Are you knee deep in basil?

Did you really mean to plant, buy, beg, borrow or steal quite so much of it? It’s like something just came over you right?

Well you are not alone. There is an Old Italian saying, “make pesto while the sun shines”.

It’s a rather astute observation. It is not merely a common sense roadmap for dealing with summer’s great affluence of basil. Which is, after all, summer’s boldest herb.

On the surface, sure it’s a good idea to make pesto right now. Something you could can or freeze. This path will certainly ensure you access to the bright zesty influence of basil even in the darkest depths of winter.

Today I have another classic cocktail using my favorite spirit, gin.

And, it’s a gimlet. And not just one gimlet but three gimlets. Not that I am encouraging you to drink three gimlets, but I am offering three versions of a gimlet.

In case you did not know, a gimlet is a lime-a-licious gin-based drink stirred or shaken over ice. Then strained into a cocktail glass and served “up”. Though I have seen them prepared over rocks with a splash of club soda.

The original cocktail was brought to the world by the gin loving British. Those crazy Brits must have considered gin medicinal, because British sailors used this cocktail to ward off scurvy . Yesterday's gin and tonic was insurance against malaria. It really brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “take your medicine”, doesn’t it?

Sup! can’t soup no more! I will still be eating soup until my jaw gets unwired. But you probably cannot face another soup from Sup!

I can dress my posts up with all the pretty pictures I like. I can attach witty banter. I can even (try) and pass along valuable cooking tips.

But at the end of the day. It’s the middle of July and you are not about to spend 4 hours standing over a steaming soup pot just ‘cuz I can’t eat steak, or pasta, or fish, or bread, or apples, or taco, or burgers, or well anything other than soup!

I have this friend. We live in the same town now. But we met and became friends in Santa Barbara, CA, way back in the 1980s.

Not only are we friends, but I would say we are great friends. Despite the fact that months and months and months usually go by before we see each other, though we live just a few miles apart.

Part of this is because we are such great friends there is no pressure to constantly work on the friendship. But the other reason we go so long between visits is entirely my fault.

I swear I love her; top 10 people in the world love her. But I tend to blow her off sometimes. Unconsciously. I am not harboring any beneath the surface ill will-- I promise. We are able to laugh about it (believe it or not). But I admit I have stood her up at bars, left her standing out front movie theatres (holding 2 tickets). I even failed to pick her up at the airport once.

That said. Let me lay some groundwork for the rest of my tale.