I can't wait for stone fruit season! Peaches, plums, nectarines, all the hybrids. Also, melons! My latest melon obsession is the Lemon Drop melon, which I've only ever seen at my local Sprouts and only for a hot minute (July/August) but it's the best melon I've ever had.
I used to get excited about strawberries but lately 95% of strawberries (even farmers market ones) just taste like disappointment.
As for grilling, all the meats, but also fresh corn on the cob. For those who can't or don't want to bother with the grill, the air fryer is an excellent option. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, air fry for about 10 minutes at 400 with a flip in the middle.
There used to be a vendor at a tiny farmers market near my office but that market went away with all the office workers during Covid. But there were days I'd get a half flat of his strawberries at lunch and none of them would make it home with me. 🤣
We love making grilled pizza! It’s ideal for small dinner parties because you can only make one or two small pizzas at a time. We usually just eat a slice of each one as they come off the grill, but you could keep them warm in the oven if everyone wants all their food all at once. We just use a store bought dough, but you could also use premade flatbreads to keep it easy (I really like the Stonefired Naan brand). Here’s an article from Serious Eats with some how-to tips.
I love doing pizza on the grill too. I’ve been using a baking steel so it gives me a flat surface. I do find that it’s a very hot endeavor because you have to stay close and you’re opening the lid a lot.
I also encourage you to grill pizza dough with just olive oil, salt and pepper. Fantastic with charcuterie, as a base for falafel or kabobs, with hummus or ricotta, and on and on…
I definitely want to experiment with pizza once my boyfriend and I get a new grill! Now that I moved we're using the grill that was already at the house and the thing is /busted/ and the flames are kinda uncontrollable for anything past hot dogs and burgers lol.
My favorite summer traditions is (and this is not diet-y AT ALL, I promise): a big salad. I especially love a Hetty McKinnon salad. My favorite is the panzanella salad, which we call “bread salad” in our household. I get punnets of cherry tomatoes and loads of fresh basil and good olive oil and great sourdough and I make it the most delicious pile of food. I just don’t want to cook but throwing together a bunch of food and making something delicious and wonderful is so achievable.
The Smitten Kitchen Peanut Lime Chicken is one of my favourites to grill. So much flavour, so light and summery tasting.
One of my favourite tips I’ve learned (from J Kenji López-Alt) is that whenever you’re marinating something, especially chicken, you can mix the marinade with mayo, which both helps it to adhere/coat more evenly, and encourages browning.
Another summer fav is to grill a whackload of veg (mushrooms, zukes, asparagus, peppers, onions, whatever) and then toss the veg with pasta and garlic butter. Delicious!
Onions! When I used to grill, I would cut up a few onions and put them in foil with olive oil and salt while I was grilling other stuff and they were delicious on everything. Like an easy caramelized situation. Same re: scallions - just cleaned not even cut).
I'm grill averse, it's just not for me, but when my marriage ended, it turned out the only new task I had to take on was being in charge of the household finances. I really enjoyed my 20-year break from that, but I find that I also enjoy being in charge of everything now. As for eating -- just waiting for the good local tomatoes, so I can make caprese salads and BLT's.
With you on almost all of this except that I was already in charge of the damn finances, too. (I did have to take up laundry but I work at home so it's not much of a challenge.)
I love summer fruit. I love getting to eat all the fresh berries, cherry, watermelon and nectarines that I can get my hands on. Strawberries, nectarines and burrata on toast with balsamic drizzle is a go to snack.
I’m also trying my hand at making boozey popsicles this summer. My first attempt, strawberry lemonade with vodka, is currently in my freezer. I hope they turn out well.
Grills. Ugh. Not my jam. That's what my wife is for although she's not dad-coded. Her masculine energy is enough!
We like Weber gas grills and conveniently our house of 5 years had a gas hook-up on the deck. Buh-bye propane gas tanks. Weber has an app for all things meat, temperature to cook at, whether direct/indirect heat, length of cooking time and all that jazz.
Burgers have buns (and mayo for me)and a side of tots, steaks side with Ina Garten's corn salad and maybe grilled asparagus because both of those start a party in my mouth!!
We live in Manhattan so no grilling here, but we have farmers markets right near our house on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and I just cook based on whatever looks good there. Right now it's pasta with tofu and asparagus--super simple, really shines with good asparagus--and the fresh strawberry pie from NY Times Cooking, which is so easy and SO GOOD and really highlights the strawberries. Later in the summer it will be fresh corn and tomatoes with persian cucumbers and avocado, dressed lightly with lemon juice, salt and white pepper, and then so many peaches (especially white peaches) both baked into cobblers and eaten plain. Plus, soft serve ice cream, ideally vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, from the ice cream truck on the way home from daycare.
