Or should I say strawberry drink with a splash of sprite in it??? Thinking. Either way it refreshes you to the core.

Scorching sun, sunscreens, sunglasses and chilled drinks, Yay! Summer has rolled in. Lately, more than cooking I’ve been actively indulged in creating summer drinks. I am tempted to make drinks out of almost everything that I see in my pantry and refrigerator. Hopefully I wouldn’t get too daring and try some bizarre drinks too. If I do dare, I will definitely share the recipe with you guys

Among soda pop, sprite has been my favorite. In fact I can handle any pop that doesn’t have caffeine in it and love orange flavored pop too. As grilling season starts, we always stack up a few bottles of sprite for me and caffeinated ones for my hubs. We both need pop to sip along while we chew down on grilled chicken. The other day, when I was pouring sprite into a glass, I was instantly hit by the idea of adding some fruit flavor to it. I had tons of strawberry that had been idly sitting and so strawberry flavor was my pick. The strawberry flavored sprite or sprite flavored strawberry drink tasted so amazingly good that now I can’t have sprite without flavoring it.

Happy Summer folks and don’t forget the sunscreen!!!

Strawberry Sprite

For making 1 glass

Ingredients:

• Strawberries, fresh ripe or frozen- 4 no’s
• Sugar- 1 tbsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
• Water- 1/4 cup
• Sprite, chilled- enough to make one glass

Preparation:

• In a blender, puree the strawberries along with sugar, lemon juice and water.
• Strain the strawberry juice into a glass.
• Add chilled sprite to it and if needed couple of ice cubes.
• Put a small slit on the bottom end of a strawberry and place it on the glass, serve.
• You could increase the amount of ingredients depending on how many glasses you want.

Chocolatezzz, is there any taste buds that wouldn’t surrender to this???

The thought of chocolate itself is enough to tantalize my taste buds. Everyone, irrespective of age loves it, adores it and never will be able to resist it even if it is miles away from them.

This weekend being the Valentine’s day weekend, there will be high demand for chocolates all over the world. Obviously, chocolate has been the most selling gift in any store for valentine’s day and other special occasions. Without a box of chocolate, any gift for our dear ones would be incomplete. It’s the perfect gift to express your love.

Lately, I have been thinking what makes it so absolutely perfect gift for someone we love. While doing some internet research about chocolates, I read these interesting facts about chocolate.

Chocolate contains phenylethylamine-the same chemical that is released in our brain when we fall in love which then leads to the increase in the pounding of heart and the sudden gush of excitement, which is also called as the ‘love chemical’. The sweetness from the chocolate also triggers the production of endorphins, which gives the blissful feeling after a wonderful session of love making.

In the fruit world, strawberry with the shape of a real heart and being an aphrodisiac has been considered as the fruit which symbolizes love.

After knowing these, for this valentine’s day I decided to combine the two symbols of love: Chocolates and Strawberries. For an extra flavor, I even added pistachios.

Chocolate Pistachios covered Strawberries make the perfect dessert to end your romantic candle light dinner or just a platter of this on the table would make the whole setting even more elegant. This could be made in just a matter of seconds.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Pistachios Covered Strawberry

Ingredients:

• Fresh strawberries- 1 box

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips – 1 1/2 cups

• Coarsely ground pistachios- 1 cup

Preparation

• Coarsely ground the pistachios and keep aside in a bowl.

Melting chocolate  in a double boiler:

• Fill bottom of a double boiler with water and place on low heat.
• Place the chocolate chips in the top of the double boiler over hot water ( not boiling water) and let the chocolate melt.

• Do not cover the pot.
• Stir constantly until the chocolate melts and is smooth.

• Remove the top of the boiler from the hot water.

If you don’t have double boiler:

• Fill the saucepan half full with water and place on low heat.
• Put the chocolate chips on a glass bowl and place the bowl on the hot water in the saucepan.
• Stir constantly and let the chocolate melt.
• Carefully remove from the glass bowl from the saucepan, it will be hot.

Dipping the strawberries:

• Take one of the strawberries, first dip it in the melted chocolate.

• Then dip it in the pistachios.

• Place the chocolate pistachio covered strawberries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to harden.

• Repeat the same with other strawberries.
• It will take around 20-30 minutes for the chocolate to harden.

Tips:

• If you don’t like pistachios you could avoid this, dip just in the chocolates.
• You could do this with other fruits or nuts like cherries, apples, cashew nuts, walnuts etc

Seeing marshmallows in my pantry, I got creative and made these: