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.

Easy and Elegant Summer Supper plus Birthday Wishes!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Sometime you have to entertain, even in hot weather. You want to impress your friends, but the last thing you need is to slave away for hours (or when it's really hot, minutes) in the kitchen. You could get take-away, but that's the culinary equivalent of giving someone a gift still in the bag from the store, with receipt attached.

Recently, my friends Celia and Victor Wakefield had me over for a pre-concert dinner - we were going to see the second performance of the Portland Chamber Music Festival. We had shrimp, a green salad with vinaigrette, bread, and a perfect dessert of marinated strawberries with whipped cream and shortbread cookies. It felt very posh, and when Celia - who comments here! - told me she the whole thing took about 20 minutes of oven-free preparation, I was sold. You will be, too.

Celia Wakefield's Simple Shrimp for 4

1 1/2 lb pre-cooked frozen shrimp (yes, this actually works better with the less-expensive shrimp!)

Marinade:

Large clove of garlic, chopped

4 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp lemon juice 

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp + Trader Joe’s chili lime seasoning, or chili to taste 

Salt to taste 

Cover a rimmed cookie sheet with foil.

Four hours or so before serving, place the frozen shrimp on the cookie sheet and spread out as much as possible.

Pour the dressing over the shrimp and mix, then cover with plastic wrap.

The shrimp can sit out if the weather isn’t too hot, or place in fridge.

Before serving put shrimp briefly under a broiler to warm.

Celia served the shrimp with bottled tartar sauce she had thinned with a dribble of water and cream (she's English...) and to which she added a shake of the Trader Joe's chili-lime mix.

Celia's Easier-Than-Strawberry-Shortcake

Strawberries

Brown sugar

Grand Marnier

Whipped cream (let's face it, homemade is best, and doesn't take too long)

Shortbread fingers straight out of the box

This is also best if started about 3-4 hours before the meal.  Sprinkle enough brown sugar to make a fine layer on a rimmed plate, then add enough Grand Marnier to create a shallow pool. 

 Slice the strawberries lengthwise and lay them cut-side down in the liquid. Cover and let rest out of the way on the counter. (If you need to keep them in the fridge, bring them up to room temperature before serving.)

You can serve it in individual bowls, or bring out the plate, the whipped cream, and the shortbread and let guests assemble for themselves.

I know many readers have been following along as I write about my kids growing, heading off to college, joining the navy and otherwise getting their start in the world. Today is a big day, because Youngest - Virginia - turns 18 and will be off to university in two weeks. Please join me in wishing her a Happy Birthday, and remind her that even though she's technically an adult, she should probably still listen to her mom.

Ravishing Rhubarb-Strawberry Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping

LUCY BURDETTE: 

On the way back from a wedding in Pennsylvania on Sunday, John and I stopped at the local farm store and happened upon local strawberries. They were so gorgeous that we bought more than was reasonable for two people. Of course, I posted about this dilemma on Facebook and got an onslaught of great sounding recipes. Doesn't a homemade strawberry milkshake sound good? How about strawberry bread? Jam? Pie? Or just plain pop them in the freezer for a treat on a winter day?

In the end, we ate most of them, except for the ones I made into my own recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb coffee cake. I'm happy to share it with you!

Rhubarb-Strawberry Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping 

Ingredients
1 1/4  cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup milk or buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 cup strawberries, chopped
For the topping:
1/4 C. butter, 1/3 C brown sugar, 3 TBSP flour, 4 TBSP rolled oats

Cream the butter and sugar, and add the egg. Sift together flour and baking soda and add to creamed mixture with the milk and vanilla. Fold in the rhubarb and strawberries. Pour into greased 9 x 11″ pan. Blend topping ingredients until pea-sized with a pastry blender and sprinkle on top of the cake. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

This is one of the recipes included in the back of DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. Hayley's good friend Eric makes it when Hayley's mom is coming for a visit.  Because doesn't a homemade coffee cake cure just about all ills?

What would you make with those strawberries?

Catriona seeks out her Dark Side.

RHYS BOWEN: By rights I should not like Catriona McPherson. After all, she has won the last three awards I've been nominated for. But she's the kind of person it's impossible not to like. She's full of fun, witty with that self deprecating humor of the Scots and she's a terrific writer (as well as a good cook) and she's here to tell us about her new and different venture. Welcome Catriona (and that's pronounced Katreena by the way)

CATRIONA MCPHERSON: It’s lovely to back at Jungle Reds again – thank you very much for having me. 

I’m celebrating the launch of a new book right now and it’s quite a departure. Not the celebrating – dearie me, no; I’ll celebrating Tuesday rolling round if I’ve got enough eggs to make a cake – but the book is something different.

Usually . . . I think, since the 8^th book in the series comes out in the UK next month, I can say usually . . . Usually, I write preposterous 1920s detective stories about upper-class amateur sleuth Dandy Gilver and her Dalmatian.  But the book I’m celebrating right now is AS SHE LEFT IT, a modern stand-alone.

 

So how different are they?

As She Left it is a wee bit darker.  Opal Jones, the protagonist, left home when she was twelve and we meet her as she returns, after her mother’s death, to the little terraced row house on the dead-end street where she grew up.  All her old neighbours are still in residence but ten years before the story opens something happened to change Mote Street: a child disappeared and, every day since,  shame, sorrow and layers of secrets have been pressing down on everyone who lives there.

