Summery Meal

Having eaten quite well in Florida, I was not exactly looking forward to a return to college fare. I was essentially resigned to the necessity of this until I found a clump of wild mint on campus. While a sane mind might react to that by saying, "Oh, mint. Smells nice" and walk by, my brain immediately said "Harvest. Cook" I walked back to my room with several clumps of mint perfuming my bag.

After a potentially obsessive amount of research into what to do with fresh mint, while sucking down a glass of home brew iced mint tea, I decided I should make this. After a trip to the grocery, I ended up with rather more ingredients than expected, including a half pound sirloin.* As such, in a trait inherited directly from my dad, I decided to experiment

Seeing as my efforts towards a summertime meal ended up rather tasty, I figured I'd share with all of you.

Mint Orange Soda (makes several servings)

1 20oz bottle Tonic or seltzer

~2 tbsp fresh grated orange zest

8-10 chopped fresh mint leaves

4" cucumber, chopped.

Sugar to taste

In rather a complicated recipe, open the tonic, shove all your ingredients except the sugar in the bottle, cap, shake, and refrigerate. Pour through fork or strainer to remove solid, add sugar and serve over ice with twist of orange.

Orange zest steak

Montreal steak seasoning or personal choice

Orange zest

Steak

Dry rub steak with orange zest and seasoning and let marinate for a while. Pop on grill and cook to taste.

Mint fruit salad (my favorite from this meal)

1-2 tbsp sugar

2-3 tbsp orange zest

10-12 fresh mint leaves

Juice of 1 quarter lemon

Sliced strawberries

Blackberries

Any other fruit you so choose to throw in

Fine chop the mint leaves and mix mint and orange zest into the sugar. You should end up with a clumpy consistency. Let sit for a few hours. Chop your fruit, mix juice of lemon into sugar mixture and drizzle over fruit. Enjoy.

All three of these recipes are very easy, and quite tasty. The berries and soda particularly are quite refreshing on a hot day, especially with a grill going next to you. The overall cost was very low, and cooking could be entirely accomplished in a dorm room apart from the grilling. Seems to me a nice way to get nicer, quality, non-greasy summertime food for college students particularly.

If any of you try these, let me know how it goes in comments! Buen Provecho, Bon Apetit, Smacznego, Velbekomme, Приятного аппетита!

*Great thing was, I bought 4 packs of berries, three oranges, a lemon, and a steak for 11$. I rather like this grocery. Good stuff too. Not sure if Sprouts is a Dallas only thing, but it's sorta like a much less pretentious and expensive Whole Foods. I recommend.