I love my The Inspired Plate ladies. We've grown close over these last 8 months. We've learned a ton. We've shared a lot, both photographically and artistically, as well as personally. August has brought us to Summer Desserts as our challenge theme.
Confession time. I've had a hard time getting myself motivated for this one. I haven't been able to put my finger on why, but this was one I wasn't super excited to do. Nothing was striking me. I felt overwhelmed at the idea of trying to style a dessert and do it well, compared to all the amazingness that is out in the land of the internet. I didn't feel... well... inspired. If I were coaching my children, I'd be giving a nice stern talking-to about such a defeatist attitude....
Then I remembered my popsicles. My summer supertastic Slushie Popsicles.
In the spring I discovered this awesome Slushie recipe. I grew up on Kool-aid, but we don't drink it here at our house. However, the kids and I have been enjoying the occasional Slushie this summer using the red-Pitcher-man envelopes thanks to that recipe. Well, the generic red-Pitcher-man envelopes. The envelopes are the key. The secret is making a concentrate. Just like fantastic iced coffee needs coffee concentrate... and YoungLife WindyGap Cheerwine Slushies require the concentrated syrup not available to us lowly consumers in order to not be a watered down disaster... a good Slushie needs concentrate to go with all that ice. With this recipe and the envelopes, I can make my own "syrup" so to speak, and I can control the sugar content. Bonus! Water, Ice, sugar and a kool-aid packet, in the blender. What could be easier?
I need to check the price of sugar, and I need to confirm the cost of a Slushie at the local drive in... but, this is WAY cheaper and just as delicious.
A bag of sugar costs ~$4? I need to check that.
A bag of sugar will make 16 batches of slushies. yes, I wrote batches, as in enough for all four of us.
16 envelopes of generic koo-laid cost me ~$2.
So for ~$6 we have SIXTEEN batches of slushies... um, SCORE. About 38 cents a batch. (again, I'll confirm up my numbers next time I hit WallyWorld, but you get my drift). Less than a dime a person! Take that, local drive in with the red straws!
But then one day I got an idea. The Lady loves popsicles, but I hate paying so much for the pre-made ones. I've never been a fan of the homemade rock hard block of ice break your teeth popsicles... What if I used the Slushie as the fluid to go into the popsicle mold? Perhaps if I used Slushie as the base... it would be different and not rock hard.
Yes. yes, indeed. It is perfection!!!
It has worked so well this summer. The texture of the popsicle is just perfect, especially for the kiddos. The flavor is super and intense. I can control the sugar content so it isn't so crazy. Blogging this discovery has been on my list of todo's for... oh, just the entire summer. Suddenly it occurred to me that I could combine my Food Styling Challenge with my desire to spread the cheer of the awesomeness of Slushie Popsicles. Here ya go! However, it seems the odds were stacked against me for this month's post.
I made the popsicles the night before. In all the colors. I started with a packet I had used previously where I'd halved the recipe, so 1 cup of water with the sugar and kool-aid mix, instead of the 2 cups for a full recipe. (Hint: mix the water and sugar mix in the blender first to dissolve the sugar and avoid gritty slushie. Then add the ice.) So, I used 1 cup water and then 2 cups of ice. Everything looked right. I poured into the mold and set up shop for the next color. Yellow (lemonade). Then Blue (Blue Raspberry). Then Orange (Peach mango). Then Red (Fruit Punch).
Then as I was prepping the Green (Lemon-Lime) ones, I realized I'd made a mistake. A mistake I couldn't recover from. I was using the water and ice measurements for a half recipe... but was making a full recipe. So my concentrate just became super jacked up concentrate. I did the correct measurements for the Green ones... and really hoped that my mistake was going to turn out as one of those happy happy accidents. I know that when things are chilled and frozen, the flavor needs to be more intense to combat the cold. I held out hope.
We had gorgeous golden hour sunlight the two nights before the popsicle shoot day. Of course now that time was up, we had lovely overcast skies. That means that not only do I miss that beautiful backlit glow, I get to battle white balance like mad with my camera. Sigh. When it became time to shoot the "styled" popsicles and let the kids eat them, only one of the six popsicles came out clean. Only ONE! I was sooooo frustrated! That's what I get for a new mold (this one), I suppose, and not practicing first. I guess this was kind of like making a new recipe for company. Not a wise move. So I had to shoot what I had. With frustrating lighting. As far as my recipe mistake -- the super duper jacked up concentrated concentrate Slushie popsicles... well, that did turn out well.
I may add a tad bit more water/ice next time I make them, but reducing the water/ice content for the popsicle variety was great for the Popsicle Version. The kids and Dad were quite pleased. They finished up probably one of our last summer Slip 'n Slide evenings by enjoying them... all six of them.
Cliche as it is, by the end, the Lady had turned into a popsicle. She was shivering so hard she kept asking me if I could hear her teeth! Chattering away! I think she thought it was worth it.
Please visit the rest of my The Inspired Plate comrades and see what they created, styled, and photographed for our Summer Dessert theme. I know I cannot wait to see what Jen Olson | San Luis Obispo, Ca Food Photographer has waiting for us! (and keep going to find poor Sabrina! She's in Australia and having to style a summer dessert in the middle of her winter!)
