Hi, I’m Kelly Wilkinson.
Crafter, journalist,
middle sister, more...

Lemon Squash

 

Friday
Sep032010

giveaway: firepit

For the last of the summer giveaways, myfirepits.com is giving away a $200 gift certificate, so you don’t have to go inside when summer is over (and so you can pick out your favorite from their big selection of fire pits). Here’s to more lingering outdoors as the days gets shorter and chillier. Just wrap up in a cozy blanket and make it a hot toddy instead of a cold drink, and we can keep this outdoor living going strong.

Leave a comment by Monday morning with a way to reach you, and I'll pick a winner at random. Good luck!

Wednesday
Sep012010

summerfood: zucchini carpaccio

The first pick-able zucchini have arrived in our garden – finally! I try to hold out and pick them when they’re a tender 5 or 6 inches long. Any smaller and my husband calls me impatient. Any larger and I’m treading in my late grandfathers territory, who not only tended a huge vegetable garden in his yard each summer, but let his veggies grow to the most enormous sizes.

As little kids, my sister and I would come to his house for a visit. On the backstairs would be a collection of seriously gargantuan produce worthy of a state fair-worthy: baseball bat sized zucchini, beets the diameter of softballs, green beans as long as knitting needles and as fat as a roll of quarters.  I don’t remember my mom taking any of these specimens home with us, and I don’t actually remember eating any of his harvest either. He would just sit on the back stairs, a cold glass of White Rose iced tea in his hand, and revel in our thrill of seeing vegetables so gigantic. 

But today it’s all about micro greens, petit pois, baby carrots, new potatoes; everything young and tender. My guess is that it’s a generational thing. Maybe with my grandfather’s seven brothers and sisters, they needed each plant to feed as many mouths as possible. But in our house – where it’s just two adults, a new baby and a toddler who exists on complex carbs alone, we luckily can be more frivolous.

This is my absolute favorite way to prepare freshly picked, young zucchini. Don’t let the “carpaccio” part fool you: This is no lame, raw zucchini crudites. The salt and vinaigrette help tenderize the zucchini a bit, keeping it crisp and bright, yet tender all at once. Toasted pine nuts and shaved parm bring the richness to balance it all out. The only trick is getting your zucchini sliced to the right thickness. If you have a mandolin (my favorite kitchen gadget) a 1/8 inch setting works perfect here. A vegetable peeler and a light touch work totally fine in a pinch. -Sarah

Ingredients:

2 or 3 zucchini, no longer than 6 inches

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Shaved parmigiano reggiano

Using a mandolin (or a vegetable peeler) slice zucchinis lengthwise into 1/8 of an inch slices. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk to emulsify.  Take a taste and adjust the seasoning to your whim. Pour over zucchini slices and carefully toss to coat. Let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, toss pine nuts in a small sautee pan and toast over medium heat until they are golden brown in spots, about 5-7 minutes. 

To serve, pile the zucchini onto a large platter and drizzle any juices that have collected at the bottom of the bowl over the top.  Scatter pine nuts and freshly shaved parm over the zucchini.  Feel free to give the dish one last hit of good quality sea salt and pepper at the end as well.

Monday
Aug302010

summercraft: upholstery necklaces

Well, lazyhood, this is it. The official last week of summer. At least in my book. To me, Labor Day guillotines a heavy, final slice across the summer season. And even through here in San Francisco we’re just coming into our warmest months, there will still be a chill in the breeze. Just this weekend, we visited friends up north of the city and when we left and stepped onto their front porch as the sun was setting, crunchy oak leaves were falling and (maybe it was just my imagination) the air smelled like apples.

So this will be the last week of the Lazy Summer series. We’ll build to the final giveaway at the end of the week. In the meantime, here’s a quick reprise craft project to bundle us into the fall: upholstery necklaces. The supplies are cheap enough that you can switch them out for autumnal colors soon enough. But I’m still a sucker for bright, summertasticly happy necklaces that lie light on the skin for these waning warm days.

