Lemon-Basil Fizz Cocktail

Remember when I made that basil syrup last week?  Well, my friend put it to good use and we had some Lemon-Basil Fizzes last night.

Here are the ingredients for a Lemon-Basil Fizz, serves 1:

-2 ounces basil syrup
-2 ounces gin
-Juice of one lemon
-Soda water
-Basil leaves for garnish

To make the basil syrup, place 2 cups packed basil leaves, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 cup water into a saucepan, and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and cover, let sit for 1 hour.  Pour basil leaves and liquid through a strainer, and store the syrup in the fridge.

To make the cocktail, pour in basil syrup, gin, and lemon in a cocktail glass.  Fill up with a few ice cubes, and then splash the top with some soda water until the cocktail is filled to the top.  Garnish with basil leaves.

We sipped on these as the water boiled for this Summer Zucchini Pasta.  Yum!

The Best Thing I Had In My Mouth - Rosemary Jones

My friend made this Rosemary Jones for me this weekend.  Sweet, refreshing, and sophisticated.  You can make it too, just check out Design Love Fest for the recipe.  Definitely the best thing in my mouth!

Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata

Sometimes I can get stuck trying to combine all my vegetables to make one main dish, but recently realized there is nothing wrong with just letting each vegetable shine on its own.  A few weeks back, I roasted a buttercup squash and beets, while my friend made some baked eggs with tomato, goat cheese, and dill.  But the best part of the meal had to be the green beans with gremolata (a traditional Italian condiment, of lemon, parsley, and garlic) from Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift's cookbook The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper.  Super soft green beans, seasoned with fresh lemon, parsley and nutty Parmigiano, you really cannot go wrong.  So I thought this would be the perfect recipe to share, since I got green beans again from my CSA this week.

Ingredients for Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata from The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper, serves 4:

-Olive oil

-1 1/2 pounds green beans, stem end trimmed

-1/2 cup water

-Shredded zest of 1 large lemon

-1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, tightly packed

-3 large garlic cloves

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper

-1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, fresh-grated

Lightly film the bottom of a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan with the oil.  Heat it over medium-high heat.  Add the beans and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Saute for 2 minutes, then add the water and immediately cover the pan, and turn the heat to medium low. Cook the beans for 15 to 20 minutes, checking them often for burning and adding a little water if necessary.  You want the beans to become very tender.

While the beans are covered and cooking, make the gremolata.  In a food processor, mince together the lemon zest, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Stir half of the mixture into the cooking beans.  Blend the rest of the gremolata into the grated cheese and set aside.

When the beans are tender, uncover them, cook off any liquid in the pan, and turn them into a serving bowl.  Toss the beans with the reserved cheese-gremolata mixture.

Enjoy!

Red, White, and Blueberries

Last week, I spent a few evenings making three different kinds of frozen yogurt to create homemade bomb pops.  I made sour cherry for the red, tangy lemon for the white, and blueberry for the blue - duh.  Overall, these gourmet bomb pops were tasty, but the blueberry frozen yogurt kind of fell flat.  I think my problem was that I let the yogurt mixture sit in the refrigerator a couple of nights before I made the popsicles, and it created a more vegetable-like flavor.  It was disappointing to say the least.  On the upside, the lemon and sour cherry frozen yogurt are very delicious and perfect for this hot weather.  I ended up marbling the two leftover frozen yogurts together.  It is a great sweet and sour combination.  I will admit that this took some dedication, but I am glad I did it.  It was perfect for the Fourth of July and I was happy to use my new Tovolo popsicle molds I received for my birthday.  All recipes were adapted from none other than David Lebovitz.  The sour cherry and blueberry frozen yogurt are from The Perfect Scoop, while I found the tangy lemon frozen yogurt in the Los Angeles Times.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Sorbet

Last week I made strawberry-rhubarb sorbet with the produce from my CSA.  This recipe is of course from my favorite book, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.  Although it was a refreshing treat for my hot and stuffy apartment, I couldn't help but wish I had made ice cream instead.

Here is the recipe for David Lebovitz's Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet from The Perfect Scoop (makes about 1 quart):

-12 ounces of rhubarb
-10 ounces of strawberries, rinsed and hulled
-2/3 cup water
-3/4 cup sugar
-1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed

To begin, wash the rhubarb and trim the stem and leaf ends.  Cut rhubarb into 1/2-inch pieces.

Place the rhubarb, water, and sugar in a medium, nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the rhubarb is tender and cooked through.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

While the rhubarb is simmering, slice the strawberries.

Combine the cooled rhubarb and strawberries in the food processor until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to to the manufacturer's instructions.

Enjoy!

Lemon Curd

In May I got to go to my favorite city - San Francisco!  Although it was a business trip, I still had time to eat at some great restaurants and try some sweets.  The best part though, was staying at the California designer director's bungalow in Oakland.  She has lemon and lime trees in her backyard.  So dreamy!  She let me pick as many as I could take in my suitcase - so ended up picking a dozen.

May was quite the busy month filled with packing and moving, so I was totally bummed that I hadn't had time to use them.  Luckily most of them kept pretty well.  Supermarket lemons are no competition for these lemons.  They are extra lemony, have super smooth skin, and seem a bit more on the sweeter side rather than the tart side.  I thought lemon curd from the book jam it, pickle it, cure it and was the perfect way to showcase them.  It was pretty simple - juice the lemons, cut some butter, break some eggs, combine with sugar, and stir on the stove top.  The worst part was waiting for it to cool :)

Lemony Angel Food Cake

When I received my May 2009 Martha Stewart Living magazine not only was I thrilled to find recipes for asparagus and pickled beets, but as I flipped to the final page I found a lovely photo of lemony angel food cake.

I love angel food cake with a passion. In fact, I don't really care for any cake but angel food. There are plenty of reasons why angel food cake is so wonderful: