The best part about federal holidays is that most people have the day off and are able to spend time with family. Sunday and Monday, my boys and I (hubby decided to catch up on some sleep) harvested some items from our garden in preparation for today.
Salad
I unexpectantly ended up with some lettuce plants (although hubby suggests that these occurrences happen too often to be considered unexpected). This was the first time I have ever planted any lettuce and we planted three different kinds. Our boys harvested lettuce, kale, pea sprouts, nasturtium, sage blooms, sweet basil, and red rubin basil for the salad. We also cut some oregano and thyme for the dressing. The boys were not excited to make dressing once they found out we were using a mason jar. "Mommy, do we have to shake this jar forever again?" I guess their arms are still tired from making mason jar ice cream. We are still working on perfecting our recipe, but it was still pretty tasty.
Blueberry Basil Crisp
When my nieces were staying at my house, we went to Driving Wind Blueberry Farm. They had lots of fun picking blueberries. Although we do have a small blueberry bush, we needed to supplement our blueberries to have enough to make a few other blueberry based items. We also have an abundance of basil, sweet basil, red rubin basil, lettuce leaf basil, and lime basil.
On one of our date nights, my husband and I went to The Loft Restaurant and Dairy Bar at Traders Point Creamery and I had this delicious blueberry basil pie. I never thought about putting the two together, but I open to trying new food combinations. Crisp is super simple to make, so I knew it would be the perfect dessert to make with our boys.
Lemonade
Although my parents normally contribute most of the items for family gatherings, now that they are empty nesters, they expect their grown daughters to pitch-in at least one item. I told my parents I wanted to use of some of the mint in my garden and make my minty sweet lemonade for Memorial Day. Even though both of my parents frowned about what I wanted to bring, I brought it anyways. Today, for the 4th of July, my parents requested that I bring some more minty sweet lemonade. After I received that request, I reflected back to a book my parents read to me as a child Green Eggs and Ham; I guess they understand the lesson now. I agreed and not only did we make some minty sweet lemonade, we also made some blueberry lemonade using leftover blueberries from the crisp.
Pesto
A few of our basil plants started to bolt, so we picked some extra lettuce leaf basil, sweet basil, and red rubin basil. Although, my parents did decide to try the lemonade at our last family gathering, my mom refuses to try the pesto. Maybe, next time.
My boys were pretty excited that not only did they get to help make items for our 4th of July gathering, they were pretty pleased that they are beginning to remember the recipes since we have made some of these items quite a few times. Once we perfect some of the recipes, they will be posted on Gardener Shicole.
Enjoy your day! Hope you are spending it with family.