Baby Update

I guess its been a while since I have blogged! So.... I think that you have heard by now that we are expecting a little BOY! Blue, green, sports, dirt, bugs, adventures, here we come! Here are some updated baby bump pics...its interesting that the outfit I wear really makes a difference in the baby bump....

 

We had so much fun celebrating with our family and friends at our Gender Reveal party!

Yummy Summer Dessert!

So, one night in Charleston we went to this little classy place where I ordered Lemon Sorbet (I tend to want sour or salty...not too much sweet these days!) And here is what it looked like:

The sorbet was inside a frozen lemon shell! Great presentation, and it tasted amazing. So.... I decided that I could probably replicate the dessert at home. Here is the step by step for how I made my similar dessert--all from scratch!
First, boil 1 cup sugar with 1 1/2 c water to make a simple syrup--then set in fridge for it to cool completely. (If you want a sweeter sorbet, do equal parts of sugar and water, and boil until the mixture runs clear. I like it a little more tart, so I used less sugar!)
Next, slice off the top of a large lemon, and hollow out the lemon--keep all the juice, as this will be needed!

After the lemon is hollowed out (easiest to use a spoon and your fingers! I think that a grapefruit spoon would have helped, but we didn't have one....) place the lemon shell in the freezer to harden.
Next, using a juicer, get as much of the lemon juice out as you can. (I used 4 large lemons, so I could have the shells--this made about 1 cup of juice. I also juiced about 4 small lemons, so I could have 1/2 cup more juice for my sorbet--so you need a total of 1 and 1/2 cups of juice)

You also need about a teaspoon of lemon zest--another reason to have a few small lemons, as you don't want to take off any zest from your shells!
Finally, using my ice cream maker, I added the simple syrup, lemon juice, and lemon zest and let the machine go for about 20 minutes. After it got slushy, I transfered it to a container and placed it in the freezer for about an hour to harden a little more. (Had I let the syrup cooled more, the mixture wouldn't have been so slushy, but I was in a hurry!)

Finally, I scooped the fresh sorbet into the lemon shells, let them set in the freezer during dinner, and then served then for dessert! Yummy!

It took a little bit of work, but the end result was fantastic! I plan to try this with a few other fruits as well :) You use the same basic simple syrup, but you can use any type of fruit juice, throw berries into a food processer, etc. and you can have whatever flavor you want! I do recommend with sweeter fruits that you add about a teaspoon of lemon, to help balance the flavor so that its not too sweet.
Enjoy!