Fresh basil is a welcome sign of spring and summer. You can easily grow your own, or buy bags of the fresh fragrant leaves for a mouthwatering myriad of palate-pleasing recipes. If you tend to use dried basil or simply opt for fresh parsley when a recipe calls for basil, let the following 10 ways to use fresh basil inspire you to include this distinctive herb in your savory (and even sweet) dishes.

Add fresh basil leaves to your salads

Instead of hum-drum iceberg or your usual bag of chopped romaine, add baby basil leaves to your salads. Combine spinach and basil leaves with shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, and cubes of feta or fresh mozzarella cheese and drizzle with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Make basil pesto

Puree a generous bunch of basil leaves with a handful of walnuts, a garlic clove, juice of a lemon, a cup of Parmesan, and enough extra virgin olive oil to form a sauce-like consistency. Use pesto on everything from cooked pasta and pizza to sandwiches and cooked vegetables.

Devil your eggs with basil

Add a few fresh basil leaves to your favorite devilled egg recipe for an elegant updated taste.

Bake basil into casseroles

Lasagna is the quintessential casserole in which basil is right at home. However, when any casserole recipe calls for fresh parsley or mint or oregano, substitute fresh basil leaves. You can even julienne basil leaves and mix them with baked mac and cheese. This Baked Artichokes and Coddled Eggs Nicoise features fresh basil and is especially satisfying and delicious

Garnish your meals with basil

With the many varieties of basil, you can add unique flavor and colorful eye-appeal to any of your dishes. Add purple Thai basil leaves to a plate of couscous vegetable salad. Layer thick slices of tomatoes, red onion, and mozzarella cheese on a serving plate, drizzle with olive oil, and garnish with cinnamon basil leaves. Place a lemon basil leaf in a glass of iced tea. You can even garnish a fruit salad with a few basil leaves.

Basil your pizza

In addition to using pesto as a sauce instead of marinara, you can always use fresh basil leaves as a topping ingredient for pizza. This White Bean Basil and Sun-dried Tomato Pizza is a family favorite on the weekends. It will be even more a favorite if you grow your own basil.

Make a basil compound butter

Compound butters or flavored butters are a sophisticated way to enrich a meal, especially when made with heady fresh herbs like basil. Simply soften a stick of butter at room temperature and then blend with chopped fresh basil, salt and fresh ground black pepper. Place butter on a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap and form into a log, wrapping tightly with the paper or plastic. Refrigerate until firm. Cut butter log crosswise and use pats of butter to garnish a baked potato, steamed vegetables, toasted bread, or roasted fish.

Make a basil-flavored vinegar

Flavored vinegars are near effortless to create and they make excellent home-warming gifts as well as welcome additions to your every day meals. Pour two cups of white wine vinegar into a large mason jar and add 8 to 10 fresh basil leaves, two cloves of garlic, and the sliced peel of an orange. Place vinegar in a dark, cool place for two weeks to allow the flavors to develop and blend. When ready to use, strain vinegar through a sieve and store in a cruet or a clean mason jar. Use to make salad dressings, marinades, or drizzle lightly on vegetables, chicken, or fish.

Add basil to your desserts

Fruit desserts are delish in the summer and tend to be healthier than heavier flour and sugar-based goodies. Make a lively fruit salad with melon balls, strawberries, and blueberries and toss with lemon juice and finely chopped basil leaves (start with one or two chopped leaves and add one or two more if you want a stronger basil flavor). Basil can also be baked into cookies and cakes and even used to enliven ice cream.

Make a basil mojito

Try this minty mojito recipe but substitute fresh basil leaves for the fresh sprigs of mint

Lusciously creamy and full of flavor, avocados are a welcome ingredient in many recipes, from satisfying savory dishes to indulgently sweet desserts (avocado is a fruit, after all). Since avocados are applauded for their high content of heart-healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats and other health-promoting benefits, you can feel good about including them in your family’s every day meals.

