My Perfect Summer Day

 RHYS BOWEN: I don’t know about you, but every year, at the beginning of summer, I look forward to those perfect lazy summer days. I’ll take a picnic to my favorite little beach on the Bay. I’ll drive up to wine country and sit in a vineyard, I’ll take the ferry across to San Francisco. And then suddenly it’s September and I realize I haven’t done any of those things I’d wanted to. 

Summer has slipped away from me again, stolen with busyness–that book deadline. Those unexpected guests, the doctor appointments.

This year will be different. This year I will write on my calendar, at least one day a week: RHYS ESCAPE DAY.  And nothing will come in its way. Clare and I had our picnic here yesterday--smelly cheese, crusty bread, olives and chilled white wine. Not bad.

Which makes me think: what would be my perfect summer day? A picnic, definitely. There is something so romantic and old-wordly about sitting on a rug in the shade, eating cold chicken or ripe peaches (if the wasps will kindly keep away. Any recommendations for that?)

Then beautiful scenery: a beach or the mountains or a perfect garden. Then the question: good company or blissful solitude. Should that picnic be alone or shared?

I remember two picnics that stay in my memory: When I was working at the BBC two friends had the same time off one day. We bought a picnic at Selfridges food hall, took the train to Kew Gardens and rented a rowing boat. We drifted down the Thames until we came to a tree overhanging the bank. Then we moored and ate our picnic: cold chicken, crusty bread. Good cheese. Grapes. Cold white wine.  About as perfect as you can get.

Another blissful picnic was when my mother turned 75 in Australia. We sat in the shade on the cliffs over the Pacific. My brother and his wife provided the food. It was every type of seafood: lobster, oysters. Local crab. Prawns. Several salads. A cheese board. Champagne. We ate until we couldn’t eat any more. Then went down the cliff to swim. Came back. Tried another oyster. That was still my most perfect meal.

I can’t duplicate that but I am going to try this summer. I’ll keep you updated.

(This is China Camp, fifteen minutes from me, where I often take my picnic to eat. )

Now it’s your turn, Reds. What is your perfect summer day? Perfect summer meal?

JENN McKINLAY: Oh, Rhys, you’ve made me nostalgic for picnics. My parents were big on Sunday picnics by the lake or the ocean. It really was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I really have neglected the Hooligans horribly, no picnics that I can remember unless you include food by the campfire while camping. A perfect summer day for me would be spent with an ice cold lemonade, a cheese board and a box of pastries, sitting on a blanket with pillows under a  shade tree, reading a book. Anyone is welcome to join me, but they have to BYOB - bring your own book!

HALLIE EPHRON: Ah, picnic. I love it when someone else puts it together. Because a perfect summer day definitely has a lovely menu but please, no prep. 

When we lived in Manhattan ages ago the destination would have been Sheeps Meadow in Central Park with food picked up at Zabars. Here in New England my favorite summer place is a cottage on an island in Casco Bay, hanging out with my kids and grands, walking along the shore, dipping my toes in the icy cold water, boiling lobsters and just-picked corn, lining up at the local ice cream store, exhaling and sitting on the porch and watching the sun set. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My perfect summer day/meal is a lot like Hallie’s, because it’s on the Maine coast. I’d start with baseball in the afternoon, watching our Portland Sea Dogs at historic Hadlock Field. Then, off to a lobster shack for all the goodies Hallie described, but made by someone else! I’d finish off by sitting under the stars on some friends’ patio, enjoying an icy drink while talking around the firepit. 

I have to tell you all - you don’t know summer until you’ve visited Maine!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Rhys, I will happily take your perfect summer day! A little boat on the Thames with a picnic is just too Wind in the Willows perfect.

There will be no picnics here in Texas!! It's too hot, too humid, and too buggy. I would, however, love to sit on my deck in the cool morning with my cup of tea, watching the birds and the hummingbirds at their feeders and enjoying my flowers. Then, lunch on a patio at a nice restaurant. A nap in the afternoon, with a good book, then cooking something easy on the grill in the evening. Bliss!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I wake up. Someone brings me coffee, or I smell the fragrance from downstairs.  Three newspapers, a sesame bagel, and absolutely no responsibilities for the entire day. Oh, I cannot even imagine. Nothing due, no deadlines, and a great idea in the back of my mind.  It doesn't need to be glam or elaborate or planned, I just get to soak up the niceness.

LUCY BURDETTE: All of those sound so lovely! My mother was a beach hound so we spent many a summer day at the Jersey shore with sandwiches and lemonade made from a frozen can of slush. These days, I would skip the sand in the sandwiches part and order a perfect tuna melt with potato chips at the snack bar at the beach club. That would be washed down with an Arnold Palmer, half iced tea and half lemonade. Then I’d go sit in the shade and watch the grandkids frolic in the Sound.

