Summer calls for a lot of things… grilling, late nights outside, hats and sunglasses, beer in a coozie on the water, and of course really great fresh veggies and fruits. Almost everything we love is in season in the summer, making it easy for us to create something delicious any day. And then some days we don’t really feel like being creative in the kitchen, so we’ll default to something easy. Luckily easy doesn’t have to mean un-tasty or unhealthy, especially in the summer. A lot of times we’ll just throw a bunch of whatever veggies we have at the time in a skillet with a little olive oil and spices, then have a couple slices of a baguette with it and call it a day. Fortunately we have some really great bakeries here that sell their fresh baked bread within walking distance from our home.
We wrapped up a great weekend visiting James’ family in NC by stopping by the (awesomely huge) farmer’s market in their town to pick up some good eats to bring home. We made all sorts of good stuff with the above, so look out for things like mexican street corn, a kickin’ salsa verde, watermelon popsicles, and pickles in the upcoming posts.
We also just ate a ton of this stuff as-is. The peaches were amazing… they tasted like biting into a ray of summer sunshine if you can imagine what that’s like. The cantaloupe and watermelon were just as juicy and summery. We roasted the okra with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and it was great. And finally, the tomatoes. There’s something so unique and fulfilling about the smell and taste of a tomato, especially when it’s picked right off the vine. They remind me of our gardens growing up and eating them right there while we picked them. Luckily my grandfather still has a garden at his house so we still get those fresh-as-can-be tomatoes from him each summer – what would we do without him!
So for this meal, we sliced up a couple tomatoes, a ball of mozzarella, and topped with some fresh picked basil from our plant at home. We roasted the elephant garlic (a much milder flavor than regular) in a pan with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil for about 40 minutes… this makes it easy to spread. We also ate the baguette we purchased from the NC market with a little olive oil and the roasted garlic. The only thing we did actually cook for this meal was the tiny bowl of squash and zucchini – it was leftover in our fridge so we sauteed it up and threw it on the side… a perfect addition to this easy summer meal!
What They Made 