Summer

Grilled Watermelon for Labor Day

I figure I’ve eaten about 20 pounds of watermelon this summer. Fortunately, it’s 92% water and 0% fat, so my clothes still fit fine.

Even as a kid, I ate a lot of watermelon. Everyone in my family did. I can remember my Dad, his face beet-red from the heat, coming through our back door beaming as he was carrying a colossal watermelon. He always did the same thing: set it down on the kitchen counter and proudly announced its weight – 19 and 1/2 pounds! 23 pounds! Like his lobsta, the bigger it was, the better he liked it.

My brother Chris was always the one to cut the watermelon (seeing as none of the rest of us had his patience). With skills of a surgeon, he extracted every last seed while keeping the melon’s flesh intact. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing seedless watermelons when I was a kid. Did they exist back then?

Blackberry and Peach Crisp

blackberrypeaches Ya’ll, this is my go to summer dessert. Well, it may be my go to dessert period. I love to interchange seasonal fruits, but this version may be my favorite. Peaches by themselves are perfect for this dish, and I find myself throwing blueberries into the mix as well. You really cannot go wrong with this recipe!

I have this in A Time to Cook as well but this version calls for steel cut oats – I love the crunch effect they create. The tidbit of almond fairs so well with peaches since they are all in the same family. Speaking of family, yours will be running into the kitchen for this crisp!

You can make it in two separate, deep dish pie pans or a good ol’ 9x13 pan – trust me, you and yours will be just smitten either way! Enjoy ya’ll!

Floating

The summer that sprang to mind when I first thought about what I read is not this summer at all but one from a number of years ago and it isn’t about something I read exactly but something that my friend Jamie read to me.

It was a brutally hot August day and we were floating in her pool, each of us in one of those brilliant floating chaise lounges with the built-in cup holder or in this case, built-in glass of iced tea holder. I am almost positive that Jamie was one of the very first people I knew to have a floating chaise lounge with the built-in cup holder and in fact she had two; one of which I was in, the other occupied by her. I know for a fact that there was a very fragrant, perfect sprig of fresh mint in my iced tea glass which I can promise you she grew in her garden.

I was drifting, my head resting on the floating chaise’s pillow, my eyes closed, letting the chair take me wherever it wanted. Every once in a while, I’d bump gently into the side of the pool, and using my hands as paddles, I’d turn myself around, never once opening my eyes. The relentless sun and heat had made me feel positively light-headed and the water washing across my legs as Jamie floated past me, her chaise leaving a small but cooling wake, was the only relief. I was somewhere between conscious and not when suddenly I heard a loud shriek. “Oh my God!”

Memories of Summer

I'm from the South. I grew up and went to college in Tennessee, and worked for many years in Atlanta. But I never felt like I was home until I moved to New York City. The city fit my disposition and overall world-view nicely, not to mention the comfort that comes from living in a Blue state. So, it takes a lot for me to find a desire to go back below the Mason-Dixon. Still, every Memorial Day weekend I return to kick off the summer. Why? Why do I go back for five days of nonstop comments about the liberal media, the constitutional wrongs of the “war of northern aggression” and the amazing wonders of the NRA?

Believe it or not, I go to Tennessee to camp with my uncle, Tony, and his gun-toting friends from college. Though debated every year, the general consensus is that the tradition began in 1992 shortly after Tony and his friends graduated from college. They chose to go out behind my grandparent’s property to a bluff by a lake. Back then the menu for the entire weekend consisted of the fish they could catch, and cook over an open fire. Occasionally a pizza would find its way back courtesy of the occasional visitor not interested in spending the night outside. But the overall spread was limited.