Almond milk summer pudding

It has been a particularly hot summer, with temperatures rising quite above the seasonal average and my level of tolerance, which was put to the test for several days.

Don't get me wrong. I love summer:
popsicles and flip-flops
ice tea and orzata
flowery dresses and pinkie armbands

blackberries harvesting in the woods

lavander and watermelon
a path through the pine grove and...
the beach...

Unluckily, this is not the scenery that we find ourselves in most of the time.

We have the details, not the whole pictures - we do drink ice tea and orzata ( a traditional italian summer drink made with almond syrup), we do eat watermelon and blackberries, but the pine grove, the woods and the beach are not always close at hand, and instead we have heat waves, damp weather and weepy children...

and we find ourselves complaining, 
or daydreaming about cosy autumn days...
at least this is my case, to be honest with you.

But still, still.
There's something about summer I really enjoy.
Regardless the weather, regardless hot temperatures.
Regardless the kids' tantrums you have to face.

It is that moment in the early afternoon, those hours when everything seems to stop under the siege of the sun and surrender to the fierce peak of its beaming light.  

That moment when you have an idle chat around a table, sipping an espresso

Or a nap in the dim-light of a darkened room.

The time you have a rest under the shade of a tree.

Or the time you spend with your child, lulling her to sleep.

Those kinds of moments are still magical to me, and I perfectly agree with Henry James, as he says:

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two

most beautiful words in the English language.”

To sweeten your summer afternoon you can have a refreshing dessert for merenda (afternoon snack) and try this almond milk pudding: it is so easy to make that you can have the children help you out in almost every step of the process. 

I've found the recipe in Elle à Table – May/June 2013 issue, and I was immediately drawn to it. I guess it is the almond milk, one of my favourite ingredients...hope you will enjoy this merenda too!