Frozen Milo Dino with Pearls

 This is so easy it hurts. You just gotta know where to look for stuff! After checking out Jay International Grocery in downtown St. Louis, I found loads of stuff that had me longing for Singapore, so in honor of their recent national day (this past Friday) I'm shaking up some frozen Milo Dino's with the addition of tapioca pearls.

For those who don't know, Milo is an absolute staple of the Singaporean diet, and I learned to love it within two weeks of living there (considering I had it spilled on my shirt every single day of sixth grade for unknown reason). It's chocolatey mineraly (arguably?) healthy stuff that you can put on ice cream, mix with water or milk, iced or warm, and it'll be fantastic. Here's what I did:

• Throw some ice in a blender
• Pour vanilla almond (or vanilla soy) milk to about 1/2 of the way up the blending pitcher
• Dump in as much milo as you want 
• Blend it up
• Put two spoonfulls of tapioca pearls at the bottom of two glasses
• Pour blended Milo Dino into each glass
• Sprinkle unmixed Milo powder on top à la true Milo Dino tradition

Tada! A truly Singaporean treat, lah. Drink to your heart's content and imagine hawker stalls full of yelling and the pleasant scent of Durian drifting through your nasal passages.

Font used in first image is called LoveLove created by Elsie Larson of ABeautifulMess

Perfect Pancake

K for Kaitlin and L for Laken.

We're just cute like that.

Pancakes by Kaitlin because I purely do not have any pancaking skill.

Barefoot Farms

One of my favorite stops on the way from Beaufort to the beach for quality peaches, tomatoes, and apple butter/other jarred delicacies! Barefoot Farms=major winner.

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POP

Disclosure: DRY SODA has sent no endorsement to Girls for Pearls in recommending its products and GFP has chosen to advocate for their sodas by their own choosing.

Having randomly picked up this bottle in a small local coffee shop of Beaufort, I'm so glad I did. I was instantly enticed by the idea of cucumber soda (who wouldn't?) and grabbed it. If you're a fan of earthy & subtly sweet flavors then this is absolutely for you. Only mildly carbonated and sweet without making you feel guilty about it, the simple flavor is genius and I can't believe cucumber soda isn't already "a thing" that everyone's crazy about. A few days later I picked up their lavender soda, which was equally as titillating to the tongue! This isn't fad material, it's here to stay. They've got a loyal fan at 'DRY. Soda', and I can't wait to find their other flavors (including vanilla bean and rhubarb among others). 

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Munchy Brunchy

With my mama's birthday this past weekend, I spent a lot of time planning out what to make for her brunch I preparing for her and her friends. I owe this woman the world, so obviously I'm going to make the yummiest things I can come up with. Click the links below for recipes!

Stuffed yellow pepper, lemon poppyseed pancakes, watermelon coconut freeze, waffle cone fruit parfait

Check out my Pinterest board I share with Alex for brunch ideas here!

Blueberry Pavlova

This was one of the easiest things I've ever created, which is encouraging to a beginner to the big bad world of baking. The simplicity in the instructions from this recipe lead to me making a meringue, can you believe it, a meringue! That doesn't sound or look like beginner stuff, but pat on the back, I did it. 

 

Fini!

Blueberry Mocha

So this occurred to me this morning when I saw a wonderful box of blueberries in the fridge in the midsts of getting milk for my morning latté. Maybe morning brain isn’t a legit thing, but maybe it is, because my morning brain said: let’s mix coffee with chocolate milk and blueberries. The next question was: how do I get the blueberry flavor into it and...how do I not make this disgusting? Aha! Blueberry syrup! Chocolate! If Starbucks can pull off and sell a dark cherry coffee seasonal thingidy, then I can pull of milk chocolate and blueberry, right? Okay if you’ve already decided this is a terrible idea, HEAR ME OUT! It was actually surprisingly delicious so if you’re feeling daring and looking to spice up your morning, look no further! You can make the blueberry part as subtle or strong as you like :)
The most complicated part was certainly making blueberry syrup, but even then, it’s so simple! And of course, I just used my handy dandy Nespresso Coffee Machine (what am I going to do in a dorm without it next year?) for the coffee. Check out the video for the specifics, and if you dare to make it, let me know what you think!




