Let me start off by saying that I do not in any way endorse, like, respect or eat run-of-the-mill commercial frozen yogurt.  If it’s trying to taste like ice cream, chances are I’m not going to like it.  Because, face it, frozen yogurt just doesn’t taste like ice cream.  HOWEVER, if you just let it be what it is, frozen yogurt is great.  I love the light, tangy flavor of good frozen yogurt.

So why am I pointing this out? Until recently when I had a scoop of key lime frozen yogurt from my favorite gelato place* I would have immediately skipped right past a recipe for frozen yogurt. If you’re a fan of sweet-tart desserts, definitely give this a try…even if you’re sure you hate frozen yogurt.

This week’s CSA box included a lovely bunch of lemon basil. I spent a few days getting it out of the fridge just to smell it, and making everyone who came into my house smell it too. It has a lovely herbal lemony scent, almost like lemongrass or sorrel, with just enough anise-y basil in the background to provide a solid, grounding basenote for the lemon.

I knew immediately that I wanted to do something that would allow the lemon basil to shine, instead of relegating it to a supporting role. At first I thought I might make a sweet tomato sorbet (from some of the lovely tomatoes in the CSA box) and a lemon basil syrup to accompany it, but my mother in law is visiting and she convinced me we should just eat the tomatoes out of hand…not that it took a lot of convincing. (I still might try the tomato sorbet though. The idea’s kinda stuck in my head in a way that makes me doubt I’ll be able to dislodge it until I’ve tried it.) I’m not sure how exactly I decided to do a frozen yogurt, but I did, and I’m glad. It turned out beautifully.

I had a few friends over for an informal dinner out on the grill, so I grilled a few nectarines to go with the frozen yogurt for dessert. Even after stuffing ourselves with grilled bread, corn and pork cutlets, we still almost polished off the whole batch of frozen yogurt at one sitting.

This is one of those cases where the recipe didn’t go quite according to plan, but still turned out well despite that. When you’re starting out with ingredients like this, it’s no wonder the end result is good, no matter the roadblocks.

Last week’s produce box included some lovely baby purple potatoes and baby leeks. Then the produce market had golden beets, which I can never pass up. (Golden beets are wonderful – all the earthy goodness of red beets, but the color stays in the beets where it belongs. No dyed hands, counter, cutting board, bowls… And the sunny yellow of golden beets is just as striking as the burgundy of the red version.) Add to that some fresh basil from my window box, a bit of balsamic vinegar and a few glugs of olive oil and you’ve got a winner. Taste and looks all in one simple dish.

I planned to grill the beets, potatoes and leeks over indirect heat. I had some chicken thighs on the front of the grill over a normal high-ish heat and put the veggies on the back, thinking they’d cook slowly and get that great smoky charcoal flavor without all the char from high-heat grilling. That didn’t work out quite as planned. The direct heat was plenty for the chicken, but the indirect heat just wasn’t enough to cook the veggies. So after being on the grill for about 20 minutes without showing any indications of cooking at all, I took them inside cooked them on the stove top in a covered cast iron dutch oven.