Summer time rush..

Summer time is supposed to be all about relaxing and chilling out in the sun..but come this summer and I have been rushing through the door day in day out! It has been crazy busy but it has been all great.. :) June began with a work trip to St.Louis and I was physced! The trip went really well and I did get some time to drive through downtown St.Louis and get a glance of the lovely arch! The arch was absolutely beautiful and it was a lovely sunny day to be at. 

On one of the weekdays I drove through a mall nearby and found something really uncommon in one of the artsy stores. They had live crabs for sale called Hermit Crabs!

The shells on the crabs were painted with cute patterns and at first glance one would have really no clue that there was a crab in it! I was almost tempted to touch one of them..

The rest of the June past by with more work and really didn't leave me anytime to bake. This has been the first month in a long time that I did not bake! Hopefully I will make up for it this month. :) I did cook a lot and in fact I can now proudly say that I make really soft fluffy rotis! :) That was one more thing I had to master sooner or later and practice for the past month has made it possible. 

With summer I am reminded about India. This would be the season when one would get the best of the tropical fruits! The markets would be loaded with mangoes, cherries, jackfruits and lychees! It was years since I had a yummy lychee and the other day at the Indian grocery market I spotted them! I literally ran to grab a bunch and the moment I was home I was enjoying the fresh flavor! Along with these lovely fruits the one thing that I miss about India is the 'Naturals' ice-cream. Its a local chain that sells fresh fruit ice-cream which ranges everything from coconut, chikoo to lychee ice-cream! I got so nostalgic that I just had to make it and ofcourse of a healthier kind! The ice-cream came out to be really rich and bursting with flavor. I experimented with the recipe using the basic vanilla ice-cream recipe as my base. Another great way to use lychee / lychee juice is in cocktails! I cant wait to buy my next batch and experiment with it..ummm! :)

Lychee by itself is really yummy and I can finish a dozen in a matter of minutes..really seconds.. :P But the best part about it is the health benefits that lychee has, read on here for more! Though to truthfully say it I love lychee for its flavor and really had no clue about how healthy it really is until recently. 

Lychee Honey Ice-cream

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped lychees or use the canned one with the juice from the can

1.5 cups 2% milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

5 tbsp honey

4 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest from 1/2 lime 

• In a large bowl, mix the milk,cream,honey and sugar. Once mixed well, add the vanilla extract followed by the lychees and the juice. Let the mixture refrigerate for 1-2 hrs.
• Take the mixture out and mix the zest in and pour the mixture into your ice-cream maker. Follow the instructions on your ice-cream maker and let the ice-cream churn. Transfer to a freezer-proof box and let it refrigerate for 2-3 hours at a minimum. Enjoy!

Work has taken most of my time away in the past month and I am really trying to keep myself on track with my usual schedule..so here's hoping to getting back to more blogging and enjoying the summer with all my readers! Have a great 4th of July everyone! :)