Growing up as my Mumma's little girl , I have been drooling and gulping on all kinds of  fruit juices , I like .. Orange and Musambi Juice was mean't to be had at the Juice Centre.. Off course who doesn't love the Sugar cane juice.. A visit to Malad station or weekly vegetable shopping is incomplete without Sugarcane Juice and some chat from our regular chat vendor.


In the month of summer , Amma /Appa would bring baskets of  Alphonso Mangoes and let them ripen under stacks of straw .. As Kids, impatiently we would move the fodder every now and then to check if its all done .. The moment Amma would ask one of us , my brother and myself would have a rush run to grab one ...carefully feeling if its slightly soft and the lively Yellow Color. Aaah and by chance if we spot any dark spotted on them , it would worry us .. and we would carry it to Amma.. But that would call for extra treat.. More slices , more Mango Juice or Mango Milkshake . Sometimes with dollops of White Vanilla Ice cream.. .. Slurp...
Then some Banana Milkshake .. ( I totally hate them ... ) Really cannot stand that fruit in anything...( but I do love the sweet Banana's roasted in jaggery) , Chickoo Milkshake.. , Watermelon Juice, Pineapple Juice and many more...


Remembered a period from my schooling, when I was moving up to Standard 10 , all gearing up for my big year, Amma and my brother had to travel to Bangalore... I was home with Appa for about 10 days.. The first time ever... But believe me . .we had such a fun tastic diet those 10 days.. I still cherish. As I vaguely remember ...


Wake up to Appa's extra dosed Sugar Coffee , Butter laddened Toasted Bread..  After returning from summer classes, I would have a course of Nei Rice and some Curd rice. Then again some Mango Milkshake treats with tons of ice cream during the day and night may be...  It was an awesome time... Every day would be a different treat... Thank you Appa..

Because when Amma would return , she would sort our meals with a right sort of balance of everything...  But now I  can totally relate to it...
As a mother of Two , I am always upfront saying " No "and "We have had enough this week and sooo forth..." whereas H doesn't leave a stance to pamper them wherever required.. It doesn't really mean, we don't enjoy the kiddo things any more or enough treats... Guess that's a Mommy's affair !!!



Anyways.. The weather has been gorgeous since yesterday and I have been wanting something exotic...with this weather... A box of Peach has been beautifully gracing my dining room and staring at me , every time I have a little sit for dinner.. So this morning , I decided to use them all up.. First I thought I would gobble them ..The sweet nectarine aroma... was just moving me to pick them up .. Then it occured to me to try a beverage.....
Googling , Pintrest -ing and Blog Hopping, I came across this wonderful recipe for Peach Lemonade .I have tailored and reduced my the proportions , just enough for Two People. Its hawt looking , perfect for warm sunny weather.. and tastes droolistic..
Wohooo !! This definitely calls for a little noise.. I managed to do 4 beverages in a row .. And something a fresh ..

FRESH PEACH LEMONADE Serves 3-4 | Time Taken 30 Minutes INGREDIENTS: 2 Cups of Fresh Peaches – I have used 6 in number ¾ Cup of Sugar Lemon Juice ( Juice of 1- 1.5 Lemon) 3 Cups of Water Garnish with Mint leaves, lemon slices Ice Cubes ** 1 Cup = 250ml DIRECTIONS:  ·  Dice the peaches and add them in a saucepan along with sugar and about 1 cup of water. Cook over simmering heat until the sugar dissolves. The peaches should be getting soft by then. Using a fork or a back of a spatula or a potato masher, mash the peaches. Allow the mixture to slightly thicken. Remove from heat and cool it down. Strain the peach pulp/syrup to have a smooth mixture. ·  Add the lemon juice to the peach mixture and taste. Adjust the flavours accordingly. ·  Pour the peach lemon mixture in a  jar or a picture and add the remaining 2 cups of cold water. ·  To serve, fill the glass with some ice cubes, lemon slices .Pour in the Peach lemonade and garnish with some mint sprigs. NOTES: If you add a lot water to the peaches while cooking, you will end up having slightly watery mixture.. But the taste is still good.. In that case, adjust the water that you are going to add later accordingly. You may keep the peach syrup and cold water separately and mix them while serving , just as you enjoy – strong or mild.

Recipe adapted from here.

Easy Zingy Fruity Mocktail recipe in under 15 Minutes
For some reason, I still feel we are in mid September. The weather has been fabulous last week, infact it felt so much like Indian summer . All that the weather demanded was some cool breezy clothing and a glass of cocktail / mocktail and laze in the garden. Play with the kiddos , paint some prop boards and just enjoy the last lag of bonus weather.  But nothing of that sort happened !!


Instead we decided to utilise the gorgeous weather and stepped out to Bicester Village, the designer outlet. We enjoyed the drive with some classic music and the non stop chitter chatter in the backseats from the kiddos. When they actually snooze, it feels like everything has come to a stand still :)


I am pretty sure, this weather will not last long on the cards. It does feel chilly in the mornings and late evenings. The leaves on the trees are changing colors , some of them have began to fall .  Hello October !! Its Pinktober !



Since we did not get anytime to stay indoors over the weekend , the mocktail plan got pushed to the weekday  i.e Today !!! Though the weather sucked, raining non stop .. this pomegranate mojito was the best thing I could say happened today in this weather.



Making this drink is pretty easy, if you have all the ingredients ready and stacked up. Since I was sure to make this breezy fruity zingy drink around the weekend, I made my limeade concentrate ahead in time. It is simple, just incase you decide to make it at home. For recipe - click here. To 1/4 th cup of the concentrate, I added 3/4 cup of water to make my Limeade. Also got some help from the kiddos to make some fruit ice cubes..
Without much a do , lets head straight to this colourful zingy sparkling mojito.  

Proportions for them is just how you would like them to be.. None of the measurements need to be 100 % perfect. If you enjoy your drink a lil more zingy , add more limeade . If you like it sweeter, add some more sweetener like honey or sugar to your limeade . I leave you here, to make this drink to your imagination.

Very rarely I would draft a post the day I click pictures.. With a never ending list of pending tasks in my daily schedule, I would take 3 days to complete a post usually.
Since this post didn't not demand an elaborate affair, I decided to jump the queue of posts and get this up straight away. No banters , straight to the point.



 I am planning to work on a set of mocktail recipes over the weekend so as a matter a fact I wanted some fruit ice cubes to jazz up the look and feel of the drink. I picked up 2 ice trays of different shapes and one mini muffin mould.  Preparing these ice cubes can be done with the kiddos of any age. Bet they will enjoy. My toddler, aged 3 and the so called big boy had fun doing them . It is as simple as it looks !





DIRECTIONS:

2 Ice Trays of shapes of your choice
1 Mini Muffin Mould for larger fruits
Fruits Used - Pomegranate , Strawberry and some Lemon.
Enough water to fill into the mould

In each of the Ice tray space, pop in fruits of your choice in small portions and fill water to the brim. Place it carefully into the freezer and wait for them to set. Fruit Ice cubes are ready .
If you want to make strawberry ice cubes - slice the strawberry into two halves. Slice the lemon into thin pieces and place them in the muffin mould. Fill water upto half the mould , else the Fruit ice would be oversized.
They can be added to your pitcher, glass of water, cocktails or mocktails.