Summer

With the warmer months approaching, it’s time to start enjoying some spring and summer recipes. In California, strawberry season is in full swing and it is big business here considering the Golden State is the nation's leading producer of strawberries. In 2014, more than 2.3 billion pounds of strawberries were harvested which amounts to 88 percent of the country's total fresh and frozen strawberries.

Sweet strawberries make a perfect addition to this vibrant salad and the balsamic vinegar brings out the berries' beautiful color and truly enhances their flavor. The spinach leaves are tossed with a mixture of mint, basil, parsley and tarragon which lend delicious flavor and combine beautifully with the goat cheese.

I'm not sure if this is as much a recipe as it is a reminder or suggestion of how to step up your broccoli serving ideas. Honestly, I love broccoli, I don't think it's boring, bland or blech...and if you do, you just need to tap into your creativity and come up with a way you can enjoy it.  Why miss out on the healthy vitamins broccoli brings to the table.

When it comes to basic nutrients, broccoli is a mother lode. Ounce for ounce, boiled broccoli has more vitamin C than an orange and as much calcium as a glass of milk, (according to the USDA's nutrient data). One medium spear has three times more fiber than a slice of wheat bran bread. And broccoli is also one of the richest sources of vitamin A in the produce section. 

Convinced yet? Broccoli  has also been found to be rich in substances called isothiocyanates chemicals shown to stimulate the body's production of its own cancer-fighting substances, called phase two enzymes. According to researchers, these enzymes, in turn, neutralize potential cancer-causing substances before they have a chance to damage the DNA of healthy cells.  Eat-up people.

Many projects I work on have a moratorium on sharing. Sometimes by me, other times by the publisher or editor who usually lets me know when I can start blabbing about it. Sometimes the lead times are long (a year or two in advance!), other times I just have to wait a month or two until whatever I photographed has hit the streets.

Of course, most of the time it’s ok to share a little bit via Instagram and Facebook, but I usually err on the side of caution and keep my mouth shut.

Which is painful when there are great recipes I want to talk about. Like this one. Oh my goodness, this one.

I am a peanut butter freak, and combined with an apple or banana it’s my standard sweet snack. I knew I’d love this recipe from Jenny Flake’s The Picky Palate Cookbook when we were reviewing the recipe list, and when Adam and his team began to assemble it I knew that the shape would photograph beautifully, and I knew that the shape would also fit in my stomach perfectly.

I think I ate the whole damn thing.

I'm a little bit disappointed.  You see, I have always been told when you live in the country, during the summer season, you must lock your car doors.  Not because someone will steal your car but because they will fill it up with bountiful amounts of zucchini they have grown in their garden.

What?

Well, I've purposely left my car doors open for days and days now and NO ZUCCHINI!  Nothing.  Nada.  Where is it people?

I'm not sure what the problem is, I would treat the zucchini so well.  I would pan-fry it, make zucchini fries, make some desserts...some breads.  I would even share my treats.

So what's the problem...where's my zucchini?!

Well, it could be, a) I don't live far enough out in the country or b) folks on the golf course don't grow zucchini in their backyards.  I'm thinking it's b.  Bummer.