Summer Nostalgia

One of my summer food goals was to make something that G and I remembered from our childhoods.

For G's nostalgic summer dish, I summoned a whole meal from the way back machine.  I made a summer supper straight from Syracuse, NY.  

Grilled steak, corn on the cob, and salt potatoes.

I always love corn season because G loves it so much.  His eyes light up when I ask him to shuck some ears.  Once I take the steaming hot corn out of the pot, he's right there ready with salt and butter.  Then he goes to town.

Years ago, on my first trip to Syracuse while dating G, his family introduced me to salt potatoes.  I'd never heard of this.  It turns out central New York has a history of salt production, the area was loaded with salt springs.  In the 1800's Irish salt miners would bring potatoes for their lunches and boil them in salt brine.

If you go to the grocery store in Syracuse, bags of baby white potatoes are sold with a salt pack included.  Oh, and they must be baby white potatoes, as G advised me before I left for the grocery store.

For my summer throwback recipe, I chose to make broccoli salad.  I remember my mom making this and bringing it to potlucks or picnics.  

First of all, I've always admired a dish called a salad that is decidedly not healthy.  Is that a Midwestern thing?  I feel like there's a whole category of recipes that have the audacity to call themselves salad while being highly caloric or laden with sugar or both.  Your potato salad or macaroni salad.  Your seven layer salad.

The broccoli salad is comprised of yes, that cruciferous vegetable, but also, cheese, bacon, mayonnaise.  A trio of ingredients that scream for a dose of statins.

I think I like it because of the textures.  The blanched, tender broccoli that still has a bite.  The chewy dried cranberries.  The nuttiness added by the sunflower seeds.  The sharp bite of the diced red onion.  And of course, the cheese, the bacon, and the mayo dressing.

Summer Tomatoes

G loves tomatoes.  He's one of those people who will grab one and bite into it like an apple.

I have a lifelong love of ketchup and marinara sauce, but it took a long time for me to appreciate tomatoes.  I think my gateway was this:

This time of year, it's always Caprese o'clock.

Besides throwing tomatoes into my gazpacho this summer and pairing tomatoes with the classic combo of mozzarella and basil, I made a tomato gratin that garnered applause and made its way into the summer recipe rotation.

Summer Goals Achieved!

I've never been a huge fan of cold soups.  But I live in Florida now.  I want to have lunch options in the dog days of summer that 1) don't involve heat from the oven or stovetop and 2) are icy cold.  (I'm choosing not to talk about the fact that I might be experiencing some temperature fluctuations due to my stage of womanhood.)

I studied a few gazpacho recipes and decided to try one.  I loaded up my blender with tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers, jalapeno, red onion, basil, some sherry vinegar and crossed my fingers.

I loved it!  I added a bit more jalapeno for some heat and topped it with diced cucumber and more basil.  It was summer in a bowl and so refreshing for someone who desperately needed a cool down.

Speaking of basil, I bought a few bouquets of it and made big batches of pesto this summer.  I loved being able dip into it whenever I needed to pep up a dish.  I drizzled it on my morning eggs.  I stirred it into my lunchtime orzo along with some peas and parmesan.  I dropped it by the spoonful on pizza and tossed it with green beans or spinach.

Yes, two photos of pesto.  It just makes me so happy.  I'm going to have to make more after I finish writing this post.

Another new dish I tried was a stovetop shrimp boil.  All I had to buy was the shrimp.  Cobs of corn are a given in the summertime and I always have potatoes, lemons, garlic, and Old Bay on hand.  This version of a shrimp boil was a one pot meal with easy prep that we devoured.

I halved the shrimp boil recipe in case it didn't work or we didn't love it, so I had more shrimp for another dinner.  I cooked a few pieces of bacon in a skillet, added corn kernels straight from the cob, a tiny bit of jalapeno pepper, and the shrimp.  I garnished it with basil and scallions.  Another big hit!