All that’s required is a sufficient length of upholstery trim from your local fabric or craft store and a clever closure. You could use a big safety pin in a pinch, or a large crimp closure like these. Simply string, check in the mirror to make sure the length is right, and walk out the door, emboldened by the bright hit of color.

Friday
Aug272010

summer giveaway: flip-flop heart

You have heard about my mother before. Well, now you can really hear my mom. She’s been a big supporter of this Lazy Summer project, and here she is leaving me a message after a big summer storm in Virginia.

 

She’s right that the power going out was always one of my favorite things. When we grew up, my family would actually have nights where we turned off all the power and pretended we were living back in pioneer days. And one of the craziest parts of that little tradition is that I didn’t think it was strange until I blurted it out at college once. The looks I got definitely told me that not many other families had self-imposed power outages on a regular basis.

I don’t mean to romanticize hardship. But I am tempted to say that the power has become a little too reliable for my liking. I remember that shiver of excitement when the lights would stutter and then go out. We’d be the littlest bit scared, but candles were nearby and we were used to the dark anyway since we grew up in the country. Your eyes would slowly adjust and really, either option was a good one: stay inside and play a board game, or head out the screen door and sit in the immense quiet.

But wait, this little trip down memory lane actually has a purpose. Because in addition to making up songs on the spot and relishing sitting on the deck at night, my mother also creates these Flip-Flop Heart necklaces. A pair of flip-flops joined at the heel so they make a little heart so you can wear a bit of summertime all year long. She’s giving one away to a lucky reader – just leave a comment before Monday night with a way to reach you and I’ll pick a winner at random.



Wednesday
Aug252010

summerlist: summer sauna

I forgot to mention one thing that wasn’t on my summer list, because frankly, it wouldn't have sounded that great to me: a summer sauna.

But that was before I tried this one, a wood-fired sauna in a tiny wooden cabin at the edge of a Vermont pond. Carrying water up from the pond to create steam, heating up, then jumping into the pond to cool off. Then doing it all over again, until it was time for Heather’s fancy gin and tonics.

Check. And cheers.

Wednesday
Aug252010

summercraft: weekend sewing

Here is a new summer tradition for me, two years strong: sewing with Heather and Liesl in Vermont. I mean, come on, how adorable are these two:

Not only are they super-charming and relentlessly upbeat, they are kickass sewing instructors. And I’m realizing this is a very rare combination of qualities: people who are generous, big-hearted, laugh-until-your-stomach-hurts funny, and scary good at what they do. Heather and Liesl know the best way to do something -- but more importantly, they know how to teach you how to do it. And not just so you can do it with their help, but so you understand well enough to do it on your own (even though it’s way less fun without them).

Plus, the weekend takes place at a quintessential Vermont inn, complete with quilts on the beds, endless lemonade and chocolate chip cookies from the kitchen, a spring-fed pond ringed by blueberry bushes and Adirondack chairs, and a big wooden barn that we turned into a happy little sewing sweatshop.

This year, Heather hauled up her Orla Kiely teepee from New York. And decorated it with a working chandelier, a Denyse Schmidt quilt and sheepskin rug to set the mood for afternoon naps and cocktails (Heather does not have ideas in half measures).

There was also a visit to a neighboring barn stuffed full of amazing costumes and props. A townwide yard sale. Hiking to a secret Vermont lake. And beaucoup de sewing, surrounded by blazing greenery during the day and a chorus of crickets and bullfrogs at night. All in the company of a bunch of funny, creative and sassy women.

Till next year, Blueberry Hill.

You can see some of the projectrs and people right here.

Monday
Aug232010

summerlist: ready for fall?

Listen up, lazyhood. Here’s what Colleen wrote in response to my post-vacation blues the other day. It made me smile so big that I wanted to trot it out front and center and share with everyone:

Oh, how I hate the end of summer funk. I usually have a pity party for a day or two. Then I have an ode to summer weekend that includes lots of swimming, margaritas, and BBQ.

But then after that I start my fall preparation ritual. I make oatmeal raisin cookies and start thinking about camping trips (cuz it is too dang hot in TX to camp in the summer), smores, tall brown boots, football, pumpkins, cinnamon, and sippin' hot chocolate. Works like a charm every time.

