Day 3 – Paws Up Icy Basil Lemonade

For those of you in Southern California, you know how our notoriously pleasant sunshine has been bestowing an extra dose of heat upon us lately.  Although it is officially fall, it is still scorching outside like summer never ended.  I decided to greet the hubby with a tall glass of Paws Up Icy Basil Lemonade when he came home on Friday afternoon.  It was a sweet little surprise waiting for him after a long day of work.  It almost felt like a blast to the past, as a homemaker in the 1950’s may have had a martini ready for the husband as he stepped through the doors.  By all means, I have no intention of turning this into a regular thing and I am in no way going to become a Stepford Wife.  For that moment, it was a coy gesture and fun to see his unexpected reaction.  His exact words were…”Mmmm….what’s this?”  Then he went on to greet our toddler and said to him “Mommy has been making some yummy stuff lately…”  I haven’t exactly told the hubby that I’m cooking up a storm with aphrodisiacs.  I thought it might defeat the purpose if I told him because of the psychological element.  Don’t worry, he’s not reading this blog either.  I mentioned that I wanted to start a blog, but I haven’t exactly told him that it’s live.  I thought I would hold off for a while and he is way too busy to bother with it.

What’s In It?

I think this is turning into an under 5 ingredient aphrodisiac recipes blog.  I love that they authors have really thought it through and created recipes for the busy lives of modern women that do the trick.  Paws Up Icy Basil Lemonade from The New InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook, by Martha Hopkins is simply invigorating.  This is not your typically prosaic lemonade that your next door neighbor’s kid sells for a quarter.  Basil once again plays a very important part and in my case its freshness straight of the plant only increases the effect.  As I mentioned before, it has an alluring aroma and can cure any “headache”.  Basil will warm up your body and promote circulation. Did you know that in some parts of Italy, basil is a love-token?

Lemon is a little-known aphrodisiac.  The vibrant yellow citrus beauties are a sensual wake-up call. The rind of a lemon contains essential oils with mood-elevating properties, so try to use it in your recipes.  Juice of a lemon will cleanse toxins from your digestive system, oxygenate your blood, and increase circulation.  All this will heighten your senses and inspire the body and mind for intimacy!

There you have it, a simple lemonade can be ingeniously created into artisan lemonade with potent ingredients that will heighten your senses and put you in the right mood.  I believe the fresh factor is exceptionally essential in simple recipes and small gestures like this.  I leave you with these sensual words by renowned Latin poet, Pablo Neruda…

 A Lemon

Out of lemon flowers

loosed

on the moonlight, love’s

lashed and insatiable

essences,

sodden with fragrance,

the lemon tree’s yellow

emerges,

the lemons move down

from the tree’s planetarium

 

Delicate merchandise!

The harbors are big with it-

bazaars

for the light and the

barbarous gold.

We open the halves

of a miracle,

and a clotting of acids

brims

into the starry

divisions:

creation’s

original juices,

irreducible, changeless,

alive:

so the freshness lives on

in a lemon,

in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,

the proportions, arcane and acerb.

 

Cutting the lemon

the knife

leaves a little cathedral:

alcoves unguessed by the eye

that open acidulous glass

to the light; topazes

riding the droplets,

altars,

aromatic facades.

 

So, while the hand

holds the cut of the lemon,

half a world

on a trencher,

the gold of the universe

wells

to your touch:

a cup yellow

with miracles,

a breast and a nipple

perfuming the earth;

a flashing made fruitage,

the diminutive fire of a planet.

 

-Pablo Neruda