My dad taught me how to grill, and my husband never learned, so I am the grill master in our household. (I love how this elicits at least a few bemused looks from cis-het men when we invite other families over.) I love grilling, but summer in Texas is NOT peak grilling season here because it is too fucking hot. I do not enjoy slaving over a 500+ degree apparatus while dripping sweat and darting back and forth from inside to outside. Grilling is so much more enjoyable when it is less than 85 degrees out. My other beef with the grill is cleaning the damn thing. I can’t leave charred residue on the grates because it attracts bugs, and cleaning it takes just as long if not longer than the actual grilling process. We do have a built-in gas line so I’m thankful for not having to fuss with propane tanks. Our grill is a second-hand Weber we bought from some friends for a steal, and it’s taken a beating living outside on our patio, even with a cover. My dream is a built-in outdoor kitchen, but that’s a long ways off.
Summer cooking here means whatever minimally heats up the kitchen. Lots of leftovers, charcuterie boards, clean out the fridge nights. I love making big salads and topping with pre-shredded rotisserie chicken. We bought a dual zone air fryer last year and it’s been a game changer.
I would say my husband definitely uses our grill more, mostly because I only like to grill when it's nice out whereas he will be out there in a raincoat or in say, November. I love grilling meat, but I think the most transformational things to grill are broccoli (trust me), and PINEAPPLE. Grilled pineapple dusted with a little cinnamon, topped with some melty vanilla ice cream? Perfection. Also, if you haven't been listening to The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, it is a delight. Each week they will make each other's recipes for a particular food and delve into the process of developing the recipe. They just did one on grilled chicken and I learned so much from it!
Other things on my summer cooking bucket list: lots of tomato sandwiches, which consist of the ripest summer tomatoes with a smear of mayo, either on an everything bagel OR between two slices of milk bread with a dusting of furikake. We also have raspberry bushes, so I'll be making lots of raspberry things -- raspberry chocolate scones, raspberry ginger cobbler, raspberry cheesecake bars...
Grilling is so great! There's a lot of schlepping involved but so much less kitchen-cleaning. Also, there's no shame in just googling the time and temp every time — I definitely do this. I have my phone out to use as a timer anyway!
(Also I am fully the grill person in my home: I don't think my husband has ever touched our grill. Not going to pretend I'm not super proud of this.)
I don’t grill super often, but when I do, I love using a digital meat thermometer to take the guesswork out of everything. We have one that has saved presets for various types of meat, and which make things even easier.
My husband has never gotten into grilling, so I am in charge of that in our house. (But so was my mom, when I was growing up, so it was always weird to me that it was so dad-coded?) I treated myself to a weber gas grill for this summer, and I am loving it. It makes midweek grilling manageable, and we have used it more already this year than we used the charcoal over the past 2 years combined! I love to do a foil pack of sliced potatoes and onions for our side; just put it on first, and they are beautiful by the time everything else is done. And thank you to Girl Scouts (and my amazing leader/mom) for teaching me that recipe as a kid!
We would make potatoes and other vegetables in foil a lot when I was a kid. We called them silver turtles. I think that was their name in the camping cookbook the recipe came from. It’s such an easy grilling side.
A food I grew up with in the South but only rediscovered while grilling as an adult is okra! Sliced down the middle with olive oil and salt and then tossed in a grilled bowl and stirred a couple times, it is my family's favorite. We have even started growing some okra plants in our raised beds! And as much as I loved the grandmother-cooked fried okra of my childhood, adult grilled okra is definitely where it's at.
What is a grilled bowl? My southern experience of okra is my mom stewing it with tomatoes - so slimy! We never had it fried (diet culture sigh). But interested in maybe trying again as an adult!
lol I meant to write grill bowl, like the metal bowl you can put on the grill for small things. :) But a grilled bowl sounds amazing, I might need to make something up with that name if it doesn't already exist!
I can't wait for stone fruit season! Peaches, plums, nectarines, all the hybrids. Also, melons! My latest melon obsession is the Lemon Drop melon, which I've only ever seen at my local Sprouts and only for a hot minute (July/August) but it's the best melon I've ever had.
I used to get excited about strawberries but lately 95% of strawberries (even farmers market ones) just taste like disappointment.
As for grilling, all the meats, but also fresh corn on the cob. For those who can't or don't want to bother with the grill, the air fryer is an excellent option. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, air fry for about 10 minutes at 400 with a flip in the middle.
Also WHAT does a lemon drop melon taste like??? Want!
It's got a perfect sweet/ sour taste!
“Taste like disappointment.” Yes. Where are the good strawberries?
Large, sweet strawberries in mid-atlantic. I've been eating a bowl full nightly for weeks. And cherries are lip smacking good now, too.