Avocado are nutritious

According to the California Avocado Commission, avocados are a good source of lutein, a carotenoid associated with heart and eye health. They are also rich in beta-sitosterol, which is a natural plant sterol which research suggests can maintain healthy cholesterol levels. In addition, avocados contain nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and plant compounds that contribute to the healthy nutrient quality of your diet.

If you have a baby transitioning into soft solids, consider mashed avocado. The smooth texture and nutritional profile makes it an ideal first food. Best yet, the healthy fat in avocado acts as a nutrient booster, meaning it helps the body absorb other nutrients. Good for a growing baby and good for a health-conscious family.

One whole avocado has about 250 calories. That sounds like a lot but if you make avocado a part of your meals instead of the meal, you can enjoy the creamy fruit’s rich flavor and health benefits without worrying about the calories.

Picking the perfect avocado

When you are in market to pick your avocado, opt for hard, unripe fruit if you aren’t planning on eating it right away, or choose a ripe fruit that gives when squeezed. Color is not a determinant of ripeness since some avocados turn black as they ripen while others stay bright green.

If you do pick an unripe avocado, ripen it in a paper bag at room temperature for a couple of days. Refrigerate ripe avocados or avocados that have been cut. To prevent browning of the flesh, lightly coat with freshly squeezed lemon juice and store in an airtight container. Eat ripe or cut avocados within a day or two.

Preparing avocado

Facing an avocado for the first time can be daunting. However, preparing it for meals is quite simple. Use a sharp knife to cut avocado lengthwise, pressing the knife through the peel and flesh to the pit. Gently twist the two halves to expose the pit. Use a spoon to pop the pit out.

Now you have the option of scooping out the flesh for dishes calling for mashed avocado, such as guacamole, salad dressings, or avocado ice cream, or you can use a sharp knife to score the flesh and use a spoon to gently remove the slices or dices from the peel.

Family-friendly summer meals with avocado

Strawberry Avocado Smoothie
Serves 2

A creamy blend of calcium-rich vanilla yogurt, avocado and high-antioxidant strawberries, this smoothie is packed with nutrition. The avocado adds healthy fat to this drink without being a dominant flavor.

Ingredients:
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/2 avocado, pit removed
1 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries
1 tablespoon honey, agave nectar, or maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Divide into two tall glasses and serve cold.

Avocado Fruit Salad
Serves 4

Though avocado is thought of as a vegetable, it is actually a delectable fruit. Adding it to fruit salad boosts the staying power and nutrition of the dish due to the avocado’s fat content.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Juice of a small lemon
2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
1 avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, diced
1 cup cantaloupe balls (use a melon baller or just dice)
1 cup seedless grapes
Fresh mint leaves

Directions:
Whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, and honey or agave nectar in a large bowl. Add avocado, cantaloupe, and grapes. Gently toss to evenly coat fruit with dressing. Serve garnished with fresh mint.

Toasted Quinoa and Avocado Salad
Serves 4

Quinoa is a healthy kid-friendly grain with a nutty taste and excellent protein profile. Combining quinoa and avocado creates one of the healthiest vegetarian meals your family will love.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup cooked/canned chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/2 cup red onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Juice of a small lime
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cups diced avocado
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Belgium endive leaves

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add quinoa and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Add broth and stir. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, onion, parsley, and cilantro. In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice and vinegar. Add quinoa to the cucumber mixture and drizzle with lime vinegar dressing, tossing to coat.

3. Gently fold avocado into the quinoa and season with black pepper. Arrange endive leaves around the edges of individual serving plates and mound quinoa salad in the center. Serve warm or chilled.

Grilled Shrimp and Avocado Sandwiches
Serves 4

This open-faced sandwich combines a delectable array of textures and tastes. The butter lettuce serves as a top piece so you can still eat dinner with your hands.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1/3 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
16 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined
Salt and black pepper as needed
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
4 pieces sliced sourdough bread, toasted
2 medium avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, sliced
4 Roma tomato, sliced lengthwise
Butter lettuce leaves as needed

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix the oil, basil, and garlic. Stir in shrimp and marinate up to 4 hours, refrigerated. Remove from marinade and grill shrimp (on skewers or in a seafood grill basket) over high heat until bright orange, about 1 minute on each side.

