Back in October we received a package of passion fruit from one of our favorite food blogs, White on Rice Couple. I am pretty sure Diane sent the package to shut us up as we were twittering away about how we were going crazy looking for them in a city that claims to be so foodie.  We were in the middle of being really busy at the time, so we basically slurped a couple of the beauties up and then froze rest of the pulp;  that is all except 5 precious little seeds.

When we began the quest of passion fruit I received a couple twitters back from Anita, over at Married with Dinner, she gave a few suggestions on where to possibly find them, which unfortunately they did not have the gems.  She also mentioned that they once grew passion fruit in their backyard.  This was very intriguing so I inquired where we could find them – Anita told us where and she also advised to be very careful because they could take over the yard, the house and the neighborhood.  We did not care, this is what we are looking for   I checked out the nurseries but they all were out of them.  So, when we received out  package and removed the pulp from the fruits, we planted the 5 little seedlings to just see what would happen.  Guess what?  A couple weeks ago after lots of tender loving care (water and a heating blanket – see, we LOVE them), 4 little sprouts popped up.  Ever since I have been giving them more and more care and now we have 4 pretty sturdy little guys!

In celebration of these wonderful passion fruits and our new little kids, remember the old ones, Lenny’s little Portuguese peppers from summer 2007, I defrosted a bit of the pulp and added it to a glass of French Bubbly - a bit tart but still sweet and festive!

Recipe:  Champagne with Passion fruit

Passion Fruit Puree

Champagne

Put a tablespoon of passion fruit in a champagne glass.  Top with champagne.  Serve.  Drink.