OoO what grocery store are you shopping?
Trader Joe's
Berry picking has saved us from bad strawberries.
We have found good strawberries by going berry picking. It’s a commitment but the berries are so. Flipping. Good. And the kids love going.
There used to be a vendor at a tiny farmers market near my office but that market went away with all the office workers during Covid. But there were days I'd get a half flat of his strawberries at lunch and none of them would make it home with me. 🤣
We love making grilled pizza! It’s ideal for small dinner parties because you can only make one or two small pizzas at a time. We usually just eat a slice of each one as they come off the grill, but you could keep them warm in the oven if everyone wants all their food all at once. We just use a store bought dough, but you could also use premade flatbreads to keep it easy (I really like the Stonefired Naan brand). Here’s an article from Serious Eats with some how-to tips.
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-pizza-lab-how-to-top-grilled-pizzas
I love doing pizza on the grill too. I’ve been using a baking steel so it gives me a flat surface. I do find that it’s a very hot endeavor because you have to stay close and you’re opening the lid a lot.
I also encourage you to grill pizza dough with just olive oil, salt and pepper. Fantastic with charcuterie, as a base for falafel or kabobs, with hummus or ricotta, and on and on…
I definitely want to experiment with pizza once my boyfriend and I get a new grill! Now that I moved we're using the grill that was already at the house and the thing is /busted/ and the flames are kinda uncontrollable for anything past hot dogs and burgers lol.
Um. YUM. I have never thought of grilling pizza before.
My favorite summer traditions is (and this is not diet-y AT ALL, I promise): a big salad. I especially love a Hetty McKinnon salad. My favorite is the panzanella salad, which we call “bread salad” in our household. I get punnets of cherry tomatoes and loads of fresh basil and good olive oil and great sourdough and I make it the most delicious pile of food. I just don’t want to cook but throwing together a bunch of food and making something delicious and wonderful is so achievable.
Honestly I love a great big salad with an amazing dressing. So so goos.
Love McKinnon salads. She is the master.
Yes! tbh my fave not greens based salads are tomato salad, and a cucumber salad with red onion. Give me all the refreshing foods in the heat!
Ooh, I love a panzanella! Must add that to this week's menu
The Smitten Kitchen Peanut Lime Chicken is one of my favourites to grill. So much flavour, so light and summery tasting.
One of my favourite tips I’ve learned (from J Kenji López-Alt) is that whenever you’re marinating something, especially chicken, you can mix the marinade with mayo, which both helps it to adhere/coat more evenly, and encourages browning.
Another summer fav is to grill a whackload of veg (mushrooms, zukes, asparagus, peppers, onions, whatever) and then toss the veg with pasta and garlic butter. Delicious!
Onions! When I used to grill, I would cut up a few onions and put them in foil with olive oil and salt while I was grilling other stuff and they were delicious on everything. Like an easy caramelized situation. Same re: scallions - just cleaned not even cut).
YUM. I am going to try this.
Oh my gosh, I love onions!!!
I'm grill averse, it's just not for me, but when my marriage ended, it turned out the only new task I had to take on was being in charge of the household finances. I really enjoyed my 20-year break from that, but I find that I also enjoy being in charge of everything now. As for eating -- just waiting for the good local tomatoes, so I can make caprese salads and BLT's.
Summer BLTs are everything.
With you on almost all of this except that I was already in charge of the damn finances, too. (I did have to take up laundry but I work at home so it's not much of a challenge.)
I love summer fruit. I love getting to eat all the fresh berries, cherry, watermelon and nectarines that I can get my hands on. Strawberries, nectarines and burrata on toast with balsamic drizzle is a go to snack.
I’m also trying my hand at making boozey popsicles this summer. My first attempt, strawberry lemonade with vodka, is currently in my freezer. I hope they turn out well.
Grills. Ugh. Not my jam. That's what my wife is for although she's not dad-coded. Her masculine energy is enough!
We like Weber gas grills and conveniently our house of 5 years had a gas hook-up on the deck. Buh-bye propane gas tanks. Weber has an app for all things meat, temperature to cook at, whether direct/indirect heat, length of cooking time and all that jazz.
Burgers have buns (and mayo for me)and a side of tots, steaks side with Ina Garten's corn salad and maybe grilled asparagus because both of those start a party in my mouth!!
Favorite summer delight: chip dip with kettle chips in a hammock
Favorite summer beverages: homemade shrub (I love blackberry ginger), seltzer, and hop water
We live in Manhattan so no grilling here, but we have farmers markets right near our house on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and I just cook based on whatever looks good there. Right now it's pasta with tofu and asparagus--super simple, really shines with good asparagus--and the fresh strawberry pie from NY Times Cooking, which is so easy and SO GOOD and really highlights the strawberries. Later in the summer it will be fresh corn and tomatoes with persian cucumbers and avocado, dressed lightly with lemon juice, salt and white pepper, and then so many peaches (especially white peaches) both baked into cobblers and eaten plain. Plus, soft serve ice cream, ideally vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, from the ice cream truck on the way home from daycare.
