Heat Wave

I love cucumber water and recently stumbled upon this variation: rosemary cucumber water. It's as simple as any recipe can be and great during a massive heatwave like we have now.

For a pitcher's worth I slice roughly half a cucumber and about 5 or so sprigs of rosemary in a pitcher (I also like to use repurposed looza bottles)  You can drink it right away, but it's best if left to steep overnight.  It is. So. Good.  If you only want a single glass, about 4 or 5 slices of cucumber and a couple sprigs of rosemary is all you need. Enjoy!

What are your favorite summer drinks?

Fiddlehead Ferns

Yum.  I had never had them before, so when we found some this weekend in Massachusetts, I got excited and grabbed a bagful.  And yep, they were delicious:  cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes, placed into an ice bath, then sauteed with salt, pepper and olive oil until tender. Then served up with a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was a good first foray into fiddlehead territory.  But, alas, their short season is just about over, so I'll have to wait a year to have another taste.

Delicious Bruleed Grapefruit

My brother suggested this, and we tried it out (a few times) while in arizona. They were so, so good!

1. We started with fresh picked ruby grapefruit, and loosened the wedges by cutting around the membrane with a sharp paring knife.

2. We found that dabbing the top of the grapefruit with a clean cloth or paper towel helped, otherwise the sugar was too juicy and it wouldn't caramelize properly.  Then add the brown sugar in an even layer across the fruit. We ended up with a hard candy top on one of our early attempts, which was certainly delicious--but not exactly what we were looking for. 

 3. Torch it--the sugar takes less than a minute to caramelize.

4. Enjoy!

Warm Winter Drink: Spiced Orange juice

One of my favorite things to drink on a cold winter afternoon: spiced orange juice.  I heat up a mugs-worth of orange juice with whole spices: cloves, cinnamon sticks and allspice, then strain and serve with a cinnamon stick and honey to taste--Delicious!

Cucumber Lime

Sadly, the Heat Wave is still with us, with no signs of subsiding any time soon.  Even when the temperature drops, the air is still so humid that it is never "nice" out.  Fortunately, the heat gives reason to make more fancy drinks.  This time we're using cucumber and lime.

It's simple: slice the cucumber, drop it in a glass (or jar as it may be) fill the glass with ice, and squeeze in half a lime.  Fill with cold water and--ta da!  Cucumber somehow makes water taste extra refreshing and cold.  I don't know how it happens, but it is a very good thing.  Sometimes I'll let the cucumber water sit for a few minutes (or as long as you want) to let the cucumber infuse a bit more, but you can taste it right away--it just depends on your preferences.

Hot Days

It's been hot here.  And right now we're gearing up for a week of near 100° daytime highs.  This is not exactly my idea of nice weather.

Luckily, there are things that you can do on hot days to make them slightly more bearable: like make smoothies.  Right now, however, peaches are the perfectly delicious (and perfectly ripe!) fruit at the stores, so we buy and freeze (literally) pounds of them and they work just as well (if not better in some respects) than the cherries for a breakfast yogurt smoothie.  But you can't drink smoothies all the time, so we're mixing it up a little with one of my other favorite daytime drinks:

Squeeze half a lime over ice
Fill half the glass with seltzer
Top it off with Looza (or Goya or any brand) peach nectar
Throw in some peach and lime wedges for garnish (and added flavor)

Delicious!

Cherry Season

It's been hot here, and everyone's been somewhat lethargic.  So our cool down trick has been fruit smoothies.  My favorites are cherry and apple: We'll pit the cherries or slice up the apples and freeze them.  After everything is frozen solid, into the blender they go with plain yogurt and some soymilk (or regular milk or --my favorite-- almond milk).  It is so delicious and one of my favorite quick breakfasts or anytime snack.

Sometimes we'll toss in a scoop of protein powder, but the secret to a delicious smoothie is:  cinnamon.  It makes everything more delicious without additional sweetener.  I also like to add a small spoonful vanilla, especially with the cherries.  mmmmm. . . cherry vanilla.

See? even Melvin says it's too hot.

Spiced Coffee

French Press Coffee with Spices:

I prefer to use whole spices, coarsely ground; and I just place them in with the ground coffee.  It's delicious.