Sunday, July 11, 2010

Summer noshing

We had houseguests this weekend and it gave us an excuse to load up on lovely summer produce and make some delicious recipes that we rarely find time just to make for ourselves.


There's a brand-new greenmarket at 1st Avenue and 27th Street, close to my job, where I snagged these amazing peaches on Friday:




These were halved, brushed with butter, grilled, and then served with ricotta cheese, honey and toasted almonds. You can literally throw this dessert together in 20 minutes!


And I wanted to serve yogurt, granola and fresh berries for breakfast today before our guests hit the road, so I was thrilled when our grocery store had these perfect local blueberries:




I've never made lemonade from scratch before, and I wanted to have a really refreshing summer drink in the house, so I tracked down an excellent lemonade recipe that calls for mint, ginger and honey.   


Fresh Mint and Ginger Lemonade


yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:


  • 1/2 cup (packed) chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh ginger
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups (about) cold water


  • Ice cubes
  • Fresh mint leaves
  • Lemon slices

Lemons and mint leaves:



Chopped ginger:


Preparation:

Combine chopped mint, ginger, and honey in medium bowl. (I decided to zest a couple of our lemons and throw the zest in at this point for a stronger lemon flavor.)



Add boiling water. Let steep 30 minutes. Strain into 4-cup glass measuring cup, pressing on solids to extract liquid. (I tossed the ingredients into a bit of cheese cloth so that I could really squeeze all the juicy goodness out.) Add lemon juice (I juiced 4 lemons and I had more than enough juice for this recipe) and cold water to measure 4 cups total. 

(Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Fill glasses with ice cubes. Add lemonade. Garnish with mint leaves and lemon slices and serve. 

I was so excited to drink this stuff that I forgot to photograph the end result, but it pretty much looked like lemonade, but a little darker because of the honey. I just loved that the lemonade was sweet enough with only honey as a sweetener!

Cheers!


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