Summer

"This was served at our wedding last year and always delights a crowd, hence the name. Not that we have anything against Billy Idol…. It is fruity, sweet, on the lighter side and can be made more like a cooler if you increase the juice.  Frozen fruit is key here as it keeps the drink cold and stops from becoming too mushy in the liquid. Frozen pre-cut fruit works fine or you can do it yourself."

1 bottle of white wine, something fruity like Chenin Blanc works well
1 cup frozen diced peaches
1 cup frozen diced mango
1 red delicious apple, cored and cubed
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeds removed
8-12 ounces fruit nectar (anything like peach or passionfruit or guava works)

Mix the wine and nectar in a large container, add apples and refrigerate for at least one hour. When you’re ready to serve add the frozen fruit, give it a stir and serve over ice. Garnish each glass with a slice of lemon.

-- Recipe courtesy of MattBites.com    

It’s just that time of summer when I feel I haven’t had enough BBQ.

Ribs to be specific. Pork Ribs. For some reason and I’m not sure what it is. Either we’ve been eating lighter or the bbq-er in my house has been opting for fancier fare (like boneless chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto – I’ll let you know how it turns out). And due to the Highway Jobs Incentive (or whatever you call that thing that’s tearing up our streets and making automobile travel next to impossible at night) as one of the many “405 challenged”, the trip over the hill to Boneyard Bistro seems daunting, forget Hoggly Woggly’s, and Baby Blues has become so popular that unless it’s dinner for ten and we can get them to deliver, take-out’s more trouble than it’s worth.

So, I’m declaring Sunday August 7th National BBQ Ribs Day! I don’t know who decides these things anyway. So, if it’s someone else’s National Day, like National Heirloom Tomato Day, I apologize, you’re just going to have to share.

The best ribs I’ve had this summer were Alan Ett’s (but I haven’t quite convinced him to give me the recipe). That’s not true, he told me the recipe, but I didn’t write it down. And I’m hoping this will inspire him to write it down for me and send it in, because they were divine.

BBQ Sauce | Lyndon Johnson's BBQ Sauce

Barbecue Beer Ribs | Brown Sugar Pork Ribs
POM Pomegranate Barbecue Ribs | Quincy Jones' Thriller Ribs

There are few things that taste more like summer than watermelon. I still see such a vivid picture in my mind of my mother's first homegrown watermelon. She stood so proud, holding the melon by the end of the vine, like it was a prize that she'd won. Deciding whether it made a "thump" or a "thud" would make or break what seemed like the longest wait on earth for a slice of juicy watermelon.

These days, we've had a feast of watermelon with almost every meal - perfectly accommodated by natures rhythm to give something so juicy during this heat. Isn't that amazing? Our needs can always been met by what the soil gives us. I can still feel the sun in my skin long after I come inside and begin to cook dinner, so I look for something to deeply cool me from within.

Like my mother's precious watermelon, my prize grows on our fig tree. Each morning we check on the ripeness of the largest fruits that still hang from the branches. We enjoy the slow harvest that gives just a fig or two a day, the perfect slightly sweet snack.

Slightly rustic and simply elegant, this easy dessert is a mainstay in this Farmer’s kitchen! The complement of basic ingredients with pretty fruit is what makes this dish so elegant. Peaches in the summer, apples in the fall, pecans in winter, and strawberries in spring, the dough for this tart is quite versatile.

Just shy of true pie crust dough, this tart dough is a perfect blend of the slightly sweet with just enough puff and flake. Sweet and tart peaches are the piece de resistance for this lovely dessert, and a glaze of peach preserves adds a beautiful sheen to the tart and makes the perfect dollop for serving.

Fresh from the farm peaches are wonderful just about any way you slice them. For this dessert, I leave the skin on, which helps hold the shape of the peach wedges. Arranging from a center floret of peach slices and concentrically ringing the dough with the fruit is quite beautiful if you roll the dough into a circle. If you roll your dough into a more rectangular shape, lines of peach slices make for a great presentation as well.