Kaki, I saw these in a World Market advertisement recently and it sent me into a tailspin of “HOMEMADE POPSICLES YEEEESSSSSS!”

Zipzicles.  Little plastic baggies the shape of Otter Pops.  Fill ’em, zip ’em, freeze ’em, eat ’em.  Endless flavor possibilities!

This sudden obsession was compounded by the fact that I needed a snack to contribute to our July 4th San Antonio Weekend Shindig.  What could I make ahead, would store in their own little container, and would be snackable day-or-night all weekend long?  Popsicles.

There was also the fact that Smitten Kitchen did a Popsicle Week last summer that had me wishing my popsicle mold made more than four pops at a time.*

So to re-live our fabulous July 4th popsicle adventures, I’m christening this Popsicle Week here at Because Butter!  Zipzicles today, how-to make three crazy-good flavors on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  It’s the middle of July, let’s celebrate with something frozen!

Some thoughts on the Zipzicle baggies themselves:

• Filling them was a little more time consuming than I thought.  Think about the last time you filled up water balloons: it took forever, and you spent the whole time thinking, “This is taking sooo loooong, whyyyy?”  This process was like a milder form of that kind of patience-inducing exercise.

• Filling them was not hard, though; just use a funnel (or the instructions suggest a turkey baster, which I don’t have but man, that makes a lot of sense) and a 1/2 cup measuring cup.  The baggies hold about 3 oz., so the half-cup is a little too much, but you know, just stop pouring the mixture once it reaches the “Fill Line” mark.

• The instructions suggest freezing them upright in a cup.  If you have room in your freezer, it sounds like a smart idea.  I forgot to do that in San Antonio and  just froze them lying down horizontal, and I don’t think it made much difference.

• The Zipzicle packaging talks about how the zip-closure is good for re-sealing a half-eaten popsicle.  Maybe this would be helpful with kids, but as a grown-up person I had no problem finishing one in a single sitting.  I mention this because I originally opened the zip-closure and pushed the pop up through that opening to eat these, but truthfully, the zip closure area bottlenecked the popsicle a little, making it a little tricky to eat.  TheKitchn recently reviewed these** and suggested you just use the zip-top to close it while freezing, and to snip off the top of the pop to eat.  Brilliant.  That’s what I’ve been doing since and eating them is much easier that way.

More popsicle madness to come on Monday, Kaki!  Have a great weekend!

–Caitlin

P.S.  I’m getting our Facebook Because Butter page up and running this weekend.  Woo-hoo, how official!

*Also, there is an actual, internet-wide Popsicle Week run by Wit and Vinegar!  Holy shoot, look at all those flavors!!

**That’s right, who’s inadvertently on-trend?!  This girl, that’s who.