Summer is not the time for heating an oven and stirring at the stove. Cold foods, quick preparation, seasonal bounty abound. So why am I eating pasta?
I spend a large part of the year in efficiency mode subsisting on eggs and broccoli (thanks, Cami), quesadillas (I’ll eat anything in a tortilla), seasonal salad. Both going to the market and cooking is one step too many. I can do one or the other. Something has seized me this summer. I believe it is the power of suggestion. I cannot turn around but I find a recipe that wills me to make a list and run to the store. Today I went expressly for a sweet onion (yes, one sweet onion) to make once more the mint, feta, and watermelon salad. While compiling the salad, I peeled, chopped, and cooked together summer fruits to send peach-raspberry-lavender jam home with my guests who agreed to consume the watermelon salad (it doesn’t keep). By my calculation, the jam will be sufficiently chilled to eat in half an hour. Maria donated her edible dried lavender.
One weekend in recent history found me cooking numerous onions for rigatoni with five lilies and ricotta salata. I searched three stores for ricotta salata that I finally spied at Whole Foods. The five lilies cooked down to a colorful mélange of roasted sweetness, wintry and warm.
The next weekend, bent on concocting pappardelle with zucchini blossom sauce, I bought zucchini squash blossoms (14 blossoms for $1 . . . was there something wrong with the scale?) at the DM Farmer’s Market. The pappardelle was no picnic either. I went the same three places for that, refusing to pay over $6 for 8 ounces of dried pasta. I broke down after futile attempts and called it a wash. On a tip-off, I found it at Trader Joe’s for under $2. Incredible, no?
This is what I’ve been eating this summer. How ‘bout you?
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4 comments:
I tend to eat more fruits during the summer. And I drink more water. But do I really have a favorite summer food? Not really. Perhaps the food I most closely associate with summer is a peanut-butter sandwich.
Now, in winter, it is another matter. In the winter, I have many favorite foods. I enjoy chicken pies, spaghetti and meatballs, and hot, spiced wassail.
To me, no other drink says Christmas like wassail. This is not to say I don't enjoy other drinks in winter. My signature drink is hot chocolate. Do not suppose I will drink just any kind. Still, some might consider me voracious as a hot-chocolate drinker. Mint, French vanilla, and hazelnut are favorites. And there are others, too.
When autumn turns the winds cold, and golden trees start to appear, I may be found seated before the glow of a fire with a book in hand. And at my side, a steaming mug of hot chocolate; warmth against the darkening of night.
Long ago, upon the encroach of another autumn, Paul asked Timothy to bring him his cloak, scrolls, and parchments when he visited. If I had made a request of Timothy, I would have added to this, "and the hot-chocolate mix."
B, for Christmas I'll get you a wool cardigan. I love a serving of hot chocolate. I have always wanted a cloak, like the one highlighted in Babette's Feast.
Ahhh...the foods of summer. There is nothing more refreshing than a large shaved ice after a lite meal on a summer evening while in the company of the magnificent Apple Slice.
Brian, bring me the hot chocolate mix, I don't even need the cloak.
Saying "melange" is almost as fun as saying "Menage", the suggestive name of that club in Pasadena. As for summer foods, nothing beats Darn Fresh Corn, purchasable at Darn Fresh Corn stands in the Salt Lake area. Make your check out to Darn Fresh.
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