Blackcurrant Ice Lollies

I made my annual migration to the studio for the summer. Just 11 steps outside the kitchen door, but it feels further than that. Its a little oasis of calm and quiet in a house full to bursting with animals and humans and noise and "What is there to eat?" and "He/she took my headphones/shorts/the last ice lolly" and all the rest that makes up summer holidays. It doesn't buy me a lot of time to work, but enough that on a blustery day like today, the family will think twice about coming out to find me.

Two weeks in to the school holidays though and I feel like we are hitting some sort of rhythm. I work in the morning when the teenagers are still asleep and then after lunch we start the marathon that is feeding every one. To be fair as long as we have some basics about - bread, peanut butter, eggs - they can mostly sort themselves out.

I have been trying to keep our snacking in check over the summer. It is so easy for there always to be "nothing to eat" which I have learned doesn't mean there is actually nothing, more that they are looking for junk food and not what we may have. We make a lot of ice lollies/popsicles this time of year. I bought a good mould and it means that we can have a steady supply of sweet treats that are really just frozen juice/chocolate milk/cordial/smoothie. The only issue is that the freezer is actually in the studio, so I do get "visits" a bit more frequent on popsicle days.

This recipe is going to feature in Issue 04 of the quarterly. If you haven't preordered, you can do so here.