Summer is my favorite season. Spending copious amounts of time outdoors, basking in the sun, tending to my outdoor flower and vegetable gardens, and family camping trips. But, as the heat waves sweep across the country, we’ve been looking for ways to keep cool with some refreshing summer treats.
First up, is this delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream. When it comes to summertime desserts or treats, ice cream always makes the top of our list. Over the years, our family has made all kinds of ice cream flavors and tried out numerous recipes, but which kind was next? I was pondering this one day while trimming herbs from my Personal Rise Garden that sits on my kitchen countertop. As I was packaging up the herbs I had trimmed off, there was an abundance of mint. That’s when I decided we were going to try making mint chocolate chip ice cream using our freshly harvested mint!
I immediately put the churning bowl for our ice cream maker into the freezer and started looking for a recipe. I decide on this recipe from Simply Recipes and the next day when our ice cream bowl was frozen, we whipped up our mint chocolate chip ice cream. The custard base of this ice cream gives a smooth velvety ice cream texture in your mouth and a very refreshing minty taste! Both kid and husband approved!
Raspberry Mojito Poptails
Another cool treat that I have been wanting to try out are poptails. And now you’re wondering, what are poptails?! These are an adult version of a popsicle that are spiked with alcohol. After browsing a few recipes online, I decided to come up with my own version based on what I already had at home. As in the previous recipe, I knew I wanted to incorporate mint. I find mint to be such a light and refreshing summer flavor, which would be essential in a poptails version of a raspberry mojito. To cool down during your next cocktail hour, give these poptails a try!
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- 4-6 sprigs of mint
- ¾ cup lime juice
- ½ cup of fresh of frozen raspberries (I had frozen on hand)
- 4 tbsp of light rum
Directions
- Step 1: First make a mint simple syrup by bringing the water, sugar and mint leaves to a boil. Once the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain after steeping.
- Step 2: Add the lime juice and rum to the strained mint simple syrup and then stir.
- Step 3: Pour the mixture evenly into your popsicle molds, making sure not to fill past the ¾ mark.
- Step 4: To each mold, add 1-2 mint leaves and 4-6 raspberries, making sure not to overflow your mold. Insert popsicle sticks and freeze, ideally overnight.
- Step 5: Enjoy!