Berry Quik Drink, or, Chocolate Strawberry Milkshake

Getting sick during the summer is the worst, but it's somehow compounded when you have guests coming or a vacation planned... so the fact that Judson and I are passing a sore throat back and forth now is pretty yucky, but at least we have no company and no vacation plans anytime soon.

Judson came down with this illness first, and so I've been brainstorming cold things to make to soothe his aching throat, which is great because now I know all the recipes to send his way now that I'm sick. Just kidding!

Anyway, if you're sick, this is the perfect way to dose up on Vitamin C and soothe your throat with a nice cold snack. If you're not sick but you are hot, this is a great shake to sip while you dip your toes in the pool and soak up the sun. (Plus, if you're anything like me, being out in the sun makes me never want to eat again, so a cold, fruit-filled drink is just the ticket to make sure you keep your energy up for swimming.)

Variations on this not featured in the box but still delicious:

• Make as per below, then pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

• Add a shot of rum to the strawberries before blending.

• Throw in whatever other fruit you have around-- cherries or bananas (or both!) would be amazing here! Like a banana split in a sippable drink!

Also, in case you, like us, do not have a blender but only a food processor, and you would like to make whipped cream to go on top of this, know that you can make whipped cream in a food processor, but it happens really fast so be careful or you'll just end up with butter. And so ends my useful lesson for the week.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. Judson was asking for another one before he had even finished his, and with only three ingredients there's really not a reason not to make these every day until the grocery store stops selling strawberries. Plus, these are the most adorable shade of pink, and if you have a cute straw to go in them, it would ABSOLUTELY brighten your day by at least 19%.

the recipe:

Strawberry Chocolate Milkshake

the directions:

Blend strawberries and milk until almost smooth in a food processor or blender.
Add chocolate syrup and stir or pulse to combine.
Pour into tall glasses and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Yields 3 large servings.

the ingredients:

10 oz strawberries, hulled and partially frozen
1 ½ c milk
4 tbsp chocolate syrup
Sprinkle of nutmeg

Chocolate Soda

Remember last week when I made chocolate banana milkshakes and tried to claim that Eleanor must have saved the recipe (which was included in a Quik advert) so that she could make the shakes with her grandchildren? Yeah, I was wrong.

Upon further inspection, I realised that the second recipe included in the pamphlet is, in fact, basically an egg cream.* ('Ah, an egg cream!' says everyone over the age of 50. 'what the hell is an egg cream?' says everyone else).

An egg cream, as I learned the only time I ever visited Queens, is a drink containing neither eggs nor cream and sold mainly at soda fountains, mainly in Brooklyn, mainly in the mid-twentieth century. When I was in New York a few years ago, I met up with a friend in Queens and he took me to an adorable coffee-shop-cum-soda-fountain, and I knew I had to get an egg cream because it was the only drink on the menu I hadn't heard of. Honestly, it was a little disappointing. Kind of water-y and strange (because you never expect milk to be fizzy), and somehow not super flavourful. I didn't blame the restaurant: I just figured egg creams weren't for me.

But then I remembered that they involved milk and soda water, and I thought I'd better look them up again before I made any big-time declarations about how Quik had invented this weird drink. Sure enough, this recipe is just an egg cream with a scoop of ice cream, and now I'm pretty sure Eleanor actually saved that silly Quik advert so she could make herself an egg cream anytime she wanted it (she was, after all, a Brooklyn native who lived there throughout the heyday of the egg cream in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s).

Now, before you're turned off because the phrase 'egg cream' sounds like a thick, custardy drink, know this: the great thing about egg creams is that they're really light-- perfect for summer. I daresay you could even drink one of these on the beach without worrying about going into an ice cream coma.

As for the recipe: If you happen to be the one person in one thousand who owns a set of parfait glasses, now is definitely the time to use them. Pop one of those suckers in the freezer, find yourself a pretty straw, and go to town. Allegedly, when egg creams were invented, you could get a chocolate or a vanilla one-- but I have no idea what the vanilla one had in it to make it vanilla. Just the ice cream, maybe? Or some kind of vanilla syrup reduction (yes, please!), but either way I think this is a question that demands more research... if only I could find a bottle of Quik.

*Here's a fun egg cream fact: when I looked them up to find out the recipe, I learned that no one actually knows why they are called egg creams (seeing as how they contain neither of those ingredients). Explanations vary from 'maybe they used to be made with all those ingredients?' to 'maybe they were (inexplicably) named in French as chocolat et crème, and Americans misheard it?' I'm unsatisfied by both of those explanations, but I do like the idea that even back in the 1800s, naming something in French immediately made it more desirable.

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. This is a surprisingly refreshing take on the milkshake-- one that doesn't require me to get out my food processor, UK power converter, and all the accoutrements that go along with it. Plus, it's less filling and won't leave you feeling like a beached whale after you drink one. Make one tonight and then phone up your favourite honey for a date to the sock hop-- you're practically re-inventing the 1950s after all.

The recipe:

Chocolate Soda

the directions:

In tall glass, combine milk and chocolate syrup, stirring briskly until blended.
Add club soda, pouring gently.
Top with a scoop of ice cream and enjoy!

Yields 1 generous soda.

The ingredients:

¾ c milk (I recommend semi-skimmed/2%)
3 tbsp chocolate syrup or more to taste
½ c club soda
1 scoop ice cream

Choco-Nana Shakes

Growing up, my parents had a terrible blender from the 1970s that was olive green and had buttons specific to whatever you wanted to blend. Labels like 'drinks,' or 'soup' or whatever, but the speeds never seemed to vary and I never understood what you were meant to do if the thing you wanted to blend (an iphone, maybe?) wasn't on the list. Nevertheless, we wore that thing out making virgin pina coladas in the summer (still my favourite family recipe) and banana milks in the winter.

What's a banana milk, you ask? Well, I'll do my best to describe it to you, but I'll have to warn you that the inventor passed away years ago and never wrote down the recipe, so it's a bit of trial and error. A banana milk is basically very cold milk, a couple of speckly bananas (preferably frozen), a wee sprinkle of sugar, a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg, and... maybe nothing else? It's sort of like a smoothie crossed with a milkshake, but without any ice cream and, I'm pretty sure, without any ice. You can't dress up a banana milk, because it's the absolute epitome of perfection as it is. Banana milks are the single thing that converted me to (tentatively) liking bananas when I was very young. I used to beg my parents to make me a banana milk-- we even had glasses (horrible, ridged olive green things) that were especially perfect for drinking them, in the same way that flutes are perfect for champagne and old-fashioned glasses best for old-fashioneds.

Despite my partiality to banana milks, I've never been able to stomach the idea of banana shakes from a restaurant-- I always figure they'll arrive at the table dyed an unnatural yellow, flavoured unnaturally with candy-like sticky goo, and not nearly as good as the creamy simplicity of a banana milk.* But when I found this recipe in the box, on a Quik ad no less, I got excited. It might not be as authentic of a Hurm snack as a banana milk, but there's not a lot in the world that I wouldn't try with the addition of chocolate, and the banana shake I'm about to share with you is definitely a win.

I can imagine Eleanor saving this ad from the newspaper to make these shakes for her grandchildren-- me or my older cousins-- all of us beneficiaries of her enormous sweet tooth and willingness to share. I, especially, was extremely sensitive to ads with talking cartoon characters as a child and adored the Quik ads with that dumb brown bunny, so I know I would have loved these as a kid. However, you need not be a child to make this for yourself tonight. Indeed, you might even enjoy it more as an adult, because now it's legal for you to stir a wee shot of Bailey's into your shake and that is pretty much the only thing that I can think of that would make this entire thing better.

These shakes are simple and easy-- the perfect summer dessert on a hot night. The combo of banana and chocolate is the perfect summer pairing that will make you feel like you're on a tropical island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Make them and sit on your porch to sip them while you watch a thunderstorm roll in, and know that I'm jealous from way over here in Scotland, where thunder is a once-a-year occurrence at best.

*Incidentally, this relates directly to the best travel tip I have ever received, and I will share that with you now: if you're ever travelling in Italy and trying to determine at a glance whether a gelato shop is worth it's salt or not, check the banana gelato. If it's creamy and yellow, you know they dye their gelato and probably don't make it on-site. If it's grey and grainy looking, they likely make it on-site with fresh bananas, and their gelato is much better for it.

The verdict:

3 spoons out of five as the recipe was written, but with the changes I note below, this is easily a 4-spoon recipe... especially if you have fancy straws to sip this out of.

The recipe:

Banana Chocolate Milkshake

the directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender (or food processor, if you're like us) and puree until smooth.
Serve in a frozen glass with a twirly straw for extra enjoyment.

Yields 2 good-size shakes

the ingredients:

2 c milk (you'll like the taste better if you use something above skim, but I did skim and they were still delicious)
2 medium bananas, frozen
4 tbsp chocolate syrup (if you also have to use 'dessert syrup' like me, you might want to add another spoonful)