rosemary

Herbal Limeade

July 26, 2018

Herbal limeade is one of those things that you don’t really know what you are missing until you try it. It doesn’t necessarily sound all that appetizing or refreshing, but I guarantee it is both!

My love of herbal limeade started thanks to one of my favorite restaurants in Charlotte. They make this amazing limeade that is actually blended with rosemary, mint, and basil. It’s definitely more herbal than limeade, but it totally works!

It’s like a green drink that you actually WANT to drink.

Since I can’t get my hands on their herbal limeade around Atlanta, I thought I would venture into making my own! My version is more limeade than herbal, but it’s still totally delicious and extra refreshing.

Perfect for Summer!

How to Make It

Start by making your herbal simple syrup. If you have your own herb garden, raid it for a few sprigs of rosemary, mint, and a couple basil leaves. The main flavors in this limeade are rosemary and mint, so you will want more of those two.

Place the sugar, water, herbs, and the zest of one lime into a small saucepan. Let it simmer until all the sugar has dissolved. Then turn off the heat and let the simple syrup cool with the zest and herbs still in there to extract as much flavor as possible!

While that cools, squeeze the heck out of a bunch of limes (and a few lemons). Limes are stubborn little suckers and don’t give up their juice easily, so if you have a juicer NOW is the time to use it!

Strain the lime juice into a fresh container to get rid of any seeds or pulp (unless that’s your jam), then strain the simple syrup to remove the herbs and zest.

Add the syrup to the lime juice then add enough water until it suits your taste. I typically stick to 1 part lime juice to 2-3 parts water.

Stick a few more sprigs of rosemary and mint in there to keep the herbal flavor alive and well while you sip on your delicious, refreshing, and (dare I say) healthy (?) beverage!

Tools and Recipe

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Roasted Strawberry and Rosemary Scones

May 20, 2016

Leave it to me to find breakfast inspiration from a drink. Last week we had friends in town which is all the excuse I needed to indulge in a fancy cocktail. We took them out to one of our favorite restaurants that is more of a speak-easy bar than a restaurant, so you can probably imagine how great the drinks are. I can’t even tell you what I ordered except that it had muddled strawberry and a rosemary sprig. I would have never thought to put the two together before, but they were delicious! As I was taking my first sip I immediately thought that this would make a great scone or muffin recipe. Minus the gin, of course.

I didn’t just want this to be any old strawberry scone, so along with a hint of rosemary, I roasted the strawberries for an extra, unexpected flavor. Roasted strawberries are just a little bit sweeter, softer, and since the juice has had a chance to cook out, they mix in perfectly with the scone dough so that it isn’t too soggy

The rest of the scone recipe is pretty basic, almost like a biscuit dough. Cubes of butter are cut into the flour and sugar and then mixed with milk, an egg, and some vanilla. I have ruined a few scone recipes before by over mixing the dough, so now I know that it’s okay if the dough is a little lumpy. In fact, it’s preferred. All those little lumps of butter will melt and make the scones light and flaky!

Right at the end, I mixed in some chopped up fresh rosemary leaves and the roasted strawberries. Typically I roll out the dough and cut it into rounds, like biscuits (0r you could cut them into wedges). In an attempt to be a little rustic (and because I was lazy), I just dropped spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet. And then because they looked a little too rustic once baked, I camouflaged them with a drizzle of strawberry glaze made with the reserved strawberry juice and some powdered sugar.

I will admit, I was a little nervous about the rosemary in a sweet and fruity scone, but it just worked! Normally I pair rosemary with garlic so I think of it as a savory herb, but now I know it doesn’t have to be.

But if that doesn’t convince you, you can just drop the rosemary all together and just make these roasted strawberry scones, instead. They will still be delicious!

Also, if you haven’t signed up for Yummly, I would highly recommend it! It’s a great way to find and collect recipes. If you are on Yummly, I would really appreciate it if you “Yum” my recipe,by clicking that little orange button.

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