Mango Lassi

Tonight CC took Twinkle Toes on a date. I usually do a simple meal on Dad date nights, but when I grocery shopped, I didn't remember he was taking her out. Plus, I was starvng. So, I proceeded to make what I would have normally made for dinner. I had planned to make Indian food. I made chicken tikka and basmati rice. I knew I'd be in trouble. I knew CC would walk in the door to pick her up and smell the tikka. When he arrived home, he said to me, "How can you do this to me? Why would you make it on a night I'm not home?" (Picture a sad, pitiful look here.) You see, we fell in love with Indian food in Singapore. On our one hour bus ride home that first year, we passed right through Little India. We could stop and have curry and rice for about $2.00 each. Why would I cook? But when we moved to Turkey, we left all that curry behind. So, I learned to make it. The two people who appreciate this food most in our home are, you guessed it, CC and Twinkle Toes. (Twinkle Toes used to eat spicy curry and naan when she was hardly 2 years old.) Twinkle begged me to save her some. I told her if she gave me a kiss for each dish, I'd save her some...she covered me in kisses.

So, CC was a bit sad as he left for his date night, then I did the ultimate in 'wrong-ness'. I whispered to Twinkle Toes to tell him I was going to try to make a mango lassi for the first time ever. He turned to me and said, "That's just wrong, Sara. Wrong." Every summer we have a tradition of going out for a nice Indian meal with my brother and sis-in-law. It's our way of remembering the good times we shared in Singapore (They were there two years during our time.) We always all treat ourselves to a mango lassi. It's a cool, smooth fruit drink that helps to soothe a flaming tongue, set afire by curry! I have never tried to make it, I didn't think I'd be able to. But today, I just decided to look it up online. Do you know what it takes????!!!! All these years, I've never tried to make it...but it is yogurt (YES! We live in the Middle East, we HAVE yogurt!), mango, sugar, and ice. I can find canned mango on the specialty corner of my grocery store. CC thought I was trying to somehow punish him by making this favorite drink for the first time on his night out, but I really just had a craving and couldn't believe how simple it was.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it sometime.

Mango Lassi (serves 2):

2 mangoes, peeled and cut (I used 1 can and included the syrup)

2 cups yogurt

1 cup ice

1/2 cup sugar.

Just blend it up!

You can try other fruits. Let me know what you think!