Blackberry Mojitos

I get all jealous when I hear people waxing on poetically about the perfect summer drink that they sip relaxingly on lazy Sunday afternoons, on a porch, with their significant other.  For some reason, I want that.  And really, I don’t have anything that has been holding me back from this lazy summer nirvana.  I’ve got the porch, with a cute wrought iron table and chairs set, with French doors that open into my living room and kitchen, with my cute, little herb garden.  I’ve got the boy, and he’s cute too.  What I don’t have is the perfect drink.   So without further ado, may I introduce round one, contender numero uno in the “Let’s find Liz a good summer drink” contest: blackberry mojitos

And what a winner we have already. I was already in love with this drink just from muddling the sugar and mint leaves. The fragrance was delicious and all I could think about was making a sugar scrub out of it and then wanting to bathe in it. So very luck for me, I was able to refrain. And then it gets better. You add the blackberries, rum and lime, crush it up a bit and... really, all I can say is that there should be a mint blackberry lime jam, and I would probably want to bathe in that too. Sure, it might die my skin purple, but I'm thinking it just might be worth it. Alright, we've gotten on a weird tangent here, so let's just put our computers down, whip up a glassful of blackberry mojito and call it a wonderful, sun shine filled, summer day.

Blackberry Mojito
adapted from fork vs. spoon

For 1 serving:
1 Tbsp. Sugar
~10 mint leaves (I used a mix of spearmint & sweet mint)
6-8 blackberries
1 oz. rum (2 Tbsp.)
1/2 lime
3-4 oz. sparkling water

Add sugar and mint leaves to glass. Muddle together to release oils and fragrance from leaves. Add blackberries, rum and juice of lime half. Muddle again to create drink base. Add ice and top off with sparkling water.

Sit on porch, kick back and enjoy!

Blackberries Brown Sugar Gratin

Today was a somewhat frustrating day.  I think it has finally dawned on me that you don’t get a spring break in the real world.  Sure you can take vacations and go places, but really, that’s not Spring Break.  It’s nice, it’s just not Spring Break.  So with that lovely, large gray cloud hanging low over an otherwise beautifully sunny day in South Carolina, I decided I needed something very delicious, a little bit unhealthy, and preferably warm and gooey. Here's what came out of that:

What initially made me think of this recipe was Maggie, Ben’s mom.  When I was in Seattle, she introduced me to strawberries dipped in sour cream and brown sugar, a trick she learned while living in Santa Barbara.  And as unpleasing as that initially sounds, it’s incredibly tasty and easy to do.  I had left over sour cream from my fish taco creation episode that I wanted to use before it went bad and instantly thought of strawberries and brown sugar.  Some quick research on goggle proved that it would indeed taste equally delicious warm and for that we could thank the Russians.  Apparently, Russian gratin consists of 3 things: berries, sour cream and brown sugar.  You pop that under the broiler and ta-da. Savory, warm Russian gratin.  And as luck would have it, I had all three things.

I had fresh, dark purple blackberries, another outcome of last Sunday’s run to Trader Joe’s, in the fridge.  So using those, I mixed equal parts of sour cream and berries and divided the mixture  up among 3 ramekins, leaving some room to spare at the top.  I filled this room up with some dark brown sugar pressed through a sieve and popped them under my broiler.



About 4 minutes later (the last few seconds I opened up the oven door), out came 3 gorgeously browned and bubbly little cups of deliciousness.  The tops had gotten almost crispy and candy like, but underneath were warm pools of brown liquid sugar.  The blackberries were juicy and not even warmed all the way through from the broiler.  They still had a cool middle, that went perfect with the warm sugar and sour cream.  It was delicious.  So much so, that I may or may not have eaten 2 of the 3 I made.  And I am exercising a good amount of self control not to gobble the last.  I shall prevail, and probably have the other for breakfast tomorrow morning.  It has berries and dairy, so that works right?  Blackberries, delicious.  Strawberries?  Raspberries?  I can't wait to find out! 

Berry Brown Sugar Gratin

2 parts berries

2 parts sour cream

1 part brown sugar (I went a bit lighter)

Preheat broiler.

Fold berries into sour cream.  Distribute mixture evenly among ramekins or pour into a broiler safe casserole dish.

Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over top.  (Making it superfine by squishing it through a mesh strainer isn’t a bad idea!)  Pop under broiler.  Watch closely and pull out when sugar on top begins to caramelize.  Mine took about 4 minutes.  Eat immediately, if not sooner!