I think it's popsicle weather, don't you?

Some of you might wait until you're actually sweating to eat popsicles. Here, as soon as it's warm-ish, we celebrate and 'cool off' with frozen treats and squirt gun fights and the like. When the temperature was in the mid-70s over Memorial Day weekend, I nearly broke a sweat! Fortunately, I had thought ahead and, based on the forecast, made a batch of popsicles.

When I was a little girl, I ate lots and lots of juice popsicles in the summertime. My mother made them with whatever we had on hand - apple juice, orange juice, grape juice; even lemonade, if we were lucky, poured into plastic tupperware molds. I was at Target the other day and noticed many sets of plastic popsicle molds in other shoppers' carts, mixed in among the sunscreen, bug repellent, plastic lawn chairs, sand buckets and shovels and the like. It's that time of year. I bought rocket molds a few years ago and until early last summer filled them with juice, just like my mother used to do. Then Molly told me about making them the way you make frozen yogurt, but freezing the mixture as a popsicle instead of putting it into the ice cream maker. The idea has become a favorite in our house in warmer weather, with whatever berries are in season. Today, I made my second batch of strawberry yogurt popsicles this year.

Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles
adapted from The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz

These are really delicious, and filling, thanks to the yogurt. The texture is a little icy, more like a popsicle than frozen yogurt.

1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
1 cup greek yogurt (or whole milk plain yogurt)
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Slice the strawberries into small pieces. Toss in a bowl with the sugar, stirring until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Puree the strawberries and their liquid with the yogurt and lemon juice in a blender or food processor until smooth. (At this point you can press the mixture through a mesh strainer to remove any seeds - I don't bother - we like them as is.)

Pour into popsicle molds, and freeze.

Yield: about 1 dozen popsicles, depending on the molds