, too. I thought they could stand for another flavor, perhaps bolder on the currant front. Dr. Cornelius disagreed.

Squash 'n Pop

What a beautiful, brisk autumnal day here in Chicago! That, coupled with the wild success of my fig pops (see below), inspired me to begin my series on Fall flavors.

Yesterday, while waiting for a table at Over Easy, I happened into Dolce Casa Cafe for some coffee. It's a charming little place featuring Metropolis Coffee (my fav local roast) and some very creative pastries, including several varieties of zucchini bread. YUM. I love zucchini bread. So I decided to make some ZUCCHINI POPS.


I sliced a small zucchini and microwaved it for 3 minutes, until soft. I blended it with:

6 ounces Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 lemon juiced and zested

I tasted the mixture but have yet to try a pop. It was good but overwhemingly citrusy. I think next time I'll keep the lemon juice but skip the zest. Perhaps I'll add some nutmeg, too.

my fig fiancée

Fig season has arrived. Okay, I know it technically started in June, but it peaks in late summer/early fall. I bought some last week and sliced them, brushed them with a little butter and agave and baked them with chopped pistachios. They were divine. There's something very decadent about the fig no matter how simple the preparation. I sent a picture of my fig creation to Dr. Cornelius. And I told him about my fig pops. And I apparently waxed on and on and on until...the confrontation. He snapped that I had become obsessed with figs. Figs were my new fiancée.

Let me explain. Have you seen the Seinfeld episode The Stranded? Jerry and Elaine are at a party and a highly annoying woman with pretentiously affected speech constantly refers to her fiancée? Well every so often, The Good Doctor deems something my new fiancée (read: STOP TALKING ABOUT IT).

So I stopped. To him, at least. But I could not deprive you, reader, of this delicious FIG POP recipe. I blended:

6 ripe figs
3 oz Greek yogurt
1 tsp raspberry agave syrup
water (for blending)

They are absolutely delicious. Decadent even. And thus begins my autumnal pop series. Check back for two more later this afternoon!