Today I have Carolina In My Mind. 

If you haven’t figured out by now, I listen to lots of music. I listen to music when I work, when I run or do yoga, in the car, on the train and when I just need to relax. It’s rubbed off on Miss A too. She sings constantly, and I do mean constantly. She sings everything from Adele to Ozzy Osbourne. I’m fairly certain she knows the words to more popular music than she does children songs (and she knows lots of those too).

Music for me defines certain moments in my life, represents different journeys and is often a direct extension of many of my inner most thoughts and feelings. Recently, Mike and I were able to venture on a little journey of our own. While the kids were off having a great time with Nana and Papa, Mike and I took a mid-week road trip to North Carolina.

Neither of us had ever stayed in the tar heel state before, and we were both looking forward to the drive and the destination. As we ambled our way around North Carolina we came across an area where we could access the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,184 miles extending from Mount Katahdin, Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia. It passes through 14 different states and has been on my list of things to do since I was 18. While not hiking the AT on this particular trip, just standing on it gave me quite a thrill.

Eventually Mike and I wound up in Asheville, North Carolina at the Tupelo Honey Cafe. One glance at the menu and we knew we picked the perfect spot. While nearly everything on the menu looked fantastic, the first thing that grabbed my attention was the Rosemary Peach Lemonade. Rosemary in lemonade? I knew I had to give it a try and after one sip, I was blown away. The flavors are intense – peaches, lemons and of course, rosemary which brought such a refreshing crispness to the perfect summer drink. It instantly got my wheels spinning…how could I make this at home? I mean now that I had experienced this drink I knew I couldn’t wait until our next trip to North Carolina, especially not knowing when that would be!

Fortunately, in scanning my Cooking Light issue for the month of June I came across a recipe for Peach Lemonade. I took this as a sign, so today we bring you our first recipe from North Carolina, a nod to the Tupelo Honey Cafe, Rosemary Peach Lemonade. We started by making a simple syrup infused with rosemary.  Continue reading →