Summer

Picked up a pint or quart of cherry tomatoes at the greenmarket? Or harvested some from your garden? You could eat them as they are or make something special. What would you make with them?

The tomato plants in my garden have provided for many relatives, friends, and coworkers. With such a surplus we were giving them away as fast as they were growing. Cherry tomatoes, such little bursts of summer freshness, are great for a light salad, combining other vegetables and herbs from the garden like onion, cucumber, and parsley.

Great for accompanying grilled meats or roast chicken, this recipe for cherry tomato salad is sure to be a highlight of summer’s end. Make it any time of the year too, but it’s most refreshing when made with perfectly ripened tomatoes.

There was just enough of a breeze to keep us cool and comfortable. Six of us sat around the table on a backyard deck enjoying dinner together last night. Sipping white sangria and eating a meal made of stone fruits. Our hostess had thrown out a challenge for us. Each guest was to bring any dish that included stone fruit in the ingredient list.

My first thought was that we'd wind up with a bunch of desserts like peach crisp, plum tart, cherry pie. What is stone fruit? A stone fruit has a pit in the middle, surrounding a seed. Most well known stone fruits include peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries and apricots. But olives, almonds, mangoes and even dates are technically part of the stone fruit family.

Our entree turned out to be BLATs, sandwiches made of crispy bacon, fresh lettuce, slices of creamy avocado, thick rounds of tomato layered on bread that had been brushed with oil and toasted on just one side in the oven.

FoodBlogga Etiquette Tip #43: At dinner, never discuss politics, religion, or the issue of fruit on salad.

I was at dinner with friends recently where they served a delightful mesclun salad with fresh strawberries and parmesan cheese. Well, I thought it was delightful; my dinner companions disagreed.

As we were discussing benign topics such as the recent weather, I pointed out to one of my friends that she hadn't eaten any of her strawberries. "Don't you like strawberries?" I asked her. "Oh yes, I love strawberries," she replied, "but not on salad."

What was it she didn't like? Were the berries too sweet? Was it the mixing of vinegar and fruit? Her response: “I just don’t like fruit on salad.”

This sparked a surprisingly intense discussion. I can understand how some people hate cilantro because it tastes like soap to them, but strawberries or apple slices? One friend called diced melon on salad “just wrong,” while another declared, “strawberries belong on cereal not on salad.”

At noon on any summer day, there's a certain silence that sweeps across our pastures. It's a livestock siesta and no better time to enjoy the peacefulness of the sun and swaying pines around us. Dane and I think of a savory snack to bring to the breeziest spot on the farm - under the shade of our oldest oak tree.

This season we've collected cherry tomatoes by the buckets - sauces, sun dried and salsa has been happening a lot in my kitchen, but there's nothing like the smell of roasting a tray of fresh picked tomatoes.

This simple pie has a cheesy polenta base that feeds my love for the taste of southern grits. I top it with bright, tart roasted tomatoes - although a variety of garden vegetables could be roasted or sauteed for a satisfying topping.