Mint Lemonade | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Many shops stood in the street, and Dorothy saw that everything in them was green. Green candy and pop corn were offered for sale, as well as green shoes, green hats, and green clothes of all sorts. At once place a man was selling green lemonade, and when the children bought it Dorothy could see that they paid for it with green pennies.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
L. Frank Baum

My exposure to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz began with the film, like many I'm sure. In fact, I only read the book itself for the first time in the last few weeks, managing to devour it within a single night, a cup of tea being continually refilled as the night grew later. I was lucky enough to get a subscription this Christmas to The Novel Tea Book Club, and the first parcel I received was a delightfully themed trip down the yellow brick road. I'm eagerly anticipating the February book to arrive, enormously curious of what will be in the parcel.

There are an array of food stuffs within the pages of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that I could have attempted - I'm very much planning to attempt the four different types of cookies that Dorothy enjoys so much - but with summer in full swing, I couldn't go past the chance to make some homemade lemonade. with just a sprig of mint to give it that real Emerald City feel.

This lemonade recipe may look a little strange to Americans, and in all rights as the origins of the book is within America, I should have really stuck to a traditional recipe for it. However, I grew up with bubbly, carbonated lemonade and it's honestly just so much better. If you really aren't a fan, feel free to switch the sparkling water for still.

Mint Lemonade
Makes approx. 4 - 6 glasses
Ingredients
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup cold water
1 bunch of fresh mint
4 large lemons, juiced
1 - 2 bottles of sparkling water (dependant on how much lemonade you're making)
Ice

1. Make a simple sugar syrup by combining the sugar and cold water together, stirring well and leaving to sit for around 30 minutes until sugar dissolves.

2. For each glass of lemonade, place around 4 - 6 mint leaves in the bottom with a dash of the sugar syrup. Using a pestle (if you don't have one use the back of a spoon, works just as well), muddle the mint leaves well - they should be beginning to break up, with the smell of the mint coming out strongly.

3. Add around 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each glass (more or less depending on how strong you like it), with an additional tablespoon of sugar syrup before topping with the sparkling water and ice.

4. Add a few slices of lemon or sprigs of mint as a garnish and enjoy!

Mulled Wine | Brambly Hedge

Mr Apple and Dusty Dogwood headed the procession, lanterns held high.
‘Roast the chestnuts, heat the wine,
‘Pass the cups along the line,
‘Gather round, the log burns bright,
‘It’s warm as toast inside tonight,’
‘Sang the mice as the log came into view.’
The Secret Staircase (Brambly Hedge)
Jill Barklem

My childhood was spent mainly in middle of the bush in country Victoria. The house I grew up in was surrounded by towering gum trees, with paths throughout them clotted with ferns, wattle trees and numerous rabbit, potoroo and bush mice holes that were waiting to trip someone up.

A childhood pastime was to construct tiny houses outside, beneath the overhanging moss on a garden path or within the hollow of a tree that I’d stumbled over. I still enjoy seeing such houses tucked away throughout Melbourne, where I now live. Neighbours whose children have created little faerie or gnome doors built into the sides of trees or bottle tops hanging from branches (so faeries can swing on them - as a young girl solemnly told me when she saw me admiring them).

Brambly Hedge was a children’s book that let my childhood imagine run wild with theories of how all the animals I saw were living when I wasn’t looking. And how apparently they were all incredible cooks. Rose jam? Oat cakes with rowanberry jam? Syllabub and three tiered wedding cakes? Yes please.

I was gifted a copy of The Complete Brambly Hedge for Christmas this year and with my recent page flick through it - my eyes landed very solidly on song above. More specifically - heat the wine. It’s winter in Melbourne, and it seems to just be rapidly getting colder with icy and biting mornings and nights abound. One speciality that Melbourne seems to do particularly well is mulled wine. Every bar appears cosy and inviting with the scent of cinnamon, oranges and various spices drifting out of the doorway. Promising warmth, comfort and a drink that, honestly, feels like a hug.

On the days when my wallet is low and it’s far too hard to put clothes on that aren’t pyjamas I’ve taken to perfecting my own mulled wine recipe. A lot of the stuff in it is quite interchangeable and it’s super fun to play around with the recipe and get a flavour that you really enjoy.

*Note: A fruity wine is best - but honestly, anything is going to taste pretty great when you cook ti with fruit and spices for ages. 

Mulled Wine
Serves approx. 12 cups
Ingredients
2 x bottle of red wine *see note
2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
2 cinnamon sticks
10 star anise
2 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1 apple, chopped into largish chunks
1 orange
1/2 cup brandy *optional

1. Using a sharp knife, very carefully cut away the zest of the orange until you have around 4-5 strips. The remainder of the orange can be sliced up thinly to be used in the wine later.

2. Place all the spices, the strips of orange zest and the apple juice into a large saucepan and heat on medium until lightly simmering.

3. Add in the chunks of apple, orange slices and both bottles of wine.

4. Leave it to remain on a medium heat - you don’t want it to burn. When the wine begins to simmer and the scent of the spices being to drift from the saucepan you’ll know its ready.

5. If you decide to pop some brandy in - do it around this point, and leave it to heat in the wine for another few minutes.

6. You can either strain all the wine into a new saucepan if you’re planning to have it all at once - or simply strain it off glass by glass (it doesn’t do it any harm with the spices remaining in it). Enjoy hot!