Food - Summer

Oh, summer fruits, flowers and herbs! How I love them and welcome their arrival.

marigold, basil & mint

We plant these happy flowers around our tomato plants to deter insects but they’re also edible, as long as you haven’t used any kind of pesticide on them. We love basil and mint, too!

breakfast tostada

I love to top a tostada shell with fresh avocado with “everything but the bagel” seasoning, shredded gouda & gruyere, fried egg white, pickled red onion, basil & mint, marigold petals and red pepper flakes….so yummy! To me, the petals don’t really have a flavor but how pretty are they?!

strawberry & basil

Even though our local berries have faded, you can still find good-looking berries at the store. This combo of strawberry and basil is delicious!

strawberry basil smoothie

Y’all. This is so cold and refreshing for these hot, steamy summer days. I simply added my favorite yogurt (Yoplait Oui vanilla), strawberries, basil, fresh ginger, maple syrup, water and ice and blended it up. BERRY good!

strawberry crostata

(adapted from Athena Calderone’s Cook Beautiful cookbook)

This is a take on strawberry shortcake, which always reminds me of my mom. She loved the dessert, especially around Mother’s Day and her birthday in May. She made homemade poundcake for it with whipped cream on top.

This recipe is made with an easy dough, filled with fresh berries and thyme. The crust is sprinkled with turbinado sugar, Tillamook vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Scrumptious!! I’ve also made it with peaches and blackberries in late summer. Cherries and plums would be yummy. I bet apples and cardamom would be delicious in the fall!

Ingredients

dough: 1 ½ c all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp salt, 1 stick frozen butter (if using salted butter, omit the salt) cut into small cubes, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, ½ c ice water, 1 large egg, beaten for egg wash, turibinado sugar for sprinkling

filling: 3 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp fresh thyme, sliced fruit, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 tsp lemon zest, 1 tbsp lemon juice, ½ tsp vanilla or almond extract, 2 tsp all-purpose flour

make the dough

Place flour, sugar & salt in food processor and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until butter is pea-size. In small bowl, combine vinegar and ice water. Slowly pour vinegar water into food processor, pulsing to combine. Pulse just until dough begins to hold together. Transfer to clean work surface and pat together (I added a little flour to surface to keep from sticking). Shape dough into a round and cut into four equal pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour or up to two days.

make the filling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, rub sugar and thyme together with your fingers to release oils. Place fruit in medium bowl. Sprinkle thyme sugar, lemon zest and juice, vanilla and flour over fruit. Toss to coat.

Roll each piece of dough into a ¼ inch thick round and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheet. Divide fruit evenly between the circles, mounding into the center of the dough and leaving a 1 ½ inch border all around. Fold edges up around filling. Brush edges with egg wash and sprinkle with the turibinado sugar. Bake until crush is golden brown and fruit is bubbling , around 30-35 minutes.

These are meant to look rustic so don’t worry about them being perfect. You can add as much fruit as you like, as long as there’s still enough dough to wrap around it. They’re really easy, fun to make and kind of like a mini fruit pie!

lavender

And coming up soon…lavender recipes! I’ve been “harvesting” my blooms to dry. Pretty soon, I’ll have lavender syrup for my coffee and shortbread cookies!