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Do you have a foods that you typically serve in summer that you are looking forward to?


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For us it is homemade salsa.  Forth of July is Always homemade pico de gallo  style salsa, with lime, chopped cucumbers and chicken in it.

 

 

I use a dozen roma tomatoes, 1 regular or-2 small bunches of cillantro, 1 mild white onion, a seeded and chopped cucumber, juice of a large lime, and then add the zest from the lime also, salt, 1 bunch green onions.  Dice/Chop, toss, chill.  

 

If the tomatoes are not very flavorful then I add a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and a half teaspoon of sugar. If they are really bland, then I do this twice.

 

I bake chicken (apx 2 cups cooked)  in the oven with a generous squeeze of lime over the top and a few sprigs of clinantro, salt and mild pepper. Chill and chop.  Add to salsa when cool.

 

Sometimes I also add a can of rinsed, unseasoned black beans.  (salt is fine, just not flavored)

 

 

 

Our favorite chips are the Scoops style, because they work the best with the chicken. 

 

 

 

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Mmmm that sounds good. I'm planting tomatoes for the first time. Hopefully, I can try that recipe.

 

I think we just do more grilling than we do in colder weather. 🤔

 

I do make a blue cheese slaw that goes well with burgers and dogs. (But you have to really, really LOVE blue cheese!)

Cabbage cut up or use the packaged kind

Blue cheese dressing-lots, like a whole bottle!

Bacon bits

And because I doesn't have ENOUGH blue cheese, ADD crumbled blue cheese

Sometimes I add dried cranberries as a sweetener.

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My favorite things in summer are grilled chicken (make a lot so I can eat leftovers in salad, pasta, etc.) and fresh tomatoes. I just bought some very good tomatoes from Clinch Mountain, Tennessee. We ate 6 of them in a day, as BLTs or tomato and avocado sandwiches.  I could live on homegrown tomatoes. Sadly, I have a brown thumb. 

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My mom cooks half-runner green beans with new potatoes on top. My very favorite!

 

I used to LOVE those!! We had them all the time when I lived in Atlanta, but here on the WI/IL border, nobody I know eats them like that so I totally forgot about them. Putting it on my list- I need these! Thanks for mentioning it. 

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There's this pasta dish I make once a summer. It's rich, but delicious. 

 

Pasta (farfelle is good here)

1 large wedge brie cheese diced 

tomatoes - fresh from garden or farmers market

basil

garlic

olive oil

 

Let everything but the pasta marinate for an afternoon, so it gets all melded together and happy. Add cooked pasta and a bit of pasta water if needed to make it saucier. Top w/ parm. 

 

I don't eat much dairy, but this is one dish I splurge on. So yummy!

 

Homemade salsa, tomato sandwiches and corn on the cob. :-) 

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By the time February rolls around, I'm dreaming of that first plate of fresh, sliced tomatoes straight from the garden.  Fresh tomatoes and cucumbers are on the table for almost every dinner.  

 

Creamed red potatoes with peas.

 

Fresh green beans.

 

My mouth is watering.

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Definitely fresh tomato dishes here too. But that's not until mid-late August for tomatoes from our garden. Before that...blueberries! We're picking this Friday at our favorite u-pick place. 15 pounds is a good haul. Then we wash them and spread them out on towels all over the counter to dry. And we just eat them straight off the counter. If I think to get some in the fridge, they are better chilled. When they're dry I'll bag up several quarts and freeze them, but the rest will go in the fridge until they're decimated by dh and middle dd. They've been known to each grab a large tupperware full of blueberries out of the fridge and eat them like they are individual servings. I'll go pick blueberries 3-4 times from late June to third week of July and this process just repeats itself every time.

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Fresh apricots from our tree.  So much better than store bought that they have completely ruined me for that.

 

And homemade ice cream.  Even though we don't hand crank, somehow I never quite want to pull out the machine in, say, November.  My favorite is Cinnamon Vino Del Mocha.

 

And DH loves peach pie made from fresh peaches.

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You people with your fancy meals!

