Although our trip to the beach was full of super fun days in the beach and the pool, the seriousness of watching two kids around so much water hit me on the very first day.

The Kiawah beach is very narrow at high tide and very wide at low tide, with several low spots that create pools perfect for wading. The water was only knee-deep on the grown ups and perfectly calm. It looked like the perfect spot to let the kids splash around for a few minutes. The ratio was three adults to three kids, which meant we had six eyes open at all times but it also meant it was easy to get a few steps too far away because you assumed someone else was closer.

We were actually all watching Caroline as she stepped off the sand into the water – and fell right on her face. She didn’t move. She didn’t splash. So didn’t struggle. She just floated, face down, as my friend Erin and I sprinted the three steps across tide pool. Erin reached her half a second before I did and scooped her up, handing her off to me so I could make sure she was breathing – although at that point I wasn’t breathing either. She sputtered and coughed a little, her wide eyes even wider than usual. She clung to me hard, but besides spitting out about a tablespoon of sea water she was totally fine. She wasn’t keen on being put down for a few minutes but an hour later when we went in the pool she was once again completely fearless around the water. I’m glad she hasn’t been scarred for life – but it is a moment I will never forget.

My friend Elliot sent me an article called “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning” a day or so after I told him about Caroline’s accident. I’ve seen it before on Facebook, but until I experienced a child I knew to be in distress holding perfectly still in the water I didn’t understand just how easy it would be to miss the 30 second window you get before someone drowns.

From the article:

To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC).

I knew my 18 month old wasn’t able to swim so when she fell in the water my reaction was yanking her out as fast as humanly possible. But if she’d been further away or I hadn’t been paying attention – even for just a few moments – there would have been zero signs to alert me. It’s extremely scary to think about.

I know this is kind of a downer and not the sort of fun, post-vacation stories people are looking for, but I’d rather you all roll your eyes at me and think “yeah, yeah, we’ve heard this all before” than not ever hear it and experience any kind of tragedy. Stay safe friends!

For Christmas, my uncle always sends me a really generous Williams-Sonoma gift card. It takes me WEEKS to decide what to buy with it, since Williams-Sonoma is pretty much my favorite store on the planet. Sometimes I blow the whole thing on something huge, like my KitchenAid mixer and sometimes I break it up into a bunch of small but useful things, like the year I got a strawberry huller and some treats and some spatulas and the best kitchen tool ever. This past year I split it between a grill tray and an ice cream maker – the Cuisinart Stainless-Steel 2 Quart Ice Cream Maker to be exact (Five stars! Highly recommend!)

And then I let it sit in my basement for 5 months, waiting for ice cream weather. Once the warm weather arrived, I spent hours online looking for the best, most delicious, most complicated ice cream and gelato and frozen yogurt and sorbet recipes. But in the end, it turns out EASY and ON-HAND beats fanciest every time so I’ve perfected a recipe for turning whatever-the-heck you have in your fridge into delicious, refreshing sorbet.

When I say juice, I literally mean any kind of juice. Grape, pineapple, cherry, whatever. You could make carrot sorbet if you wanted to, although that’s not really my cup of tea. TEA is more like my cup of tea, since the Sweet Tea Sorbet I made barely got photographed before I shoved it all into my face.

Here are a few of the kinds I made in the past week:

Newman's Own Orange Mango Tango Juice

Stop & Shop Ruby Red Grapefruit 100% Juice

V8 Fusion Pomegranate Blueberry Juice (hidden veggies!)

Market Pantry (Target) Sweet Tea

Welch's White Grape Peach Mango Juice

Are you ready for the recipe yet? Gentlemen, start your ice cream makers!

Sorbet:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon zest

Put the water and the sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is all dissolved, then simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer syrup to a container and refrigerate until cold*. Zest a lemon – use a vegetable peeler if you don’t have a zester and chop up the zest a little. Then cut the lemon in half and squeeze out all the juice. Add the lemon juice and zest to your syrup. Once everything is cold, pour the syrup/lemon mix and the 1 1/2 cups juice into your ice cream maker**. Following your machine’s instructions, let it churn until it’s frozen (mine takes about 25 minutes). Eat as is – it will be a little soft – or transfer to an airtight container and freeze for a couple hours until it’s more like store-bought sorbet. SO GOOD. Don’t forget to put your ice cream maker bowl back in the freezer to make more tomorrow.

*Look, you just made simple syrup! You can make it in larger batches using the same 1/1 sugar/water ratio and keep it on hand for more sorbet or other delicious things like a blueberry gin gimlet or sparkling lemonade.