My dad taught me how to grill, and my husband never learned, so I am the grill master in our household. (I love how this elicits at least a few bemused looks from cis-het men when we invite other families over.) I love grilling, but summer in Texas is NOT peak grilling season here because it is too fucking hot. I do not enjoy slaving over a 500+ degree apparatus while dripping sweat and darting back and forth from inside to outside. Grilling is so much more enjoyable when it is less than 85 degrees out. My other beef with the grill is cleaning the damn thing. I can’t leave charred residue on the grates because it attracts bugs, and cleaning it takes just as long if not longer than the actual grilling process. We do have a built-in gas line so I’m thankful for not having to fuss with propane tanks. Our grill is a second-hand Weber we bought from some friends for a steal, and it’s taken a beating living outside on our patio, even with a cover. My dream is a built-in outdoor kitchen, but that’s a long ways off.
Summer cooking here means whatever minimally heats up the kitchen. Lots of leftovers, charcuterie boards, clean out the fridge nights. I love making big salads and topping with pre-shredded rotisserie chicken. We bought a dual zone air fryer last year and it’s been a game changer.
I would say my husband definitely uses our grill more, mostly because I only like to grill when it's nice out whereas he will be out there in a raincoat or in say, November. I love grilling meat, but I think the most transformational things to grill are broccoli (trust me), and PINEAPPLE. Grilled pineapple dusted with a little cinnamon, topped with some melty vanilla ice cream? Perfection. Also, if you haven't been listening to The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, it is a delight. Each week they will make each other's recipes for a particular food and delve into the process of developing the recipe. They just did one on grilled chicken and I learned so much from it!
Other things on my summer cooking bucket list: lots of tomato sandwiches, which consist of the ripest summer tomatoes with a smear of mayo, either on an everything bagel OR between two slices of milk bread with a dusting of furikake. We also have raspberry bushes, so I'll be making lots of raspberry things -- raspberry chocolate scones, raspberry ginger cobbler, raspberry cheesecake bars...
Grilling is so great! There's a lot of schlepping involved but so much less kitchen-cleaning. Also, there's no shame in just googling the time and temp every time — I definitely do this. I have my phone out to use as a timer anyway!
(Also I am fully the grill person in my home: I don't think my husband has ever touched our grill. Not going to pretend I'm not super proud of this.)
I don’t grill super often, but when I do, I love using a digital meat thermometer to take the guesswork out of everything. We have one that has saved presets for various types of meat, and which make things even easier.
Heck yes thermometers make grilling so much easier. We have a Thermapen.
Or rather, I have a Thermapen that my husband steals to go grill with 😂
Yes! My only grilling successes are thanks to thermapen!
My husband has never gotten into grilling, so I am in charge of that in our house. (But so was my mom, when I was growing up, so it was always weird to me that it was so dad-coded?) I treated myself to a weber gas grill for this summer, and I am loving it. It makes midweek grilling manageable, and we have used it more already this year than we used the charcoal over the past 2 years combined! I love to do a foil pack of sliced potatoes and onions for our side; just put it on first, and they are beautiful by the time everything else is done. And thank you to Girl Scouts (and my amazing leader/mom) for teaching me that recipe as a kid!
We would make potatoes and other vegetables in foil a lot when I was a kid. We called them silver turtles. I think that was their name in the camping cookbook the recipe came from. It’s such an easy grilling side.
A food I grew up with in the South but only rediscovered while grilling as an adult is okra! Sliced down the middle with olive oil and salt and then tossed in a grilled bowl and stirred a couple times, it is my family's favorite. We have even started growing some okra plants in our raised beds! And as much as I loved the grandmother-cooked fried okra of my childhood, adult grilled okra is definitely where it's at.
I know I'm really late here, but *pickled* okra is the best. Crunch, not slimy. If you can find it, Talk o' Texas hot ones are the best!
Yes I love pickled okra too! Pretty much anything okra and I am on board. :)
What is a grilled bowl? My southern experience of okra is my mom stewing it with tomatoes - so slimy! We never had it fried (diet culture sigh). But interested in maybe trying again as an adult!
lol I meant to write grill bowl, like the metal bowl you can put on the grill for small things. :) But a grilled bowl sounds amazing, I might need to make something up with that name if it doesn't already exist!
Oh that’s cool!! As a non-griller I wasn’t sure if like you grilled a bowl somehow and then put things in it haha