I shot these with my
D90
Sigma 30mm f1.4
&
Nikon 50mm 1.4D
Confession time. I've had a hard time getting myself motivated for this one. I haven't been able to put my finger on why, but this was one I wasn't super excited to do. Nothing was striking me. I felt overwhelmed at the idea of trying to style a dessert and do it well, compared to all the amazingness that is out in the land of the internet. I didn't feel... well... inspired. If I were coaching my children, I'd be giving a nice stern talking-to about such a defeatist attitude....
Then I remembered my popsicles. My summer supertastic Slushie Popsicles.
In the spring I discovered this awesome Slushie recipe. I grew up on Kool-aid, but we don't drink it here at our house. However, the kids and I have been enjoying the occasional Slushie this summer using the red-Pitcher-man envelopes thanks to that recipe. Well, the generic red-Pitcher-man envelopes. The envelopes are the key. The secret is making a concentrate. Just like fantastic iced coffee needs coffee concentrate... and YoungLife WindyGap Cheerwine Slushies require the concentrated syrup not available to us lowly consumers in order to not be a watered down disaster... a good Slushie needs concentrate to go with all that ice. With this recipe and the envelopes, I can make my own "syrup" so to speak, and I can control the sugar content. Bonus! Water, Ice, sugar and a kool-aid packet, in the blender. What could be easier?
I need to check the price of sugar, and I need to confirm the cost of a Slushie at the local drive in... but, this is WAY cheaper and just as delicious.
A bag of sugar costs ~$4? I need to check that.
A bag of sugar will make 16 batches of slushies. yes, I wrote batches, as in enough for all four of us.
16 envelopes of generic koo-laid cost me ~$2.
So for ~$6 we have SIXTEEN batches of slushies... um, SCORE. About 38 cents a batch. (again, I'll confirm up my numbers next time I hit WallyWorld, but you get my drift). Less than a dime a person! Take that, local drive in with the red straws!
But then one day I got an idea. The Lady loves popsicles, but I hate paying so much for the pre-made ones. I've never been a fan of the homemade rock hard block of ice break your teeth popsicles... What if I used the Slushie as the fluid to go into the popsicle mold? Perhaps if I used Slushie as the base... it would be different and not rock hard.
Yes. yes, indeed. It is perfection!!!
It has worked so well this summer. The texture of the popsicle is just perfect, especially for the kiddos. The flavor is super and intense. I can control the sugar content so it isn't so crazy. Blogging this discovery has been on my list of todo's for... oh, just the entire summer. Suddenly it occurred to me that I could combine my Food Styling Challenge with my desire to spread the cheer of the awesomeness of Slushie Popsicles. Here ya go! However, it seems the odds were stacked against me for this month's post.
I made the popsicles the night before. In all the colors. I started with a packet I had used previously where I'd halved the recipe, so 1 cup of water with the sugar and kool-aid mix, instead of the 2 cups for a full recipe. (Hint: mix the water and sugar mix in the blender first to dissolve the sugar and avoid gritty slushie. Then add the ice.) So, I used 1 cup water and then 2 cups of ice. Everything looked right. I poured into the mold and set up shop for the next color. Yellow (lemonade). Then Blue (Blue Raspberry). Then Orange (Peach mango). Then Red (Fruit Punch).
Then as I was prepping the Green (Lemon-Lime) ones, I realized I'd made a mistake. A mistake I couldn't recover from. I was using the water and ice measurements for a half recipe... but was making a full recipe. So my concentrate just became super jacked up concentrate. I did the correct measurements for the Green ones... and really hoped that my mistake was going to turn out as one of those happy happy accidents. I know that when things are chilled and frozen, the flavor needs to be more intense to combat the cold. I held out hope.
We had gorgeous golden hour sunlight the two nights before the popsicle shoot day. Of course now that time was up, we had lovely overcast skies. That means that not only do I miss that beautiful backlit glow, I get to battle white balance like mad with my camera. Sigh. When it became time to shoot the "styled" popsicles and let the kids eat them, only one of the six popsicles came out clean. Only ONE! I was sooooo frustrated! That's what I get for a new mold (this one), I suppose, and not practicing first. I guess this was kind of like making a new recipe for company. Not a wise move. So I had to shoot what I had. With frustrating lighting. As far as my recipe mistake -- the super duper jacked up concentrated concentrate Slushie popsicles... well, that did turn out well.
I may add a tad bit more water/ice next time I make them, but reducing the water/ice content for the popsicle variety was great for the Popsicle Version. The kids and Dad were quite pleased. They finished up probably one of our last summer Slip 'n Slide evenings by enjoying them... all six of them.
Cliche as it is, by the end, the Lady had turned into a popsicle. She was shivering so hard she kept asking me if I could hear her teeth! Chattering away! I think she thought it was worth it.
Please visit the rest of my The Inspired Plate comrades and see what they created, styled, and photographed for our Summer Dessert theme. I know I cannot wait to see what Jen Olson | San Luis Obispo, Ca Food Photographer has waiting for us! (and keep going to find poor Sabrina! She's in Australia and having to style a summer dessert in the middle of her winter!)