 

My favorite go-to summer "meal" is chopped watermelon. Chop that whole thing up, stick it in the center of the table, eat it family style.

 

Lunch is served.  Don't like it, don't come back; it's on the menu all week :lol:.

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Homemade salsa for us, also.

 

Anything with fresh homegrown tomatoes, especially dh's tomato tart recipe.

 

Fresh-picked local berries, and summer fruit desserts. Grilled peaches with honey. Strawberry shortcake. Blackberry cobbler. I have a sour cherry pie in the oven right now. 

 

And s'mores!

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You people with your fancy meals!

 

My favorite go-to summer "meal" is chopped watermelon. Chop that whole thing up, stick it in the center of the table, eat it family style.

 

Lunch is served.  Don't like it, don't come back; it's on the menu all week :lol:.

 

 

Did you see the second season of Grace and Frankie on netflix?

 

"Why are you doing that?" ~Grace is pouring vodka into a watermelon~

"Because they don't come like this."

Edited by OKBud
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Did you see the second season of Grace and Frankie on netflix?

 

"Why are you doing that?" ~Grace is pouring vodka into a watermelon~

"Because the don't come like this."

 

I have this show saved to my Netflix queue but haven't started it yet.

 

Sounds like Grace and I are going to be fast friends! :lol:

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Tomato sandwiches made with tomatoes that are still warm from the sun. :)

 

:thumbup:  :drool5:  Love tomato sandwiches

 

You people with your fancy meals!

 

My favorite go-to summer "meal" is chopped watermelon. Chop that whole thing up, stick it in the center of the table, eat it family style.

 

Lunch is served.  Don't like it, don't come back; it's on the menu all week :lol:.

 

:lol:   Love it

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This sounds good, ... is there a good recipe you can recommend?

 

I don't really have a recipe. I chop an onion or two, mince a bunch of garlic, dice several tomatoes, throw in some jalapeños or serranos (depending on what we got from the garden), lime juice, a little salt and pepper, sometimes some chopped cucumber, and maybe some oregano. Cilantro if you like...Some folks like cilantro, but to me it makes everything taste like CILANTRO! and nothing else.

 

A fun variation is the above using halved cherry tomatoes and adding grilled corn once it's sliced off the cob. Heavenly.

 

Or peach salsa, with the above ingredients but substituting peaches for the tomatoes.

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BLT's with fresh tomatoes and homemade wheat bread

cucumbers and cream (with cukes from my garden)

salsa (tomatoes and peppers from the garden)

strawberries (we picked on Tuesday and so far we've had strawberry shortcake twice and I made strawberry pizza which we just ate some of, I've made 72 strawberry and some other fruit rollups and I still have enough strawberries to make Yummy Strawberry Dessert - yes that's the actual recipe name.  I'm hoping to go picking again on Friday because we will be out of strawberries and I haven't gotten any in the freezer yet)

raspberries (I have a small patch but I often buy a few flats each year).  These don't need a recipe just consume them as they are.  For some reason I love fresh raspberries but I don't like them once you put sugar on them.

peaches, slice add a little sugar, pour over some whipping cream and you have a delicious breakfast or dessert

sweet corn - that's a meal all by itself

really any food that uses fresh summer veggies since they taste so good this time of year.

 

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I'm more of a Winter when it comes to food that I "look forward" to but only because in the Winter I can get most of the Summer foods I eat (veggies, fruit, salads etc....) whereas Winter food in Summer is usually, yuck.

What I do like that is harder to come by in Winter .....

Corn on the Cob (that's not chewy), fruits and veggies that taste like they're supposed to, cauliflower salad, grilled meat for dinner, all the time (DH will still grill in the cold and snow, just not as often) and fresh herbs from my own garden.

