One night in England Brad made all of us a Pimms. A traditional summer drink (alcoholic) in England I wasn’t sure what to expect as the US doesn’t really have equivalent. But of my, I may have found my new favorite drink – at least in warmer weather.

Pimms is a gin based drink. It is about 40% alcohol so it needs to be mixed with lemon aide or soda to drink. I tried to replicate Brad’s fabulous creation and I think I came close. So … Cherries, strawberries, raspberry and cucumber into a glass with a little ice. Add Pimms and some lemon-lime soda and drink. Apparently if I wanted to get very traditional, I would change out the soda for lemonade and add mint. But for tonight, I’m going with my creation as it is very tasty. Reminiscent of a Sloe Gin Fizz but I can make it myself.

I also got back to cooking today. After a week of getting ready for teachers and kids to come back to school, I didn’t do much last week. But … yesterday I picked up a chuck roast, seared it in a frying pan with some onion and garlic then popped it in the crock pot for eight hours. For a braising liquid I used a little beef broth with a bottle of beer Bob bought, but didn’t like.

Well, he bought I six pack so now I have cooking beer. I was a little concerned with using this, but I figured I could always add lots of other spices to cover it if it wasn’t good. But, I have never had better shredded beef.

Very, very tender and not spicy, but flavorful. Today I made shredded beef tacos with it and boy did it hit the mark.

For the tacos I heated the beef with some onion and a little of the braising liquid. To that I added fresh farmers’ market tomatoes and hard goat cheese. The result …

Not a bad little lunch. Tonight I’m working on shredded beef rolls with butternut squash. If I can get through the papers I’m working on!