Once summer was in full swing back in Connecticut, my mom used to pack us girls up into the car to go strawberry and blueberry picking with my Memere and Pepere. Needless to say we LOVED everything about these trips - from hanging out at our Grandparent's house to sneaking pounds of freshly picked berries as payment for our efforts. I am serious about "pounds" and use the term "sneaking" very loosely...if you have ever eaten dessert with me, you know what I'm talking about:
Mom, I am pretty sure Christa ate that chocolate cake...
My mom used to say that they were going to need to weigh us on the way in and the way out of the fields to account for all the fruit we ate while picking. I can think of worse things to be loading up on!
I have yet to come across a "pick your own berry" farm out here in Colorado. These days we settle for expensive quarts and pints of berries at the supermarket which definitely do the trick - but nothing beats fruit fresh from the fields. I guess I better get on planning that garden for next year!
On a recent trip to the grocery store I bought an enormous bag of frozen blueberries (for about 1 million dollars). On my first Mother's day all I really wanted were blueberry pancakes. My body knows no limit when it comes to blueberry pancakes - like pizza, cereal, and ice cream, I could eat them all day long and that "you are full" filter would never kick in. It is a problem. The great thing about an extra large bag of blueberries is that once the pancake batter runs out, you can whip up a batch of blueberry muffins. I made these muffins for dessert one night when we realized we were deficient in the sweets department. They are really quick to pull together and they make the house smell amazing as they come out of the oven. Fresh is always best, but once they are completely cool, if you wrap them individually in wax paper and put them in freezer bags, you can enjoy them a few weeks later and they are just as good! We have pulled out frozen muffins for quick snacks in the morning before heading up skiing or off to work and it is always nice to know you have something good on hand. I didn't get the greatest picture of them (it was kind of late and our kitchen lighting leaves a lot to be desired), but they certainly disappeared quickly in our house!
The weather was a little cooler the week that we made these recipes so it was not too bad to have the oven going in the house at night (these recipes queued up the week before we left on our trip). Our kitchen gets HOT in the summer. Between the inefficient light fixture that is like a heating lamp over the sink and the non-venting oven...we keep it toasty in that 1970's kitchen. When we moved in last year it was a warmer than average summer and I was pregnant. Normally my thermostat runs on the cooler side, however, last year I was a hot mess from the time we started cooking until I went to bed at night (with the windows open and ceiling fan on). I never drink ice water but our ice trays couldn't keep up with Dozer and I. Fortunately we had a lot of help with the meals right after we moved in thanks to our amazing families and the time they spent settling us into our new home. After that we used the grill as much as possible and ate outside every night - meal planning was a little less formal at that point!
Speaking of hot, our first meal, Savory Sausage, Spinach, and Onion Turnovers, flash me back to those microwaveable Hot Pockets we
used to enjoy growing up. My sisters and I really didn't have any
problem with chowing down on Hot Pockets (though I always burned my
mouth on them...).
These are pretty straightforward to make and there is no need to get hung up on the shape of the turnover. Our turnovers never come out looking like turnovers so just
shoot for getting the dough sealed up - circle, square, half-moon - they
all taste the same and you won't be disappointed!
One recipe that we are enjoying for the second summer in a row is Grilled Zucchini Caprese Sandwiches. All the cooking is done on the grill and it takes very little time to pull together these veggie filled sandwiches. I recommend getting some good bread for these as it adds a lot to the meal.
This week we welcomed back Mac n' Cheese alongside a Baked Cod Filet. For a quick grammatical interlude - as I was typing this entry I went back and forth between "Filet" and "Fillet" before resorting to my old friend, Google, to ensure that I was not misrepresenting the spirit of the meal. I came across a blog that indicated the terms can be used interchangeably (both mean "a boneless cut of meat") and that Americans and Canadians are the most inconsistent in their usage. I also happened upon this article published in the Boston Globe regarding the AP's guidance on food related words. I found it to be pretty amusing and if I ever go pro with my food writing I am going to have some serious studying to do - in the meantime, stash a few of these nuances away for trivia night!
Back to the food: the crumb on the fish is made from Ritz crackers (or Zips if you are like us and buying generic) and lends a nice buttery flavor to the fish. I cannot wait until Ellie can have Mac n' Cheese so we have a good reason to keep a few (more) boxes on hand.
The summer squashes are starting to pop up in the grocery store at "in season" prices, so we made Baked Ziti with Summer Vegetables. For the pasta connoisseurs out there, you will notice that those are penne in the picture - any short pasta will do for this recipe (we always seem to have 1/2 boxes of pasta hanging around). Dishes like this don't need a specific shape so cook up whatever short pasta you are looking to get rid of.
Finally, Chicken with Lemon Leek Linguine. I was skeptical at first about leeks and linguine coming together. It seemed too stringy to work, but the flavors are great and we both really enjoy the mild onion-y taste of the leeks with the pasta and chicken - it is a great summer-time meal. Keep it cool out there and if you are hanging out with a pregnant woman this summer, by all means, bring her a glass of ice water!
