Spring is almost a memory and summer is quickly approaching!

I love the summer, it seems to incorporate so many wonderful things. Warm air, the ability to wear shorts almost all the time, and of course great summer cocktails, that simply demand to be made on one of those forthcoming hot afternoons. With that lovely thought in mind, I wanted to share a few recipes that I really enjoy and most importantly are simple to make.

Moscow Mule:

This drink is a new discovery of mine from this past year. I had it for the first time when we were visiting Mary’s cousins down in Orange County. A local bar was serving pitchers of it and marketing it as a refreshing drink that didn’t hit you too hard. I fell in love with it. If you try the recipe and like it, you should go ahead and get yourself a set of copper mugs. For traditions sake it adds an additional charm to this wonderfully refreshing drink. But if you don’t have a set, a standard sturdy glass will do!

Prep Time: 2 Minutes

Yields: Drink for 1 Person

Ingredients:

6 Ounces of Ginger Beer
3 Ounces of Vodka (2 Shots)
1 Lime
4 Ice Cubes

Directions:

Grab a sturdy glass. Go ahead and fill it to the top with ice cubes. Pour in your vodka over the ice. Then take your fresh lime and cut it in quarters. Take the first 3 wedges and squeeze a ½ ounce of juice into the glass. Be sure no seeds fall in! Hang on to the 4^th wedge you will use it later for a garnish in the glass. Next step you want to go ahead and grab your Ginger Beer. Fill the glass up until the ice is fully submerged, roughly 6 ounces of liquid. To finish it off go ahead and give the drink a quick stir, drop the lime wedge on top and enjoy!

Blueberry Vodka Martini:

I started making this drink for Mary about 2 years ago. Why, you might ask? Well, she enjoys sweet drinks, we both love using fresh ingredients, and about this time 2 years ago we went blueberry picking and we had so many extra blueberries, so I had to figure out what to do with them. When researching options, I found that you can make syrups from fresh fruit. It’s really simple and it adds a little extra sweetness to a standard vodka martini. Fellas the lady in your house will love it!

Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Yields: Drink for 1 Person

Ingredients:

1 ½ Ounces of Vodka (1 Shot)
1 Tablespoon – White Sugar
¼ Cup of Water
15 Fresh Blueberries
½ Cup of Lemonade
4 Ice Cubes

Directions:

First thing you have to do here is prep the blueberry syrup. This is really easy to do, go ahead and grab a small soup pot. Fill it with about a ½ cup of water and a tablespoon of white sugar. Next thing you want to do is grab about 10 blueberries and literally crush them in your hands over the pot until the juices drop into the sugar and water. Then go ahead and drop the skins in as well. This will give the syrup the color you want in the final drink. Bring the pot to a boil stirring constantly. You will know you are done when all the sugar has broken down. Next you want to grab a martini shaker, fill it with 4 cubes of ice, the vodka, and the lemonade. Give it a quick shake, serve in a martini glass and throw in the additional five blueberries as a garnish. Enjoy the splash of vodka when you start to sip and the sweet blueberry taste as it goes down. Remember if blueberries aren’t your thing you can use other fresh fruits to make syrups as well. Just follow the same instructions.

Mojito:

This is one of my favorite summertime drinks. It’s always a hit, so refreshing, so cooling, and of course it tastes wonderful with its lovely sweetness. You can serve it with many flavors, but I am a big fan of the classic way. Lots of people think that it takes a great deal of effort to make a mojito but it really doesn’t. Often called the National Drink of Cuba it really hits the spot on a hot day or humid evening!

Prep Time: 2 Minutes

Yields: Drink for 1 Person

Ingredients:

10 Fresh Mint Leaves
1 Lime
2 Tablespoons of White Sugar
4 Ice Cubes
1 ½ Ounce of White Rum (1 Shot)
½ Cup Club Soda

Directions:

First thing you want to do is cut your fresh lime into quarters. Grab a sturdy glass and drop 1 of the wedges in. Next step is to throw in your fresh mint leaves. Then grab a muddler, if you don’t have one a wooden spoon with a blunt end will do just fine, and muddle the mint and the lime together. This releases the juice and the mint and you will immediately be able to tell. Next thing you want to do is throw in 2 more of your lime wedges and drop in the white sugar. Go ahead and muddle the new entries of the glass for a few moments until more of the juices release. Then you want to throw in your rum and fill the rest of the glass with your club soda. Do not use tonic water! After you have everything together give it a quick stir and throw in your last lime wedge as a garnish. Enjoy!

These are all wonderful drinks, but remember, due to their sweetness you may not think they are having much of an effect on you, but like all drinks they are, so make sure you drink responsibly.

Good Spirits Folks!

First, stark with steak. Marinate for about an hour.

I used flank steak (as the recipe requests) and a jar of pickled jalapenos. I couldn’t find the ones the recipe calls for, but jarred pickled jalpenos were perfect.

While your jalapenos are marinating, you can chop your veg!

I didn’t use poblano peppers – I used bell. Mainly because I didn’t have time to find out if poblano peppers were spicy, and I didn’t want to starve! Upon some research, it looks like I would have been ok. Lesson learned.

So now you have your chopped peppers, jalapeno peppers, and onion. And garlic.

Let the garlic heat, then your onions sweat for about 10 minutes, then add the peppers. Otherwise the peppers will get super mushy, and no one wants that. At this point, you should be ready to start your steak.

Remove from the marinade, and grill on each side for 3-5 minutes.

Slice your meat, against the grain, after letting rest about 10 minutes. Add to your vegetables.

Warm up some tortillas, and add some steak/veg.

Serve with pico de gallo and avocado. Eat two, you deserve it!

