Blueberry Soda

Folks-

Tonight I fixed my new Crab Rolls and served this Blueberry Soda with it. They went well together, but I expect the soda would be just fine by itself.

You first make a blueberry simple syrup, then mix that with club soda, Tonic Water, or similar in a 1:3 ratio. I recommend 1/3 cup syrup and 1 cup soda water. Ice is good in it.

Here's the recipe for the Blueberry Symple Syrup I got from Berly's Kitchen:

Ingredients:

1 lb fresh or frozen blueberries

1 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and mash fruit immediately with a wooden spoon or potato masher. Allow to cool for 10-20 minutes, and strain through a mesh sieve to get the fruit pulp out. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Note: The blueberry pulp you strain out is wonderful on ice cream.

Pumpkin Juice

Yes, another two recipes in one day.

A couple of years ago, my family visited Universal Studios Florida, and visited the then new Diagon Alley, and older Hogsmeade sections of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Besides the food at The Three Broomsticks, our favorite drink was (no, not Butterbeer, even the kids found that too sweet) Pumpkin Juice. It's served all over the Harry Potter section of the park, and only there. In fact, you can't find the standard Pepsi products there. Everything in those sections of the park reinforce the theme, but are exclusive to those areas. Unlike Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, you can't get many of the foods sold there at places like Honeyduke's, outside the park.
That means you have to make them.
I found a recipe for the cold and refreshing Pumpkin Juice online at the now-inactive but archived foodie site, The Disney Diner. I've made it for several years, but found her recipe unnecessarily complicated, and have streamlined it, removing one ingredient and changing the proportions of one ingredient at the kids request. Here's the version for fixing it by the batch:

Ingredients:
1 can frozen apple juice concentrate
2-1/2 cans of water
1/2 cup of canned pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pour apple juice and water into blender pitcher. Add canned pumpkin, vanilla and cinnamon. Blend on high until well incorporated. Pour into glasses and serve cold.

To make this as a frozen mix for quick fixing it:
1-15oz can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly. Measure out in 1/2 Cup quantities, put into small plastic containers or freezer bags, and freeze them. To make pumpkin juice, in a blender add together pumpkin juice mix, one can of frozen concentrated Apple juice, and 2-1/2 cans of water, and blend until thoroughly combined. Serve cold.

Avocado Milk Shake and Cinnamon Smoked Pork Chops

Folks-
I've got one recipe, and one new grilling trick to relate to you today. Both are the result of looking ingredients up on Wikipedia.
In the first case, I looked up Cinnamon, and discovered an interesting story. According to what I read, the Roman Emperor Nero burned an entire years supply of cinnamon for the city of Rome to mark the death of his first wife. I wondered what that would smell like, thinking it might be sort of incense-like, so I tried burning a stick. I found it didn't smell like incense, but the smell was unique, and I wondered how it would add to grilled meat. Tonight I tried it, grilling pork chops on my gas grill. I soaked an ounce or two of cinnamon sticks in water for an hour and a half, drained the water, and wrapped them in aluminum foil in two bundles. The bundles of cinnamon sticks went directly onto the gas flames in the grill. Everyone in the family liked it at least as much as hickory smoking, with me liking it more for pork. I recommend trying it!
The second experiment I tried on my family (Zhenie went shopping before she had a chance to try it) is also the result of reading Wikipedia. I was looking up Avocados, and discovered that Avocado milkshakes are popular in Brazil. My kids all liked it, until I told them what it was. The flavor is very subtle, but good. Here's the recipe:

Avocado Milkshake
2 Cups Vanilla Ice Cream
1 1/4 Cup Milk
1 Avocado, skinned, pitted, and diced

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.