It made me wonder, what end-of-summer or welcome-to-fall rituals do you have?

image by SFGirlByBay, via Poppytalk Handmade

Friday
Aug202010

summer food: summer corn with pappardelle, brown butter and herbs

A weekend recipe from Sarah, who just had a gorgeous baby boy named George!

I probably shouldn’t blurt this out on a blog about the pleasures of summer, but...I like my corn best off the cob (oh no she didn't!). Maybe it’s getting corn between my teeth, maybe it’s the butter that’s never evenly distributed along the cob, I don’t know.  But one of my more vivid culinary memories of summers as a kid was my mom sawing the leftover kernels off the cobs after dinner. I would reach up to the butcher block and grab the big platelets of corn, risking my fingers being hacked off by my mom’s dull cutlery. Corn shrapnel would fling everywhere – and surely I took a kernel or two in the eye – but no matter. It was worth the risk and better than any dessert.

Grill it, boil it, steam it in holy water - if the corn is local and super fresh, it’s going taste delicious. I personally like the toasted, caramelized taste of grilled corn best, so in this summer of laziness, I just make a few extra ears when sparking up the hardwood coals out back. When it’s time to clean up, I simply zip the kernels off the cobs, pop them in the fridge and use over the next couple of days in salads, salsas or pasta dishes like this one below. 

This is one of my favorite summer meals.  It puts my leftover corn kernels to work while also incorporating an all-star ingredient: brown butter.  Just when I thought butter couldn’t get any better, someone came along and browned it. Browning butter gives it a whole new dimension of nutty, salty deliciousness, so even thought this recipe seems like it calls for a ton, for sure don’t skimp! It’s what pulls the smokey sweet corn, the huge handful of fresh fragrant herbs, and the tender wide noodles together in complete lazy summer harmony. -Sarah

Ingredients:

2-3 ears grilled corn-off-the-cob

10 tablespoons of butter

8 ounces pappardelle, or any wide pasta you prefer

1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh herbs (sage, parsley, oregano, thyme, etc.)

kosher salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook until just al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a large saute pan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Once the foam subsides, the milk solids in the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the pan. Being careful not to let the butter burn, shake the pan from time to time, allowing the solids to toast to a deep golden brown. 

Add corn to the pan and saute in the browned butter until heated through, about 3 minutes.  Add pasta, herbs and toss well to combine. 

Take a little bite to check for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.  This makes a great side dish for four or main dish for two. Feel free to finish it off with a tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice for a little added citrus bite!

Wednesday
Aug182010

the return from vacation

After swimming, sewing, and sitting on porches for summer rainstorms, I'm back at home. And feeling a little blue. I feel like an ungrateful jerk, complaining after almost two weeks away. But it’s hard to come back to the computer and deadlines and no humidity or water to jump into. Or sisters to sit on a porch with.

It was such a good trip. When I got off the plane in Burlington, I almost wept with happiness. For the warm air and seeing my Vermont sister and a long stretch of empty days ahead. We headed for an outdoor restaurant at the edge of the lake and pulled an about-face on our drink order because there was steel drum music playing and people puttering up to the dock in dinghies and all of a sudden, a gin and tonic wasn’t going to cut it. So we swapped our order for two pina coladas and hatched a plan to houseboat around the lake next summer.

And that’s kind of how everything went. Not much planning – just bobbing along the current of each moment, each hour, each afternoon. Should we make homemade ice cream or eat a Klondike bar out of the freezer? Read a magazine or a novel? Swim now or later?

Every decision was easy and the right one. And, really, how often can you say that?

I’m not ready for summer to end. But this end-of-summer melancholy is an old acquaintance. I think it means it’s been good. So let's make the end count.

If these photos look familiar, it's because I lazed out so utterly that I didn't take many photos. So I'm borrowing these from this post last summer. How's that for lazy?

