Put up fruit for home and gifts. Photo
courtesy Washington State Fruit Commission.

This week’s idea: Throw a fruit preservation party, to preserve the delicious fruits of summer—or make your own jam.

Preserve lush summer fruits now to give later, as holiday gifts or wedding favors. Or, stock your own pantry and treat yourself to summer goodness when apricots, cherries, peaches and plums are no longer in season.

SweetPreservation.com is a website dedicated to the art of preserving fruit. There you’ll find:

Set a date and get ready to become the prince or princess of fruit preservation. It could become an annual event that your friends really look forward to!

It’s hibiscus tea, an herbal tea that’s our nominee for the tea to try this month (June is National Iced Tea Month).

Hibiscus has complex and vibrant flavors: fruity and floral notes with a tart, red fruit backbone—like a tart lemonade that you can sweeten to taste.

Well-chilled from the fridge and poured over ice, it’s a wonderful refresher.

And hibiscus is a superflower, full of potent antioxidants that do the body a lot of good.

Colorful, tasty and very healthful: hibiscus
iced tea. Photo courtesy Republic Of Tea.

Refreshing mint lemonade. Photo by
Petrelos | IST.

With the introduction of large juice extractors to the consumer market—in which any fruit or vegetable can be converted to juice—our old juicer is now called a “citrus press.”

Call it whatever you want—we love ours. It extracts the last drop of juice from fresh lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits with barely a press of the fruit to the reamer.

Most people we know don’t have an electric citrus press. They use a manual citrus press. (Take a look at this unusual one that looks like a lovely bird sculpture, and gets rave reviews even though it looks like it won’t work.)

But the most dazzling citrus press has got to be the sexy new electric Krups Citrus Press. We’ve never called an appliance sexy before, but this stainless steel beauty is doing its best to seduce us into buying it and discarding our faithful old workhorse juicer.

Traditional lemonade and limeade are even more refreshing with the addition of fresh mint.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PRESS the juice from lemons.

2. COMBINE the mint, sugar and 1/2 cup boiling water in a pitcher or large bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves (we use a whisk).

3. STIR in lemon juice, rind and 5 cups water.

4. CHILL and serve over ice.
 
 
LEMONADE TIPS

The recipe is courtesy of EatWisconsinCheese.com, a great source of recipes with all kinds of dairy products produced in our second largest dairy* state.

*The top 5 dairy producers, by total milk production, are California, Wisconsin, Idaho, New York and Pennsylvania.

CHILLED RASPBERRY YOGURT SOUP
Makes 4 six-ounce servings.

Ingredients

1. PLACE all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

2. GARNISH with additional yogurt, blueberries and/or raspberries, if desired.

3. SERVE immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

 
MORE FRUIT SOUP RECIPES

A juicy Portabella Swiss Burger. Photo
courtesy Certified Angus Beef.

Today’s tip comes from Chef Michael Ollier of the Certified Angus Beef brand—a specialist chef who focuses every day on the best way to prepare beef recipes.

Great taste begins with the blend, advises Chef Ollier. Most fine chefs have developed their own custom beef grind for a signature burger.

This summer, create your own signature burger. You don’t need secret ingredients, just a great custom blend.

Start by asking your butcher for a custom ground beef mix of half brisket, half chuck.

And of course, it’s not just the cut but the quality of the meat. If you have a spending limit, serve smaller portions of beef (the recommended four ounces instead of double that), and pile on the lettuce, tomato, sweet onions, pickles and other ingredients.

Signature Toppings
In addition to a custom grind, decide on your signature toppings. Perhaps it’s corn relish, pickled onions, sautéed portabella mushrooms, sundried tomatoes marinated in herbed olive oil or arugula instead of lettuce—even grilled pineapple slices.

We’ve been enjoying hot-and-sweet pickle mixes lately, from Mezzetta and Sechlers as well as smaller brands.

What’s Certified Angus Beef?
Certified Angus Beef® is a trademarked brand that licenses the trademark to ranchers who are approved by the licensor. Only cattle that pass stringent breeding standards can be distinguished as Certified Angus Beef; less than 8% of all U.S. beef is Certified Angus Beef. The brand promises the consumer consistently flavorful, juicy and tender cuts with generous marbling. It is available at more than 12,300 restaurants and retailers around the world.

For more information and tasty recipes (including burgers), visit CertifiedAngusBeef.com.