Winstead Wandering

Prone to Wander

Strawberry Lemonade Granita

by

With just three ingredients and no special equipment needed, this strawberry lemonade granita recipe will become your favorite summertime treat.

strawberry lemonade granita3

I used to watch Food Network when I was home sick from school. I loved Ina- weird, I know- I didn’t care for Rachel Ray, and I always enjoyed Giada. My mom was put off by her Bratz doll hair and the amount of cleavage she showed, but I loved the food she cooked. One of the things I remember watching her make several times is frozen granitas.

I don’t recall a single recipe she used, or even the technique really. Mostly, I remember Giada putting the concoction in the freezer and scraping it with a fork a few times over the next several hours until a fluffy, mostly-frozen treat emerged. When I realized recently that I wanted to channel my strawberry obsession into a granita, it brought back memories of watching Giada make them.

I just made this recipe up as I went. It’s based on my homemade strawberry sauce, so I only made a couple tweaks. The end result is a sweet and wonderfully tart icy treat. The berries are the star with their bright flavor, but the lemon is right there, too, offering the ideal amount of pucker. The entire strawberry lemonade granita is light, refreshing, and the perfect way to beat the heat this summer.

With just three ingredients and no special equipment needed, this strawberry lemonade granita recipe will become your favorite summertime treat.

[Read more…]

Strawberry Limeade Cupcakes

by

The perfect balance of tart and sweet, these strawberry limeade cupcakes are a refreshing treat for just about any occasion.

The perfect balance of tart and sweet, these strawberry limeade cupcakes are a refreshing treat for just about any occasion.

I made these cupcakes for a baby shower I attended recently. Actually, it was more like a baby sprinkle, and it was partly mine. We had a small faculty and staff gathering to celebrate the sweet baby girls another teacher and I will be welcoming soon. Because I never turn down an opportunity to bake, I volunteered to make cupcakes.

I knew right away I wanted to make a cupcake with strawberry frosting. I made some last year for B’s birthday and it was to die for. The recipe never made it to the blog, though, so I decided to recreate it. It wasn’t until the last minute I decided to step the whole thing up a level and make strawberry limeade cupcakes.

I did cheat and use a box mix. Sometimes I make cakes from scratch, but when I’m pressed for time, I’ll opt for homemade frosting over homemade cake every day of the week. To me, there’s just no comparison. I went with a regular yellow cake mix, because that’s what I had and because I’m really not a fan of the flavored cake mixes, like key lime or strawberry. I prefer to use a basic mix and add the flavors myself. It makes the final result taste much more fresh and homemade.

As it turns out, the shower wasn’t actually for four more days. So I just brought these beauties to school and left them in the office, where my coworkers were kind of enough to polish them off for me. Can you say pregnancy brain?

The perfect balance of tart and sweet, these strawberry limeade cupcakes are a refreshing treat for just about any occasion.

[Read more…]

glazed strawberry lime scones

by

These glazed strawberry lime scones are so light and fluffy! The strawberries baked inside are sweet and juicy, and the lime glaze is the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

These glazed strawberry lime scones are so light and fluffy! The strawberries baked inside are sweet and juicy, and the lime glaze is the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

 

Some of my best recipes come to be through a desire to use up expiring ingredients. In this case, I bought a pound of strawberries and promptly forgot about them in the fridge. When I remembered them a few days later, they were just past the eat-them-raw stage. They hadn’t quite moved into completely inedible, though, so I knew I could bake them into something to avoid throwing them away.

I had pinned this scone recipe a few weeks earlier and knew it was just the vehicle for these almost-spoiled berries. Scones have a reputation for being the dry, unappealing cousin of biscuits or coffee cake, but I’m here to tell you that’s not true.

My only experience with scones has been the ones my mom makes, and those are moist, light, and full of flavor. The key to producing a fluffy scone- and not a triangle-shaped hockey puck- is to not over mix your dough. Once you add your wet ingredients to your dry, stir everything just until it’s combined.

These glazed strawberry lime scones are packed with pockets of fresh berries and swirled with lime juice. Before going in the oven, they’re sprinkled with coarse sugar for a sweet crunch. Next, they’re baked until golden and light and then drizzled with a tart sugar lime glaze.

These glazed strawberry lime scones are so light and fluffy! The strawberries baked inside are sweet and juicy, and the lime glaze is the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

[Read more…]

how to make copycat sonic strawberry limeade

by

A simple strawberry sauce and store bought soda are all you need to make a copycat sonic strawberry limeade.

A simple strawberry sauce and store bought soda are all you need to make a copycat sonic strawberry limeade.

Sonic was a pretty big deal when I was in college. Happy hour always fell right as most of my friends and I were arriving back in our dorm after classes and work, and the half-price drinks beckoned to us.

I’ve tried my share of smoothies and slushes, but the strawberry limeade will always be my first love. Fruity, refreshing, with just the right amount of zesty zing.

A simple strawberry sauce and store bought soda are all you need to make a copycat sonic strawberry limeade.

I consider it fate that, just the other week at the grocery store, as I was buying strawberries to make my favorite strawberry sauce, I found a bottle of store brand limeade on an end-cap.

The rest is history.

[Read more…]