Slightly Off the Grid

I’m playing around with herbal infusions.  Steeping in the kitchen window, near the milk bottles, is peppermint oil.  The other day I made two flavors of simple syrup: chocolate mint and lemon balm-peppermint.  I poured some chocolate mint syrup on vanilla ice cream and that was pretty yummy.  Today I mixed a shot of lemon balm-mint syrup with a glass of club soda over ice, with a wedge of lime.  It tasted like a minty sprite.  Yum!  I think next time I’ll add a smidge less syrup and an extra wedge of lime. ( Hmm…and maybe a splash of gin. )  For everyday hydration, though, I’d better stick to the herbs in water without the sugar.  :0

For my next syrup adventure, I’m going to try lemon verbena.  And I want to try a lemon balm, pineapple mint, pineapple sage combination.  Maybe Kristin will come over and play around with making sorbets with me???

After finding a bazillion versions of simple syrup online, I ended making my syrup like this:

Herb infused simple syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup fresh herbs, loosely packed

Combine sugar, water, and herbs in a pot.  Bring to a boil and then boil for a minute.  Turn off heat and let steep for 30 minutes.  Cool.  Pour into bottles and label with the date.  Store in the refrigerator up to 6 months.

Ok, that’s it.  Don’t forget to vote for your honey container.