Monday
Aug162010

summer giveaway: cuisinart ice cream maker

While I am soaking up every last moment of my East Coast summer stint – every swim in the ocean and backstroke through a pond, every lazy magazine read in a hammock, and every dropping off to sleep with the sound of frogs and crickets outside the window – here is a terrific giveaway.

This relates to what I have been eating a lot of lately. Whether on the beach when the happy bell of the ice cream truck rings, or after a barbeque chicken dinner, ice cream features regularly in this summer vacation. And no surprise, really. Ice cream knows no season in my family. Sure, it shines the brightest when eaten on summer porches or while wearing flip-flops. But I grew up in family of ice cream zealots. So much so that my sister packed her ice cream maker to meet us here on the Cape for a few days, where we’ve ice-creamed (notice the invented verb) blackberries, peaches, even Japanese plum wine this week.

When we were little, my parents had a wooden ice cream maker that required rock salt and lots of cranking. So much cranking, in fact, that we didn’t make many batches after the novelty wore off. But Cusinart's Pure Indulgence Ice Cream Maker is a dead-simple affair. And they're giving one to a lucky winner who will be chosen at random after the giveaway closes at midnight PST on Friday. Please include a way to reach you, and good luck! I’ll be back later this week with more tales of the waning lazy summer days.

 

Thursday
Aug122010

summercraft: travel pantry

The other weekend, Sarah and I came up the best idea that launched a furiously happy round of high-fives: what about creating an adorable little kit to bring camping or when you rent a house and don’t know whether the cupboards will be bare? It stinks to have to buy a redundent pantry when you're away on vacation. But you also don’t want to lug everything with you. So what about some kind of sweet travel mini-pantry with smaller portions of the items you use most?

Genius! We made margaritas and wrote down all the great things to include.

Fast-forward to my arrival home. I found a perfect case at a flea market, and started collecting miniatures of what we had planned. Then the glory came to a screeching halt. I cracked open the recent Martha Stewart magazine, and my gaze fell on an impeccablely-assembled basket of kitchen items to a rental house. Dang it all!

Well, I went ahead and created this kit anyway. Because frankly, we were too amped up about the idea to pull back. And because I think our miniatures are even more practical. So I give you the traveling pantry:

I found this beat-up case at a flea market the other weekend, with a perfect top shelf for the smaller items, and a deeper bottom below for stand-up stuff. I added a little pizazz with a Lotta Jansdotter pre-cut stencil.

Then, the goods: go-to spices poured into smaller jars, some fancy salt, mustard, maple syrup, even a gorgeous tin of lobster pate! Dried mushrooms, flour, sugar, vinegar and oil. And of course, champagne.

 

Tuesday
Aug102010

summer food: serendipitous crisp

There are some indulgences that make everything better. Like not having to buy flour and sugar and cooking supplies when you rent a vacation house. Even better, when your friend brings small batches of pre-mixed crisp topping and you happen to rent a house with a plum tree in the backyard that’s offering up tiny, sweet-but-tart plums. And your husband happens to be the perfect height to reach the upper-most branches.

That’s when you know the summer gods are smiling down on you.
 
This requires the eensiest planning ahead to mix up some crisp topping and portion it into jars or bags – about a cup in each. Sarah made this before our trip, and tells me that whenever she’s making a batch, she makes extra and freezes it in little baggies so it’s ready for whatever fruit comes her way. Now I’m a convert.

It reminded me of when a group of us rented a house in wine country for a wedding of some good friends. Their dessert was potluck style, and I had signed up to bring an apple tart. I brought all the ingredients for the crust and topping to the rental house, but no apples. I hoped I might find a little farm stand along the way; but even better: I found an apple tree on the property.

I know this sounds hokey, but I believe that having some crisp topping at the ready when you rent a house or go camping is like carrying a little medallion of faith. Faith that you just might luck into a glut of ripe fruit for a lazy dessert with a perfect sense of place.

Here's Sarah’s crisp topping, adapted from Epicurious:

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into bits

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix everything together, divide into a couple smaller portions, and stand at the ready for summer fruit to present itself to you.

