Let There Be Summer.... (and a recipe)

Damp mid-summer breeze falls fresh on my skin.

According to the calender it's late summer for the kids and school will begin in a few weeks, but I'm fighting the low tide of summers passing. 

These mornings... they have a smell of their own.

Fresh air and freshly mowed grass.

Beads of dew on knockout roses and wide-mouthed daylilies, 

Swimsuits, sunglasses, and slip-n-slides. Cold water splashing on bronzed shinning faces, ice cream, food on the grill, and bicycles.

I'm so grateful for bicycles and summer wind on my face. 

Summer is baseball being played out on ten thousand fields of green, lapping water on the edge of the lake shore, blue sky dotted with feather-like clouds and swings flying high, like an enchanting elevator that could take a child high enough to touch the sky. 

It is tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini from the garden, and corn on the cob from the local market.

Right now its an obsession with bacon, tomato, slathers of real mayonnaise, capped with organic romaine lettuce, all stacked on whole wheat toast.

Please pause for a collective... "awwwww yes please!"

Or a bacon-tomato salad.

Or just the bacon.

Or just the tomato. 

Summer is too short and sweet with unbridled fresh happiness.


Recently, Chocolate-Covered Katie had a recipe that is apparently famous to everyone but me. Find it here?

I had never heard of the "Dole Whip" which is found in only a few places, the most famous being,  Aloha Island near the Tiki Room in Disney’s Magic Kingdom. 

The rumor is, that it originated at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. 

Did I mention I want to go here?

Oh my!

Since that seems unreasonable at this time, I set out to try my hand at the recipe to at least visit these places with my taste-buds.  

Sorry for the poor picture, but my family was slurping down the goodness
before I could snap a decent shot.
They really are that good and satisfying. 

(Chocolate Covered Katies Recipe)

Homemade Dole Whip Recipe

2 cups frozen pineapple

1/4 cup milk of choice (Try canned coconut milk for piña colada soft serve!)

1/16 tsp salt

pinch pure stevia extract, or 2 tbsp sugar of choice

scant 1 tbsp lemon juice

Rhonda Quaney's Version
(who loves chocolate too)

One Can Coconut Milk (found in the Chinese Cuisine Section)

2 Cups Frozen Fruit
(we use pineapple, strawberries, cherries and sometimes blueberries)

1 Package Stevia (in the raw or liquid)

Depending on the consistence you like, a little water can be added, to make the shake thinner or more frozen fruit to make thicker. 

I do love this with only frozen pineapple and coconut milk. 

It is amazing with the other frozen fruit, especially strawberries.

Blend and enjoy!

It tastes like summer to me!

For a chocolate fix I've done this:

1 cup Coconut Milk
2 tbs Unsweetened Cocoa
1 cup ice
2 packages Stevia in the Raw

Blend
Sometimes you have to add a little more ice.

Yum-mo!

Note: This is good for you with no sugar crash. 

I actually drive by the ice cream places and
come home to make my own summer treats.




Thankful for all these sights, sounds
and flavors of summer.


Linking up today with Ann Voskamp.

Swing Photo Credit