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BLT's with fresh tomatoes and homemade wheat bread

cucumbers and cream (with cukes from my garden)

salsa (tomatoes and peppers from the garden)

strawberries (we picked on Tuesday and so far we've had strawberry shortcake twice and I made strawberry pizza which we just ate some of, I've made 72 strawberry and some other fruit rollups and I still have enough strawberries to make Yummy Strawberry Dessert - yes that's the actual recipe name. I'm hoping to go picking again on Friday because we will be out of strawberries and I haven't gotten any in the freezer yet)

raspberries (I have a small patch but I often buy a few flats each year). These don't need a recipe just consume them as they are. For some reason I love fresh raspberries but I don't like them once you put sugar on them.

peaches, slice add a little sugar, pour over some whipping cream and you have a delicious breakfast or dessert

sweet corn - that's a meal all by itself

really any food that uses fresh summer veggies since they taste so good this time of year.

So jealous you still have strawberries! Our season ended in March :(

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So jealous you still have strawberries! Our season ended in March :(

 

That goes both ways.  In March we had freezing temps, in April we had freezing temps and in May we had lots of freezing temps (far more than most years).  What I wouldn't have given to have any kind of fresh produce those months.  Strawberries just started in the last few days here but due to the high temps we are now having they say the season will be very short and could be over by next week.

 

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Summer only foods for me:

 

tomato sandwiches

purple hull peas and fried cornbread

purple hull pea sala

shrimp coktel (I love this all year, but it's best in summer)

corn on the cob

eggplant all the ways

 

I love summer so much!

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Purple hull peas are a cousin of black-eyed peas.  They are all sorts of types of southern peas, and they have a short season, are hard to find these days, and are so delicious.  My favorite are purple hull, but there are crowder, lady peas, zipper peas, and white acre peas.  Subtle taste differences, but all of them are light and delicious.

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Purple hull peas are a cousin of black-eyed peas.  They are all sorts of types of southern peas, and they have a short season, are hard to find these days, and are so delicious.  My favorite are purple hull, but there are crowder, lady peas, zipper peas, and white acre peas.  Subtle taste differences, but all of them are light and delicious.

Oh MY! Purple hull peas are my total favorite. Can't grow them where I am now but I've had family driving from Texas to Michigan bring me many quarts frozen!!!

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I hope to buy and freeze two bushels of purple hull peas this year. I will get 5-6 bags per bushel. I used to fry pork chops, cook the peas, cornbread, and maybe mac and cheese. My family would eat the peas and cornbread and leave everything else. So now when I make peas and cornbread, I might have onion and peppers on the table but no other dish. That's all they want.

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Gazpacho! Mom's recipe:

 

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 cucumber

1 green or sweet onion

1-2 cloves garlic

2T Parsley

2T red wine vinegar

2T olive oil

1T Worcestershire

2-1lb cans peeled and diced tomatoes*

salt and pepper

 

Mom also likes to add carrots and V-8 juice to taste; I add Rotel. :zombie:

 

*I usually like to use fresh tomatoes in the summer.

Chop and Puree; that's it!

Edited by trulycrabby
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Tomato pie! I make it different than the recipes call, though. Instead of an actual pie crust, I line the pie dish with frozen, shredded hash browns. Layer thick slices of heirloom tomatoes over the top, alternating with layers of thinly sliced sweet onions. After a few layers and the pie plate is full (not over flowing), bake in the oven until the hashbrowns are cooked, then top with mozzarella and bake until it's all melty. Sprinkle the top with fresh basil, if you want. 

 

Other than that, burgers, hot dogs, watermelon and sweet corn. 

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Gazpacho from our garden veggies, barbecue with chicken and roast peppers and zucchini (from the garden), and for dessert, sponge cakes with berries from our garden (we have chickens who produce a ton of eggs in summer and my sponge cake recipe uses up like 8 eggs at a time).

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There are so many summer foods I look forward to! 

 

Pasta salad filled with fresh garden veggies.

Grilled or BBQ'd everything. I grill at least 3 nights a week in the summer time: Fish, chicken, pork, beef. It is all better better with a bit of charcoal smoke added, and it keeps my house from being so hot.

Fresh fruits: berries and melons especially!

 

By the end of the summer, I'm looking forward to cooking in the oven again. I really appreciate seasonal living.

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