Summer

Okra is one of those vegetables that people either love or hate. One reason is the mucous that comes out when it's cooked, which is especially so when it's included in soups or stews. Popular in Africa and Asia, okra is a traditional ingredient in Southern dishes, like gumbo. But most people, if asked, wouldn't even be able to say what else could be made with okra. Sauteing and grilling are excellent and underutilized methods for cooking it.

Okra can be cooked alone, but it's more interesting when paired with another vegetable, like corn in this recipe. Grilling produces a nice char and smoky taste. The vegetable stays dry and has much less of a tendency to turn gooey. Corn adds a lot of sweetness to the dish to counterbalance the verdant flavor of okra. This recipe is also great for using up leftover grilled corn from a backyard barbecue. Serve it warm or, if you want to save time, make it ahead and enjoy it chilled. But the flavors are best when it's slightly warm off the grill. There's also a variety of okra that's less gooey, perfect for this recipe.

My love of pasta is no secret, but I’m cutting back. An article in the New York Times covering the latest research about the benefit of low carbohydrate diets has me rethinking my noodle consumption. I won’t give them up completely but now and again I can see trying something different. Something like zucchini noodles.

For a long time I’ve wanted one of those spiralizer type tools. But they are rather expensive and I just wasn’t sure how much use I’d get out of them. There is actually an easy way to make “noodles” out of zucchini or other vegetables using a box grater. You just lay the grater on its side like a mandoline! But I’ve just recently tried out the Microplane spiral cutter and it’s an even better option. At $14.95 it’s a lot less expensive than some of the other tools and takes up very little space. It also has two sizes so you can shred larger or smaller vegetables.

My house wine is sweat tea, but there are a couple concoctions I simply relish as much as tea. One is Mrs. Wilson’s Rosemary Lemonade and the other, a “James Farmer” – this Farmer’s version of an Arnold Palmer.

Dear friends of mine in Montgomery host me and “put me up” (or more so put up with me) when I’m staying in town for the night, and Mrs. Wilson, a fabulous cook and hostess in her own right, often makes a batch of this delicious drink. I cannot be more thrilled to partake.

I, as she has, have served this sweet, tangy, and savory blend to guests, family, and party attendees alike and it is always received with smiles and requests for more.

Mrs. Wilson serves hers from beautiful antique crockery pitchers, thus making it taste that much better, in my humble opinion. A farm girl originally from Opp, Alabama, Mrs. Wilson knows the importance of serving the best to friends and family.

Often times the best is just simple yet elegant creations direct from the garden and the land. Rosemary lemonade epitomizes this – fresh herbs from the garden, juice right from lemons, and simple syrup to bring it all together.

Mix this lemonade with my sweet tea, and you have one heck of an Arnold Palmer. Delicious and divine my friends, delicious and divine. Yea, though, as I mention an Arnold Palmer, this Farmer does have a version of the famed beverage… selfishly dubbed a “James Farmer.”

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.