Here’s the modified recipe:

• 1 (2 pound) flank steak
• 1 cup (jarred or canned) pickled jalapenos
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium white onion, sliced 1/2-inch thick, keeping the rings together
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 bell peppers (not green)
• 2 jalapeno chiles
• 2 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• Flour tortillas, avocado and pico de gallo, for serving

This is my second choice for frozen mac and cheese. Amy’s makes a “GF” mac and cheese that is pretty delicious and has quite a bite. I put the GF in quotes because, unfortunately, Amy’s processes everything with wheat. I have a reaction to their products, and it makes my brain fuzzy when I eat it. So I had to exert some self control and put the nix on consuming said product, which is very sad – I really need Amy’s to get a separate manufacturing facility stat*.

However, Glutino makes an adequate if not somewhat plain, second choice. It lacks a punch, a hook, something for your tastebuds to latch onto. I find this to be extremely strange because they make it with a blend of monterey jack, cheddar, and parmesan cheese – a seemingly great combination.

Nevertheless, because it is my remaining and most available option I have developed some coping mechanisms to jazz it up! I tend to think of the product as a short cut and not a finished meal, simply a base that I can use to create a full meal.

So I make the prepackaged meal in the microwave, then I add in some extras. Usually I add some grated parm, sometimes bacon bits, and often something spicy;  crushed red pepper or perhaps Tapatio, my favorite hot sauce. These elements liven it up and I have an easy microwave meal.

So overall, Glutino, almost, but its not quite there yet. Maybe add some pepper jack? Maybe add a sharp cheddar? Something to change its lackluster taste to my number one choice!

The Glutino Frozen Mac and Cheese can be procured at Whole Foods and other such places. The price usually hovers in the $5 range and it does make an easy quick meal for those times when you don’t have time to execute a whole meal start to finish. Absolutely worth a try, so let me know what you think!

*While Amy’s does not have a separate manufacturing facility, it recently came to my attention that they do describe their gluten testing practices in their FAQs section and that they verify that gluten levels are under 20ppm.

Here are some photos of what we enjoyed:

First, Corelyn and I visited Maple Ave, which was just delicious. We shared several plates, including this suki yaki shrimp, and the mac and cheese, below.

I am glad we had a chance to visit this local and locally sourced restaurant, which was quaint, had delicious food, and delicious beer.

After I made my way to Charlottesville, I had the pleasure of trying Bodo’s Bagels (in two locations!) I didn’t get a chance to photograph their bagels, because I was too busy EATING but here’s my coffee…

We also had a chance to eat at Revolution Soup, which I mistakingly called “Soup Rev” at one point…this is their Maryland Crab soup, and the basil/tomato/mozzarella.

This sandwich was delicious toasted, and went so well with my soup! Brittany got the peanut tofu soup, which was a delight, despite the fact that it was hot out – I am glad we went with soup!

On Friday, we ate on our hike (sandwiches, delicious) and had Bodo’s again. For dinner, we dined here:

Mono Loco had delicious tacos, quesadillas, nachos, and sangria.

Saturday morning we had homemade strawberry pancakes. Kelly sure knows how to whip up some batter (and Brittany knows how to make the strawberries even.)

Saturday afternoon, we headed to a few wineries.

Our first stop was King Family Vineyards in Crozet. Their wines were wonderful, and their tasting room was a delight.

We enjoyed a picnic outside, before going on a tour and then heading to Veritas, our second winery, in Afton.

That night, we cooked up some side dishes, but not before picking up some Belmont Bar-b-que.

This place supplied us with brisket and such good pulled pork I thought I might just move in.

Kelly and Aaron’s friend Caitlin made this delicious pasta salad for the occasion.

Aaron whipped up mac and cheese…

My plate…well, the first round. There was also delicious coleslaw which I neglected to take a photo of because I was too busy stuffing my face.

To top off the evening was strawberry rhubarb pie, that I regretted not having seconds of. Kelly made this pie look like a synch, and it was sweet, tart, and savory.

Sunday morning we went to Shenandoh Joe’s, but I didn’t get a photo because I drank my coffee too quickly…their single cup coffee was some of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.

Saturday, I was treated to one last delicious treat before heading to the airport: Moo Thru. This coffee ice cream was the absolute best coffee ice cream I’ve ever had. Literally.

More pictures to come of the actual trip, but let’s be serious: the food was the most important part.

Have you ever been to Charlottesville? What are your favorite restaurants there?

A few weeks ago, I traveled to New York for four days to visit with family and friends. In preparation I had managed to cook almost everything perishable in my refrigerator except for a huge container of spinach. Since there was no way I was going to let that go to waste, I looked into tons of things to do with spinach. I wanted something new, different, and with the ability to survive until I returned home. So what did I do? I made spinach pesto! Here is a super simple recipe I created based on what I already had in my kitchen. There are tons of variations on this sauce that you could make, so go crazy and get creative!

Prep time: 20 minutes
Yields: 2-3 cups of pesto

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups spinach
¼ cup olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon salt (give or take)
¼ teaspoon pepper (give or take)
1 ½ cup basil (give or take)

Directions:
Blend the spinach with the olive oil, slowly, alternating leaves and oil until the spinach is fully blended.

Add the rest of the ingredients, blending as necessary.

Overall, the pesto turned out super lemony, but in a delicious way. I think that was really what made this sauce so good. I was very pleased with the flavor, consistency, and staying power. I froze the pesto until I returned from my travels four days later. It was still delicious. So delicious in fact that I put it on anything and everything I could think of. I cooked meals just to get to use this spinach pesto. I can’t wait to make it again. Don’t be afraid to be adventurous with spinach. There is so much more to this leafy green than salads and sautéing.

What have you made with spinach recently?