this is not really a recipe but I will pretend.

{image credit: Nicole Zeigler}

I drink a lot (of water, people, of water. Though we haven't suffered for a lack of mojitos and vermontucky lemonade either) during the summer, but sometimes that gets boring. And heavens, we can't have boring in our beverage department.

To shake things up, here is what I've been drinking for the past couple weeks: 1/2 cup cranberry juice blend, a 16-ounce bottle of Pellegrino, and several frozen strawberries, all dumped into a water bottle with lots of ice and a slice of lime.

Could one call this a mocktail? Does it have enough ingredients? Please say yes. It would make me feel so sophisticated . . . also, then I could come up with a fancy name for it, like The Scarlet Letter. Or The Red Badge of Courage. Or A Study In Scarlet.

(What? I've been writing study guides.)