Summer in a Glass

With all due respect to my favorite beverage (coffee for those of you who didn't already guess) nothing beats a tall cold glass of iced tea on a warm summer afternoon. Having invited a few friends and some family over to celebrate July 4th in our backyard, iced tea seemed like the perfect beverage to accompany barbecued chicken and steak alongside various salads.

The mess and labor of boiling water and steeping tea for a prescribed amount of time seemed like too  much work, though. With inspiration from one of the hot trends according to my Twitter feed and other sources (cold brew coffee), boxes of black and white tea in my pantry, and a recent visit to Chicago where we sipped on amazing Argo tea drinks, I decided to try cold-brewed iced tea. Not much information exists in the form of recipes, but An Edible Mosaic had some ideas that sounded fun.

The general rule seems to be two tea bags per quart of water. I made one gallon of two types of tea, eight tea bags in each. 

White Tea with Blueberries: Put eight tea bags in a large jug and pour in one gallon of water. Add one cup blueberries. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Since I made the tea directly in the large serving jug I planned to use (the kind with a spigot for dispensing) I did not bother straining the tea, and it looked pretty with the blueberries swimming at the bottom.

Black Tea with Rosemary and Lemon Peel: Put eight tea bags in a large jug and pour in one gallon of water. Add 2-4 sprigs of rosemary and the peel of 1-2 lemons (depending on how much flavor you want from the herbs and lemon). Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.

When it came time to serve, I took the jugs straight from the refrigerator to the back porch and set out a bowl of sugar with iced tea spoons for stirring. Next time I will probably make some simple syrup since the sugar doesn't dissolve so well, of course, but most of my guests were happy to drink the unsweetened tea. The white tea was almost sweet already from the blueberries, though I think honey would be fabulous in it. An Edible Mosaic blog suggested maple syrup in the black tea. I'm also thinking some fresh ginger would be a wonderful complement to the white tea and blueberries.

Unfortunately you will have to create a mind picture as I neglected to photograph the beverages - halved blueberries swimming in a light ginger-hued jug of whitea tea alongside a dark amber-colored jug of black tea with sprigs of rosemary and bright yellow lemon peel.

Three cheers for summer and iced tea! Leave a comment if you try any other variations and come up with a new favorite.

Papardelle Bolognese

The first day of summer does not lend itself to a recipe for a heavy pasta and meat dish, you say. Here in the PNW, though, a June day can offer up a range of weather. Yesterday's version was 58 degrees and raining. It was my "Friday," and I drove home from work thinking about the papardelle from Trader Joe's languishing in my pantry. We would be unable to eat outside as we do nearly every evening in summer, so a cozy pasta meal at the dining table seemed like a great alternative. 

Papardelle bolognese is not your typical weeknight meal. The preparation takes approximately half an hour, followed by an hour and a half of simmering with amazing smells emanating from the kitchen. It is a meal more conducive to a quiet winter Saturday, but getting into my kitchen and cooking a good meal is a way to decompress from the work week.

The recipe is loosely taken from this one at Ladyberd's Kitchen and some variations from Epicurious based on the ingredients I already had in the house. Most recipes call for pancetta and some for bacon, and I had neither last night. A mix of ground meats tastes best, so last night's version here contained ground beef and crumbled Italian sausage. 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground beef

1 pound Italian sausage

2 whole tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup baby portabella mushrooms, sliced

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme (I used Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle)

3/4 cup red wine (try to find a good Italian one and use the same one you will drink with the meal)

1 cup milk

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste

Papardelle pasta, cooked according to package directions

Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. (My Le Creuset dutch oven worked wonderfully for this dish.) Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Mince the garlic into the pot during this time, and don't let the vegetables brown. 

Add the meat and increase to high heat. Cook until the meat is browned.

Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, milk, wine, tomato paste, and thyme or pasta sprinkle and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper.

Toward the end of cooking, boil water for the pasta and cook the pasta. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Buon appetito!

Suggested accompaniments: Green salad with roasted red peppers and balsamic vinaigrette

Wine pairing: 2009 Artezin Charbono, Napa Valley

Cold Foods Day

Note that this is not an official holiday. Today is really Sewing Machine Day and Vinyl Records Day. Neither of which I have much experience with.

So the title really refers to the fact that I managed to make it through the day without using my stove, oven, or microwave. It was over 80 today and the house was warm. Yeah, I know, 85 is not necessarily a heat wave in some parts but here that counts as a hot summer day and sometimes a record.
The possibilities are endless for cold summer meals, but here are some ideas.

Beet Salad
1/2 bunch Red leaf lettuce
1/2 a roasted red pepper
4 small steamed beets
1/4 cup feta

Toss with balsamic vinaigrette.
(Yes, this requires having precooked beets and pre-roasted peppers. The peppers were courtesy of my husband's last grilled meal and the beets courtesy of Trader Joe's.)

Smoked Salmon Spread
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces sour cream
8 ounces smoked salmon
Dash Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Juice from half a lemon
Dash salt
Dash black pepper

Mix and chill for about an hour. Serve with baguette (or that fabulous La Brea Bakery whole grain bread from Costco). This recipe was on the package of smoked salmon from Costco.

Caprese Salad
2 Tomatoes
2 ounces mozzarella
6-8 basil leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Dash salt & pepper

Chop and toss together in a bowl. Or just slice the tomatoes & mozz and layer with basil on a plate. This is the salad I crave in the middle of January!

Fruit Salad
1 nectarine
1 peach
1 pint strawberries
1 pint blueberries
Juice of half a lime
About 1 tablespoon honey
5 chopped mint leaves

Toss together in a bowl. Right now the farmers at the Issaquah and Renton farmers markets are selling amazingly sweet nectarines!

I hope you are enjoying your summer. It has turned into a particularly fabulous one here with warm sunny days that make me forget the rain. I have two living basil plants (they usually die on me in a few weeks) and we are actually eating tomatoes from the backyard (also not my usual experience here).