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Nights In with Rhubarb Soda Floats

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Once I was in middle school, my parents thought I was old and mature enough to babysit.  My mom signed me up for a Red Cross course and I was so excited.

I am the oldest, so I have always been a bit of a “mom” myself.  I have also always been a little motivated by a paycheck (… no shame in my early #girlboss game) and, thanks to The Babysitter’s Club book series, I knew this had potential.

I passed the course with flying colors and started drumming up business with the moms of my younger brother’s friends.  However, if I found myself without business, my mom and dad happily found an excuse to go out.  

I know that they didn’t mind.  And, honestly, I didn’t either.

Despite our seven year age spread, I got along really well with my siblings (still do!), so it didn’t seem like “work.”

We built up a bit of a tradition on those nights when I was in charge: dinner was always frozen DiGiorno pizza, a luxury as a kid in a home where healthy (See also: weird) food was served on the regular, and some kind of float for dessert.

My parents entertained often, so soda was always in the house. But, my mom was also a bargain hunter and you just never knew what kind of soda you would find.  

We didn’t care and would venture far from traditional root beer with our creations.

Some nights it was vanilla ice cream in Orange Crush. Or, Mountain Dew.  Chocolate ice cream in Diet Coke was surprisingly good… and produced lots of foam. (Fun when entertaining your six year old brother.)  Sherbet in seltzer became my favorite and I have been know to recreate this as an adult.

We were weird.

But, we had fun.

And, to this day, I cannot see a root beer float on a menu and not think of my many nights in with Kerry and Danny.

The other weekend, Kerry and I had a night out in Chicago.  We met for drinks at 25 Degrees, a burger bar with a little glitz to it.

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On the menu were boozy shakes and soda floats. 

We both laughed trying to imagine ordering one, but opted for rose instead.

While looking at the blush color of my glass, I remembered the rhubarb we still have growing at our old home. Before we built our current home, Adam and I lived in the pre-Civil War farmhouse that he grew up in. Adam had planted the rhubarb bushes years ago when his parents still lived in the house.

Rhubarb is an annual and you can have over twenty years of production when it’s well maintained and not completely harvested.

Rhubarb is similar to asparagus as it grows from crowns that can be planted in early spring or late fall. It also needs about three years to truly get established. Then, the harvest period can last from eight to ten weeks throughout the spring and early summer.

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Early spring rhubarb is tender and is great to add in pies and crisps, one of Adam’s favorite desserts.

But, I decided to have a little fun with it, think out of the box and make one of my favorite desserts.

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These rhubarb floats sound just as weird as the floats my siblings and I concocted the nights I babysat, but- surprisingly- they are amazing. There is a freshness in the soda thanks to the tart rhubarb balanced with the sweet sugar and bright orange.

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When simmering these flavors together my kitchen filled with it’s warm scent that was reminincent to Christmas.

The simple syrup would also make a good cocktail, mixed with white rum or vodka.

But, with a couple big scoops of vanilla ice cream, it’s the perfect sweet and flirty-pink treat for a spring day… or night in.

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Rhubarb Soda Floats
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Ingredients
  1. 1 cup sugar
  2. 1 cup water
  3. 1 pound rhubarb, thinly sliced
  4. 1 orange peeled in strips
  5. Seltzer
  6. Vanilla Ice Cream
Instructions
  1. Combine sugar, water, rhubarb and orange peel in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes.
  2. Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and drain the syrup into the bowl. Press to get as much liquid as possible.
  3. Pour syrup in a glass jar and place in the refrigerator to chill until ready for use.
  4. To make float, use a tall glass and pour in 1 1/2 cups of seltzer and 6 tablespoons of syrup. Add two scoops of vanilla ice cream and pour a little more syrup over top.
  5. Enjoy right away!
Adapted from The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook
Adapted from The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook
Bloom. https://www.theblogbloom.com/

Freezing Leftovers

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Leftovers get a bad rep.

Unfortunately for me, so do girls in their twenties who can vegetables.

And, just because I like my garden, putting food not flowers in Ball jars, and cooking more than going out to eat doesn’t mean that I am not like other twenty-somethings.

It doesn’t mean that I don’t like cocktails downtown with my girlfriends. Or Taylor Swift. Or Instagram. Or fun sparkly shoes.

But, because of my few “old-er lady” tendencies, I have made a conscientious effort to avoid things that might further drive this case home.

Potential Tweets about loving my vacuum and being really excited about my organized spice cabinet have been censored. I try not to let it be too well know that I belong to the library and use it… often. And blog posts with topics like freezer meals have been avoided… until now.

Freezer Meals have a reputation for being a busy mom’s BFF. Carting kids from one activity to another is apparently easier when dinner is already made at home in the freezer and just needs to be heated up.

I am not carting kids around yet, but I do have evenings where meetings go late and I still need to hit the gym. I have days where I have traveled for hours home from a university and have no plan for dinner. And, in the winter, there are plenty of evenings where the last thing I want to do is leave the house to deal with the grocery store.

Story of my life, I am here to break down the reputation: Freezer meals can be anyone’s BFF.

Soups are one of my favorite things to freeze. They defrost well and I also love how well soup stores in the freezer. I typically put the finished soup in a gallon freezer baggie and freeze it solid, flat on it’s side… so that I can save space and stack up even more meals.

Four days past Thursday, I am getting to the point where I am kind of over turkey. So, I decided to make this hearty turkey and rice soup with our left over Thanksgiving turkey so that I can enjoy it some other time when I am not on tryptophan overload.

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It will be perfect for a cold January day. Maybe there will be snow on the roads and I won’t be able to go anywhere. Then, I can be thankful for this turkey twice.

And my new BFF.

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Turkey and Rice Soup
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Ingredients
  1. 1 tablespoon olive oil
  2. 1/2 cup diced onion
  3. 1 cup sliced carrot
  4. 8 tablespoons flour
  5. 6 tablespoons butter
  6. 2 cups milk
  7. 5 cups turkey broth
  8. 3 cups diced cooked turkey meat
  9. 1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice
  10. 1 tablespoon dried herbs like oregano, thyme or sage
  11. Salt and Pepper
Instructions
  1. Add oil and a little broth to a skillet with onions and carrots. Saute over medium high heat until nearly tender, but carrots retain a bit of their bite.
  2. Using a large stock pot, melt butter with medium high heat.
  3. Add flour to melted butter and whisk until combined.
  4. Keep whisking and add a quarter of the broth until mixture thickens.
  5. Still whisking, add remaining broth and milk and bring liquid mixture to a boil.
  6. Remove from heat when mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon.
  7. Add carrots, onions, diced turkey, and rice to liquid mixture.
  8. Stir, adding seasonings like salt, pepper, and herbs.
To reheat
  1. Let thaw in refrigerator over night and then heat in the microwave or on the stove.
  2. OR,
  3. Cook frozen in a large saucepan adding a 1/4 cup water so not to burn over medium heat until warmed through and bubbling.
Bloom. https://www.theblogbloom.com/