2. Split each shrimp in half and season lightly with salt and pepper and set aside.

3. Spread mayonnaise on sourdough toasts. Layer shrimp, avocado, tomato, and lettuce leaves evenly on each of the toasts. Cut each sandwich in half and serve with extra avocado and mayonnaise.

Avocado Walnut Bread
Serves 8

Having a healthy quick-bread on hand in the summer gives you the mouthwatering opportunity for instant-gratification without turning on he oven - simply slice the bread for an easy breakfast, snack, or dessert.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar or more to taste
Zest and juice of a small orange
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed avocado
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease a 9-inch square baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, orange zest, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together orange juice, avocado, egg, and buttermilk.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until moist. Fold in walnuts. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until bread is golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes then invert onto a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve with yogurt or ice cream.

And, of course, you can always transform your avocados into guacamole, salad dressing, or dips. Even easier, just slice them and use as a healthy filling for sandwiches or wraps and even deviled eggs. This summer, make nutrient-rich avocados a staple in your family’s healthy diet.

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: DIP worth 50 points good through 07/20/08.
Not a member? Join Points and Prizes now for more free stuff!

Every year, at our town’s Fourth of July beach party and concert, I make a big picnic and we invite friends. There’s fried chicken, watermelon, pasta salad, chips, salsa, guacamole, cookies, and random assorted other goodies. There’s water and soda and juice boxes. And sangria. I always make sangria.

Sangria is an ideal refreshment for summer

On a hot, sultry summer night, sangria is so lovely sitting under the fan on the screened porch. It’s even better on the beach with a light breeze gently making the sweaty hairs on the back of your neck stand up. And sangria is at its best when it’s homemade and you can suck on the fruits as you sip.

Sangria is made from wine and fruit

Sangria is a wine punch from Spain. It is typically made with red wine, fruit, a little sweetener, some brandy or other spirit, and sparkling water. Simple ingredients thrown together making something greater than its parts. Deliciously better.

There are spicy sangrias and some that are sweeter than others. There are commercial sangrias, and there are any number of fast, thrown together at the last minute sangrias. But, my favorites are the ones that are several days in the making. The flavors are more blended and more complete.

Delicious sangria recipes

While sangria is typically made with red wine, I include a white wine sangria here. It’s just as fun and refreshing as red wine sangria, yet intriguingly different.

Red wine sangria

1/2 pint strawberries, sliced
1/2 pint cherries, pitted
2 peaches, pitted and sliced
1 large orange, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup orange brandy
1/2 cup orange juice
1 to 1-1/2 bottles dry red Spanish wine
Club soda or sparkling water, to taste

In a large bowl, combine the strawberries, cherries, peaches, and orange. Add the sugar, brandy, orange brandy, and orange juice. Stir, cover tightly, and refrigerate overnight.

Before serving, combine the wine and the juice mixture. Pour over ice, add a splash of soda water, and garnish with a piece of fruit from the sangria.

White wine sangria

1 large unpeeled orange, sliced
1 unpeeled lemon, sliced
1 unpeeled lime, sliced
1/2 fresh pineapple, cored, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brandy
1 bottle dry white wine
Pineapple and orange juice (for serving)

In a large bowl, combine the orange, lemon, lime, and pineapple. Add the sugar and brandy. Stir, cover tightly, and refrigerate three days to two weeks. The longer the fruit sits, the more juice it will release.

Strain the fruit from the brandy, saving the fruit, and measure the liquid. Add an equal amount of white wine and stir. Serve over ice with a splash of pineapple juice and orange juice (one part juice to three parts sangria). Garnish with a piece of the reserved fruit.

If there’s a single food that says summer, it must be watermelon. The green rind, the red flesh, and the black seeds in a big wedge on a hot summer day, juice dripping down you chin - who doesn’t have this memory?

Watermelon is a staple on our summer grocery list, and we can go through a whole fruit in less than a day. While it’s enough to just eat it straight, why stop there?

