S is for Super Easy Smoothie

This is why I pick and freeze berries – and other fruit – in the summer when they are at peak flavor. And for cobbler and clafoutis too.Yeah… I suppose nobody needs a recipe for smoothie? Indulge me a little. It’s a locavore post after all, one that’ll provide plenty of vitamins and taste (and a lovely color in the glass) to help you start the new year on good footing. Forget the Bloody Mary for New Year’s brunch, ring in the Smoothie. You will have sipped homemade peach liqueur the night before anyway… your liver needs a little rest from all that rich food. Hence the Super easy Smoothie.

Super Easy Smoothie

Yield: 2 servings

Step 1:

– Root through the fruit bags in the freezer. What will it be: melon? Strawberries? Blackberries? Wineberries? Peaches? Cherries? Nah, let’s keep the cherries for clafoutis and the peaches for cobbler. Ok, melon & wineberries, this time. You can mix and match to your taste – I often choose one type of berries only – but don’t mix two many fruit though, or the flavor becomes muddled.

– Pick your dairy: buttermilk (here from Trickling Spring Creamery – available locally at Roy’s in Sperryville, IGA in Marshall, Food for Thought in Culpeper and elsewhere I am sure); plain yogurt also works as well as kefir. Milk yield too thin a drink for my taste.

– Choose your sweetener if you want. I use honey (here raw honey from Golden Angels Apiary, available locally through WaterPenny Farm in Sperryville, VA, and if I recall correctly Calhoun Hams in Culpeper) or sometimes maple syrup. It just depends what taste I want – maple syrup being more assertive. Just a splash (1 Tablespoon or so) is sufficient, you can do without sweetener altogether. Both honey and maple syrup are easily available from local producers; in other areas of the country, agave syrup, sugar cane syrup etc will do.

Step 2: to your standing blender, add frozen fruit to roughly the 2 cup mark.

Step 3: Add buttermilk to the 2 cup mark; add the honey

Step 4: whirl using the ice-crushing setting, about 30 seconds, until the mixture is smooth.

Step 5: pour. Drink.

Endless variations. Minutes to make. What else do you want?

Cheers! To a beautiful healthy happy and peaceful 2009!

Note for the Locavore log.  From the garden: berries, melon & peaches from the garden. Immediately local: honey. Regionally local:  maple syrup & buttermilk.