I think we can safely say, "Happy Summer" now that we have a heat index over 105 degrees. My childhood memories of summer are nothing short of glorious. I spent every single day at the swimming pool with my friends, basking in the joy of being out of school for three whole months. I stayed up until the wee hours, knowing I could sleep in until noon, at which time I would eat a pickle and cheese sandwich, watch Days of Our Lives, and then go to the pool. Plus, there was fireworks, my birthday, very minimal clothing, and watermelon!
Now I am an adult and it is dawning on me that I am not actually a Summer Person. I dread the week long barrage of fireworks that terrify my cat and daughter. My birthday is not as exciting as it once was now that I have been able to drive, vote, and drink alcohol for well over a decade. Two children later and I'm much more of a jeans, cardigan, and supportive shoes type of gal. Flip flops? Pfft. I still love swimming, but I spend much less of my pool time tanning with Banana Boat SPF -2 and much more of that time keeping my kids from drowning, getting sun burns, and being carried off by swarms of mosquitoes. I still like watermelon, so that one can stay. My fourteen year old self is aghast.
All of this is to say, the three month countdown to cooler weather has begun! In the meantime, this is the time of year that I don't cook. Much. If I can help it. (We meet again, pickle and cheese sandwiches.) So this month I'm not giving you a recipe, per se. I'm going to give you a Dark Cherry Balsamic at 20% off (hooray sale balsamic!) accompanied by suggested ways to use it.
The first is, of course, on a salad. My absolute favorite salad so far this summer has been fresh dark cherries, spinach, goat cheese, and shelled pistachios or pecans drizzled with Black Cherry Balsamic and Eureka Lemon Olive Oil. You will never regret making this salad, maybe for every meal. Go ahead and grab a Country Loaf of crusty sourdough from Dirty Apron to sop up what's left at the bottom of your bowl. Since I refuse to turn on my oven, I let other people bake my bread in this heat. A slight breakfast variation is whole milk yogurt, pitted fresh cherries, shelled pistachios or pecans and a drizzle of Black Cherry Balsamic. Can you guess what I have been eating every day? You could grill a pork tenderloin or chops and serve it with the Black Cherry Balsamic drizzled over it for a sweet, tart finish. You could add it to some sparkling water with a bit of lime for a cherry limeade. Throw in a Tablespoon or two to your cherry pie filling this 4th of July or serve it over vanilla ice cream. (Speaking of, we are closed Wednesday, July 4.) Basically, any way you shake it, this is your Summer Time Balsamic.So...store news! We have a new lovely lady working some afternoons. Her name is Logan and she is especially wonderful. You will like her a lot. We also have some adorable new kitchen towels, which are not quite as exciting as a new shop lady. But they are cute, with their whimsical screen printed designs and all. We are saying a temporary goodbye to the Raspberry Balsamic and replacing it with the often requested Wild Blueberry Balsamic. It is blueberry season, after all! I hope you enjoy it. If you are in love with the Raspberry, we still have several bottles poured up that you can horde until we get it back next year. On a sadder note, our distributor has discontinued the Cayenne Chili Olive Oil. What we have left is all there is. I'm not quite sure what we're replacing it with, but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
We're running a bit low on our Extra Virgin Olive Oils because I am being stubborn and waiting for the Southern Hemisphere crop to become available. However, if the updated list isn't out by the end of this week, I'll reorder our Northern Hemisphere oils and that will be just fine. Sorry for any inconvenience to you guys, I just get so excited about rotating out the harvests! I'm still convinced that the new crop will be out any day now. Any day...
Well, I think that sums it up. Get it? Sums...summer? Stay cool out there. Have a safe and happy Independence Day. Enjoy your Black Cherry Balsamic everything. See you soon.
Cheers,
Andrea
