Food And Drink

Summer’s here: What better way to spend the afternoon than with a refreshing drink? Here are four simple cocktail recipes to enjoy – with or without alcohol.

Summer parties, evenings with friends, relaxing on a patio or at the cottage – when the weather warms up, it’s nice to have a sip of something cool. Put your inhibitions aside and let loose with these libations. The best part? You don’t have to be a bartender to master these simple sippers:

The Mimosa

This is a classic, refreshing drink that works any time of day: brunch, lunch, afternoon, or evening. It’s tame and great for those who don’t like the taste of alcohol. Bonus: it’s super simple to make.

In a flute, fill half with cold champagne/sparkling wine and, in the other half, add pulp-free orange juice. To kick it up a bit, play with portions – use three parts champagne to 1 part orange juice. For a fancier look, pour in some grenadine or add some berries. Note: this is a great drink for parties; make it ahead of time in a large pitcher for fast, easy pouring Mimosas.

Alcohol-free version: Swap out the champagne for alcohol-free sparkling wine or soda.

The Strawberry Daquiri

A favorite summertime slush. It’s cold, colorful, and fruity. There are many pre-made daiquiri mixes available at the liquor store, and true, they are delicious, but it’s just as easy to make this drink at home.

While many recipes suggest using frozen strawberries, if fresh berries are available, always use them. For each drink, you’ll need:

 4-5 ice cubes
 5-6 strawberries (remove stem)
 2 ounces of golden rum
 1 tbsp of lime juice
 ½ tsp of sugar
 Optional: add 1 ounce of triple sec

Using a blender or food processor, add all the ingredients together and blend until slushy. Pour into a tall glass and garnish with a strawberry.

Alcohol-free version: Remove all alcohol and replace it with soda or ginger ale.

The Mish Mash

Turn a backyard bash into the Caribbean with this delicious drink. Using a tall glass, fill ¾ with Sprite or 7Up.

Then, add the following ingredients:

 1 ounce of white rum
 1 ounce of coconut rum
 2 ounces of lime juice

A variation of this mish mash includes pineapple juice. Instead of filling the glass up entirely with Sprite/7Up, use two parts Sprite/7Up, 1 part pineapple.

Alcohol-free version: Remove the rum, add pineapple juice. To get the true taste of the Caribbean, you can add a drop of coconut flavoring or syrup.

The Sensational Sangria

This Spanish favorite is a perfect recipe for a party; it’s easy to make in advance, and many people will enjoy it. There are tons of Sangria recipes out there; some use white wine; others use juices. Feel free to substitute ingredients and make your own Sangria signature!

In a large pitcher, pour a whole bottle of red wine. Take ripe berries and toss them into the wine. This is a great time to clear out the fridge. Raspberries and blackberries work really well with this drink as they absorb the alcohol and break up nicely in the pitcher. You can use fresh strawberries as well. Cut two oranges and one lemon into slices, and toss those into the mix. Add 2 ounces of Triple Sec and a splash of lemon juice. Fill the remainder of the pitcher up with Sprite and add about 1 cup of ice.

It’s best to make the Sangria in advance and allow the fruit to sit in the juice. When it’s time to serve, scoop out some fruit for every guest and fill the glass with Sangria.

Alcohol-free version: Replace red wine with cranberry juice. Remove Triple Sec. The drink will have the same look, sans alcohol.

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Summer is salad time. It’s so easy to put a salad together, as part of the meal or even the meal itself. Remember presentation counts, keep the salad simple, and add a splash of color. Use fresh ingredients whenever possible.

Salad Vegetables

Lettuce

Inspect your lettuce before buying, make sure the leaves look healthy, not limp. Always wash the lettuce before use. Invest in a good lettuce spinner. To keep lettuce longer wash, spin, and store wrapped in a paper towel and packed in a zip-lock plastic bag.

 Lettuce: Romaine - crisp, sturdy lettuce, great for robust salads, sandwiches, and wraps.
 Ice Berg or Head or Crisp head lettuce - The two terms are interchangeable. This is a crisp lettuce, perfect for a sturdy salad, or just right in a sandwich or with salsa or in a taco.
 Boston or Butterhead: delicate leaves that need little or no dressing except maybe a squirt of lemon. Be gentle washing it.
 Leaf lettuce: Anywhere from green to bright red. This is a good basis for a salad. I especially like the red leaf lettuce, good color. I like to use this lettuce as a base for a salad.

Other greens:

They can add great flavor, color, and texture to a salad.

 Parsley- usually put it on last.
 Basil - Use Italian.
 Spinach - baby spinach is best.
 Mint

Other vegetables:

A salad shouldn’t just be lettuce; add a bit of color and texture with other vegetables.

A great investment is a mezzaluna knife. Just perfect for chopping and mincing vegetables, but a simple paring knife is also good.

