Strawberry, Guava, Campari Ice Pop-tails

If, like me, you discover yourself at that point of the summer when deadlines are heaping upon you at a mad rate because it's almost the end of summer and everything that you planned to get done (which was too much and too ambitious to begin with) in June when summer first started and everything that's gotten piled on since (beacuse it's hard to say "No" when there are seemingly open-ended months with long daylight hours),... make these strawberry, guava, and Campari ice pop-tails, and take a deep breath. In that order, please.

Seriously, the making process (aside from the freezing) takes all about 5 minutes, and you will thank me because the payoff is worth way more than 5 minutes.... which is more than I can say about the other tasks on my to-do list! Anyways, these are inspired by a good friend and collaborator of mine who was the first one to introduce me to Campari and the first one to show me strawberry guavas picked off a real life tree. Of course, strawberry guavas aren't easily available outside of SoCal, so here I've subbed in a combo of fresh summertime strawberries and guava juice. The great thing about guava juice is that it's often sweet enough where you won't need to add any extra sugar to this ice pop. Even so, it's sweet and summery and lightly exotic--not your childhood's strawberry popsicle!

Grab a ice pop, and ganbatte to all of us.

Read on for recipe....


Strawberry, guava, and Campari ice pops
makes about 8 small popsicles

12 - 15 strawberries, stemmed
1 1/2 cups guava juice
1 - 2 Tbspn Campari

1. Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor.
2. Combine the pureed strawberries with guava juice. Stir in the Campari.
3. Divide into the pop molds, leaving about 1/2 inch at the very top of the mold to allow for expansion. Place in the freezer. Freeze for one hour, then insert the wooden sticks. Continue freezing until solid, about 4 hours.

Enjoy!