I have a love-hate relationship with August. Mostly love, but some hateful twinges. I LOVE you August because your days are still beautifully hot. The lake is warm. The bugs are gone (woo hoo!). Everyone is looking healthy & tanned (or in my case, a close proximity, as the freckles start to connect). The sun sets earlier, so outdoor night-time fun can happen sooner — campfires, flashlight tag, skinny-dipping… (not all at the same time, mind you). And August bursts with in-season fruits and vegetables that are spectacular for all the senses — bountiful, colourful, fragrant, and soooooo tasty.
My tinges of irk lies in that August sometimes brings out glass-is-half-empty observations: “summer is half way done”…”the kids will be back to school before you know it”…”I saw a red maple leaf the other day”… For all that is holy, please swallow those observations, and enjoy the here and now!! This August long-weekend, I implore everyone to choose a glass-is-half full outlook! Unless of course, your glass really is half empty…then quickly pour another of these — in tribute to August’s big beautiful colourful in-season watermelon:
Watermelon Mules
(makes 2-3 cocktails)
- 4 cups cubed watermelon, frozen
- 3 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 3 oz vodka
- 12 oz ginger beer
- Lime slices, for garnish
- Ice
- Blend: watermelon, lime juice, vodka, and 6 oz ginger beer; add ice if needed to make a thick slush
- Stir in remaining ginger beer (or add all of it in the blender in step one, and create a volcano over the sides, as I did…)
- Serve in copper glasses
- Garnish with lime
Food Pairing: Nacho chips and August Salsa (aka, August Salad)
My all-time favourite salad is this: August Salad. So named for two reasons: 1) it’s made with ingredients that are at their peak of awesomeness in August, and 2) you can be unapologetic about making it over and over again, if you restrain yourself to a one month period. So far, my family has not complained! Plus it tastes great for days, so it’s a good make-ahead recipe.
Wait, salad you say?? It that not a photo of nacho chips? This cottage day in particular, the salad was served for lunch. The leftovers were brought out again at cocktail hour, re-purposed as a salsa to go with said nachos — a stroke of brilliance from one of our cottage guests! And yes, it paired perfectly with the cocktail!
August Salad/Salsa
- 4 cobs fresh corn
- 2/3 cup green onion, diced
- 1 red or yellow pepper, diced
- 1-1/2 cups wild blueberries (another reason to only make this salad in August, as you can’t generally only find them in summer)
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tblsp fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 jalapeno, finely diced (seeds removed)
- 1 tblsp candied ginger, finely chopped
- Cut raw kernels from cobs. Saute in 2 tblsp olive oil, on medium heat, ~3 minutes. Remove & cool
- Toss all other ingredients in large bowl. Add corn when cool
- Add salt & pepper to taste
Song Pairing: Consequence Free, Great Big Sea
“I’ve got the best intentions for a little bit of anarchy…but not the hurting kind.”
Ok, using a salad as salsa is probably the lightest form of anarchy you can get. Call it dock-side anarchy…where the very, very, chill anarchists are hanging out.