Summer Salads

Summertime and the living is easy. Here is beautiful plate of fresh, garden salad - perfect for a light supper at the end of a hot summer's day. It is still a bit early in the season, but by now gardens should be sporting tomatoes, green beans, peas, microgreens, fruits, lettuce, green onion, and a variety of edible flowers.

Summer Means Fresh Food

The weather is finally beginning to warm up and the sun is making more frequent appearance and things are beginning to grow! I've already gotten to the beach twice. Nit only will garden fresh produce soon be available, but there are also many foraged items that are now or are soon to be ready for picking! Spruce tips, dandelion buds, forget-me-nots, and rocket are all around in my area now. Don't forget mushroom season, wild greens and edible flowers!

Ice Cream Sundaes

Since summer seems to have come to an end, and fall is in full swing, I thought I would feature a few homemade, spur-of-the-moment, ice cream sundaes that were made in this house this summer. They all start with a few scoops of classic vanilla ice cream. From there, you may see a banana split, or a chocolate chip eruption, with some candy-coated chocolates, and toffee chocolates galore! They are nothing special or fancy, just a quick ice cream and chocolate fix. There weren't even any sauces or sprinkles or anything added. Just whatever was found in the cupboard. 
Here is #1: Vanilla ice cream with some semisweet chocolate chips on the side (it's beginning to melt).

Voila #2: A very basic banana split.

#3: Chocolate galore with chocolate chips and candy-coated chocolates:

A little taste of summer for you!! It's getting a bit too chilly to enjoy ice cream now!

Summer Lovin'

I love summertime for many reasons; the warmth, the sunshine, the vacations, the freedom and relaxation, but most importantly, the food. With summertime comes an abundance of fresh, great tasting produce. A great number of fresh fruits and vegetables are in season some time in the summer. It is even better if you have your own garden. Then you can just walk outside, pick something and eat it. It doesn't get much fresher or tastier than that! We have a very small vegetable garden and a little rhubarb plant in our backyard. It isn't much, but we already have more cucumbers than we know what to do with, and they certainly taste better than any you would buy at the store, no matter how local or fresh they claim to be. We also have some tomatoes and green peppers. Our other vegetables aren't quite ready yet, but hopefully they will be soon. We are also lucky enough to have neighbors and friends with gardens who are willing to share and trade their vegetables with us. I also look forward to the fresh fruits of the summer, even if I can't find them in my backyard. There are Farmer's Market's and local grocery stores that carry these fresh, local fruits at reasonable prices. We had an excellent strawberry season, with a few batches of strawberries still coming in. Blueberry season just began, and I have already taken advantage of it and baked a few blueberry items. Fresh cherries can still be found around, which are best for eating just as is, in my opinion. And peaches and plums are still around too. Aside from fresh fruits and vegetables, there are some other tastes of summer too. Fruit smoothies, any grilled food, corn on the cob, hamburgers and hotdogs, lemon meringue pie, and of course, ice cream, all remind me of summer. I may not get a chance to enjoy every summertime food now, but I'll be sure to have a taste of one of these in the wintertime to bring me back.

PHOTO CREDIT:"758icecream" http://www.photo-dictionary.com/phrase/391/ice-cream.html#b .Photo Dictionary, n.d. Wednesday, August 22, 2012. 

Corn On The Cob

I love corn on the cob! When it is in season, I eat it as much as I can. The season is just starting, and I have already had it twice now. Corn on the cob is just one of those foods, like watermelon, ice cream, and lemonade, that remind me of summer. I usually like my corn on the cob plain, although it is also good with a pat of butter, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Other seasonings, such as paprika, parsley, and garlic, are good too. We usually just boil corn on the cob to cook it, it is quick, easy, and simple. We have also grilled it on the barbecue, but this is trickier because the corn burns quite easily, and must be wrapped well. Also, usually it requires a parboiling as well to cook it completely. I just like my corn cooked enough so I can eat it, I don't really care how it is prepared, as corn is one of those foods where the taste does not vary greatly depending on how you cook it. The one thing about corn on the cob, is that it is corn on the cob. If you take the kernels off of the cob, it is no longer the same thing. I will eat corn off of the cob when it comes in a can or a bag, but I do not take the kernels off of the cob to eat. To me, that is simply defeating the purpose of corn on the cob. Eating it off the cob is so much fun; if you take it off it just isn't the same at all! Some people do this because the corn gets stuck in their teeth or braces, but this just won't do for me. We have several sets for eating corn on the cob. They consist of specially shaped plastic yellow trays that are perfectly shaped to fit a cob of corn. They also come with little spears to poke in both ends of the cob, so it is much easier to pick up and eat. If you are a big fan of corn on the cob, these are definitely worth the investment.

Ice Cream Flavours

In honour of summer, I decided to take part in a little challenge. I am going to see how many different ice cream flavours I can name in five minutes. I promise not to search the internet or the freezer or anything if I get stuck, this is entirely on my own. I am going to time myself for five minutes. Before you read any further, you should try this yourself and see if you can beat me. Okay, here goes. Starting...........now!

• Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, Hoofprints, Death By Chocolate
• Tiger, Bubblegum, Cotton Candy, Orange Pineapple, Moon Mist
• Udderly Divine, Heavenly Hash, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Grasshopper, Blueberry, Caramel Cups, Peanut Butter
• Butterscotch Ripple, Cappuchino, Coffee, Fudge Crackle
• Chocolate Crunch, Chocolate Caramel, Cherry, Black Forest
• Strawberry Banana,Caramel Chocolate Swirl, Wowie Cowie
• Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Eruption
• Birthday Cake, Gooey Mooey, Funky Monkey, Half-baked
• Cherry Garcia, If I Had 1000 Flavours, Maple Walnut, Butter Pecan
• Almond Crunch, Chocolate Almond, Nutty Crunch,Cookies and Cream
• New York Cheesecake, Cherry Cheesecake, Banana Split, Hawaiian
• Tropical Treat, Butterfinger, Reese, Smartie, Oreo, Pina Colada
• Key Lime, Lemon Meringue Pie, Banana Cream, Coconut Extreme

Whew, I've got 56 in five minutes. Can you beat that?

PHOTO CREDIT:"Ice Cream!" http://forums.allkpop.com/threads/ice-cream.49158/ .allkpops, n.d. Saturday, July 30, 2011.

Barbecued Everything

It's summertime, and for many people that means cooking on the barbecue as often as possible; lunch, supper, and even breakfast and dessert?! Grilling has certainly gained  popularity over the past few years, with food items going where they have never gone before. For example, until recently I had never heard of grilling grapefruit, radicchio, or pound cake. And did you know you can grill pizza, sandwiches, and meatloaf? Biscuits, muffins, and breads can also be cooked on the barbecue. 
Just recently, I came across a recipe for chocolate cake on the barbecue while reading a cookbook dedicated to barbecues. The book also included recipes for bananas caramel, apple pie, and dessert pizza on the barbecue. It turns out that when it is just too hot to turn on the oven and heat up the entire house, the barbecue can be used to cook just about anything! Barbecues can be used as an oven to cook anything in a pan, simply by placing the pan on the medium grill over indirect heat to cook, and rotating the pan at half time. It will take about the same amount of time to cook as it would in the oven at 350F. This works for cakes, muffins, bread, and even cookies. Isn't that neat? Now you can bake anytime through the summer, no matter how high the temperature is!

PHOTO CREDIT:"bbq.jpg" http://www.changemyplate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/bbq-300x198.jpg .Change My Plate, n.d. Saturday, February 2, 2013.