beauty:design:life

One of my favorite things about Pinterest is that it helps me manage my Internet ADD. Normally, I scroll through blogs and websites quickly, and when I see something I like, I think "oh, I'll totally remember where I found this!" Well, of course, I don't, and after several frustrating minutes of searching through my web history, I usually just give up. But with Pinterest, I just hit "pin" and it saves to my boards. Easy as pie.

Anyway, the point of this long story is this: today, I was flipping through Martha Stewart iced tea recipes (yes, she has a whole slideshow of JUST iced tea recipes) and I came across one that I knew I needed to make for our barbecue tonight. I pinned it, and came back to it a few hours later. And I'm glad I did, because it is DELICIOUS. Slightly labor intensive, but so worth it.

8 black tea bags

4 + 1 cups water

1 pound strawberries, halved

2/3 c sugar (more or less to taste)

1 cup fresh basil

Place tea bags in a pitcher and bring four cups of water to a boil. Pour hot water over tea bags and steep for at least five minutes.

Stir together sugar and remaining one cup of water together in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves.

Bring the mixture to a boil. As soon as it boils, remove from heat and add the basil. Cover and steep for 10 minutes.

Place strawberries in a medium bowl. Strain the basil mixture into the bowl, pressing on the basil in the colander to squeeze all the basil flavor into the mixture. Stir the strawberries and let stand for about 20 minutes.

After removing the tea bags, pour the strawberry mixture into the pitcher with the tea and stir. Serve over ice.

Enjoy!