**This is SO SUPER EASY with an ice cream maker, but if you don’t have one you can just pour everything into a large flat baking dish. Put it in the freezer and let it freeze, scraping the top occasionally to make it fluffier. The end result will be a little icier than with the ice cream maker but it’s still delicious! If you want a softer finished product (like a Rita’s Water Ice) pulse it in a blender or food processor for a few seconds after it’s frozen. Eat immediately and enjoy!

I’ve practically broken my arm patting myself on the back for this recipe. I love the fact that I can make any possible flavor of sorbet with minimal effort. I love the little bits of lemon zest to even out the sweetness. I love that it’s fat free. And I love that I can bribe my kids to do pretty much anything for a spoonful – and they have no idea it’s practically the same juice they can get any old time.

Suggestions and variations:
If you don’t like lemon, use some other citrus. If you don’t like citrus, leave it out.
If you want a less-sweet sorbet, use 1/2 cup simple syrup and 1/2 cup water.
If you don’t have juice, use pureed fruit and/or squeeze your own.
Top with fresh or frozen berries (duh).
Blend it with tequila or rum for a delicious frozen drink.

p.s. After my super home-made food photography shoot on Saturday, I had three adorable little dishes of sorbet just sitting on my counter melting. Obviously I had to fix that problem immediately.

Get in my belly! The blueberry-white grape was especially delicious together.

I think this post makes it official – I’ve hit the big time as a blogger. I love doing reviews anyway, but “free beer” is pretty much the dream. Although since I don’t like regular beer very much this was even better – Michelob ULTRA Light Cider is a less sweet, lower calorie alternative to traditional ciders. It was the perfect drink to share with friends on a warm evening, straight from the bottle or over ice.

E came home from work a couple weeks ago and said “So the guys decided it’s my turn to host a barbeque this weekend. They’ll be here around 5.” Lucky for him the house was already clean. And thanks to the week of backbreaking work last summer we have an amazing patio space to accommodate his coworkers and their families. I was also excited that I had just picked up a six pack of 12 oz Michelob ULTRA Light Cider, which ended up being a great choice for a casual backyard party.

Even though summer is making it harder, I’m still trying to choose healthy food whenever I can, so I made chicken and veggie kabobs and a light tabbouleh salad to go with the cheeseburgers and nachos. Since Michelob ULTRA Light Cider has only 120 calories per serving I felt good about enjoying one (or two) with dinner.

After trying it, I would absolutely buy this product again. Michelob ULTRA Light Cider was light and crisp and you could definitely tell it is made of fresh-picked apples. I know “cider” makes most people think of fall, but in this case it was more like a fruity white wine. Like I said above, I’m not a huge beer fan so this is a great alternative. The brewing process for cider is similar to that of beer, with the main difference being the ingredients used: cider is made from apples, while barley and hops are generally the main ingredients in beer. Michelob ULTRA Light Cider is made with all-natural ingredients, including apples, and is naturally sweetened with stevia. It’s also naturally gluten-free!

You can get more information on Michelob ULTRA Light Cider on the Sponsor’s site here. It includes a great tool to find it in your area (and here’s a hint: some stores have a separate cider section, so be sure to look there!) You can also check out the Michelob ULTRA Light Cider page on BlogHer.com. Or come on over and I’ll share one with you on the patio.

Sorry, too busy making more ice cream to write a proper intro. Isn’t that what you do at 8 am?

Sunday:

You want me to share my Goldfish? I'm not so sure.

Pie crust helper

Mini-vacation aka Solo grocery shopping

Monday:

One of my favorite old houses on our walk to the library

Concentrating gingers

It's a ghost! Oh, wait, no. It's just a miserable screaming baby I threw a blanket over.

Tuesday:

Crap.

Daaaaaawwwwww

Spice rub for my salmon with mango salsa

Wednesday:

5 am. Thank God for iPhones.

Crouching baby, hidden hobo

I'm melting! I'm meeeeeelting!!!!

Thursday:

The patio furniture display at Target is almost as good as a real playground

Happy it's nap time

Business lady off to do important business

Friday:

Stroller Strides drill instructor - PUSH IT! I WANNA SEE YOU SWEAT!

Feeding the quack quacks

Beluga watching

Saturday:

If you call garage sales "treasure hunting" your pirate loving children will do it for HOURS

So much furniture to refinish, so little time. And motivation.

Big girl bed. Exactly what I wanted to get her (eventually) and $30 at a yard sale. She slept in it last night with zero issues.

Today is warm and sunny and tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny and Tuesday is supposed to be warm and sunny so we’re going to be outside outside outside. I’ve got some recipe posts and some sponsored posts planned for the blog, so apologies if those aren’t your thing, but I promise to fill in the empty days with lots of ginger baby adventures.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!