When tomatoes are is season, or growing on my vines if I’m lucky, I preserve them in any way I can think of. I make sauce, tomato soup base and just plain old puree and stack them up in ziptop bags in the freezer. Sometimes I can whole tomatoes, but now I’ve learned you can freeze them whole for later cooking. This year, I’ve been looking for a new and … [Read more...] about Homemade Bloody Mary Mix (with canning instructions)
Drinks
Cherry Bounce
Cherry season is beginning, or at least fresh cherries are showing up in the markets here. We don’t grow cherries locally, so when I start to see them at the grocery, I buy them up. I love cherries, so I try to make the season last as long as possible. I bake with the beauties, make preserves, and frankly, just leave a basket on the counter and eat them throughout the day. … [Read more...] about Cherry Bounce
Freshly Minted Lemonade
This weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer. That means vacations and swimming and long, lazy days and all sorts of good things. But, for my part of the world at least, it also means heat and humidity. So a tall, cool drink is always in order. There is just something so refreshing about tangy lemonade, and at this time of year, with the mint plants beginning to … [Read more...] about Freshly Minted Lemonade
Honeysuckle Cordial
I have an unruly privet hedge. I know it can look a little shaggy and overgrown. I know my neighbor doesn’t like it. Landscapers have tried to clean out my hedge, make it neat and groomed. But at the end of April every year, and again, briefly, in September, that privet is wildly overrun with honeysuckle. And I adore honeysuckle. I stand in the driveway in the … [Read more...] about Honeysuckle Cordial
Pimm’s Cup
The build up to the royal wedding continues, and I feel that it is time to share my instructions for the perfect, the quintessential British cocktail, Pimm’s Cup. Pimm’s is a liqueur, with a long held secret recipe, the subject of much speculation. You’ll find it at any good liquor store in the liqueur section. There is nothing better than a tall, icy glass of Pimm’s on a … [Read more...] about Pimm’s Cup