RHYS: What about you Reddies? Your perfect summer day?

Oh and I've just realized its Friday 13th. Drive carefully, watch out for idiots!

Ready, Set, Summer!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Unlike any other season, there are multiple starting points to “summer.” Because summer, more than any other of the four seasons, is a concept. It’s a verb, a vibe, a change in our lives. The astronomical start of summer is, of course, the solstice on June 21st. The tourism industry start of summer is Memorial Day weekend, when three days off work and school combine with (hopefully) good weather to encourage everyone to take a trip to the shore/coast/lake/mountains.

For any of us who have raised kids or worked in the school system, the next start of summer is the end of the school year. In the snowy Northeast, this is often right around the middle of June. I looked back at my calendars, and it consistently hit between June 13 and June 17 in our town.

But to me, the real start of summer is the beginning of July. In Maine, we’re finally getting warm enough weather to risk going places without an extra layer. I can leave the windows open all night, and I’ve gotten the fans down from the attic. In my family, this week was usually the first week at camp Bishopswood for one of our kids (we usually staggered them over the summer because they didn’t want to be part of a sibling set while there.) And of course for most of us, no matter where we live, the hallmarks of summer occur in July and August: sweet corn and amusement parks, trips to the beach and to the swimming pool, baseball and badminton. 

Reds, when does summer really start for you, and what are its hallmarks?

HALLIE EPHRON: Of course summer starts for me with food. Sweet corn, cherries, and local strawberries! Even though our local corn isn’t ripe for weeks and the cherries are from another coast. The end of the school year (no more bus-driven traffic jams in my town square)! And this year, going to Maine for July 4 to enjoy the fireworks over Casco Bay.

Meanwhile I’m staring at the air conditioner sitting on the floor of my office and figuring out who I’m going to cadge into helping me lift it into the window.

 

LUCY BURDETTE: It’s been the weirdest weather in New England–cool and cloudy. Actually, I am very grateful we don’t have a heat wave! My summer hallmarks, like Hallie’s, are mostly food. Tuna melts, cookouts, corn on the cob, strawberries in our garden, tomatoes!! This year our church has been given the honor of being the grand marshall in the July 4 parade. I think we are marching, and I *hope* the grandchildren will be marching with us. I try not to make too many plans when they visit, because they change and change:).

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: By the time I left Dallas for London on Midsummer’s Day, I was already over it. We’d had a few weeks of weather bearable enough for grilling, the summer produce was in at the farmer’s market, but you knew the heat was coming, and it did. Followed me to London for the first few days, too, which were truly miserable, but now we have perfect English summer, with temps in the 70s. The British strawberries are everywhere and they are wonderful! Everyone is dining al fresco! I am not going to want to go home, where the rest of summer will just be a heat endurance test.

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Lucy, I just burst out laughing. I am so ..relieved and reassured. When are the kids coming? We honestly NEVER know, It’s already changed three times, seriously. How  I know summer is here is that our farm shares come, and it is SO great! Snap peas, and super fresh lettuce, and fantastic bread, and all kinds of amazing vegetables–broccolini, and spinach, and corn corn corn. (what do I do with garlic scapes, again?)  And tomatoes! Our SunGolds are on the way..they’re green now, but I know they will be here soon. If the rabbits eat them, I fear for the battle royale…they can have the hosta–just ask them–but our tomatoes are off limits. Ad the perennial question: Will I get into the pool this year?

JENN McKINLAY: Living in AZ, summer starts in mid-May when the temperatures spike into the 100’s (although we got lucky this year and it waited until mid-June). And it’s all about getting the heck outta here! When not on vacation at our summer place in Nova Scotia or beach time in San Diego, we spend time in our pool, waiting for the heat to pass. Summer ends in mid-Oct so we have a ways to go.  

RHYS BOWEN:  I am currently enjoying English summer in the wilds of Cornwall, with extremely spotty internet, hence my absence from Jungle Reds so much recently. We’ve had some glorious days, eating outside, light until ten o’clock. I think that spells summer for me— eating outside. I love picnics. I love sitting on a balmy evening watching lights come on in the valley. Usually summer starts early in California but it’s been a weird year, cooler in CA than in London. When I get home I’ll look forward to farmers markets and fresh fruit.

 

JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What defines the start of summer for you? 

 

Images  by velk1976,  David Mark,  Jill Wellington,  -Rita-👩‍🍳 und 📷 mit ❤,  Engin Akyurt and Walter Bichler, all from Pixabay.

