Tag: Summer

Refresh Yourself With a Blueberry Shrub

What’s a shrub? Think of it as a vinegar-based fruit syrup that can be used in myriad ways: as a cocktail mixer, as a refreshing cooler with sparkling water, or as a juice concentrate to ramp up the flavor of many dishes. This drink is hundreds of years old and has recently become popular again….


The Family Table: Summer Memories of an Italian-American Jersey Farm Girl

Submitted by Eleanor Rodio Furlong, Naples, Florida I’m a Jersey girl. I’m a farm girl. I’m an Italian American girl. I grew up on a family farm in a small town in rural southern New Jersey. I was the youngest of eight children born to Carlo and Frances Rodio. My mother was 41. Nick, my…


Grilled Romesco Sauce Pairs Perfectly With Chicken

Many variations of romesco sauce, a Catalonian roasted tomato sauce, add roasted red peppers for a little sweetness. Here, the peppers and tomato are scorched on the grill alongside the chicken to keep things simple. Grilled Chicken With Red Pepper-Pecan Romesco Sauce Active Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Serves 4 2 medium red bell…


Farmstand Fresh: Corn Crepes for a Late Summer Meal

Roadside farmstands are making a comeback. They have been around forever, more common in some places than in others. Growing up in New England, I saw a lot of self-serve apple stands, but they never provided anything close to one-stop shopping. Today, some of the farmstands where I live are getting pretty close. From a…


Turn Cauliflower Into ‘Couscous’ for a Light Summer Side

Couscous is an excellent side dish or vegetarian option that is perfect for outdoor dining. It can be served warm or cold, has a satisfying kick of spice, and is healthy to boot. Just a plate of couscous, you think? Well, not quite. Unlike Middle Eastern couscous, which is made with tiny grains of semolina…


Mom Accidentally Locks Baby in Hot Car With Keys, Calls Police Who Smash Window to Save Her

We’ve heard horror stories of babies being left in hot cars during the sweltering summer season. One Cleveland mom found herself in that dire situation when she accidentally locked her keys in the car with her baby still in her car seat inside. The temperature in Euclid, Ohio, was 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius)…


An Ice Cream Cake Sweet With Childhood Nostalgia

If some of your fondest childhood food memories include packaged snack cakes—Devil Dogs, Yodels, Swiss Rolls, and the like—as well as store-bought ice cream cakes (Baskin-Robbins’ mint chocolate chip cake, I’m looking at you), I guarantee this ice cream-filled Swiss roll cake will rock your world. The cake is inspired by one I created for…


Getting to the Root of Potato Salad

Potato salad has always been a German thing to me. But the origin of the main ingredient was South America, and represents one of the earlier cultivated crops on earth. Europe didn’t see them until Spanish conquistadores took them from the Inca Empire, but soon after, they became rooted in European culinary traditions. Irish potato…


Hatch Chile Fever

“First I turn the heat way up. Then I dial it back down.” Hoisting a 40-pound burlap sack of green chiles into the gas-fired roaster at Chile Fanatic in Hatch, New Mexico, Jesus Soto explained how he prepares the surrounding valley’s famous peppers. The flames roared; chiles tumbled in the rotating wire cage; the thick,…


Sour Pickle Power: The Easiest Pickles You’ll Ever Make

This time of year, you can often find baskets of pickling cucumbers at your local farmers market. Compared to slicing cucumbers available in supermarkets year-round, this thin-skinned, stubby variety enjoys a relatively short season that lasts only a few weeks. Those few precious weeks of late summer just so happen to coincide with when dill…