The other night I made a watermelon salad that was wonderful. Wonderful, I tell you! The only thing that I think might make it more wonderful is substituting chopped basil for the chopped parsley. Oh, and go light on the vinaigrette as the melon itself makes quite a bit of juice for the salad.

Here are some other things to do with watermelon:

• If you can get your hands on different varieties of watermelon, including the yellow fleshed variety, cubing the fruit and alternating colors on a skewer then freezing them makes pretty and tasty watermelon kabob/popsicles.

• Just cubing the fruit and freezing it then putting in ice water with a squeeze of fresh lemon makes for different and delightful rehydration.

• Try adding watermelon cubes to your weeknight green salad.

• Puree the watermelon with a banana and some ice for a light smoothie.

• Make watermelon gazpacho.

• Grill watermelon, yellow pepper and shrimp kabobs. Perhaps topped with watermelon salsa?

• After the kids are in bed, make a watermelon martini. Add some of those frozen cubes of watermelon to the glass, too.

Regardless of how you use watermelon, don’t forget to just let the juice drip down your chin a bit. It is summer, after all!

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: SQUEEZE worth 50 points good through 07/06/08.
Not a member? Join Points and Prizes now for more free stuff!

It’s strawberry season in the northeast. What a delicious time of year.

My mother used to prepare strawberries very simply: hulled, quartered and sprinkled with a little powdered sugar. Sometimes we’d pour over just a touch of light cream. When I was older, I remember several special Sunday brunches out with my dad and the chocolate dipped strawberries that were served. Those are some lovely childhood memories.

The joys of picking your own strawberries 

There’s a pick-it-yourself farm up the road that we are planning to visit this weekend. I have some loose plans for the fruit we pick, but the truth is, most of it will be snacked on before I can prepare any recipes. I’ll hold some back for strawberry pancakes on Sunday morning, and if there are any left on Sunday evening, I’ll slice them into a green salad with a simple balsamic vinaigrette and goat cheese.

My kids like to make smoothies and I like to make blend up some strawberry milk on hot summer afternoons. And of course, there is homemade strawberry ice cream and strawberry rhurbarb pie. I also add fresh strawberries when I make sangria.

Strawberry season is over too soon

New England strawberry season always seems to be over too soon. Last year, however, I discovered a farm stand that imports late season strawberries from Quebec. I first encountered these little jewels on a camping trip in Canada a couple of years ago, and now I look forward to fresh strawberries into early September. They are smaller are more intensely sweet and redder than the California grown berries we get in the local market.

We put strawberry plants in the garden this year. They are not expected to really produce this year, but it’s awfully fun imagining the future bounty. I look forward to the yield in coming years, and maybe even enough for big pie.

Berry good recipes with strawberries 

Strawberry Milk, or Sunshine’s Favorite “Pinky!” Milk

Generous handful of ripe strawberries, hulled
Milk
Honey to taste

Combine the strawberries and milk in a blender and blend until no chunks remain. Taste the milk and if it needs a little added sweetness, add some honey (sparsely, at first), blend some more and taste again.

Strawberry Salsa

Very good on baked fish or grilled porkchops.

1 c or so strawberries, hulled and chopped
1/3 c finely chopped onion
1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp minced cilantro
Pinch of kosher salt, dash of pepper.

Combine and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Oh how we love it when mangoes go on special at the local market. Mangoes are one our family’s top five favorite food items. I know that, environmentally speaking, I should be focusing my produce purchases on locally grown items, and there is no way any of the mangoes in the store are remotely local, but we love them so. Particularly in the middle of winter, one bite of mango and I am transported to a tropical island and I’m basking in the warm sun, if only for a moment.

Most of the time we enjoy our mangoes straight (and we argue about who gets to gnaw on the pit), but we’re willing to enjoy them about every way available and possible. When my oldest son was a baby, before I figured out that I needed to avoid dairy products while I was breastfeeding him, my husband made me a fabulous mango ice cream a couple of times. His basic recipe was fairly standard, but he had a secret ingredient: a splash of Grand Marnier. I once made a mango cream pie and wish I could locate that recipe again.

