It’s estimated that 99% of US-grown dates are from the Palm Springs area, so it’s not all that surprising they invented this delicious way to enjoy them. Originating in the Middle East, dates have been around for thousands of years, and many cultures believe them to be essential for health. They were introduced to California by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s, who found that the desert in the Coachella Valley, around Palm Springs, was the perfect spot to grow dates.

Dates can get a bad rap–probably because they’re easily confused with unsexy things like prunes–but a fresh date is a thing of beauty, sweet as candy and good in so many recipes. Dates feature in my all-time favorite cookie recipe, Robert’s chewy amazing oatmeal cookies. If you have really sweet, soft dates, you can also make them into a super simple frozen treat I call “ice cream dates.” Yes, dates have a pretty high sugar content, but they also have a lot of fiber, potassium, antioxidants, and other nutrients. People make some pretty outlandish health claims about dates, but there is some reasonably strong evidence to back it up: I found peer-reviewed journal studies showing that dates may stimulate the immune system, protect the kidneys, aid pregnant women with labor and delivery outcomes, and prevent certain kinds of stroke. Furthermore, nutrition scientists have found that due to their nutritional content, they may be “an almost ideal food.”

Of course, this date shake involves ice cream and milk, so you might be questioning just how healthy it is. Forgetting the ice cream for a minute, many Middle Easterners believe that mixing dates and milk enhances the nutritional qualities of both. In fact, dates in milk is a traditional way to break the Ramadan fast. Dates and milk together are also one of the first foods introduced to babies after breast milk. But it’s not really about the health for me, it’s more about closing my eyes and being transported temporarily to that desert date palm landscape I love so much.

Recipe: Palm Springs Date Shake
I asked how they make the shakes at Oasis Date Gardens and this is what they told me. Makes one. And don’t worry, this ain’t rocket science, y’all.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup fresh dates (I like to use Medjools)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup vanilla ice cream

METHOD:

• Remove pits from dates.
• Put dates and milk in a blender and mix until smooth.
• Add ice cream and blend until creamy.
• Drink immediately.

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I love fat-filled dairy products as much as anyone, but once I go beyond lowfat milk with this recipe, it just gets way too rich for me. However, don’t let that stop you from using whole milk or substituting a little half and half in there- especially if you plan to serve this as a shot-sized dessert or something fancy like that.

And now that you’re all warm and fuzzy thinking about hot cocoa, I have to share something pretty depressing with you about the chocolate industry. 

I’m not going to sugar-coat (chocolate-coat?) this: most of the chocolate we eat supports child slavery. This fact makes me reel: how is it possible that something so joyful, so loved, so pleasure-inducing as chocolate can be the product of child slavery? Unfortunately, the majority of it is. I have heard about this for some time now, and I’m ashamed to admit that it took an utterly disturbing BBC documentary to hammer the point home (you can watch sections of the documentary and read more details about chocolate slavery at one of my favorite thoughtful blogs, Rage Against the Minivan.) Hundreds of thousands of West African children, taken forcibly from their parents or sold into servitude, labor on cacao plantations for the raw materials that make the candy we share with our children. How’s that for irony? Companies like Nestle, Hershey’s, and Mars–which by the way, own a whole bunch of other, smaller-seeming companies like Dove and Scharffenberger–are all guilty of using chocolate from these plantations, and claim no responsibility for their actions, saying it’s not their fault since they don’t own the plantations. If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can learn much more about the horrific lives of these cacao-harvesting children at Stop Chocolate Slavery.

So obviously, at this point I feel my chocolate options are limited, and as much as I crave the occasional Dove bar or handful of M&M’s, I can no longer enjoy those things knowing they are the products of child slavery. Luckily, there are many smaller companies making fair trade chocolate that don’t use chocolate from plantations that support child slavery. I like using TCHO chocolate, not only because it tastes great and is made locally in their San Francisco factory, but because they have a transparent supply chain system and have taken a firm “no slavery” stance as part of their mission. Unfortunately, they don’t make unsweetened cocoa powder, which is what I use in this recipe. When I buy cocoa powder, I look for brands that say they’re certified fair trade on the label- like Dagoba (usually cheaper on Amazon than on their site), Sunspire, or Lake Champlain. Whole Foods’ 365 brand of chocolates are also organic and fair trade, but not all Trader Joe’s chocolates are. For a list of where other brands stand, you can check the Stop Chocolate Slavery website.

Recipe: Easy Homemade Hot Cocoa
makes 1 large (me-sized) cup or 2 smaller cups

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups lowfat milk
• 2 Tblsp dark brown sugar
• 2 Tblsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder

METHOD:

• Combine everything in a saucepan and whisk until incorporated. Heat over medium heat until milk starts to bubble. Serve immediately.

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This is the perfect summer drink, with refreshing herbal notes that complement the bubbly very well. It’s also easy to make, and of course, very pretty, whether you’re sitting on your stoop some sweltering evening or tasked with festive drinks for a bridal shower.

You can use the leftover rosemary syrup in other herbalicious cocktails, too. For inspiration, check out this Campari-based aperitif from Tokyo Terrace, Broke Ass Stuart’s cucumber gin concoction, or this twisted lemon drop from Leite’s Culinaria.

Rosé Champagne with Rosemary Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup turbinado (raw) sugar
• handful rosemary sprigs (about 5) – rinsed
• chilled Rosé champagne or sparkling wine of your choice

Method:

• Put turbinado (raw) sugar and 2 cups water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until all sugar crystals are melted.
• Turn off heat and add rosemary sprigs. Let the sprigs steep in the sugar syrup for 15-30 minutes, then strain and cool to room temperature.
• Put a small dollop of syrup in a glass of very well-chilled pink champagne and stir gently to mix. Add more syrup to taste if desired.
• Garnish with a rosemary sprig.

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Kalimotxo (pronounced kah-lee-MOO-choe)  is a fancy Basque word meaning “1/2 red wine and 1/2 cola”. About 20 years ago we had a Basque exchange student and my family has been drinking them ever since.

A more recent trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian confirmed that this is actually a really popular drink at bars and such, not just some Fernando-specific anomaly as I had previously suspected. In Spain they usually use Rioja, presumably because that’s what they’ve got lying around, but pretty much any hearty red wine will do. Before you start thinking “what the f*** kinda trashy broad mixes coke and wine together?” let me assure you that this is a more tasty and refreshing drink than you might imagine. Some people use ice and some people just use a really cold coke and a room temperature wine. It’s always served in a stemless glass, like a water glass or a highball glass, never ever filled all the way to the top. I don’t know why that is. It just is.

Sure, you can drink these at home, but a kalimotxo is also a great thing to get if you’re at, say, a party where they’re serving only crappy wine and soft drinks, or on a night when maybe you want to take it easy and/or mix uppers and downers without resorting to red bull (iwww). So if you’re in a poor wine situation but really want to get your drink on, you can order a glass of red wine, a coke, and an extra glass, do a little mixy mixy and BOOM you’ve got 2 good drinks! Or, like, if you’re in the Basque country. According to Wikipedia they drink this in other countries too, but of all the places they list the only place I have ever really seen large numbers of people ordering this at a bar is in Spain.

A note about the name: Basque is a crazy-a$$ language with tons of k’s and x’s and z’s. In the rest of Spain you’ll probably see it spelled “calimocho” or “calimucho” or “kalimucho” but it’s all the same thing. And lest you’re not a fan of coke, have no fear: just ask for a tinto de verano and you’ll get red wine and sprite! As the Basque say: ¡Eskerriska!

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