April 1^st was indeed Fools’ Day! From repeated failures in the supply of power, our refrigerator broke. Dad came to help and we tried to solve things. The solution was to take the food to our terrace (it also snowed the following day).

It was tougher with the frozen berries. We stored what we could in my father’s freezer until the new refrigerator was delivered. What to do with the remaining berries? ’Syrup!’ was Marcel’s idea.

Syrup we made, our version of it! Juice the berries. Let the juice boil with the sugar on low heat for half an hour. When it cools, transfer it to bottles. You will get 10% less liquid in terms of amount.

It is a wonderful daily treat, either with still or bubbly water!

P.S. We used—

3.5 kg raspberries

3.5 kg sugar

&

1 kg blackberries

1 kg sugar

175g rhubarb

130ml water

75g sugar

orange zest

a drop of vanilla extract

As I am crazy about rhubarb, I couldn’t fail to use it in my recipes this year.

Clean about 3 rhubarb stalks and cut them into small pieces; then, boil them in the water mixed with the sugar and the orange zest (must be organic!), on medium heat.

When the rhubarb starts disintegrating, remove the mix from the heat and add the vanilla extract.

The rhubarb sauce keeps well in the fridge and can be served with other desserts, like this homemade vanilla pudding.

...and I’m craving it now! J

For 500ml

200g almonds (soaked and peeled)

400ml water

I discovered some delightful Romanian almonds last week. Given our lactose intolerance, we decided to try and make our almond milk. We’ve tried that before, in 2015, upon returning from Sicily, but it turned out even tastier now.

We soaked the almonds and left them overnight in the fridge. We noted that they doubled their size. And then we peeled them.

In our version, A, we added the water and the almonds to the juicer and squeezed them. We also obtained some almond meal, which we dehydrated/dried in the oven.

If you don’t have a juicer, but you have a powerful blender, so version B, blend the water and the almonds and sieve the milk when you’re done.

I like it without added sugar – this way, I can feel the taste of the almonds.

The almond milk is in the fridge now. I bet it’s going to be perfect at breakfast, too, reminding us of a lazy morning in Noto.