Good Eats for the Twilight Stars Part 1

I know I have been really slow in putting up a recipe for Eclipse, but there weren't really any good references in the movie so I had no idea what to make. Grace Anastasio suggested I make something with wine, because Bella is always "whining". I thought this was really cute, but then I was afraid that I would get in trouble for being under-21 and "using alcohol" so just to be safe, I avoided any any wine and/or beers.

This leaded me straight into my next dilemma.  I wanted to make a red drink for Edward (to signify blood, of course) but when you type "Red Drink Recipes" into the search engine, almost every result is some type of alcoholic beverage. Not really helpful. Since I really didn't want to make a smoothie, I decided to get in touch with my inner bartender and whip up my own non-alcoholic drink.

Throw about about a two or three large strawberries in the food processor. Mash it up a little with a fork first if you want to so the juices will come out faster. Do not add too many strawberries. I used about five and ended up with way too much of the drink afterward. Strawberrries also have a very strong and overpowering flavor, so you don't want to use to much.

Add an orange and a handful of blueberries and blend on high. You want the mixture to be as smooth as possible. You don't want any chunks. If you really want to, you can add a little sugar. I'm actually not sure if I want to recommend that you do this at all, because my drink ended up being really really sweet. Since you shouldn't make as much as I did, don't add more than 1/4 cup of sugar. I, of course, haven't tried making it without sugar but I still think it would be better.

Here is the part that was kinda fun for me. Put your mixture into a strainer, and let the watery part drain into a bowl while the flesh of the fruit sits on top. If you added sugar, instead of a bowl, put it in a saucepan and turn the fire on low so that the sugar can melt isn't grainy. The mixture is pretty thick so it will take a while. If you're in a hurry, grab a spoon stir it and the juice will pour out faster.

This is the part where is where my genius culinary skills shined through. Discard the left over fruit in the strainer (or save it for a future smoothie), and add a drink called Malta. I found a great little website to tell you a little more about Malta. The drink on the website is alcoholic (technically it is a beer), but at World Harvest International and Gourmet Foods (519 E. University Avenue, Champaign, IL-Actually this store is pretty close to Uni) you can buy non-alcoholic Malta and be free of any guilt. Of course any readers over 21 can feel free to buy the regular beer Malta. It's in the back of the store in the refrigerator.

I have been drinking Malta all my life and it is a very common drink among West-Indians. I always get a little nervous giving it to my friends, because I don't know if they will like it or not, but it really does taste almost like a mix between cola and molasses. If you don't like Malta, you might not like this recipe. Malta is also very sweet which I why you shouldn't add too much sugar.

Anyway, add the Malta to the bowl. Add as much as you want based on how much you like it. Warning though, Malta is brown and the drink wont look pretty at all. But we'll fix that later.

Rinse out the food processor and blend some ice until you get what looks like snow. Add the drink and blend. Then add more ice, and continue blending. The drink still won't look pretty, but in order to make this a drink truly made for Edward, add red food coloring! There you have it! I still had some issues with the taste because mine was so sweet. I think a little lime might have made an improvement, but I didn't have any to try that out. Another problem I had was the foam on top of the drink that looks like a whitish-pink froth. I thought it looked a little weird, but I was able to siphon some off the top. It actually tasted pretty nice, and the bottom of the drink was a really cool deep red. Very blood inspired.

In the next post I am going to put up some food for Jacob. I am leaning toward trying about a Fry Bread recipe in honor of his heritage. Fry bread is delicious, but let me know if you have any other ideas for him. Later on for Bella, I promised Grace that I would do something with White Bread-because Bella is so White. So stay tuned!