Cool As The Proverbial Cucumber

The perfect summer lunch for a day that dawned clear as a bell, built the heat by 11am and promised to be even hotter in the afternoon. I had just returned from errands in the interior of Marin County where it gets really hot during the summer and wanted a light but tasty lunch.

Cucumber sandwich on plain white bread sliced as thinly as possible with the Slice-a-Slice, spread with a dab of mayonnaise and studded with thick slices of peeled cucumber.

To drink, the chamomile-mint tea I learned how to make last year - cooling and delicious. Sat down with a good book as I nibbled my way through a favorite summertime treat.

Chiffonade To The Rescue

Sometimes, things just work out for the best. Last Sunday, it was fully noon before I remembered that I had not taken anything out of the freezer for dinner. Nothing edible in the fridge; there weren't even eggs in the house.

I could have faked it by announcing brightly to My Beloved that salad with canned tuna on top is the latest foodie rage. I could have batted my eyelashes and asked to be taken out for dinner. I could have had a shower and gone to the store for provisions. Instead, I rummaged once more through the freezer drawer and ¡hallelujah! I found a lovely, local rack of lamb hiding underneath the soup stock containers.

Rack of lamb, in addition to being on My Beloved's All-Time Hit Parade of Favorite Dinners, thaws in just a few hours. *Whew!* I browned it in a wide frying pan before roasting it for about 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Perfectly pink and juicy after letting it stand for the five minutes it took to warm the last of the leftover beans and to cook the peas.

Diving into the fridge for a snack before dinner, I found a rib of celery and happened across some fresh mint, too, so I made a quick chiffonade of celery and mint leaves together to complement the lamb (worked with the peas, too). There it is, nestled at the top between the two chops.

As I said, sometimes, things just have a way of working out for the best.

Tea Ball on Steroids

Cousin J-Yah loves garage sales and she is a true connoisseur; she scopes them out in record time, rejects all the junk and manages to buy wonderful things for a song. She found my tiered stand and the crinkle cutter, for example. When she brought me this contraption, however, my faith in her was shaken.

What does one do with a tea ball on steroids? I thanked her and, after she went home, put it away in the very back of a cupboard where I put things that, frankly, I never use.

Then, I learned how to make mint-chamomile iced tea this summer, which involves immersing tea bags and crushed mint leaves in water - and then having to fish them out, one by one.

You guessed it - I rummaged around 'way in the back of that cabinet again and brought forth the perfect solution, the giant tea ball! It opens up to accommodate easily the leaves and tea bags, works to weigh them down in the water, and is easy to remove with the chain, which is long enough to wrap around the pitcher's handle so it doesn't fall in!

The woman is a genius as well as a garage sale maven!

Subtle Summer Quencher

I continued to subscribe to Sunset magazine even when I lived in the east - the gardening advice was no earthly use to me there but the recipes were always inspirational and the rest of the magazine was nostalgic. Now that I'm back in the west, I can enjoy the whole magazine, back to front, as soon as it arrives each month.

In a recent issue, they gave the recipe for a relaxing summer drink. Not having any "dried culinary lavender" on hand, I skipped that and just used the chamomile tea and mint. All you do is add about two chamomile tea bags and a cup of mint leaves, crushed in your hand, to about a quart of water and stick it in the refrigerator for a few hours. After you fish out the tea bags and the mint leaves, you are left with a lightly golden, mild and minty iced tea that really is refreshing and relaxing. I've been drinking it for weeks now and getting more and more mellow by the minute.

Or, maybe it's retirement that's so relaxing?

In any case, give this tipple a try - it's truly a summer pleasure.

Minted Pea Sauce

My Fairy Godson was visiting recently from LA so we introduced him, by way of inducement to move north, to the Berkeley Farmer's Market. There, we found a nice grass-raised rack of lamb and assorted fresh fruits and veggies such as strawberries, green garlic, artichokes and tiny carrots still with their tops on.

We hauled it all home and consulted Google to find out how to "French" the lamb rack. While I was out on the internet learning about that, I thought to ask epicurious.com for a mint sauce for the lamb, as I had some fresh mint left from the chicken I made last week. I didn't want anything sweet, just something minty and clean. What I found was this recipe for Minted Pea Sauce, perfect to use up the mint and the rest of the English peas that were languishing in my crisper drawer. The sauce is simplicity itself to make and was perfect with the (now beautifully Frenched) lamb. Now, the only question is, what can I do with the scraps of leftover lamb from the Frenching process?

Minted Pea Sauce (Gourmet, April 1998)

1-1/2 cups chicken broth
1-1/4 cups frozen peas (I used fresh and they were great - just needed to cook a bit longer)
3/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

In a 3 quart saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Add 2 cups of peas (I added them all by mistake so ended up with a smooth sauce), mint and butter to broth and simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until peas are tender. In a blender, puree mixture until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids) and pour through a fine sieve into cleaned pan. Add remaining cup 1/4 cup peas and simmer until peas are just tender, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

A Real Spring Chicken

My Beloved and I are inveterate chicken roasters. Hard to imagine a week without it. But, even such devotees as we look for a change in the cooking method from time to time. When I found a big bunch of fresh mint at the local grocery store, it was the perfect time for a spring riff.

With this recipe, all you do is prepare the chicken for roasting, oiling the skin lightly, sprinkling whatever seasonings you enjoy, prepping some new potatoes and onions to roast alongside. Then, you cram the entire cavity of the chicken with fresh mint, as much as it will hold. As the chicken roasts, the hint of mint perfumes the meat with a light flavor - it's still roast chicken but now it's a spring chicken with pizazz!