Image via WikipediaI worked all day in the garden, two days in a row, and for lack of inspiration, I'm just going to tell you what I had for dinner last night. Or rather, what I had to drink with dinner. Drinks are much more interesting... My mint has exploded out of bounds, as it has tendency to do, so I pulled up a few miles of runners and snipped a healthy bunch. Lucky for me, some of my favorite drinks are minty: the mint julep, the mojito, lemonade with mint (crushed, in the pitcher - try it!), even plain ice water with a spring of mint is yummy on a hot day. Last night I went for mint tea.
It's not the mint tea from your grocer. It's not even the Touareg tea in the picture - although that's really good too. Moroccan Touareg tea can involve a whole ceremony. They use green tea and sugar, but all I did was grab a couple bags of lipton and three long springs of mint and steep it in a pot. No sugar for me, but I do add a little zip of milk. Purist I am not. Except for the fresh mint part. There really is no substitute.
It's a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean thing to use mint in every imaginable place besides tea too....in salads, with meats, in soups, on pasta, in jajic (yogurt sauce). Mint is a good thing to keep in steady supply. Just remember to pot it up, or at least put it where you don't mind a minty takeover.
Mint is surprisingly powerful. I once tried it with just plain ice water and it was amazing--the most refreshing thing I've ever tried. Sounds like you've got quite a garden!
ReplyDeleteOh I love mint but they do take over don't they?!?! When I used to have a garden, I made the mistake of planting so many varieties of mint cos I loved their smell but they just grew mad and I spent a summer digging them all up!! I now have one in a pot and it's great!
ReplyDeleteOh that pic of fresh mint in a tall glass of tea just looks so refreshing! Yum!
Take care
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That tea looks delicious. I lived in North Africa (Algeria) for awhile as a kid, and I got hooked on sweet, mint tea. Now, I grow it in my garden and add it to salads, drinks and more. I make the tea hot in the winter, and pour it over ice in the summer. Yum!
ReplyDeleteLast I tried, I wasn't wild about mint, but it always looks so good I want to try again and see if maybe my taste has changes (hope hope hope!)
ReplyDeletebut your hands smell so good when you "weed" it... A neighbor gave me mint a few years back and it took over. I really liked the smell. JRM doesn't like the weedy drinks, though--LOL! :D <3
ReplyDeleteMint tea is wonderful just about anytime.
ReplyDeleteThose are great ideas! I have a whole patch of mint in my backyard. I never know what to do with it, but now my mind is buzzing! =)
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