A collection of hot and cold, alcoholized and non-alcoholized beverages that we think you’ll love.
A summer cocktail with pureed cactus pear, fresh orange juice and Metaxa
This drink is inspired by our desire to make something special using our dad’s favourite fruit, the cactus pear. The plants of cactus pears, also known as prickly pears, or fragosyka in Greek, can be found in the rocky terrains of Greece across much of the country, including the Peloponnese where our family is from.
Cold coffee the Greek way, with the addition of vanilla ice cream.
This post is sponsored by Ice Frappe. All opinions on this post are ours.
We were recently gifted a beast of a machine; a powerhouse of froth-making which produces the most extraordinary frappé we have ever had. Add to that the addition of amazing Nektar coffee, and you’ve got yourself a very happy situation.
Our Kalko Frappe machine was something we didn’t realize we were missing, until we used it. Not only does it make an amazing frappe, it can also be used to mix other cold drinks, and cocktails! Are you as thirsty as we are? Thank you Ice Frappe for the gifts!
Frozen honeydew, mint, lime juice and just the right splash of ouzo for your drinking pleasure
Our daughters are smoothie lovers. Breakfasts, snacks, and late night hunger pangs are often addressed with a medley of frozen fruit blended together with either milk or juice. So easy, they’ve been in charge of their own smoothie-making for years. Our job is to ensure that there is enough frozen fruit available, and to supply a lovely, colourful variety to keep things interesting.
Although we purchase bags of frozen fruit there are some choices that you just can’t find easily. And so, we cut up things like papaya, cantaloupe, passion fruit (yes, we are exotic over here), and freeze the chunks on baking sheets before transferring them to a freezer bag. One afternoon, feeling inspired and thirsty, and needing to free up some freezer space for the spanakopita we had made for another day, we decided to make some adult smoothies.
A simple vanilla milkshake with the perfect ratio of ice cream to milk
So here’s something that you should know about our mother. Like many other people of her generation, raised in Greece during times of economic hardships, our mother has always been quite sensitive to signs of health and wellness. For instance, according to our mother, anyone who looks even slightly underweight is cause for concern. Perhaps they aren’t eating enough. Perhaps they are sick. Perhaps they need her to intervene.
A perfect marriage of Greek coffee and Irish spirit!
March in Montreal is a lovely time; the snow promises to begin melting, the days are longer and the weather warmer. Although we look forward to seeing green grass again, even if winter is stubborn and decides to stick around, by mid-March we are seeing green elsewhere, and everywhere. And, we’re all Irish, even if it’s just for a little while.
A warm delicious drink to soothe what ails you
The lovely parts of autumn in Montreal include pumpkins and fall mums adorning front porches, watching children roll around in the pile of leaves their parents spent hours raking up, and the Garden of Lights exhibit at the Montreal Botanical Garden. The less lovely parts include fall colds. This seems to be a particularly popular time for getting sick, and not wanting to be left out, one of us just spent a week congested, achy, slightly feverish, and generally feeling crummy.
If you read our previous post you know that Penguin Random House Canada recently provided us with a review copy of The Great Shellfish Cookbook: From Sea to Table More than 100 Recipes to Cook at Home by Matt Dean Pettit. This is a lovely book that any home cook who is curious about seafood, or who simply wants to increase their repertoire of great seafood recipes, should have on hand. We tested the Chili Lime Side Stripe Shrimp Lettuce Wraps; a mouthful of a recipe title to match the many mouthfuls you will want to have of this dish.
This is a silly little recipe. We wonder if it is even a recipe at all! Regardless of whether it is or not, we couldn’t resist sharing this post, primarily because many of you seem to enjoy the memories that Mia Kouppa brings up. So, we wonder, how many of you were served warm milk with a touch of coffee growing up?
Remember last week when we posted about cantaloupe with ouzo, and you hurried off to make that recipe because it sounded so refreshing and delicious? Aren’t you still pretty amazed by how great those flavours come together? Do you perhaps have some cantaloupe left over, and some ouzo remaining in the bottle? And are you perhaps, a little bit thirsty?
If you answered yes to those questions, boy, do we have a treat for you. This frosty cantaloupe and ouzo drink is a slushy sensation. Serve it at your next rambunctious get-together, or quiet evening on the porch; this cocktail will make any moment that much more memorable.
Maybe we’re a little late to the party, but this, folks, is a breakthrough for us. While thinking about what lovely cocktail to share with you in an upcoming post, our minds wandered across the myriad of possibilities. We contemplated the delicious ways we could serve up ouzo or Metaxa, all while sipping a lovely frappé, and munching on some fresh koulourakia; food blogging is hard work. It was then that we thought, “Hey, now hold on a minute! How about jazzing up a frappé?”
