A Recipe For a Long Weekend

It was three years ago this weekend that I came to understand the power of the blog to modify behavior and inspire action. I found myself standing in a very long line at the grocery store on the 4th of July, holding a pint each of half & half and whipping cream, and realized I was doing so because of a blog. It is not my normal behavior to run to the store for just one or two items, and certainly not like me to go to the store on a holiday, but when Stefani of Blue Yonder Ranch shared her recipe for mint ice cream, I was inspired to action.

I have a feeling that the recipe I'm about to share might inspire you to action as well. It's a perfect recipe to celebrate a long weekend, and if you go to the store today to get the ingredients, you can avoid those crazy long holiday lines and get a jump start on the infused rum. Yes, infused rum. Strawberry infused rum.

A few weeks back I made a batch of strawberry jam, and remembering my friend Sarah's post last summer about strawberry vinegar, I saved all the strawberry tops and marinated them in vinegar for a few days. The strawberry infused vinegar got me thinking, why not alcohol instead of vinegar? How about strawberry rum for strawberry daiquiris?

Then I saw this picture over on flickr and decided my daiquiri needed a twist - lemon and mint. Summer in a glass, with a kick.



Strawberry Infused Rum

tops of strawberries
rum

Fill a medium sized jar with strawberry tops and rum. Cover and let sit in refrigerator for 1-3 days. Filter the rum, discard the strawberry tops, and store the strawberry infused rum in the refrigerator (on the top shelf, away from kiddos - it looks a lot like Kool-Aid.)

Strawberry Lemon Mint Daiquiris

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup strawberry infused rum
1 basket of strawberries
juice of 1 lemon
1 dozen mint leaves
ice

Mix sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved to make a simple syrup. Put simple syrup, rum, strawberries, lemon juice and mint leaves in blender. Fill the blender with ice. Puree. Serve immediately or store in freezer. Scoop out desired servings and let thaw at room temperature until slushy.

Take strawberry daiquiri out to the hammock and enjoy.



Remember my not so subtle hint to my family a few months ago to bring me back a hammock from Mexico? My parents did not disappoint. Thanks Mom and Dad!