Summer Food Goals Achieved

2022 Edition

In June, I posted my summer food goals. Let’s use the wayback machine and see what they were:

• Make granitas (adult sno-cones!)

• Cook more seafood (especially fish)

• Eat and cook and bake stone fruit

• Make something nostalgic from our childhoods

• Make copious amounts of gazpacho

• Make pickles (from every vegetable imaginable)

How did I do?

Well, the freezer was stocked with popsicles and granita this summer.

When I was a kid, I loved slushes. Anytime we were at K-Mart, I begged for an Icee. When we went to Dairy Queen, I always ordered a Mr. Misty. Years later, living in Tennessee, I found Sonic and its cherry limeade and fresh fruit slushes. To this day, when I visit my friend, Cheryl, she picks me up at the airport with a cherry limeade in the beverage holder waiting for me.

My love of slushes and icy treats still abides. I will admit that as a woman of a certain age, the ability to just pop to the freezer with a spoon to dive into watermelon granita at a moment’s notice is nothing short of brilliant.

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I feel like I’m still on a learning curve when it comes to stone fruit. Do you eat the peach with the fuzzy skin? Do you not eat the fuzzy skin?

I blanched some peaches, peeled the skin, and blended them with yogurt and ginger for popsicles. One night, I grilled some peaches. Dig those grill marks!

I discovered farmer’s cheese this summer. I tried a recipe in Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day cookbook. To accompany a quick rye soda bread from her book, I made the dill butter she recommends. The recipe includes farmer’s cheese mixed with butter and herbs and shallots. That spread was my find of the summer.

When I grilled the peaches, I topped them with farmer’s cheese and drizzled honey.

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I didn’t make gazpacho this summer. The only pickles I made were pickled red onions, which to be fair, I almost always have in the fridge.

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I didn’t grow up eating fish, even though I grew up on Lake Erie. My grandpa was a fisherman, fish on Fridays was a thing, and Gorton’s fish sticks were common in the freezer.

OK, I did eat fish and chips. Does that count though?

Real, honest to goodness fish and I were never acquainted until I started culinary school. By that time, practically everyone I knew said to me, “Oh you’ve never tried salmon? You have to try salmon. I love salmon.”

I tried salmon. I tried it ten different ways. No, thanks.

I bought mahi mahi this summer and was pleasantly surprised. The fillets were a quick cook, they weren’t fishy, and they made for an excellent sandwich.

Most of the summer, Caprese salads and iced tea were on repeat.

What about you? Any fave food moments this summer?

Thanks again for reading. I care about you. Please don’t forget to eat your greens.