Chill out with an Apricot Piña Colada

By Sandy Hu

Summer is a time for fruity drinks – preferably gussied up with a fancy garnish and sipped through a straw. If you have a blender, it’s easy to whip up delicious, Fresh Apricot Piña Coladas in minutes. Serve each drink immediately because the ingredients will separate upon standing.

Fruits are not uniformly sweet, so you may have to adjust the recipe with more simple syrup, depending on the quality of your fruit. Use simple syrup Instead of sugar to sweeten because sugar will not dissolve readily in cold liquids.

To make simple syrup, just combine equal parts of sugar and water and boil gently for a minute or two until sugar is dissolved. Store any leftovers in a glass jar, refrigerated, up to a month. You can use simple syrup to sweeten iced tea, sangria, lemonade and other cold drinks.

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Summertime Tea

By Katie Barreira

Last week, New Yorkers suffered record high temps and my dad called from Boston to express his concern – namely for the well-being of Minna, my schnoodle.

There had been an incident of paw-fryingly hot pavement. So, off she went to pound the shaded trails of Cape Cod’s seashore by day, and pant under the cool ocean breeze by night.

And what of the girl left to roast in the city? I decided to quit bellyaching and take a cue from our neighbors to the South, who annually endure this forsaken heat. How do they do it?

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