But I need to say three things.  One, I’m a sucker for a happy ending.  Given the world we live in, I can’t understand anyone in charge of a fictional world who doesn’t write a happy ending!  Two, although I meant AS SHE LEFT IT to be very dark indeed, I was cracking jokes by page seven – I can’t help it.  And three, Opal’s job, picking and packing the online orders in a supermarket, gave lots of scope for light relief.  As a nosy besom, I’d love to do other people’s anonymous shopping.  The research I did for that bit of the book – thank you, Dumfries Tesco – was an eye-opener.

Here’s an excerpt.  Opal is at work on the hottest day of the summer:

Round in the warehouse, Dave and the supervisor from Wet Fish were dragging an open-front chiller on a trolley towards the flap doors.

‘This is one of the turkey chillers,’ Dave said.  ‘Email from Head Office.  It’s going to the front door for water.  We’ve to fill it with chipped ice and hand out bottled water.’

‘Whole bottles,’ said Wet Fish.  He was already in his white coat and trilby.  ‘Not samples.  Not plastic beakers like a tasting.’

‘Because we asked them,’ Dave said.  ‘Whole bottles.  For free.’

That was the start of the day’s madness.  The barbecue hordes came early.  Usually it was gone eleven before they started drifting in, sunburned and topless, filling deep trolleys with charcoal and Polish lager, but that day the first of them arrived before nine and some of the very first bought all of the ice, then the later ones wanted to know where the chipped ice in the open front chiller by the door had come from and why couldn’t they get some too.  And one of the assistant managers had to be beeped to come and explain that it wasn’t edible ice and couldn’t be used in drinks, but then Charlotte had a mother complaining that one of the girls giving out the water had said to her little boy that he could have a scoop of it in his empty slushy-cup and he’d eaten the lot. 

And there was no cream in the dairy drop at ten o’clock – none at all – double, single, whipping, clotted, even Chantilly – and the UHT and aerosol ran out and after that everyone who had picked up strawberries on a twofer started putting them back again, only hardly anyone bothered to go back and dump them with the rest of the strawberries; they just shoved them onto the nearest shelf and the store started to fill up with cartons of sweating strawberries and Kate and Rhianne, detailed to seek them out and bring them home couldn’t do it because the warehouse boys had brought out more and there was nowhere to put them, so they got stickered down and piled up in Reduced but that only started the whole strawberries-cream-no-cream-no-strawberries cycle all over again until, as Rhianne said:

“I’m starting to recognise some of these buggers.  This is the third time I’ve moved the carton with that big one like Santa’s nose.’

 

And here’s an easy and delicious summer recipe, good for any creamless strawberry glut.

Delia Smith’s Strawberry Granita

1lb strawberries

6oz sugar

1pt water

2 lemons

 

Hull the strawberries, rinse them and then (Delia says pat them dry.  If anyone can tell me (Catriona) why you would dry berries you’re about to add a pint of water to, I’d be very grateful.) Put them in a blender or processor.  Whizz them to a smooth purée.  Ad the sugar and blend again.  Add the water and the juice of the lemons, whizz one last time and then pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a large Tupperware (could use Ikea) container and cover.

Freeze for two hours, then fork the icy edges to the slushy middle and freeze again.  Re-fork after another hour.  One last hour, one last forking, and the granita should be crystalline and beautiful.  It’ll stay that way for three hours more (unless you have some kind of ninja freezer, I suppose) but will eventually transmute into a mammoth ice-pop.  If you’re having very close friends for dinner, you could pass it round for sucks but I’d be inclined to let it warm up a bit in the fridge and refluff before serving.

 

I’ll be giving away a signed copy of AS SHE LEFT IT to a commenter today - looking forward to hearing from you

RHYS: Thanks, Catriona. So glad you could stop by.  Don't forget to ask Catriona questions, Reds.

ETON MESS

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I was so inspired by Rosemary's Strawberry Cake last Sunday that I decided to throw in the quintessential English summer desert. And I'd be willing to bet that none of the Reds except Rhys have any idea what an Eton Mess is. Believe me, it tastes much better than it sounds.

This no-cook berry pudding was first created sometime in the 1800s at Eton College, one of Britain's most distinguished public schools. It's served with great fanfare every year at the school's June 4 celebration picnic, which is held on the playing fields following a cricket game against the students of neighboring Winchester College.

Although historians believe it was first served with bananas, strawberries became de rigueur over the years, as did the addition of crumbled meringue cookies. Think of it as an inside-out pavlova — creamy, crispy, fruity, and sticky. For the five-ingredient recipe, read more.

ETON MESS

(From Martha Stewart Living)

Ingredients:

1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

3 cups coarsely crumbled pink or white meringue cookies (about 4 ounces)



Directions:


Gently stir together strawberries and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Cover, and let stand at room temperature until juices are released, at least 30 minutes (or refrigerate overnight).

Coarsely crush berries using a potato masher. Whisk together cream and confectioners sugar in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gently fold in cookies and berries (with juices) until almost combined but ribbons of juice remain. Serve immediately.

Serves 6.

I LOVE this, and I know a lovely pub called The Jolly Gardeners in Putney (London) that does a fab Eton Mess. It should be eaten after a Sunday lunch and a good Pimm's.

In fact, I'm now so inspired that I may have to go to Whole Foods Market tomorrow and buy meringues so I can whip up a batch of Eton Mess of my own. (Yes, I know I could make the meringues, but we have a no-bake rule going in our kitchen at the moment. And I'm lazy.)

Give it a whirl, JR readers, and let us know what you think. Happy Sunday!