My favorite cold weather desserts need to be sweet and full of flavor. When it's cold and rainy outside, nothing is better than a slice of flourless chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a bowl of hot apple cobbler and a spoonful of heavy cream. Rich and sweet or hot and sweet, yumm.
In summer, heaviness is out of place. My preferred dessert is beautifully ripe fruit from our local farmers' market: a bowl of ripe berries, a slice of ice cold watermelon or cantaloupe, a ripe pluot, peach, or nectarine.
When I want a more elaborate dessert, I supplement fresh fruit with custard.
Custard is easy to make, requiring only grade-school math: 2 (eggs) + 1 (cup cream) + 1/2 (cup sugar). Poured in a buttered pan, baked in a water bath. In and out of a 350 degree oven in an hour. Simple, easy, and delicious.
Then I had a thought.
Summer fruits and veggies start coming in this mid to late summertime heat. Often, it is not just a lil’ bit of ‘maters or peaches or squash – it’s a bushel and a peck! Blackberries for us are one of those crops. We have stands of wild blackberries down the dirt roads and edges of the woods on our property that fill our baskets with berries and, in turn, give us all sorts of blackberry delights!
Labor Day – the last weekend of summer on Martha’s Vineyard, the last opportunity to host weekend guests and the very last weekend to dine with good friends before the “great pack up and go”! (Labor Day for locals – on the other hand is the last weekend of putting up with us and our crowded beaches, crowded streets and crowded restaurants. Their anticipation of reclaiming this beautiful Island is palpable!)
Fresh corn on the cob just seems to be a summer tradition for most people. It’s so simple to do, but everyone I know seems to use a different method – grilled, steamed, boiled, microwaved.
The other day at Sprouts, a local grocery store, a woman saw me selecting baby eggplant.
