Small batch sun tea

When I was a girl growing up in Northern California, we had intensely hot summers. Temps ran up to 110
My mom always took advantage of the heat to make refreshing sun tea.

Sun tea lets the sun do all the work. No electricity needed. 

I had bought myself a sun tea jar at Target that was a steal at $5.00. Of course, when I boiled it in hot water to sterilize it, it cracked and broke. So, I figured it was a chance to make smaller batches in jars. 

Sun tea can be whatever you want. Use tea bags, fresh herbs, spices... Play with flavor combinations. For a big sun tea container, I recommend 5 teabags, but for the small jars, I used 2 tea bags each. 

First step is to sterilize your vessel. Any liquid sitting out in hot sun can be a good host for bacteria, so you need to be safe, like all room temperature preserved foods. (You can boil the jars in water or run them through the dishwasher on the extra hot cycle)

I like a nice spicy kick to my sun tea. For each jar I used one bag of decaf black tea and one bag of orange spice. (I use decaf only because my kids will be drinking it too.) 

To each jar I added a cinnamon stick and a star anise, which has a bit of a spicy black licorice flavor. 

Add water to the jars and cover. Find a spot that will remain sunny for the duration of 2-4 hours. Don't leave tea out longer than that, to avoid bacterial growth. Bring the jars inside, and drink warm or cool in the fridge and serve with ice for a cool summer treat! 

You can sweeten if you like with sugar, sweetener, honey or sugar water. I prefer unsweetened. Enjoy! 

Fridge and pantry pesto

My three year old, like most toddlers, is crazy picky and totally random about what she will and will not consume. She opposes the very existence of any kind of  sauce or dressing. However, in a moment of bravery, she tried pesto at a friend's house and decided it was not only palatable, but delicious. So now pesto is a staple at our house. 

Today my in-laws are coming for dinner and we are grilling. I thought I'd make a pesto pasta salad so there would be something for my daughter to eat. (Not into burgers...)

I didn't have any pesto on-hand, so I decided to raid my fridge and pantry and make my own. The nice thing about pesto is you can be creative, using a basic outline of: flavorful green, fatty nut/seed, oil, garlic, salty component. I used:

- Fresh basil leaves

- Thin sliced almonds

- Parmesan cheese (salty component)

- Olive oil

- Garlic 

(In the past I've used fresh arugula, parsley or beet greens, and pine nuts, walnuts or sunflower seeds, Romano cheese or Asiago) 

Blend them all together in a blender until creamy, adding the olive oil slowly until the consistency looks right. It should be pretty oily. Taste and adjust ingredients. 

A little pesto goes a long way for pasta, so save the rest in a jar in the fridge. Like most things in jars, it will taste even better the next day.

You can use it on sandwiches, on chicken, fish... The possibilities are endless. And delicious.

Here is my finished salad. Chock full of things my picky eater likes. Whole wheat penne, red bell pepper, cucumber, chopped up salami, and yummy pesto!