JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: For those of you broiling in other
parts of the US, you’ll be surprised to hear we’ve been having a cold summer in
Maine so far. Yes, there was the infernal heat dome last week, and we’ve
managed a few days when the temperatures have gotten into the 80s, but
otherwise it’s hardly been the kind of weather that inspires lingering over icy
drinks on the deck or patio or grilling for guests.
Which is why I was delighted the other day when it hit the
perfect point of heat (i.e. “Yay, it’s summer,” instead of “65 and drizzling” or
“Satan’s bowels.”) It finally felt right to have my first Pimms cup of the
summer. To me, it’s the quintessential seasonal drink - I mean, the bottle’s
not going anywhere, but I don’t touch it between September and May.
There are a lot of foods tied to the calendar and the weather
because, well, that’s when they taste best. Strawberries, corn on the cob,
home-grown tomatoes. But there are other foods and beverages we could have at
any point of the year but… we don’t.
An example for me: the grilled hamburger. I like hamburgers!
I’ll occasionally order one in a restaurant (there are some great
grass-fed-beef places in Portland; hit me up for recommendations if you’re
traveling here.) But the ONLY time I make them at home is between June and
August, outdoors, and it has to be hot enough that I’m a little uncomfortable
standing over the grill (I have the old-fashioned, charcoal briquette
kind.)
Or potato salad. I literally make the exact same potato salad
summer and winter, but the former gets a mustard-mayo dressing and hard-boiled
eggs and the latter gets a bacon-vinegar dressing and no eggs. Why one and not
the other? I don’t know! I could serve the vinaigrette cold and the mayo warm,
but after 40 years of making this (and more years eating - these recipes come
from my mother) they remain strictly, rigorously separated by the time of year
and the temperature outside.
How about you, Reds? What are your
“strictly-seasonal-although-they-don’t-have-to-be” drinks and dinners?
HALLIE EPHRON: My favorite seasonal dish is a salad main dish.
A corn and basil and Fetah cheese salad. Corn (fresh, boiled and cut off the
cob (NOT frozen or canned)) with season’s best cut up tomatoes, a
generous handful (or two) of chopped fresh basil, and plenty of crumbled fetah
cheese — dressed with a vinaigrette (⅔ olive
oil, ⅓ a good balsamic vinegar,
S&P).
I confess, messing with the charcoal grill holds no allure for
me these days. Though my favorite summer thing used to be a whole turkey
roasted over coals. You season the bird as if you were roasting it in the oven.
No stuffing. Get a full load of coals hot and push them to the edges so you can
put the turkey on a rack with coals NOT directly under it. Let it roast with
the lid down. Baste occasionally with olive oil or butter.
Takes about what it takes to roast it in the oven (use a meat thermometer to test
for doneness) and it tastes smokey and sensational and can be eaten hot or warm
or cold.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, tomatoes! I cannot wait, CANNOT WAIT!
For the good summer tomatoes. A tomato sandwich with white toast and mayo and
arugula and tomatoes and crazy salt and I am transported. So delicious.
I also love sungold tiny tomatoes cut in half with a tiny
slice of mozzarella and topped with fresh pesto.
Or–tomatoes again–capresed with exquisite balsamic drizzle and
mozzarella.
Hamburgers cooked outside–yes! We have briquets, too, it is SO
much better.
And salmon grilled outside too, with grilled corn.
Now I am absolutely drooling.
And you know–I always forget about watermelon. But it is so
yummy!
RHYS BOWEN: Summer to me means the farmers market. All
that local produce, especially ripe peaches, plums, apricots. Oh, and
strawberries. I am not married to a barbecue expert so we only use it if the
kids come over but I do love barbecued chicken and shrimp. But a special treat
is to pack a sandwich and fruit and take my lunch to a local beach.
LUCY BURDETTE: What the others said–fresh corn on the cob from
our favorite local farmer (I never buy grocery store corn out of season), fresh
tomatoes, and blueberries. Later in the summer, the Connecticut peaches come in
and I buy bushels of them. Here’s one more: a root beer float with sweet cream
ice cream from Ashley’s. Oh yum, glad the grandkids will be here so I have a
good excuse for that!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: This past week we’ve gone from “Oh, yay, I
can grill,” to “Oh my God, somebody shoot me if I have to go back outside and
it’s still ninety degrees at eight o’clock. That said, I will still grill. I
make fabulous burgers with grass fed local beef from our town butcher shop.
They also sell the most scrumptious chewy, dark molasses buns from a local
bakery. Tomatoes, however, in spite of the abundance at the farmer’s
market, have been disappointing.
But peaches and blueberries are in season here and they have
been fabulous. The one thing that absolutely says SUMMER, though? Watermelon! I
cart a quarter melon home from the market every Saturday!
JENN McKINLAY: Cherries and peaches mean summer to me. I recently found the
absolute best cobbler recipe I have ever had so there’s been a lot of
cobbler kicking off this summer season! It’s so hot here in AZ that we
try to avoid using the oven and do most of the cooking outside (by we I
mean the Hub), so it’s a lot of grilling or crockpotting until the
temperatures drop. JULIA: What are your fave seasonal foods, dear readers? And are there any, like potato salad and Pimms, you ONLY have during the summertime?
Trouble with insomnia? "You can expect that as you get older." Bouts of vertigo when I lie down and get up? "You can expect that as you get older."Acid indigestion? "You can expect that as you get older." I expect if I told him I was growing a second head, I'd find out that, too, is just one of those things that happen as you... you know the drill.
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