SUMMER FESTIVAL: Strawberry Mango Pops with Tessa Barbosa

It’s summer and there are fewer simple pleasures than an ice-cold treat. When I was a kid, the more colorful the popsicles the better! It’s been (more than) a few years but I haven’t changed. These popsicles are colorful, delicious, fruit based, and super simple to put together.

Three red-ish popsicles on wooden sticks laid flat on a countertop surrounded by raspberries and strawberries Strawberry Mango Popsicles

Ingredients:

2 cups mango pulp. Kessar mango pulp in a can is my go to, but you can also blend the chunks of 2 large fresh mangos, or frozen mango pieces.
8 oz fresh strawberries
1/3 cup honey/corn syrup/agave syrup. The syrup keeps your popsicles from being too icy or hard. If you’re using mangoes that aren’t super sweet, you can increase this up to 1/2 cup.
Optional: juice of one lime.

Directions:

Blend everything together
Pour into your favorite ice pop mold.
Let set at least 5 hours before unmolding.

Notes: You can absolutely reduce or increase the measurements depending on the size of your ice pop mold. If you don’t have an ice pop mold, you can try using large ice cube trays, or even small paper cups. Just cover the top with aluminum foil, and let it set for 1 hour before poking a stick through.

I promised my mother I would never come to Bato-Ko…and yet here I am.

Narra Jal is one of the cursed, cast aside her whole life, considered unlucky. But with her mother’s life on the line, she will return to the city where she was born to face the trials: a grueling, bloodthirsty series of challenges designed to weed out the weak, the greedy, and the foolish. Trials to select the next ruler of Tigang.

Narra has nothing. No weapons. No training. No magic. No real chance of leaving with her life. Just her fierce grit and a refusal to accept the destiny she’s been handed. Even the intense, dark-eyed Guardian she feels a strangely electric connection with cannot help her. Narra is on her own. But she’ll show everyone what the unlucky can do.

Let the bloodbath begin.

Tessa Barbosa is a Filipina-Canadian author who writes fantasy novels by night, and software help by day. She studied computer science and the fine arts in university, but stories were her first love, and she’s thrilled she gets to write them now. Tessa currently lives in Vancouver with her family and when she’s not at the keyboard, you can find her reading, making messes in the kitchen, or sewing things. Find out more at tessabarbosa.com