Who Doesn’t Love Summer?

Who doesn’t love Summer? Longer days filled with fam­ily time. Delicious fruits and divine toma­toes, fresh herbs, bar­be­cues and meals al fresco with great friends.

As you may know, we love to travel and think that vaca­tions are nec­es­sary for a healthy life-​we all need a break from our daily rou­tine!
Research shows that women who take fre­quent vaca­tions are less likely to become depressed, tense or tired. Men who take vaca­tions reduce risk of death by 20 per­cent. I like the sound of that!

Last week we enter­tained Chef Pino and his fam­ily on our newly con­structed deck in our Hoboken home and cel­e­brated by open­ing a bot­tle of Rataffia that we had brought back from France. Rataffia is an apéri­tif made from the grape skins left over from the mak­ing of cham­pagne. It is quite sweet but paired with Chef Pino’s cheeses, it was delicious!

We also had the staff of Hartshorn Portraiture over for a BBQ to cel­e­brate a very spe­cial birth­day for our receptionist-​Sue Power. I do have a few “go to” dishes and drinks that seem to sig­nal that sum­mer is really here! I love St Germain, which is a liquor made from the elder­flower. My mother makes deli­cious juice in France, pick­ing the flow­ers from the wild bushes and soak­ing them in a bucket of water until ready to drink. It is a very refresh­ing drink and pop­u­lar in England. The liquor is divine and can be served so many ways, with vodka in a mar­tini, mixed with cham­pagne.… but this year we tried “The Elderflower Mojito”.

One of my favorite sum­mer veg­etable dishes is Grilled Zucchini with mint. I love the fact that you can pre­pare it in advance– the longer you mar­i­nate the bet­ter it tastes!

Grilled Zucchini in Mint Balsamic Marinade

Serves 4–6

• 8 zuc­chini cut diag­o­nally into 1/​2 inch wide strips.
• 1/​3 cup plus 2 table­spoons extra vir­gin olive oil
• 2 table­spoons bal­samic vinegar
• 1 table­spoon red wine vinegar
• 1 gar­lic clove, crushed
• 1/​4 tea­spoon salt
• 1/​4 tea­spoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 table­spoon chopped fresh mint leaves

While grill is heat­ing up, toss zuc­chini with 2 table­spoons olive oil. Grill the zuc­chini, turn­ing once, until just ten­der. Transfer to a serv­ing plater.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the bal­samic vine­gar, wine vine­gar, gar­lic, salt and pep­per. Gradually whisk in the remain­ing 1/​3 cup of olive oil. Pour over the zuc­chini and let stand until the zuc­chini are cool. Cover tightly with plas­tic wrap and let stand at room tem­per­a­ture for at least 4 hours. Sprinkle with chopped mint before serving.

Take a look at our blog from time to time for more great recipes, things to do and great places to shop at the shore. Enjoy the sum­mer and let us know about your sum­mer vaca­tion tra­di­tions. We would love to share them on our blog.