Summer

With the peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots trickling into the market it’s hard to resist the temptation to eat them everyday–at least for me it is. It’s as if I enter this stone fruit frenzy, forsaking my usual selection of fruits and vegetables in order indulge on insanely delicious peaches 4 or 5 times a day. Can you blame me? What is more pleasurable than a hefty peach enjoyed over the kitchen sink, juicy syrup running down your arms? Nothing I tell you!

(That actually reminds me of a friend I know who takes her peaches and mangos into the shower with her. Kind of clever I think, if not a bit strange. But like I have room to call anyone strange.)

I have a soft spot for all sorts of peach cobblers, pies, crumbles, krumps and slumps. Something about crust, dumpling or biscuit dough and peaches mixed together makes me weak in the knees.

Oh, and I’m kidding about the krump thrown in there to see if you were paying attention. But really, you oughtta see me throw down with a clown suit and some hip hop. Call Mr. LaChapelle now.

This is a dish that is perfect for all of the endless “end-of-school-year” pot luck dinners or for BBQs all summer long: Oven Roasted Potato and Green Bean Salad with Skinny Basil “Pesto.”

Real pesto–which is made with basil and garlic but also loads of oil, nuts and cheese–is delicious…but also very calorie dense. (The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe costs you 430 calories for a 1/2 cup serving.)

But by using more herbs, calorie free lemon juice and Dijon mustard, less cheese and oil and skipping the nuts altogether…this skinny “pesto-ish” dressing has just 120 calories but still packs a flavorful punch and a toothsome texture. And by using an equal amount of green beans (40 calories a cup) as potatoes (140 calories a cup), you can have the sensation of a pesto potato salad with less than half of the calories!

With no attempts to revise biblical history, I have concluded that some religious scholars may have erred. I simply do not believe that the fruit hanging from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden could have ever been an apple. In my humble opinion there is only one fruit that had the potential to misdirect Eve into morally unsound behavior.

It had to be an heirloom tomato.

Alright, it’s not as romantic and symbolic as the ubiquitous apple and what I’ve written may be considered blasphemy, but when you take that bite of your season’s first heirloom tomato you quickly understand how some things on this planet can just be absolutely perfect as they are and make you want to do bad, bad things just to get another bite.

It might just make you want to write a letter to the editor of the Good Book. Wait, um, on second thought, scratch that.

Heirloom tomatoes have gained popularity in the past decade or so, and that puts one of the biggest smiles on my face. If you’ve never tasted an heirloom (let alone never seen one), you might react by shock and horror and then pure idiotic delight. Simply put, heirlooms are very very old tomatoes, grown from plants and seeds that have been handed down from generation to generation. Because of their lineage, there’s usually a story behind each specific variety.

It is only right that during International Pickle Week we should all eat at least one pickle. You're probably thinking, "National Pickle Week?" Yep. It's true. International Pickle Week was founded more than 60 years ago by the Pickle Packers International, a trade association serving the pickling industry.

I've already started celebrating with one of my favorite pickles -- Black Pepper & Garlic Babies sold with both Del Monte and Gedney labels. I love them. But, then, I'm a pickle person. I think my dad had me eating pickles and olives as soon as I had teeth to chew them.

With Memorial Day weekend just ahead, the grills will be heating up. And many of them be cooking burgers.

Years ago, my friend, Micky, gave me a recipe for ground beef burgers that had horseradish mixed into them. I'm not sure where she got the recipe. She is a cookbook collector and I know she especially likes Junior League cookbooks. Maybe the recipe came from one of them.