 Cucumber- Usually two kinds are sold in most grocery stores- field and long English. Long English is best for most salads. You don't need to peel it, but you should wash it before use. Field cucumbers are wonderful in Greek salads or salads that don't have lettuce.
 Tomatoes - Cherry, grape, and Roma are great for most salads. For a Greek salad, try a beefeater if you're going to make the salad ahead of time, add the tomatoes last.
 Onions- I like red, especially for Greek salads. Red onions add color and spice to almost any salad. A simple trick if you don't like the sharp taste is to chop the onion, bath it in fresh lime juice, and put it in the refrigerator overnight or for at least four hours. White Spanish onions are wonderful sliced thin.
 Peppers- My favorite pepper is orange. Red is probably best for Mexican, or peel the pepper first, totally optional. I like the peppers sliced thin.
 Carrots - There's the baby carrots that come in spring and early summer, and the bigger kind that a wonderful all summer long. To fancy it up a bit, try peeling the entire carrot, so you get long orange strips. You can curl up the strips.
 Potato salad recipe.
 Nuts and Sunflower seeds nuts add protein. They're a real boon for any vegetarians in your life or if you just don't feel like meat today. I especially like nuts with spinach. Make sure the nuts are well chopped - here are ones I use: cashews, pistachio, and walnuts. Sprinkle sunflowers on top of a completed salad.
 MeatIf you have leftover chicken or ham (never more than a day old and always from the refrigerator), use them in a salad. Please read Summer food safety Salmon, which is wonderful with a bit of mayo, finely chopped celery, and gherkins.
 Olives and Pickles - Perk up a salad, especially a potato salad with olives green, black or purple. I love black olives, especially in a Greek salad. Dill pickles and gherkins are great in a potato or a pasta salad.
 Cheese
 Feta is a wonderful salad cheese, especially in a Greek salad with cucumbers, red bell pepper, chopped beefsteak or Roma tomatoes, red onions, and black olives. But there's no reason why you can't sprinkle on feta over any salad just to give it a bit of zest.
 Cheddar is especially good on crisp lettuce.
 Parmesan is lovely with any kind of Mediterranean salad.
 Mozzarella cut it up in cubes and sprinkle them over leaf lettuce. Create your own summer salad sensation.
 Go ahead, experiment!

I’m never drinking again…and this time I mean it! How to ease the hangover blues. The symptoms of a hangover vary from person to person, and the type and amount of alcohol consumed. Avoiding and curing a hangover offer many possibilities depending on the level of planning.

Symptoms

Let’s first explore the realm of hangover symptoms. The most common symptoms of over-consumption are headache and nausea. Diarrhea, lethargy, extreme thirst, and sensitivity to light and noise may also be included in the hangover experience.

Avoidance

Clearly, the most obvious way to avoid a hangover is to simply not drink alcohol. There are many occasions a person may feel compelled to drink due to social or other pressures. The choice to imbibe in the consumption of alcohol should be a personal choice not dictated by any outside influences. Consider yourself a stronger person should you decide to abstain.

What to Drink

Should you choose not to abstain, choose alcoholic beverages that contain less alcohol. Different people react differently to different types of alcohol. Beer and wine contain less alcohol than hard liquor. The downside to wine is the added sulfur in most wines that can create a headache for some people. Draft beer may cause a hangover for some people where bottled beer may not. Even the brand of beer may cause a hangover in some people where other brands may not. Know what your body tolerates best and stick with it.

How to Drink It

If you are consuming hard liquor, add a mixer; water, soda water or tonic is best. Adding sugar-based mixers, such as juice or soda, is a sure-fire way to produce a pounding headache in the morning. Dehydration is the most common symptom of a hangover. A good rule of thumb is to drink one full glass of water with every alcoholic beverage consumed. Do not mix different types of alcohol. If you start the evening with vodka, end the night with vodka.

Last Minute Cure

Taking an over the counter pain medication with a full glass of water before bed can help alleviate the discomfort of a hangover. Be sure to read the warning label to make sure the pain medication is compatible with alcohol.

Do not drink and drive. The worst hangover you can ever have is waking up in the morning with the realization that you have killed another human being.

How to Cure a Hangover

Okay, so you didn’t drink enough water, you accepted the sweet shots, you drank whiskey, vodka, and beer and now you are just trying to figure out how to survive the day.

Hydration

Water is good. Water with electrolytes is better. Choosing a sports drink with as low sugar content as possible is the best alternative. A re-hydrater, like Pedialyte, is another good choice. Pedialyte is found in the baby section in grocery or drug stores.

Food

Foods that are high in protein and carbohydrates are best. I always like to make a breakfast that includes all of the basic food groups for my hung-over guests. Fried potatoes mixed with vegetables and topped with cheese and eggs, bacon on the side. This is not a healthy, everyday meal. This is the occasional hangover recipe.

Move Your Body

It may be very hard to believe that movement will improve matters, but it will. Clean up after last night’s party, do the laundry, take a walk around the block, move your-self around as much as possible while hydrating. Finding the will-power to be productive is much harder than the actual performance.

Do Not Drive

Driving while hung-over can be as bad as driving drunk. If you are feeling the previous evening’s effects, you most likely still have a substantial amount of alcohol in your system. This will affect your judgment and reaction time. Dealing with the” day after” is much easier than dealing with a lifetime of sorrow.