I’ve been having a real bummer of a week (understatement x 1000000). On Monday I heard that a resident I have known for 6 years was in the hospital and wasn’t going to make it through the weekend. I had just started my work week so dropped everything to visit him, bringing treats as I had on my previous visits only to learn that he was past the point of eating. He was already unconscious and I wasn’t able to speak with him. 4 hours later he passed. If that wasn’t traumatic enough, yesterday I learned that my Grandma was in hospital with advanced pancreatic cancer and likely wasn’t going to live through the night. I have yet to receive the final word as my Mom is frantically trying to get to Toronto from her vacation in Rome and she is probably on a plane as I type. Mere hours after learning about Grandma, Leela, who has been sick the past few days, suddenly and shockingly miscarried two baby bunnies we didn’t even know she was pregnant with. At this point I was pretty hysterical. So in general things really suck right now (hey, cancer, no one likes you so just piss off already) and I’ve been trying to take it easy.

I picked a big bundle of raspberries from the yard and have two lovely and easy recipes for everyone else harvesting backyard raspberries right now.

Raspberry and Cocoa Nanacream!

2 frozen bananas (I peel and pre-slice bananas and freeze them on a tray for easy use later. Peeling a frozen banana is difficult and makes for cold fingers)

1 cup frozen raspberries

2 big spoonfuls of cocoa powder

Bonus: 2 spoons of vanilla vegan icing

Blend the frozen bananas and raspberries in a food processor until creamy. Add the cocoa powder and icing and blend in evenly. And that’s it! Banana ice cream is super easy and you can add whatever you want to it.

Raspberry Key Lime Iced Tea

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil and add 4 black tea bags (I used Darjeeling but Earl Grey would be good too), steeping for 4 minutes.

In a saucepan bring 2 cups of fresh raspberries, 1 cup of water and 1/2-1 cup of sugar to a boil then simmer until the raspberries break down.

Cut about 6 key limes (the really tiny ones) in half and squeeze the juice into the 8 cups of tea, then toss in the whole fruit in to soak for a few minutes.

Mix the raspberries in with the lime tea then strain through a cheese cloth or fine strainer.

Let cool in the fridge then enjoy.