vermontucky lemonade

what has summer brought you so far? good things, i hope? summer has brought motorcycle rides/commutes for me, rosé-and-baguette picnics, farmer’s market dinners, cookouts with friends, and endless warm afternoons by the pool with the dogs lounging nearby. grilled pizza from my mom’s kitchen. my husband and i making our way, for the second time, through the best tv show ever on Instant Netflix. bringing the intensity to workouts with my girls at the gym. not too many sunburns, not enough concerts, frosty buckets full of ice and beers in the back of my truck, traveling to outdoor movie nights. saturday brunches at our favorite dive. berry picking, beach trips, bicycle rides. windows down, mosquito bites. summer is pretty great i think.

ultimate best summer jam: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Rebels. there isn’t anything Tom Petty does wrong. though this is a definite highlight.

best summer community love: running events raising money for a new pedestrian bridge that would connect our two major parks! see you at one of them soon!

favorite summer barkeep: Rob the Bartender at La Capitale, as always. the best in the west. pours  those gin fizzes quickly and icy-cold. also: best late-night grilled cheese sandwich!

ultimate summer pick-me-up: Stumptown cold brew stubbies

i don’t normally drink caffeine, but since i had been reading about these locally-brewed hardcore bottles, spying one in the coffeeshop right next door to my office had me tempted. i drank about an inch of it and was unbelievably wired. cold-brew coffee is heaven in summer, i make jars of it at home (decaf), and this was so tasty. and also the closest i have ever been to being sincerely high. i had my husband drink the rest of it and he agreed on it’s potency. a good kick in the pants. recommended.

finally, my favorite element of summer this far: Vermontucky Lemonade.

our friends have helped us consume  large quantities of this while sitting in lawn chairs with our feet in their kid’s pool (we seem to be enjoying the pool a bit more than the little guy has) on warm Saturdays. it’s kind of perfect. this is a cocktail for people who don’t care for cocktails, suitable for a dinner party, pool party, or a sunday afternoon in your PJs (i won’t tell). a zingy, freshly-squeezed lemonade base takes a maple syrup hit and a glug of your favorite bourbon. mix with ice and club soda — don’t bother making them in single glasses, you’ll need a pitcher’s worth.

this is summer living.

 

recipe from smitten kitchen

• 2 pounds lemons
• 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup maple syrup (pure or homemade)
• good bourbon
• club soda

squeeze the lemons and mix in a large pitcher with maple syrup to your taste-preference of sweetness. add about 2 cups club soda and enough ice to yield about a quart of maple lemonade.
we mix the bourbon right in (i don’t measure), but if you have varying strength-level preferences, pour bourbon and lemonade separately into each serving glass. enjoy.

home-brewed chai tea

my husband and i recently returned from a peaceful, sunny weekend at the Oregon coast with some dear friends who are wonderful people; they’re great at cooking, great at being attractive and merciless at Monopoly. we stayed in a beautiful 3-story home on the Nestucca River bank, with a backyard fire pit, huge windows, and commercial kitchen range from which we fed our group of seven from scratch, every meal. such fun i had cooking with my friends! i’ll have to get a guest post from Victoria for her fantastic salmon burgers with leeks and spinach. we ate, a lot. a lot.

i brewed some of my favorite chai tea, too, drinking in a fragrant, spicy cup while the sun came up over the river, or while we cooked 2 dozen eggs for breakfast in our sweats (heated tile floors, yes!). it was a true vacation — the internet went out in the previous week’s storm, and the expensive-looking flat-screen tv failed to work. we had wonderful company and wonderful weather!… didn’t even miss Draw Something. plenty of spicy tea and strong coffee and card games, indeed.

real homemade chai tea so simple and so striking; i wonder why i don’t make it more often. the warm aromatics remind me of last summer, when i stayed with my sister in Brooklyn, New York. she made chai for us each morning, and between hair damp from the shower and hair damp from the summer humidity, we sipped this tea in the 85-degree morning heat. it powered us up for warm walks to the train, where the air pressed even stronger and warmer at the underground platforms. chai fueled our adventures of live music, museums, Manhattan and Momofuku. i love the spices, the licorice-y anise and the peppery black tea, made creamy with hot milk. the flavors of the whole spices are so big and full, invigorating. it also doesn’t cost $4 for a cup, nor your drive-through coffee shop barista’s attitude. you should try it! enjoy!

chai tea

makes about 4 1/2 cups

look in your grocer’s bulk bins for inexpensive spices

• 2 whole star anise pods
• small handful green cardamom pods (about 10)
• small handful black peppercorns (about a heaping tablespoon)
• 2 teaspoons whole cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 3 slices peeled fresh ginger root
• 1/3 cup loose black tea, such as Darjeeling

• raw sugar or honey (optional)
• milk

with a mortar and pestle, or using the flat blade of a knife and the heel of your hand, slightly crush the cardamom pods and peppercorns.

bring 5 cups of cold, filtered water to a boil. remove from heat and add first six ingredients; cover and steep for about 15 minutes. add tea, stir. cover and steep for 3 minutes. strain into a nonreactive container. cover and store in the fridge (this turns it cloudy, but that will not affect taste).

this is a concentrate; mix one part chai with one part milk and heat to serve. sweeten if desired.