We are having my daughters and a few friends over for dinner Saturday. Danny and I are marking our 10th anniversary (the actual day we met was July 4). With summer’s abundance upon us, we will celebrate with food.
These zucchinis from the garden will go into brownies. The lemon balm and lemon verbena will flavour iced green tea. As many red onions as I could want are ready at hand to add zip to corn salad and other dishes. I have already made oodles of basil pesto to season baked shrimp, and will add more fresh basil to a watermelon salad.
We will start the day at Guelph Farmers’ Market, where many things are hard to resist. Last week we bought a basket of sour cherries; last night I baked them into a pie. This time of year it is exciting just to go and see what appears. I can hardly wait to see my favourites: apricots and peaches from Niagara region. They will probably not come along for another week or two, but we will find other fresh fruits and vegetables to festoon our kitchen island.
What foods excite you most this time of year?
Freshly picked corn steamed for a short time (I remove most of the husks and sit them in a pot with just a bit of boiling water at the bottom) and tomatoes sliced and soaked for a while in oil & vinegar with lots of basil and ground pepper is what I like the most about summer food.
Grilled lamb – and, tongue-in-cheek for you – you can use the shearings as well.
Mmm. We don’t have local field tomatoes yet, but we do have local sweet corn. For tomorrow I’m going to make this corn salad. It’s delicious. I made it a few times last winter with frozen niblets, but tomorrow I’ll make it with fresh sweet corn for the first time. I can hardly wait!
Blueberries with peaches and whipped cream that has a touch of maple syrup whisked into it. Baby salad greens/mesclun, with just olive oil & balsamic vinegar for dressing, and a dash of salt & pepper, maybe some grated cheese, finely chopped onions and tomatoes. Who needs frozen TV dinners? Bleah!
Happy anniversary! It’ll be 15 years for us in August. 🙂
Thanks, Joe. And Mmmm! that sounds good.
I’m not sure “excite” is really the right word for it, but I like the limitations winter places on my food choices and the creativity required in response. I’m enjoying experimenting with oca, a first-time crop for me that is surprisingly flexible in use. I’m also savouring the broccoli, beautifully sweet, fresh from the garden. There’s not much else out there though: some hardy brassicas and a few nutritious weeds; serves me right for neglecting the garden these past few months.
This is the first I’ve heard of oca. Cool!