If I see something like mango chicken on the menu in an Asian restaurant, I’m likely to order it. Mango smoothies, whether store bought or home made, are coveted – and mango lassis are always the first item ordered at Indian restaurants. Dried mangos rarely last in our house, and are sometimes requested over other fresh fruits. Of all the salsas made with fruit lately, the boys always request the mango salsa. We’ve grilled mango skewers and served them hot over vanilla ice cream on hot summer days. Yum.

Recently a recipe for a mango caprese salad from the Serious Eats site had me salivating in a big way. I was thrilled to see mangoes on special at the market this afternoon, and I am plotting to improvise based on that recipe next week – with the addition of some shredded chicken to make it a complete meal.

Orange Mango Smoothie

Frozen cubed mangoes, such as those available at Trader Joe’s
Plain, non-fat yogurt
Orange juice
Honey (optional)

In a blender, pour in the frozen mango cubes. We tend to go about half way up the container. Add two or three heaping spoonfuls of yogurt, then pour in orange juice about half way up the cubed fruit. Puree until smooth, adding a little more juice to loosen it up if necessary. Taste, and if it needs some sweetening, squeeze in some honey, blend again, and serve.

Grilled Mango and Pineapple Skewers Over Vanilla Ice Cream

Several mostly ripe but not mushy ripe mangoes, cut into long thick strips
Pineapple cut into long thick strips
Bamboo skewers
Brown sugar
Very good quality vanilla bean ice cream

Slide the mango and pineapple strips onto the bamboo skewers. Place some brown sugar on a plate and lightly press the sides of the mango and pineapple into the brown sugar.

Place the fruit skewers onto a hot grill. Allow the sugars to caramelize and start to brown, then remove and let cool a few minutes.

Carefully removed the bamboo skewers and place the fruit decoratively on the top of just scooped ice cream.

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: SKEWERS worth 50 points good through 05/04/08.
Not a member? Join Points and Prizes now for more free stuff!

The hottest drink of summer! Make your own refreshing Cuban Mojito cocktails with this recipe.

Cuban Mojito

Ingredients

3 fresh mint sprigs
2 teaspoons sugar or simple syrup
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (the juice of approximately 1 lime)
1 1/2 to 2 oz light rum
club soda

Directions

1. Place the mint leaves, sugar and lime juice in the bottom of a tall mojito or “collins” glass. Some people prefer to use simple syrup, fine grain sugar crystals (granulated specifically to dissolve in cold beverages) or confectioners sugar over regular table sugar so it will dissolve more quickly.

2. Using a “muddler” or the back of a long spoon or fork, mash the mint leaves into the sugar and lime juice.

3. Add ice and stir in the rum.

4. Top off with club soda and stir. Optional: Cut juiced lime into wedges and stir into the glass. Garnish with a spring of mint and/or a slice of lime.

PointsandPrizes.com Keyword: MINT worth 50 points good through 04/27/08.
Not a member? Join Points and Prizes now for more free stuff!

Creamy, fruity and unique! A fun dessert or snack for kids. You can make this as directed, or healthy it up with some protein powder or brewer’s yeast. The kids won’t even notice it’s in there, but it offers a nice nutritional boost! Don’t like blackberries? Substitute the fruit of your choice.

Blackberry Milkshake

Ingredients

1 cup blackberries, washed and frozen
2 tablespoons sugar or sweetener
1-1/2 cups vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt (4 scoops)
1/2 cup milk

Directions

Place the blackberries and sugar or sweetener in a blender and puree until smooth. You can skip the freezing step and add a few ice cubes in the blender before you puree. Add the ice cream or frozen yogurt and milk. Blend until smooth.

Serves 2.

For the love of dairy
When my husband and I first started dating, there was an evening we bought a pint of premium ice cream to enjoy while watching a movie. As I set up the VCR, he went off the the kitchen to dish the ice cream.

