Blueberry Mint Lemonade Slush

It's not big news to say it's been a hot summer here in New England.  It's hot.  Oppressive, even.  I'm not particularly keen on hot days--I'm more of a spring or autumn gal.  But, as much as I'd like to, I can't just huddle inside buildings with air conditioning.  I feel compelled to bring the kids out from time to time.  Which is why you'll find me at zoos or amusement parks or blueberry patches on 95 degree days, when I'd much prefer to be hiding in a cave (note:  I took the kids on a cave tour two weeks ago.  Half of which required walking around outside on a 90+ degree day.  The inside part of the tour, though, was a nice place to recover.  I hated to leave!)

When it gets too hot, I like to make a cold drink.  While blended coffee drinks have long been my go-to favorite, they're not exactly kid-friendly.  So I decided to make a lemonade slush the kids and I could all enjoy.

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently took the kids blueberry picking (yes, when it was over 90 degrees out!), so this recipe continues with my trend of throwing some of the 6 and a half pounds of blueberries we picked into nearly everything I make.  But no worries, blueberries go great with lemonade, so it's a good match.

And let me explain why I'm throwing mint in everything.  I have a lot of mint in my garden.  Well, that was a shorter explanation than I thought I'd need.  Oh yeah, and I really like mint.  That's the other reason.  But if you aren't faced with an overabundance of mint and/or you aren't particularly a mint fan, feel free to leave it out.

I like my slushy drink thick enough to eat with a spoon.  You could make yours more of a drink by adding more water/using less ice.  Or do what I do:  start out with a thick slush and bring it outside.  Before you know it, it'll be largely melted!

Ingredients:

• Lots of ice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (or more to taste)
• 1/4 cup sugar (or more to taste)
• 1 cup water (or more or less to taste)
• 1 cup frozen blueberries (it's okay to use fresh if that's all you have.  As soon as I pick blueberries, I throw a ton in the freezer as we mostly use them for smoothies so we always have plenty of frozen blueberries)
• Couple of mint leaves (maybe 10 or so)

Directions:

Fill your blender about 3/4 full with ice.  Add all the other ingredients.  Blend until slushy.  You'll probably have to stir it a few times between blending.  If it's too thick and the ingredients just aren't getting pulled into the blade, add some more water, 1/4 cup at a time.

Taste and adjust lemon or sugar quantities to make it more tart or sweet, if necessary.

Blueberry Salad Dressing

The kids and I went and picked 6 and a half pounds of blueberries yesterday.  It didn't even take long, the picking was that good. 

Oh, I'll make blueberry pie, and blueberry muffins, and blueberry pancakes, and blueberry smoothies.  Not to worry!  But we'd just picked up our CSA share and had a huge head of lettuce, not to mention other salad fixin's.  So salads it is for the next few days.

I've been trying to make more of my own salad dressings. I've found a couple of really great HFCS-free, artificial color- and flavor-free options for salad dressing at the grocery store.  But, it's just so easy to make salad dressing.  And I can jazz it up how *I* like it.  And only make enough for a day or two, instead of having bottles sit in the fridge for months.

It's quick, easy, and delicious.  The hardest part is cleaning the food processor after dinner!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup blueberries
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon (remember to zest the lemon BEFORE cutting and juicing!)
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon agave nectar
• ~4 or so mint leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt to taste (optional)

Directions:

Add the blueberries, lemon zest and juice, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, and mint leaves to a food processor.  Blend it all up.

Drizzle in the olive oil while continuing to food process.  Stop when it's salad dressing-y.

Serve over the salad fixin's of your choice (I had lettuce, arugula, cherry tomatoes, and radishes from our CSA, plus some avocado and sunflower seeds.  Then I threw in a handful of extra blueberries--believe me, with 6 and a half pounds in the house, I'm putting blueberries with every meal!)

Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta Salad

I almost always serve garlic scape pesto over gnocchi.  I love gnocchi.  I love how it stands up to the garlic-y garlic scape pesto.  It's perfect together, if you ask me.  But, the best gnocchi in the world is from Fior d'Italia. They sell at Farmer's Markets all over the region, but I just haven't caught them yet this summer.  It's early, and most markets open this coming week.  So no gnocchi in the house.

