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Recipe: hibiscus tea lemonade

The US Pro Cycling Challenge has been touring Colorado this week and on Saturday, they came to Boulder and more specifically (for me), they climbed up to and through my town of Nederland (Ned) in the mountains, for a truly exciting day of racing. Tens of thousands lined the streets of Boulder and the finish up on the flanks of Flagstaff Mountain. Jeremy tracked the race progress online as they entered Boulder Canyon on their way up to Ned. It is a commute we both know well enough to drive in our sleep, and we were astounded at how quickly they passed each landmark (the tunnel, Sugarloaf, Boulder Falls, The Narrows). By the time Jeremy announced the peloton was at The Narrows, I packed my camera and we set off, out the front door.

neighbors waiting with great anticipation for the riders

We walked a quick five minutes to the race route and as I found a place to set up, Jeremy said the break had reached the dam. The road wasn’t packed with people, but there were a lot more than I have ever seen on that stretch of road before. Everyone was smiling, happy, excited. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. We knew the break was arriving in town as we heard a roar of cheering and cowbells rise from down the valley. Before we knew it, police vehicles were rounding the bend and then we caught sight of the first group as they climbed steadily up the hill.

the break (14 riders)

the chase (2 riders)

and the peloton

bmc riders

the rest of the pack

and away they go

How cool is that? Very freaking cool. But it was actually kinda hot (by my definition, which is anything above 70°F) and I thought about a nice cool glass of something or other as we walked back home with our neighbor. As far as I am concerned, anytime is a great time for lemonade – but really, it is quintessential summer, is it not? My beverage of choice is the Arnold Palmer: half iced tea and half lemonade. Lately, I’ve been digging on what I refer to as the hibi Palmer, but it is basically hibiscus tea lemonade.

dried hibiscus flowers from savory spice shop

all you need: sugar, dried hibiscus flowers, lemons

Never having been a fan of plain hibiscus tea, I was dubious when someone at Salto Coffee Works told me their hibiscus tea lemonade was very popular. But then I took a taste and yes, it’s amazingly refreshing, tart, and smooth. More fruity than an Arnold Palmer.

making sugar water

steep the dried hibiscus flowers in the hot sugar water

meanwhile, squeeze some lemon juice

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: ginger limeade

I’ll admit it. I’ve been spending a lot of time playing around with canning. That’s what happens when you have a boatload of fruit that is ripe right now. I went to bed dreaming of sterilizing jars and woke up thinking of lid wands. It’s a sickness, I tell you. So over the weekend I had to put an end to the madness and get myself into the backcountry. It’s my cure all, you know. Here are some snappies from my iphone.

rose crown

the keyhole above pawnee pass

from the summit of pawnee peak, jeremy points to another hike we had done

Once we are home, our typical post-hike ritual is to unpack our gear, scrub the sunblock and grime off of ourselves, and dump our stinky, sweaty clothes into the laundry basket. Kaweah likes to sniff down our hiking pants and trail runners because it makes her waggy and happy. I sometimes wonder if she knows where we went as she’s been on nearly every hike with us several times up until the last couple of years. She really loved her hikes, so it’s bittersweet for me to watch her get so excited about something she can’t do anymore.

When everything is put away, we sit down and have ourselves several glasses of water (ice water for me, please). But this time, after the second glass of water, I asked Jeremy if he’d like to have a ginger limeade. I had the ginger limeade at Café Aion in Boulder a couple of times. It was good, but not as gingery as I prefer. Why not make it the way *I* like it at home? There’s no reason not to.

ginger and limes

There was leftover ginger syrup from the candied ginger I made earlier. That is great in cocktails or with seltzer water or added to hot tea (especially if you have a sore throat). It’s more sweet than spicy, so I tried a different ginger syrup recipe that I found on Imbibe Magazine. They don’t peel the ginger in their recipe, but I peeled mine.

chop up the ginger

combine ginger with sugar and water

cook the syrup for an hour then strain

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: elderflower cordial

It’s been a busy week of hosting an astrophysics retreat…

dinner and science!

setting the table at our house

welcoming my parents back to Boulder for the summer…

mom and dad in colorado

and keeping tabs on the wildfires along the front range as well as spot fires popping up in our local area.

our daily dose of lightning

Never a dull moment. Actually, a dull moment wouldn’t be so bad. Today’s recipe is a good “back to Earth” kind of recipe. Just what I need right now. Remember when my friend, Wendy, took me foraging? I picked a small batch of elderflowers because I love anything elderflower. Truth? When I go to IKEA, I like those little elderflower juice boxes. I’m guessing most of the elderflowers are gone now and in the process of becoming elderberries, but come spring next year – you must do this elderflower cordial, because it rocks multiple worlds.

elderflower blossoms

wendy forages

There are some basic rules to foraging elderflowers. First off, don’t mistake poison hemlock for elderflowers, because that could end badly – and by badly, I mean death. Do a Google Image search on poison hemlock and learn how to identify both plants. Second, avoid bushes or shrubs that have been sprayed with chemicals. Third, only pick flowers that are fully open, but not past prime (i.e. brown). Fourth, don’t pick a bush clean because not only is that a jerk thing to do, but you will prevent the fruits from forming later. You can find some good information from the pros here on Wendy’s site and here on Hank Shaw’s site. We harvested from several different bushes.

my loot, about 25 stems

cream-colored blossoms

pluck pluck pluck

The recipe is pretty simple although the task of de-stemming the flower buds is a tedious pain in the hoohoo. We de-stem the flowers because the stems are toxic. A little stem won’t hurt you (so I’ve read), but you really want to remove as much as possible. The flowers come off with a gentle pull (I found the older the flower, the easier to remove), but there are a gazillion of these little white blossoms. Running a stem between my fingertips helped to remove a decent percentage of them, but the more stubborn ones required actually plucking. It’s worth the effort.

the blossoms, de-stemmed

sugar, water, lemon, and elderflowers

**Jump for more butter**