Upon returning to the couch, my beloved handed me a bowl with one and a half delicate scoops of ice cream. I looked at him and said, “What the heck is this?” What, did he think I was chubby or something and needed to watch what I ate? Over the next several minutes of (mostly) good-natured bantering back and forth, I learned that the way my family consumed dairy products in general and ice cream in particular might not be the norm. Oh no. Apparently we consumed far more than the average person my new boyfriend knew.

Now, I didn’t need an entire pint to myself, but scoops when I was growing up were never dainty. There was quantity and quality to our bowls of ice cream. And glasses of milk and the amount of cheese on our pizza, and so on. It was a running joke that we were from Wisconsin cheesehead stock and needed to keep those dairy farms going as our personal mission. I’m not saying it was exactly healthy on balance, but it was just the way were were. We did enjoy our dairy.

Imagine the challenge when my sons were infants and I figured out that they each had less reflux when I abstained from dairy products. I mean really abstained: no butter, no cheese, no milk, no nothing. It was torture, even if I did lose the baby weight rather quickly. I dreamed of dairy products. Seriously, I did! From custards to cream soups to milk in my coffee. Both my sons outgrew the sensitivity and are now hearty ice cream eaters like their mom’s side of the family. And thankfully my daughter offered no such feeding challenges: she’s been a dairy queen from day one, like me.

Milk delivery service
When we moved to our small town, we discovered that there was a local dairy that would deliver milk in glass bottles to our door once a week. I thought I’d moved to heaven. As a bonus to supporting local farmers and a local business, the cows aren’t fed any artificial hormones and the milk is slow pasteurized so even the gallons of low-fat milk have a swirl of cream at the top when first opened. And it tastes so darn good!

Then, just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the dairy expanded their offerings to items like corn cob and hardwood smoked thick-cut bacon and ham steaks, turkey pies from a local turkey farm, sandwich bread from a regional bakery, and…ice cream. I told my husband we could never move because I couldn’t live without my weekly dairy delivery. I could almost cook for a week off the dairy order form!

To be honest, I don’t consume quite as much dairy as I did when I was growing up. My diet (and my kids’ diet) is a little more weighted to fresh fruits and vegetables. But the dairy we do have we enjoy very, very much. It’s all about balance, of course.

And, yes, the cost is slightly higher than if I bought milk at the mega-mart every week, but not dramatically so. To me, the quality of the product and supporting a local business offsets that slight cost (really, it’s only a couple dollars at most per week!). When I do web searches on “milk delivery”, I see that almost every area of the country has at least one dairy that delivers. I hope you will seek out your local dairy and try it!

Four or five years ago now, I gave my husband a small home coffee roaster and some green beans as a Father’s Day gift. Some friends had introduced us to the idea, and it seemed like something we could really get into. We do love our coffee.

To say that we have enjoyed it is an understatement. While I admit I am not the actual expert roaster or green bean selector, I am an enthusiastic gifter of items coffee roasting-related and happy taster of all roasts. It’s not particularly hard to learn how to do, either. I could learn to roast quickly, but my husband already is so good. Why mess with perfection?

It took some initial testing to find the right roast level. We burned our share of beans – no, scratch that. We did not burn them, we created extremely dark roasts with hints charcoal. We learned about first crack and second crack and letting the beans cure for 12 hours after roasting before brewing. And we have enjoyed some really delicious coffee.

We have given home roasted coffee as gifts – to friends, neighbors, the kids’ teachers. When friends come over, some will ask timidly, “Do you, uh, have any of that home-roasted coffee, by chance? Please?” before we even have a chance to offer it. Others just chime in with a firm and enthusiastic, “Yes!” when we do offer it, and usually before the word have fully left our mouths.

We are also thoroughly spoiled, it’s true, but in a good way. I think I drink less coffee overall because so few sources out in the world beyond our front door can live up to what we have at home. And on the rare occasions we don’t reorder beans in time or don’t realize we don’t quite have enough beans roasted for the morning? We do have a stash of commercial roast beans in the freezer, but it’s not quite the same.

If you want to try it yourself, there are more and more websites devoted to home-roasting at which to learn more. Sweet Marias is our favorite, but there is also Coffee Bean Corral and U-Roast-Em and Burman Coffee.

Good luck and have fun!