Coconut Lime Sorta-Sorbet

With the hot weather continuing, my ice-cream maker is getting quite the work out and is certainly earning it's keep.  This recipe is the latest trial -- and will certainly be repeated.  It is dairy free, but seems too creamy and rich to lump into the 'sorbet' category.  Using coconut milk as the liquid (instead of water or a dairy product) makes this a refreshing and creamy dairy-free treat.  The lime and rum bump up the flavor, adding a fragrant, citrus-y edge without being booze-y.  This recipe also keeps well in the freezer: it does not become too hard or icy.

Guest Post: A Dark and Stormier Dinner Party

I'm Racheal, guest posting for my older sister, Eron. I live in Pittsburgh, teach public speaking while working on my doctoral degree in rhetoric, and only cook on occasion.

Eron has an amazing talent for integrating cooking into her everyday life. She cooks with a sense of ease and grace, as though it's no big thing.

But nothing could be further from the truth for her. Preparing meals is, in some ways, the biggest thing. Food is the sustenance of our physical bodies, but it is also sustains the community created in the act of breaking bread together, traditions and cultures, and our planet. Eron’s kitchen is a hopeful one, at least in part, because she has faith in the practice of preparing food: I can make a meal that means something for myself, and for others. Cooking is significant, an act of love and responsibility.

As inspiring as I find this, I can’t say I manage to integrate this sense into my own daily life. I’m pleased when I cook anything from scratch. I made myself a BLT the other day and told people about it. I was that proud. So when Eron asked me to be a guest blogger, I happily agreed, and then spent the next week obsessing over what I was going to cook. And of course, if I’m going to cook, we may as well have people over to share it. My boyfriend invited two of his friends over, and I started making a menu.

Oatmeal makes you happy.

When I would call my mother during college upset about...well, anything... she would always, without fail, recommend I go eat a bowl of oatmeal.  She had read about how oatmeal's natural, healthful properties improve mood.  I gave it a try.  And I believe it.  As a whole grain, complex carbohydrate with a low glycemic index, it increases energy without leaving you with an energy crash afterward.  There are also all the other things oatmeal is touted for:  reducing cholesterol and the chance of heart disease, fighting off cancer with a whole lot of  phytochemicals, packing in all that valuable soluble and insoluble fiber.  What's not to be happy about?

What other great things can we say about oatmeal?  How about that it's easy to turn it into delicious GRANOLA?  Yay!