This weekend's menu (the first chance I've had to cook in over a month!):

mojitos
chocolate zucchini cupcakes, talk about delicious!
Zelda's Pizza
summer fruit from the farmer's market - peaches, heirloom melons
mushrooms over polenta, the mushroom part based on this method criminis work just fine

Hello! I am moving this weekend so I plan to have a little more to say in about a week. Since we are moving and incurring the attendant stress, cocktails have developed a position of extreme importance in my daily routine.

I finally came up with a very easy way to make mojitos. It takes some prep but then you can make mojitos any time in only a couple minutes. I'm sorry that we are moving now that I've developed my method since it works better if you have your own mint growing on the premises. Here are the prep steps:

1. Get a bunch of limes and juice them. We have a citrus juicer attachment for my mixer so whenever limes go on sale I buy like 30-50 of them and then freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I make Thaddy help with the juicing.

2. Make simple syrup. Just dissolve a cup of sugar in a cup of water and keep it in a pour container in the fridge. We use one of those bottles people keep for olive oil with the pour spout on top. This is actually super easy to do in the microwave but they never tell you that.

Then whenever we want to have mojitos I just mash up a couple of the lime ice cubes with the mint then add the simple syrup, rum, ice, and fill up with soda water. The lime juice does not freeze super solid so they are easy to mash up with a fork right out of the freezer.

Also, this makes it easy to make a bunch of mojitos for a party. Just put the lime, mint, syrup, and rum in a big pitcher in the same ratio that tastes good for one glass. Then people can fill up glasses with ice and use about half the mix with about half soda water.

Here is the ratio I use for one mojito: 1.5 lime cubes (this is variable because it depends on your ice cube try, mine makes smallish cubes), about 10 mint leaves, 1 oz. simple syrup, 1.5 oz rum (shot glass). Add ice and about an equal amount of club soda.

Happy mojito summer!

Along similar lines, check out this Basil Lemonade on Orangette.

Edited to add: since the move, I've been making this same cocktail with the lemon basil combination instead of lime and mint. It's also very delicious and just as refreshing. Lemons are easier to juice so this is easier to put together when you are exhausted from moving a bunch of boxes.

I love this system for organizing recipes in a moleskine, featured at Delicious Days. I'm a fan of the handwritten cookbook, but my current blank book is quickly getting difficult to search now that several pages have been completed. This way is still very personal but organized.