Vegetables got you down?

Enough roughage already. It's time to get working on the fruit share.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine decided to undertake the pulling of a pork. So we went on a Sunday morning excursion out for a pot. Walking in to sur la table, my friend commented on all the unnecessary stuff you can buy in there that one should never possess.
15 minutes later, we both left the proud owners of a $50 popsicle maker. Each, that is.

To the person who says that a popsicle maker is a superfluous kitchen appliance never to be taken out of a box is obviously lacking a certain joie de vivre (like how Annie is so devoted to karate she refuses to take me out for a sprinkles laden waffle cone). $50 is a small price to pay for such popsicle happiness. So, really I don't even know how this relates to the intro. There is lots of stuff you don't need at Sur la table, but this isn't one of them. The reason I even knew what they were is because a friend of mine in Haiti had one. If you have one in Haiti, it's probably not a luxury item.

I know what you're thinking-- can you put alcohol in them? Sort of, is the answer. Apparently beer and wine work, hard liquor obviously does not, but you can make a sort of mild mixed drink and then make that into a popsicle. And then eat like 12 of them.

But the real question you should be asking is can you put Jell-o pudding in them-- and the answer to that is also sort of. At least, you can't the way I attempted it. And let me tell you, screwing up a popsicle by making a mix that gets stuck in the machine is a devastating blow that will leave you popsicle-less for more than 24 hours. It involves defrosting the machine and then refreezing it. The contraption is a like an ice cream maker, and freezes the popsicles in about 3 minutes. The day I got burned by the pudding pop was a sad one. The mix was too thick and the stick got pushed out of the machine a little and then I was unable to extract the popsicle.

So it was with a good amount of trepidation that I advanced on to the fruit puree version. This is where the CSA finally comes in. First, I made some backup pops in case I screwed something up again, I wouldn't be without. The no-assembly required ones were just lime aid, a boathouse farms chai protein shake, and chicken broth for the dog. Although zico chocolate coconut water seems like it would be good, it wasn't FYI. This also gave me something to eat while I made the other popsicle.

Ok, now the CSA gets involved for real. I pureed up those apricots and put in a leaf of basil (I'm not sure why) with some water and agave, popped that up in the zoku and kept my fingers crossed.

Out emerged this ugly, but relatively tasty pop. I suspect a lot of my fruit will meet this end. My goal is to actually take the whole five minutes to gussy these things up to make them look like they do in the recipe book with fruits and faces and stripes and stuff. Not just orange blobs. But on the other hand you just eat them as they come out of the machine, so what's the point?

Oh, don't stick your tongue to the machine. That's another good thing to know.