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If you’ve been visiting Sweetnicks for awhile, you probably know that we (and by we, I mean I) love “Mom Juice” (otherwise known as White Wine Strawberry Sangria).  ‘Tis one of the few ways I drink wine and, for me, the unofficial kick off to summer.  A cocktail that goes down nice and easy, or as our neighbor said yesterday when I gave her a glass over the fence, ”Too easy!”

You don’t need lots of expensive ingredients, and the method is very forgivable; I’ve changed out the strawberry for raspberry and even peach, all with the same deliciously smooth results.

Pour, mix and serve yourself up some summer.  A drink for when the livin’ is easy and your cares are few.  Bottoms up!

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One of my favorite columns in Gourmet magazine is their Ten-Minute Mains.  I mean, really, how can you not want to see what main course recipes you can make in 10 minutes, right?  Especially when it’s from Gourmet magazine.  In the April issue, they included a recipe for Capellini with Shrimp and Creamy Tomato Sauce.  True to their word, it did come together in ten minutes, and even better, I had nearly all the ingredients on hand.  Gotta love that, and with the tomatoes, it makes the perfect contribution to tonight’s round-up.  Instead of shrimp, I used some sausage we got on a Pennsylvania road trip this weekend, and I topped the dish with fresh basil from the garden.  To me, pasta with tomato sauce screams for fresh basil … well when I have it on hand, at the very least.  Would I make it again?  Although not a wow, I probably would.  A good recipe to have at the ready when time is short and appetites are running high. Normally I wouldn’t include a mid-meal picture like this, but when I spied a little helping hand (Miss Madeline!) holding my bowl for me, I couldn’t resist.

Now onto the mini round-up tonight.

Claire from Cooking Is Medicine is up first tonight with a celebration of summer with her kabobs … mmm, love mushrooms on the grill.

Patsy from Family, Friends and Food takes care of our sweet tooth with her Raspberry Streusel Bars from Cooks’ Illustrated:

Newcomer Nidhi from Charche Chauke Ke joins us this week with her Apple Peanut Canapes:

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Panzanella, an Italian bread salad, is one of my favorite go-to recipes in the summertime, and it made its first seasonal appearance last week.  Using tomatoes that I bought from the farmer’s market and basil fresh from our garden, I love eating something that incorporates just-picked ingredients, especially when they’re ours!  Some years I have better luck than others, but this year, basil has been growing fast and furious … so much so that I’m going to have to start freezing it soon just to keep up.

The Panzanella version that I usually go for is this Tyler Florence one from his Eat This Book cookbook; it’s such a great way to celebrate summer.  The picture of the recipe was one I took the first time I made it.  Recently, the folks at San Pellegrino asked if they could use my photo on their website (see screenshot below, and larger version here), and I readily agreed.  It makes me giggle to think that my salad from New Jersey is on their website on a page that talks about Italy’s old world charm, but it is absolutely flattering nonetheless. 

Haven’t tried Panzanella yet?  What are you waiting for?

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Nothing says summer more than a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade. Well, maybe Jersey tomatoes. Oh and blueberries. But you get my drift. As much as I love fresh squeezed lemonade, I have managed to go nearly 38 years without ever having made it myself at home. I kind of stuck with Country Time Lemonade. I know, it seems silly that I haven’t made it. To tell you the truth, it’s always been because of the whole simple syrup step. Just some dumb mind block.  Even though it only takes a few extra minutes, it always seemed easier to just mix powder and water together and call it a day. Silliness.  Laziness.

Until recently…

I’ve been promising Nicholas, my fellow little lemonade lover, that we would make lemonade at home this summer. And then when I spied a recipe for lemonade that omitted the whole simple syrup step altogether, I was even more eager to follow through on my promise. Last night was the night. Armed with 10 organic lemons from Whole Foods, we made half a batch of lemonade. Tomorrow’s mission is to find a pitcher large enough to accommodate a full recipe, but halving worked just fine in the meantime.

It does take a few minutes to squeeze the juice out of ten lemons, but I promise the effort is worth it. When drinking lemonade, I tend to find that it’s either too tart or too sweet, but I’ve got to say, this one was perfect. It was tart, but not so tart that I found myself reaching to add more sugar. In just a few hours, the entire pitcher we made was gone, devoured by adults and kids alike with refills all around.

So go on and taste a bit ‘o summer. You’ll be glad you did.

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