A quick briefing of ingredients and directions for each portion:
Blueberry syrup (I got help here) - 2 cups of blueberries, 1/3 cup of water, mush them together in a medium pan. Bring mix to boiling over medium heat, then allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes and stir occasionally. Strain the berry liquid into a heat-proof bowl and get as much juice out of the berries as possible to go through the strainer. Pour back into the pan (without blueberry solids) and toss in about 1/4 of an orange skin (see video; well, you should just watch it anyway, it’s fabulous) and 1/3 cup of sugar, bring back to boil and then simmer for 10 minutes while it thickens. Add two tablespoons of fresh orange juice and stir to combine, boil for another minute or two, then turn off the heat and let everything cool! Don’t get too excited and taste it too soon, this stuff is HAWT.

Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

This granola recipe is based roughly on this one, with my additions of craisins and use of honey rather than maple syrup. It's super simple and fun, so definitely give it a shot! I've enjoyed it on its own as well as with milk, greek yoghurt and fruit, and next I wanna try compacting it into little popcorn-sized balls!

servings: 3-4
ingredients: 2 cups of old fashioned oats, 1.5 cups of shelled pistachios (or nut[s] of choice), 1/3 cup of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of ginger, 1/3 cup of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup of craisins (or dried fruit of choice).
preheat: 350F (177C - or use your toaster like I did! you just need to watch it carefully).
prep: combine the oats and pistachios in a bowl, adding in the oil and honey. stir. add in salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and vanilla and continue to mix. spread this mixture over a baking sheet (covered with parchment paper).
bake time: 25-30 minutes
detail: while baking, stir every 10 minutes, adding dried fruit during last 10 minutes of baking

Friendly

This gorgeous food that you're no doubt drooling over was made for me one airy afternoon by a good friend of mine. It was this that actually inspired me to get more into cooking. He whipped up the most gorgeous, delicious pitcher of sangria stock-full of everything you can imagine. There was also herbed pinch-bread, hummus with red capsicum, a moroccan bean salad, and a delicious french baked dish who's name I can't remember for the life of me. It was a lazy, hazy (thanks to the sangria) afternoon talking about god knows what and who the hell cares or remembers, but what I do remember is god the food was delicious. Thanks for setting me on the right track bubba! Fond food memories forever. #FFMF yeah that's right I'm starting a twitter trend. Hashtag it.

Photos from my personal instagram @lakenlinnea

Grapefruit Donuts

I found this wonderful recipe here and thought I'd give it a shot! Sounds like a crazy combo but I liked it, it was a fun new experiment.



servings: 15-18
ingredients: 1 cup milk, 1/8 cup of grapefruit juice, 1/4 cup of sugar, 2.25 teaspoons of instant dry yeast, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of butter (2 tablespoons separate), 4 cups of rice flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of grapefruit zest, olive oil for frying
preheat: none
prep: warm milk + grapefruit juice in microwave for one minute, then stir in the sugar until dissolved. Add yeast,stir lightly and allow to sit for 5-8 minutes. separately, melt the butter, stir in the eggs, and beat on low speed. add to the yeast mixture and add flour one cup at a time, followed by salt and zest. Knead dough for 8-10 minutes on higher speed (not too high). put the  dough in lightly greased bowl, cover and put in fridge overnight. 
next day, roll out dough and cut into circles with top of cup. Lay cut-outs on a baking sheet, cover, and allow to rise for 1 hour. 

{icing-whisk together 1/2 cup grapefruit juice and 2 3/4 cups powered sugar, refrigerate until thickened}

cooking: heat oil enough so that the donuts can float and test the temperature by using a donut hole. plop in a donut and leave each side in for 30-45 seconds before flipping/replacing. place on cooling rack.

finalizing: dip cooled donuts in glaze

Thoughts?