Monday
Aug092010

perfect summer day: amanda hesser

Every week this summer, someone I love or know or admire (or all of the above) will share their idea of a perfect summer day, real or imagined. Here’s New York Times food contributor Amanda Hesser:

My idea of a perfect summer day is to be out in Wainscott, Long Island, with my husband's family. We go there every August. I'd get up early (again, this is allowed to be my fantasy right?), do yoga with my husband, and eat breakfast out on the porch with our kids, looking out over a pond and the ocean. We'd go to the farmstand and fish shop, then bake a tart with my kids while the sun is at its hottest and it's better to be inside (just like the rabbits on the property do during the day).

Later, we'd ride bikes down the lane to the beach. There, we'd read, play in the sand with our twins, brave the ocean, maybe. We'd come back from the beach just when the sun is beginning to cast long shadows across the lawn, and here we'd play soccer with our kids and their cousins and grandfather. Then we'd shower for dinner, and have drinks on the porch. We'd read to our kids, have dinner with the family (12 or so!) around the 100-year-old table. After washing the dishes, we'd watch the night match of the US Open on television, with the family crowded into the sitting room. Then we'd be in bed by 11, just when you can start hearing the ocean waves in the humid night air.

view from the front porch, photo by Mary FrenchAmanda has been a food columnist and editor at the New York Times for more than a decade, and now writes “Recipe Redux” for the Sunday Magazine. Her writing is so lovely and evocative that I want to make every single thing she writes about. Here’s one of my favorites, from a Recipe Redux article about “Heavenly Hots:”

"Although heavenly hots sound like a late-night cable offering, they’re nothing more salacious than pancakes. Once you make them, you’ll understand the name. They are so feathery, creamy, tangy — so heavenly — that you may find yourself unable to let them cool off before devouring them…

The only problem with heavenly hots is that your first batch is likely to be a wash. The batter is very loose, and it produces pancakes — some might call them blini — that are about as sturdy as wet tissue paper. You need to take deep breaths when it’s time for flipping, and you also need to let the hots know who’s boss. Timid jabs with a spatula will not end well."

Amanda has written two award-winning books, and she played herself in the movie “Julie & Julia.” She is co-founder of the cooking site food52.com.

Friday
Aug062010

summer road trip: east coast

Well friends, I am hopping a plane and running as fast as I can into real summer. To me, this is the East Coast. Because no matter how long I live in California, I can’t help but miss summer rainstorms, lightening bugs and humidity. I have some posts lined up, but forgive me if I don’t reply to comments or emails. I plan to get busy getting lazy.

I’m off to Vermont and Cape Cod, where I hope to brew sun tea, swim in salty water, and bask in the feeling of sun-warmed skin.

What about you? Anything that’s still on your summer list?

Thursday
Aug052010

summercraft: getaway skirt

This has happened to me before. Something comes over me when vacation brain takes over. The sewing urge hits hard, as I imagine flouncing around warmer climes in a new skirt. Amy Karol has a prefect five-minute skirt how-to posted right here. But I have to confess that my deadline sewing takes on an almost reckless, devil-may-care quality. There are other times and other projects that require me to be careful and precise. But the night before leaving, as I sit at the sewing machine and simultaneously pack in my mind, is not one of those times.

This glittery knit fabric caught my eye – maybe because it looks like sand. But it's on the thin side, so I folded it twice so I had four layers. Then on top of the folded fabric, I lay down a skirt that I like the fit of. I pinned and cut, adding about ½” all around for seams.

Pin the sides, sew with a zig-zag stitch, and you don’t even need a waistband if you’re using fabric that stretches. Just fold it over. However, I had this lovely, vibrant green fold-over elastic and thought it would look nice with turquoise thread. But get this, everyone: I didn’t even fold the elastic over. Sacre bleu! I simply pinned it along the inner top of the skirt waist and zig-zagged. It looked like this as I sewed:

And I have to say, I really like the result. Not that I plan on wearing any midriff tops to show off this detail, but the unexpected green and contrasting thread is like a little secret. Notice this weird contorted angle so I could show you the waistband in closer detail:

As for the bottom hem: no thank you. I have bags to pack.

