February Fabulousness: Pink Grapefruit + Caramel + Star Anise Smoothie

Chef Gwen Ashley Walters is a professionally trained chef and the editor and publisher of Pen&Fork.com. We've become friends on Twitter -- you can follow the Smoothie Savant here: (@chefgwen) -- where her smoothie-tweeting caught my imagination.  She has written three award-winning cookbooks, writes for many different newspapers and cookery magazines and teaches cooking across the country. I'm very happy that she agreed to share a particularly delicious recipe with us.

Pink Grapefruit + Caramel + Star Anise
Makes 2-1/2 cups, enough for 2 servings

1-1/4 cups low fat vanilla yogurt
1 cup pink grapefruit juice
2 tablespoons caramel sauce
1/4 teaspoon star anise powder.

Chef Gwen says: I *love* this combination. Tart with just enough caramel to take the edge off without dampening grapefruit's sassy personality. Star anise adds flirty hint of licorice.

This smoothie was #253. I started tweeting my smoothies in June of 2010, just on a lark, really. I got a nice reaction from my followers, so I started tweeting more. Now I tweet one every week on Wednesday, and put it on Pen & Fork's Facebook page. You can see most of them in my flickr stream, too.

Some people want me to write a smoothie cookbook, but that's because they have no idea what is involved in writing a cookbook. I love making the smoothies, coming up with whimsical flavor combinations and sharing them. Putting them in a book would turn it into real work and right now, I'm just having fun with them.

Some of my favorite combinations have been:

Cherry + Pink Peppercorn + Lavender
Blackberry + Tarragon + White Pepper
Clementine + Fennel + Cardamom