Mojito with Mojo – 5:00 Fridays

My cilantro’s flowered and fizzled out. My Italian parsley is browning at the edges. My basil’s growth is stunted. My dill looks ill.

The only herb thriving in my garden is mint.

I tend to use a lot of mint. It’s a refreshing addition torn into cucumber salad with crushed peanuts. It rounds out my version of baba ghanouj. A chiffonade of mint and lemon zest make blueberries tickle your tastebuds in a most delightful manner. I add mint to iced tea. Mint takes center stage as a regular garnish to my weekly cocktails. Bird and Deal often pluck a mint leaf to gnaw on in between fighting over the ball throwing the football or wielding their lacrosse sticks as weapons practicing cradling with their new lacrosse sticks. I don’t mash the mint to make homemade toothpaste so I’ve been running out of uses for this unwieldy herb.

I figure Hallmark has it all wrong. Forget about life giving you lemons. Then again, if life gave me lemons, that would mean I were back in Sorrento, Italy, and that would be pretty grand. I’m telling you, the loads of lemons there were downright luscious. But back to my mint…When life gives you mint, make mojitos. I’m pretty sure my friend Carla would give me a fist bump right about now.

Mojito with Mojo

1-2 ounces light rum

juice of 1 lime

handful of fresh mint (6-8 leaves)

few fresh jalapeno slices

1 tablespoon sugar

club soda

Squeeze lime juice into a Collins glass. Add mint leaves, jalapeno slices, and sugar. If you’d rather leave the mojo at HoJo, omit the jalapeno. This drink is plenty tasty without the heat. Muddle with the back of a spoon if you don’t have a muddler. Muddle away to release the minty oils from the fresh mint leaves. Add some ice and the rum. Top with club soda. Give it a whir with a straw. No additional garnish necessary. I recommend you sip this sans straw or it will go to your head in a hurry.

Just be sure to do a covert tooth check every so often. That muddled mint can be a mess in your teeth, rendering you a yuppie hillbilly.