Memorial Day

INGRID THOFT

It's easy, amidst the picnics and the cook-outs, to lose sight of the real purpose of Memorial Day.  My own experiences with the day include marching as a Girl Scout in the annual town parade, bringing colorful baskets of flowers to place on the graves of loved ones, and topping the day off with a backyard barbeque.  I imagine this is how most Americans spend the day, a mixture of solemn remembrance and happy celebration marking the start of summer. 


I did a little research to add to my meager knowledge about the day.  As many of us know, Memorial Day is always the last Monday in May and is the day Americans honor their fellow citizens who died while serving in the U.S. military.  What many people don't know is that the day didn't start out as Memorial Day.   In 1868, after the end of the Civil War, an organization of Union Veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic declared that May 30th was officially Decoration Day.  The birth of Decoration Day coincided with the establishment of national cemeteries, a necessity to accommodate the vast numbers of casualties sustained in the war.  Citizens would decorate the graves of those they lost in the war, and over time, cities and towns joined the remembrances.

Eventually, Decoration Day evolved into Memorial Day, and the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed by congress in 1968 and established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May.  They also declared the day a federal holiday, which took effect in 1971.  This created a three-day weekend for federal employees, and essentially, the rest of us.

So tell me:  How do you spend Memorial Day?  Visits to remember those who served?  Parades and boating?  And for those amongst us who aren't Americans, is there a similar tradition in your country?

Sally Bell's Potato Salad for Memorial Day Picnics

LUCY BURDETTE:  Memorial Day is a day to honor those who died serving our country in times of war. Here's one of our favorite posts, in which the Reds talk about how war touched each of us personally.

But it's also become the weekend to celebrate the beginning of summer--and we do that so often by eating! When John and I drive to Florida in the fall, and back north in the spring, we have developed one must-stop lunch place. Sally Bell’s Kitchen is in downtown Richmond and when you walk in, you feel like you’ve fallen back to

an earlier time, with grandmothers in aprons and hairnets making you a Southern lunch. You choose your preferred sandwich and cupcake (strawberry in this case, though the caramel icing is killer,) and then potato salad, a deviled egg, and a Parmesan wafer are added. And the packaging is adorable—each lunch comes in a little white cardboard box, tied up with string.

We love everything about the lunch, but especially the potato salad. This is what I'll serve at a Memorial Day picnic. It's a little sweet, and lower-sodium, and we like it a lot.

Ingredients
Servings: 6-8

    2 1/2 pounds medium red-skinned potatoes, washed, with bad spots cut out (about 7-8)
    1  teaspoon BENTON’S TABLE TASTY (or 1/2 tsp salt if you don’t need low sodium)
    1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used Woodstock organic)
    3 tablespoons Rick’s pickle relish with juice (or other sweet, high-quality)
    1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (or Kozlik's Amazing Maple)
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more
    5 large hard-boiled eggs, just the yolks folks
    2 tablespoons chopped red onion
    2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
    Paprika

    Cut the potatoes into quarters, cover with water and simmer until tender when pierced with a knife, 20–30 minutes. Drain. Place potatoes in a large bowl and let cool slightly.

    Meanwhile, whisk mayonnaise, pickle relish, Dijon mustard, sugar, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and 1 tsp. Table Tasty in a small bowl for dressing.  Add onion and parsley.
    



Using a large wooden spoon or potato masher, coarsely smash potatoes.
    Add egg yolks to potatoes and coarsely smash them together. Then gently mix in the dressing. Cover and chill.
    
 Dust the top of the bowl with paprika.

 






What will you remember over this Memorial Day weekend? And what will you be eating?

FAVE 4ths!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Did you ever wonder how we Americans would celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence if it had been signed on, say, January 4th, 1776? Snowballs? Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Rum punch?


But as it is, we know the drill--picnics, hotdogs, concerts, fireworks, as well as, for many of us, lots of sunscreen and mosquito repellent.


For the past few years we've spent our July 4ths at dear friends; dipping in their pool, grilling, chatting with a convivial group, and then at dark, carrying our lawn chairs out into the street to watch a nearby fireworks show. But a few months ago, our friends moved to Louisiana, and we are really going to miss our special celebrations with them.


But as for me, having just finished writing a book, this 4th of July I suspect I won't mind curling up on the sofa and napping.  Maybe we'll watch Independence Day. And we do have hotdogs, local organic ones. My hubby found these directions for making spiral hot dogs--isn't that fun? We'll let you know how that works.


So how about you, REDS and readers? What's your fave way to spend your 4th?


(And a little safety reminder from JR: Stay cool, and keep your dogs and cats inside.  More pets are lost on the 4th of July than any other day of the year.)

HAPPY 4th OF JULY FROM JUNGLE RED!