It's heating up outside and even with air conditioning, it just seems like it's best to keep the idea of cooking inside to a minimum. This week, the grocery store produce aisle was bursting with summer berry and fruity splendor and even better, it was mostly organic and on sale - always a win-win. I stocked up on blueberries thinking that I would have at least one pint left over to freeze and enjoy in the winter months. Nope - didn't happen. Technically, I did freeze a pint, it just got lime juice and ginger beer added intended for immediate consumption. Who can blame me? A heat index in the 90s meant I had perfect timing for some recipe testing. Some granita recipes call for adding sugar, I felt that the ginger beer added more than enough, but give yours a taste before you start freezing it, you could always stir in some powdered sugar at that point to sweeten it up.

Blueberry Lime Granita

by Inspired by the Seasons

1 12oz can ginger beer

1 pint fresh blueberries

2 T fresh lime juice

Put blueberries & lime juice into a food processor and pulse until combined. This does not to be smooth since the signature part of a granita is it's grainy texture. If you are looking for a more refined finished product, then strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove the blueberry skins. Next, add the blueberry lime mixture to a 9x12 baking pan I used a glass one. Stir in the ginger beer and transfer to the freezer. After 30 minutes take a fork and run it through the mixture to loosen it up, again we are trying to achieve a grainy end product here and prevent a solid chunk of ice. Repeat at least 2 more times until you have a frozen kind of slurry result. If you don't use it all, you can transfer to a covered container and keep in the freezer, keeping in mind that it may need some additional thawing time before serving.