But I had garlic scapes.  What to do?  I decided to make a cold pasta salad with garlic scape pesto.

I've previously posted a garlic scape pesto recipe, though quite honestly, I don't really follow a recipe any more.  Just toss into the food processor:  garlic scapes.  Drizzle in extra virgin olive oil and pulse until broken down.  Add in herbs of your choice.  This time I did fresh basil (lots) and mint (just a few leaves--it's a strong flavor so just use a few for a really interesting undertone).  Drizzle in some more olive oil and pulse some more until the herbs are broken down.  Add a ton of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Add more olive oil if you need.  Toss in a little salt and pepper and a splash of lemon juice.  Whiz it all up again, adjusting any ingredients if necessary.  I hate to give quantities, since it really depends on how many garlic scapes you start with.

Anyway, what I'm really posting here is a recipe for garlic scape pesto pasta salad, so I'm just going to assume you've followed the instructions above, or followed the link, or made your own scape pesto.   Oh, especially because I should note that due to nut allergies in the house, we do a nut-free pesto.  You might be nuttier than us, though.  Knock yourself out!  Throw in walnuts, or pine nuts, or whatever nuts you want.  I'm jealous.

Ingredients:

Pasta of your choice.  I used orecchiette today.
Prepared Garlic Scape Pesto
Diced avocado
Corn
Any other veggies you have around or think would be good in a cold pasta salad
Squeeze of lemon
Extra freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Prepare pasta according to package directions.  Rinse in cold water after cooking and transfer to a large bowl.

Stir in enough garlic scape pesto to get everything nice and green and coated.

Add some diced avocado and cooked corn.  Plus whatever other veggies you think go in a pasta salad.  Some cherry tomatoes would have been nice, but I didn't have any.

Squeeze some lemon on top and gently stir it all together.  Garnish with some Parmesan cheese.

Tomatoes with a Twist

Amanda Cather's newsletter on late blight literally brought goosebumps to my arms and tears to my eyes. This small glimpse into what many of our ancestors were up against as they settled this great land overwhelms me. At that time, a regional disaster such as this could mean the difference between life or death for members of a family, which made their living off of the land. It's really scary when you think about that.

I'd like to think we've come a long way in some regards. While I cringe at the devastation late blight has caused (and will continue to cause) in the surrounding region this year, I hope that by participating in a CSA (and/or supporting local farmers at farm stands or farmers' markets) we are ensuring that said farms (and future generations of those who run them) are here tomorrow.
Having said all that....I've been harboring this post since WhataCard posted about her disappointment at the total loss of her CSA's tomato crop. I kind of felt like I was sitting her (safely 2.25 hours away from WaC) saying nonny, nonny, boo, boo as I dined on these delectable treats. I've given it a lot of thought since then and finally came to the conclusion that if ever there were a time to rejoice in the glorious bounty we receive from this great earth, this is one of those times. So without further adieu.....

Tomatoes with Mint

This is a bit of a twist on the usual tomato, basil and mozzarella salad. My parents were visiting last week and brought us a large bag of cherry tomatoes from their garden. After eating them in salads for a few days, I sliced the remaining red morsels in half, tossed them with some fresh mint from the garden and sprinkled a little sugar on top. This is VERY refreshing (especially on a hot, humid summer day).

One of my other favorite combinations is sliced tomatoes and chunks of Great Hill Blue Cheese, a local favorite, drizzled with A.O.C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the Valle des Baux in Provence sourced from Bizalions in Great Barrington, MA and sprinkled with fresh ground salt and pepper. Add a loaf of your favorite bread and a bottle of wine......

Bon Appetit!

