 It is officially summer not only by the calendar, but by the container of green demons in my freezer. I love this margarita drink but be aware of the name. It tastes so delicious you will be tempted to drink too much at which point you will fall at the feet of the demon!
As Big Guy would say, why have one liquor when you can have three! This drink calls for one part tequila, one part Midori, and one part Cointreau. I usually add nine parts of sweet and sour mix, but depending on my container, I may mix in a little extra of the liquors to top it off! This is a fun drink for summer and very refreshing on a hot day. Just remember it is green on purpose to help you remember to avoid becoming green for the wrong reason!
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 I love bananas, but two summers ago, made me weary of them. It was not the fault of the banana, but of me for not noticing the stray banana behind a load of bread. It quietly went about rotting on my counter until it caught the attention of an army of ants as it was next to an open window. Yikes!
It took a while, but I recently started buying bananas again to add to my smoothies. You bet your bottom dollar; I am watching my bananas very carefully now. I noticed two of them were turning more quickly than my smoothie schedule. I jumped on the internet to find out if I could freeze my bananas for future use. YES! This turned out to be the perfect solution that solved my fear of rotting bananas and the return of the dreaded ants! Win one for the home team!  Big Guy and I stopped by our favorite watering hole, Pietro’s. We got there during the sweet spot when the bar is quiet with a chill and laid-back vibe before the crowds arrived for dinner. It was the perfect time for us to enjoy happy hour.
We ordered our usual signature drinks, a martini for me and a rusty nail for the Big Guy. We sat and talked about our day enjoying the passing of people who were arriving for their special events at the restaurant. We decided to eat in the bar since we were enjoying the atmosphere. Big Guy got the Chef’s Special Salad with Chicken and I opted for the Pasta Piselli. As I dug into my pasta of bow tie noodles with snap peas tossed in olive oil and garlic, Big Guy asked if I wanted his cherry tomatoes. An idea was born. I never finish my pasta so I asked for a box with the notion I would bring the remainder home to create a second meal out of it as a pasta salad. I added fresh basil, a little more garlic salt, and extra parmesan cheese. The perfect side to my lunch the next day!  Big Guy came into the house excited to report some of our tomatoes are coming in and should be ready to harvest soon. He plucked a Candyland tomato to eat and enthusiastically told me the flavor exploded in his mouth. I was about to be envious when he told me there was another ripe cherry tomato on the bush for me. I just about knocked him over to get my piece of the action. Wow, he was not kidding! As I looked around, the Roma and San Marzano tomatoes are forming and getting big. Our cherry tomatoes look good too. I am most excited about our heirloom tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple has been on the vine for over a week, but it is starting to turn now. I am dreaming of bruschetta with that bad boy!   Big Guy and I have been adding basil plants to our garden for over 30 years. There is something special about fresh basil in salads, pasta, and bruschetta in the summertime.
As we tend to get large plants, Big Guy encouraged me to make my pesto sauce early, so we enjoy the peak flavor from the basil leaves. He was spot on as it seems the pesto is brighter and more flavorful this year. I know I will use some of the pesto this summer, but I froze it into ice cube trays so I can pull them out and use them in pasta sauces in the dead of winter. It will be a kiss of summer back in my kitchen to brighten any dreary day.  Big Guy loves to buy me gadgets for the kitchen to make my life simple. I never realized how much I needed a funnel until he bought me two sizes. Suddenly, I could measure and pour ingredients without making another mess to clean up.
I now have multiple sizes for any job. A small one to add vodka to my vanilla beans. The next size up which allowed me to fill my pesto neatly and evenly into my ice cube trays. The larger size is perfect for filling my pantry containers with everything from coffee, tea, and other dry ingredients. If you are like me, consider this my public service announcement. It saves you extra clean up time and the funnels are dishwasher safe!  The lettuce is long gone from the Carondelet Garden, but here come the beans and sugar snap peas. Big Guy was not keen on getting another bean plant as we had an epic failure last year, but I found a healthy plant @greenscapegardens_stl. I was assured by the gardener working there that the plant was a winner and would produce a lot of beans. Plus, it had Kentucky in its name so my neighbor would approve of it as well. I am happy to say we did get a bumper crop with our sugar snap peas starting to come in now. I have already been adding them to the last of my frozen soups to enhance the flavors and give it a little of summer love. I plan to blanch the remainder of the beans and peas for the freezer. I loved that I could grab them out of the freezer throughout the fall and winter to add to my recipes.   Summertime is not complete without making sun tea. It is a great way to enjoy a deeper and richer flavor from your tea. If you have never made it, the recipe is easy. I use a large mason jar, fill it with water and tea, then set it outside and let the sun do its magic.
I also decided this summer to use my mint that I originally planted to use in my mint juleps for the Kentucky Derby. It was the perfect blend of mint and tea with the added benefit of aiding our digestive systems! I am ready to play with my recipe and may try to use lemons in my next batch. It should be the perfect Arnold Palmer without the added sugar. I can taste it already!  Big Guy and I recently had the joy of going to the home of our dear friends to help celebrate the one-year birthday of their beautiful daughter. As usual, the entire party was perfect. After the drought of COVID, it was wonderful to be among family and friends celebrating one of many milestones for this little angel.
I am a big fan of most cookies, but I get giddy when I see cookies made for special occasions. There is something magical about a basic butter cookie that gets elevated with frosting on top. As I passed the dessert table, there they were…a simple cookie in the shape of a number one. The best part was finding out grandma made them with love from her kitchen. Heaven!  Our dear friends fell in love with a Sous Vide. It sounds intimidating thanks to the name, but they found the cooking process to be very easy and a wonderful tool to cook and tenderize tougher cuts of meats. If you do not know what a sous vide is, you place your meat into a vacuum sealed package and immerse it into water. The sous vide attaches to the side of your pot, circulates the water, and cooks your meat to the perfect temperature. Thanks to our friends, we now have our own Sous Vide as they insisted the Carondelet Kitchen had to have one. Big Guy took over the meal prep and echoed our friend’s review. He noted the cooking process was made very easy by the app added to his phone which monitored the Sous Vide to assure the perfect experience. It is yet another modern convenience that makes cooking today so much fun!
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AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
October 2024
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