LIME, STRAWBERRY AND MINT SQUASH

I'm a bit annoyed with myself at the moment because I can't get things done or I just plain forget, Show Us Your Most Treasured Cookbook is on of them. How can I expect that people remember events they might want to participate in if I never remind them? But who reminds me I wonder? Anyway, some of you might recollect that I started this event thread back in January, with a roundup in February and I enjoyed all the stories you told us so much that I asked for more. The problem is that I just let it glide into the background and though I have two entries I think and hope that there are more of you out there who would like to share memories (and maybe a recipe) from your most treasured cookbook so here I am again, prolonging the deadline to the 15th of May and hoping that you will respond to my wishes to get to read more about your cookbooks and why it is so dear or mean so much to you. If you didn't read the stories in the roundup, I suggest you to do it if you have the time. Send the link to your blog post or if you don't have a blog, send the text and eventual photo before midnight on May 15 to luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com (please write Show Us Your Most Treasured Cookbook in the subject line) and I will include you in the roundup!

I have another treasured cookbook that I want to share with you and this too is from my childhood. When I was 8 my mother and father gave me a cookbook for children called Per och Pia på hushållskurs, (printed quite a few years, 1951, before I got it) in which you find a mix between how to do things in a household (making your bed, washing the dishes, arranging flowers) and recipes of basic cooking (meatballs, sponge cake, salads). I loved it and was completely fascinated by it, especially because it described a world so far from mine, a strictly ordered universe that didn't correspond to the one I lived in; my family was a free space, slightly in disorder and definitely not militant and parsimonious like the life you see in that book. If you are familiar with Pippi Långstrump/Pippi Longstocking you understand what I mean when I say that this is the book that Tommy and Annika had to study. Every day. And to me this was as exotic as living in a hut in deepest Brazil. I remember making some food out of it and that I often just drooled over what I saw, one of my favourites and don't ask me why was a lemon squash recipe (the authors even provided help to pronounce the word squash: "skoåsch") so I decided to make it here but then I obviously changed one thing and then another so now it is completely different but still, it does follow the measures loosely.

LIME, STRAWBERRY AND MINT SQUASH

3-4 limes
6-8 tblsp sugar
15 mint leaves
1000 ml/ 4,2 cups fresh cold water
4-6 strawberries, sliced

- Squeeze the limes.
- Pestle the mint leaves with the sugar or run in a blender.
- Mix lime juice and mint-sugar and stir.
- Add fresh water and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
- Serve with strawberry slices and lots of ice.