Brazilian Lemonade

I've already mentioned my love for Tucanos, a Brazilian restaurant. Not only do I love their meats, but their Brazilian Lemonade is a must try. I usually don't buy beverages at buffets, but this stuff is sooo good. I was thrilled when I found the recipe over at Our Best Bites. It is simple, requires few ingredients, and tastes fabulous!

 4 limes (limes with thin, smooth skins are the best/juiciest/least bitter)
1 c. sugar
6 c. cold water
6 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk
Mix cold water and sugar very well and chill until ready to use. This step can be done ahead of time.
Wash limes thoroughly with soap. Cut the ends off the limes and then cut each lime into 8ths.
Place 1/2 of the limes in your blender. Add 1/2 of the sugar water, place the lid on your blender, and pulse 5 times.  Place a fine-mesh strainer over a pitcher (the one you’ll serve the lemonade in) and pour the blended mixture through the strainer and into the pitcher. Use a spoon to press the rest of the liquid into the pitcher.  Throw out the pulp left the strainer. Repeat with remaining limes and sugar water. Add sweetened condensed milk. Do a little taste test. If it’s bitter, just add some more sugar and maybe a little more sweetened condensed milk.
Serve immediately over lots of ice. Enjoy! 

Orange Julius

It's spring break. It's getting warmer. My thoughts are turning to summer (45 days!!!). My mom used to always make awesome smoothies with fresh fruit in the summers. She has a Vitamix so she'd put whole fruits in there and everything just came out awesome. I have a very basic blender, but I've been trying out different smoothies. First up: the classic Orange Julius. Watch for Brazilian Lemonade in the next few days.

This recipe is even kid-approved :-) I can't say that about most of my recipes because I don't have kids yet. But this morning we had a little visitor (our primary student) who wanted to hang out. We played Wii and had some fun little snacks, including this Orange Julius. 




  6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/4 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8-9 ice cubes

**You can also just use 1/2 cup powdered sugar instead of some of both. 1. Combine all ingredients except ice cubes in blender.
2. Blend for about 1-2 minutes, adding ice cubes one at a time.  ** I pretty much always follow this recipe, but this last time I accidentally dumped in too much vanilla. To compensate I poured in a little extra orange juice concentrate and some leftover whipping cream. So smooth and creamy :-)