Wednesday
Aug042010

summer giveaway: alice supply co.

This week’s cheery giveaway comes from Alice Supply Co. The happy, clever company that believes “the humble dustpan’s days of being shoved away in the closet will soon be over; that a toolbox has feelings too…that beige is not a real color."

Alice Supply Co.’s range of wares lifts the mundane, whether that's a hammer or trash bag or broom.

Enter now for a chance to win a happy bucket, gardening set and spade so you can – as the fine folks at Alice Supply Co say – "dig with dignity." Leave a comment with a way to reach you, and I’ll randomly chose a winner after the giveaway closes at midnight PST Friday. Good luck!

Tuesday
Aug032010

summer food: blackberry and pink prosecco ice

There are few things more satisfying than blackberry picking. Across the street from my Dad's old house was the most enormous cluster of blackberry bushes you ever laid eyes on. Not much to look at for most of the year, but for two weeks during the summer, the thorny brier would transform into a two-block-long, 15-foot-high wall of unadulterated berry mania.

The bike path that ran alongside the bushes meant that a good many berries were picked off by weekend riders (thieves) and as the sun started to set each evening, some of the neighbors would head out with their colanders and grab what was at arms length (fortunately they were elderly). But no matter, because the choice berries were always the hardest to reach. The dark, super-fat fruit hung heavily at the top, daring to be picked. Like little sirens of the produce aisle, they would call – and I would answer. A bottle of Bactine and bag of cotton balls later, I would emerge with a bucket of fruit for the record books.  

No need to go commando in your neighbor's yard or pull over on the side of busy highways for this one, however. A few pints of berries from your farmer's market will do nicely. The color of this sorbet is spectacular and the Prosecco brings out the flavor of the fruit, while providing the smallest touch of effervescence. And really, you can use any sparkling wine you like, but since you'll have 3/4 of a bottle left over, it might as well be a cute pink one to sip chaise-side while your sorbet chills in the icebox. -Sarah

20 minutes active time

4 ingredients

4 hours of reading or napping


Ingredients:
18 ounces fresh blackberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
1 cup pink Prosecco

Preparation:
In a small sauce pan, heat water to a boil.  Remove from heat, add sugar and stir gently to dissolve.  

Blend blackberries in a food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. With the motor running, drizzle in the sugar syrup and process 20 seconds more. Add Prosecco and pulse until blended, about 10 seconds.

Strain blackberry mixture into a container, cover and freeze until firm, at least four hours.  Dig out the ol’ melon baller and scoop into your most fancy pants stemware, or eat it right out of the fridge with a spoon.

Note from Kelly: By this time next week, our trusty food editor Sarah may have her second baby! So please wish her well. Like the great person she is, she’s stacked up more delicious lazy summer recipes, so this won’t be the last we hear from her. But Sarah deserves all the effervescent blackberry ice in the world to keep her and the baby company in the wee hours of the night. I wish we lived in the same place so I could feed it to her personally. I love her that much.

And for more summer blackberry rhapsodizing, check out this post from last summer. An event that I plan to repeat before summer’s end. xoKelly

Monday
Aug022010

a perfect summer day: sfgirlbybay

Every week this summer, someone I love or know or admire (or all of the above) will share their idea of a perfect summer day, real or imagined. Here’s Victoria Smith, creator and editor of the interior and design blog, SF Girl By Bay:

A perfect summer day...well that's pretty easy to day dream about, isn't it? I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, in the Valley, just a quick ride over the hills to the beaches of sunny California. My childhood summers started here in the sixties, my dad loading us into his VW Beatle and driving us west every weekend to Santa Monica, to our favorite beach. It was pretty idyllic. Dad would set up the striped umbrella and lay down and snore, my mum would do the Sunday crossword and my brother and I would build sandcastles and ride our surfriders until our fingers turned to prunes and we collapsed exhausted and hungry in the sand.

I loved those days and can almost smell them. The salt air and the smell of sand verbena are the scents of my childhood, and whenever I get a whiff of them my mind travels instantly back to those perfect beach days. I still love the beach and a perfect day would start and end there.

