Food Friday: Summer Coolth

Summer is here and the long, hot days are just around the corner. You don’t want to hide inside with the air conditioning all of the time, but dashing from the car across the sticky black tar pit of a parking lot into the office (or the grocery store) and back out to the now heated to a NASA space shuttle re-entry temperature automobile can take its toll on your otherwise sunny and winsome nature. It is stinking hot, and you need relief. Let me introduce you to some cool beverages that will make the hell-fire of summer bearable.

You need to take advantage of all the fresh fruit that is available right this very minute. Come January you will be longing for fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Sure, you can buy them in the grocery store deep in the gelid winter, but Chilean blueberries in January will not be the luscious, warm, sapphire globes of sweet Eastern Shore goodness that you can toss into your blender this weekend. Think of all the fresh fruit you can fling into a Pimm’s Cup, or a tall pitcher of pink lemonade.

Traditional Pimm’s Cup

2 ounces Pimm’s No. 1
4 ounces English lemonade or lemon-lime soda
Mint sprig, cucumber slice, strawberry slice and apple slice, for garnish (Be an impetuous American and add a handful of berries from the farm stand. We did rebel against the British once as you may well remember.)

Add ice to a tall, chilled glass. Pour in the Pimm’s and lemonade. Stir gently, and garnish assorted and sundry fruits. A tall, tawny Pimm’s Cup is the civilized restorative on a steamy afternoon spent playing endless games of cut-throat croquet.

And watermelon. Watermelon! When have you sought the cooling relief of watermelon in January? Get out the blender. This is delicious enough to make you weep. And while you can never recapture the childhood bliss of eating watermelon sitting on the grass, under the picnic table, listening to the grownups natter on, this watermelon slushy makes up for the indignity of having turned into a grownup yourself. Watermelon slushie: https://www.health.com/recipes/watermelon-slushie

I hope Mr. Hemingway was proud of his innovations in both writing and mixology. He advanced modern American fiction and left his mark at Harry’s Bar in Venice, while also erfecting this darling daiquiri with the addition of healthy grapefruit juice in Key West. Thank you, Ernest. Your accomplishments are legion.
Pink Daiquiri : https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pink-daiquiri

Be sure to have gallons of lemonade on hand. We do not need cocktails all of the time. What else can you possibly drink out on the front porch as you loll on the glider, your limp paperback drooping in your hand, waiting for a breeze to kick up the sworls of grass clippings along the sidewalk?
Lemonade: https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/homemade-lemonade/
For the adults, for later on, when the fireflies are beginning to twinkle, and you haven’t got the energy to fire up the grill, you can drink these irresistible limoncello collins cocktails.
Limoncello Collins https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/limoncello-collins

I’m sure that month ago Martha planned and prepared buckets of her own cottage-made limoncello for one of her intimate summer photoshoots, but here is a recipe if you want to get a jump on making a batch of your own for Labor Day festivities. I do not have the patience to wait for the aging process. I’ll buy some convenient store-bought limoncello.
Homemade limoncello: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/homemade-limoncello-1236891

And in a pinch you can always add lots of fresh fruit to canned frozen drink mixtures you pick up at the grocery store. Pina coladas look heavenly with a purple tinge from generous supplements of local blueberries and raspberries. Imagine all the coolth of frozen drink concoctions, with a good dose of healthy antioxidants and vitamins. As my mother was wont to say, virtue is its own reward.

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”
Russell Baker