I'm a little surprised I made this...

Not being a huge raw tomato fan, I'm surprised that I made this salad.  However, having purchased cherry tomatoes for pasta salad and then realized that pasta salad wasn't going to work for this week...they needed a home.

This lovely salad accompanied some very savory buttermilk biscuits.  I have wonderful luck with the Smitten Kitchen biscuit recipe.  Not being the sort of person who can leave well enough alone, and having a mild addiction to caramelized onions...I included about half of a caramelized onion.  Very large chunks. I added a little cheese and some rosemary as well.   I really should have photographed the biscuits before I ate them, but that would have required not having a biscuit in both hands.

Recipe:

1/2 pint tomatos
1 large cucumber
1 large yellow pepper
2-3 mint leaves
2-3 stalks green onion

Dressing:
1/3 c balsamic vinegar
1/3 c molasses

Cut the tomatoes into bite sized pieces.  Dice the cucumbers and pepper.  Very finely chop the mint leaves and green onion.  Mix.  (Note: I added garlic - I would not recommend this!)

You can dress in the bowl or provide at service.  If choosing to dress in the bowl, note that the lovely colors will take on a slightly less pleasing brownish hue.  Fine at home, less good if you have company.

The recipe

I recently remembered that there is a farmer's market less than a mile from our house.  Not only that, but I remembered while out.  Clearly, this was a coincidence that required action.  After impulse buying fresh mint and ginger, I had to google something to do with them.  You saw the result on the previous post, here is the preparation...and the recipe.

In case they ever take down the recipe on me...here are the details.

2 fresh limes - juiced.  should make ~1/4 c juice
2/3 c white rum  - I'm not fond of the flavor of rum so I spent a little more and got some mid grade rum so that the flavor would not come through too much
10 mint sprigs (+ more for garnish)
1/4 c sugar
2 Tbls fresh ginger, minced  - I shaved mine with a fine microplane
2 c club soda

Combine all but the club soda in a dish.  Add in the lime peels and mash together.  My chemistry training made me a little unhappy with the dissolution rate of the sugar in this mix, but the concentrate was tasty so maybe it's not all supposed to dissolve.  Let sit for ~20 minutes.  Because I shaved the ginger, I would recommend paying attention to the time lest the ginger get away from you.

Strain out the solids.  As my ginger was very fine, I ended up needing cheesecloth for this.  If one didn't shave the ginger, this recipe would certainly be easier and more forgiving. That being said, I'm totally shaving the ginger again.  (Apparently, I purchased a year's stock of cheesecloth at some point.)

Pour over ice and add club soda.  Garnish with mint sprigs.

Taking a few days off

Why, pray-tell, this sudden return to blogging?  Well, after the insanity that has been my summer, I took a week off from work.  So, other than fielding a few e-mails, no 'work' here!

Lily Pond 2

I very rarely notice reflection photo opportunities.  I'm glad that I caught one.