I like to get up early, just as we did as kids, and find my spot on the still empty sand, preferably tucked into a little dune and close to the water. I'd lay out an old white sheet and a beach towel, and set up my vintage transistor radio. There's nothing quite like that tinny sound with golden oldies playing and the sea crashing in the background. I'd have packed a good book, and a light lunch, and a picnic dinner too. Because my favorite time on the beach is again, when it's quiet and everyone has drifted home to go start up their summer barbeque's.

I call it the 'golden hour' -- from about 4 o'clock on until sunset. You lean back in your favorite old beach chair and wrap a warm towel around your sunburned shoulders, waiting for the green flash when the sun hits the water, while enjoying a yummy sandwich and the peace and quiet. Just the crash of the endless waves and the gulls grabbing their seafood supper keeping you company. That is my perfect summer day. Thanks for allowing me to take you back there...I think I need a beach day!

Victoria’s site is a dreamy rabbit hole for me, since I am assured to love everything she finds, with her pitch-perfect eye for interiors and moods. And I adore her Sunday in the City series, because I get to see corners and details of San Francisco through Victoria's talented eye and lens. 

Thanks so much, Victoria, and I hope you get to bask in the golden hour soon!

Friday
Jul302010

summerlist: weekend summer-finding

How good is the farmer’s market and garden these days? I am literally eating summer at every meal, despite this stubborn and gloomy fog that has settled over the city. Not pictured here are the beans and peas and potatoes that are bursting forth from my wee little garden right now. Lately, the glum San Francisco weather has meant taking to the road to find summer.

By now, we’ve got a pretty good drill: escape out of the city and hit winding country roads, stopping to pick up cherries along the way. We now affectionately call them road cherries. Why did it take me this long to realize that cherries are the best roap trip food? Windows down, spitting pits out the window, I can almost hear my grandfather Papa D's 8-track playing Kenny Rodgers.

Right about when we polish off the bag of cherries, we arrive at a nearby beach, haul out a blanket, reading material and a thermos of margaritas.

Summer found.

Wednesday
Jul282010

summer food and drink: mint syrup

If you are a semi-lazy gardener like me, you might not be so vigilant keeping your mint in quarantine in your garden. I actually did go to the trouble of burying a terra cotta pot in the my veggie patch – but that dastardly, determined mint beat me and sent plucky runners out all over the garden.

When it came time for my mid-summer clean-up, I ripped up as much mint as I could, which left me with way more mint on my hands than I could drink in mojitios (and that’s a lot of mint, folks). So I turned to this magic mint syrup elixir. Like all my favorite preserving recipes, you smash everything up, add liquid, let it soak overnight, and then finish it the next day. It’s sort of remedial preserving, since you don’t have to fuss around with precise timing and boiling points. And all the while, your house smells like a Candyland board game come to life, with the sweet-spicy smell of mint forests heavy in the air.

A good glug of this syrup makes everything taste like summer: add some to lemonade, cocktails, or plain seltzer water. And if you’re still hankering to keep making after the syrup is done, doodle up a couple simple labels and presto! You’ve solved a problem in the garden plus you have sweet hostess gifts to last the rest of the season. Sha-bam!

This recipe is adapted from my all-time favorite preserving book, The River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin, which is now available in the US, hooray!

Mint Syrup (makes about four cups)

About a cup of fresh mint leaves

Juice from 1 lemon

2 cups sugar, more or less to taste

1 teaspoon sea salt

Tear the leaves into shreds. Squeeze lemon juice into a large bowl. Add the mint and pound with the end of a wooden rolling pin. Add the sugar and the salt and continue to crush the mint leaves to release their menthol essence. Leave 8-10 hours or overnight to macerate.

Pour 2 cups boiling water over the mint mixture and leave to stand another 12 hours.

Strain the syrup through a very fine sieve into saucepan. Gently bring to simmering point and simmer for a few minutes. Pour into warm, sterilized jars or bottles and seal. The syrup will keep unopened for a couple months. Once opened, store in the fridge.