Pickles and Baba Ghanoush

True confessions time: I don't like cucumbers. At all. I mean, I don't even like them to touch my real food. Their icky flavor invades everything it touches. Yuck. But I love pickles. Oh, the hidden depths of me. So, when I saw the post on Boston Dish about making pickles, I figured I'd give it a go. I used the recipe she linked as my starting point, and made just a few changes.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized cucumbers (I only had regular cukes, no pickling cukes)
1 Tablespoon pickling salt
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh dill
2 cloves garlic
1 serrano pepper

Directions:

Thinly slice cucumbers and place in a large bowl. Add salt, mix, and place in the refrigerator for 90 minutes to 3 hours (no need to be exact...I forgot about mine!).

Place cucumbers in a colander and rinse under cold water, then return to the bowl.

Peel and crush garlic cloves. Cut the serrano pepper in half and remove seeds.

In a medium saucepan, place all remaining ingredients (except the cucumbers). Bring to a boil over medium heat and stir until all the sugar dissolves. Take my advice and do not put your face over the boiling vinegar. And if you do, certainly don't take a big breath. Just my two cents, based on hard-learned experience!

Pour the boiling vinegar mixture over the cucumbers. Cover, refrigerate, and wait around 24 hours. Then voila! Magic occurs, and those cucumbers have become pickles! Keep refrigerated and eat within 2 weeks. Or 5 days, if you're us.

These pickles were surprisingly good. I took them to a picnic, and overheard a couple of elementary school kids talking about how good they were. And how sweet they were. These pickles are pretty sweet, which isn't a big surprise given the huge quantity of sugar in the recipe. The longer the pickles sat in the fridge, the more sour they became. So if you don't like very sweet pickles, you may want to give it a few days before you try them.

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On an unrelated note, one of my favorite eggplant dishes is Baba Ghanoush. However, I've never been able to find a recipe that is anywhere near as good as our favorite, which sadly is from a restaurant in Atlanta. Not exactly some place we can just pop in when the urge takes us. So in my ongoing quest to find a great Baba Ganoush recipe, I tried one from The Figs Table by Todd English and Sally Sampson. I was intrigued by this recipe as it included mint, an ingredient I never thought to try in Baba Ganoush. I made a few minor changes to the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 Chinese Eggplants
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons tahini
Juice of one lemon
8 mint leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
minced scallions, lemon zest, and additional olive oil for garnishing
Pita bread

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prick egglants all over with a fork, then rub with olive oil. Place on a cookie sheet, and roast in the oven, turning once, for approximately 30 minutes (until soft...depends on the size of your eggplant). Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 10 mintues.

Peel the garlic cloves and throw into a blender (or large food processor if you're lucky enough to have one. My mini just didn't seem up to the challenge of four eggplants!). Cut then ends off each eggplant, cut a slit down the side of each eggplant, and peel the skin off with your fingers. Add the flesh of the eggplant to the blender. Add the tahini and blend until smooth. You'll have to stop and use a rubber spatula to mix the ingredients around from time to time.

Add the lemon juice, mint leaves, salt, and pepper, and continue blending (and stirring when necessary) until the mint leaves have been completely incorporated.

Chill covered in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Remove to a plate, drizzle with a small amount of olive oil, and garnish with scallions and lemon zest. Serve with pita bread for dipping.


We enjoyed this recipe, although it still didn't quite live up to our restaurant favorite. The mint was a very interesting addition, and this worked just fine with Chinese Eggplant (the original recipe called for one regular eggplant). While this was good, though, I'll probably keep searching for the elusive "perfect" Baba Ghanoush.

Minty Lamb Meatballs

We picked up some ground lamb from Stillman Farm, and some mint at the CSA. Hmm, mint, lamb, let me look around for a recipe. And boy, did I find a good one: Lamb Meatballs. I followed the recipe pretty closely, just skipping the food processing step as that seemed too fussy for me. Oh, and I omitted the olive oil. Do you know how fatty ground lamb is? I certainly didn't need to add extra fat to fry it!


It's not a huge surprise, but the flavor of the lamb and the mint went together perfectly. And the sauce was a perfect accompaniment. It was really outstanding. TK ate a phenomenal quantity. If we're being honest, so did I :) Even N-man enjoyed them.