Summer

If there’s one thing I learned about food while living in North Carolina, it’s that anything can be battered and fried: steak, okra, pickles. Heck, even butter, as Paula Deen, proved, can be battered and fried.

It’s not just Southerners though. Americans love battering and frying all types of foods. New Englanders have fried clams. Midwesternerns have fried pork. Southwesterners have fried chiles. Texans have fried Coca-Cola. Seriously.

Yet, of all these devilishly fried, crispy treats, corn fritters may just be the best. Tender sweet corn is encased in a pillow of sweet batter and fried until doubled in size and tantalizingly golden and crunchy.

With sweet corn season upon us, there is no better time to make Crispy Corn Fritters with Chipotle Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce. They’re impossibly simple to make and impossible to resist.

It is often the simplest of gestures in life that make for elegant entertaining. With amazing refrigerators and ice machines galore in our homes, the old fashioned method of freezing water in ice trays has almost gone to the wayside.

I keep some of those ice trays around for to make herbal ice cubes for drinks. My friends and family are always glad to have a treat in their ice and the presentation is both memorable and aesthetically pleasing.

The crisp shapes and forms of the lovely aromatic leaves bound in ice is the perfect accouterment to sparkling mineral water. Whenever I travel outside the country, I love being asked by the servers if I’d like water “with gas” or “no gas” and this drink reminds me of those travels.

As the ice melts in the sparkling water, the herb leaves release their essence and the scents , bouquets, and flavors meld with the fizz for beverage of pure delight and refreshment. Flavor with a syrup or citrus but trust me, this clean tasting drink is fine on its own.

Whenever I think of summer, I always remember the backyard parties and picnics my mom used to host just around my birthday in July. She always fried up batches of chicken while my dad grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. The menus never changed much from year to year. So I could always expect there to be potato salad and pasta salad. What would a backyard barbecue be without them?

I do love those types of "picnic" salads, but they're usually laden with mayonnaise and oftentimes pretty flavorless. I'm a bit more creative now with my pasta salads. I eschew the macaroni for penne, and make a very flavorful vinaigrette in place of the gloppy mayo. One of my favorite standbys is Greek-style pasta salad.

I love all Mediterranean flavors, but especially the salty and briny flavors of feta and olives. This pasta salad wouldn't be Greek without them. Fresh oregano and red-wine vinegar also help to make this salad feel truly Greek. The best part is the time it takes for this salad to come together, which is just about the time it takes to cook the pasta, 10 minutes.

My kids looovvveee popsicles and at some point during the day someone always has a Big Stick or a red-white-and-blue Rocket Pop in hand. While I can be happy with a cherry-pineapple flavored Big Stick, I prefer more of a tropical taste when it comes to popsicles.

Last week I was working away at my desk and I literally jumped up to make these. The idea of watermelon, coconut and lime came over me like a wave. Before I knew it these were headed to the freezer.

Have you made popsicles at home? It’s so easy, especially with the right mold. It takes nothing to whir some flavors up in a blender, the possibilities are endless.

I think the coconut cream I use in this recipe gives this a more “adult” taste. Coconut cream can usually be found in the Hispanic section of your grocery store or as a drink mixer in the liquor aisle. I also use it to make coconut ice cream.