The Way We Summer

I hope you have a cute new Summer haircut.  I hope you’re wearing bright pink lipstick (if you’re into that sort of thing).  I hope you’re on a vacation and sitting on some sort of dock in some sort of bay.  I want laughs for you, extra casual Fridays, and super lazy Sundays.

If you’re home (like me), and if you’re in the kitchen (also, like me), I wish for us wine spritzers and simple recipes, and super delicious Summer flavor.

Here is a hard-earned compilation of some of my favorite Summer-inspired recipes.  Everything from Tomato Cobbler to Watermelon Sangria.

I love you!  Let’s be freesshh.

Here’s what we get to do!  We get to bake together sweet cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, thyme and spices.  We get to top those tomatoes with buttery blue cheese biscuits… then we get to rub the whole thing all over our bodies.  Or we can eat it.  Either way.  HEAVEN!   Tomato Cobbler with Blue Cheese Biscuits for our hearts and souls.

I’m working on another Tomato Cobbler recipe for our summer living.  It’s somewhere between quiche and pie.  I dunno.  I’ll nail it eventually.

There’s bacon and waffles so it’s breakfast, right?  There’s sandwiched lettuce and tomato so it’s lunch, right?  Cheddar and mayonnaise?  Oh geez.  It’s everything.  At least my cat and I think so… Cheddar Buttermilk Waffle BLTs.

Put all of the things between two slices of bread.  All of the things… especially if those things are brie, avocado, bacon, and turkey.  The Ultimate Club Sandwich

I hope that, at some point this summer, you make one of those crazy juicy fruit pies that you worry might bubble over onto the baking sheet and be mega messy.  Those are the best kinds of summer pies.  It’s like it has to bubble over to be just right.  

This Peach and Blueberry Pie is as refined as it is rustic.  The peaches are ripe and unpeeled.  The crust is perfectly buttery and flakey.  The blueberries add a lovely contrast of color to the filling.  IT’S PIE… which means it’s the best.  

Thinking beyond the pie plate.  Cherry Pie Bars are part shortbread, part custard, and part cherries (frozen… because yea, I did).   There’s also Double Crust Cherry Pie where pie crust and a cherry pitter collide.

That fruit pie bubble over I was talking about?  I mean it.  It’s those strawberry jammy + golden brown pie crust edges that are  booyakah!   May I present you with Strawberry Rhubard Crumble Pie.  

For when we want our breakfast to taste like a S’more.  Totally reasonable, right? White Whole Wheat Flour for that graham cracker feel.  Dark chocolate chunks in abundance.  Marshmallow meringue topping for the toasting.  Hey, Campfire Scones, HEY!

Once upon a time I had a cute rainbow tablecloth and made Lemon Raspberry Breakfast Rolls that were gooey, fruity, messy, and amazing.  I wish the same for you.

I love that these Tiny Strawberry Cream Scones have just a few ingredients and a whole lot of Summer flavor.  Also, I’ll eat anything in tiny form.  Thank you.

Finally, reasonably sized Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Bananas that we can eat in public.  Still no eye-contact though.  Still no.

Toasted Marshmallow Squares are soft shortbread, strawberry jam and toasty marshmallows!  This is also back in the day when I would shoot all of my food photographs on a black backdrop.    We all have our phases in fashion and food photography.

One step further and we could turn these Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Cones into homemade Drumsticks.  #amiright !?

Look at Summer, showing off like always.  These Peach Tomato and Mozzarella Crostini is the best reason I can think of to combine fruit and vegetables.  Also cheese and herbs… because we’re classy.

It takes ketchup to make ketchup.  No.  That can’t be right.

It isn’t.  Homemade Spicy Ketchup for all of our hotdog wants and needs.

Maybe one of us could write a rap song about how baller we are for combining goat cheese and avocados in this Goat Cheese and Roasted Corn Guacamole.  Yea?   

When the effort it takes to put together a recipe is inversely proportionate to the wow-factor of that recipe, we’ve got a winner.  Wait.  Do I have that right?  It’s summer.  We’re allowed to work less hard and still eat really well.  Whipped Ricotta with Lemon and Olive Oil.

Red wine and orange soda are unique partners at happy hour.  Somehow their powers combined are mega.  Like Power Rangers.  Clementine and Red Wine Spritzers.

It’s kinda like I’ll never stop talking about this Watermelon Strawberry and Citrus Sangria and if you have tasted it you’d understand completely.  Drink pink.

Liquid Summer refreshments are essential in New Orleans.  These Pimm’s Cup Cocktails are inspired by the Napoleon House in the French Quarter.  They’re 100% gulp-able.

I hope your Summer time is a good time!

xo