I love that I can find a platter of vegetables at every birthday, barbecue, and holiday gathering. But let’s face it — carrot sticks, celery sticks, and sliced cucumbers are not the only candidates to arrange on a platter and serve with a dip. (I’m not judging; I get myself into that rut, too.)
There are tons of vegetables that would love an opportunity to shine on a platter, to serve as a vehicle for a pesto, salsa, vinaigrette, vegetable puree, cheesy dip, or hummus.
Second to frozen desserts, like ice cream and popsicles, s’mores (in any and all forms!) are a summertime staple. Graham crackers, chocolate, marshmallows — no matter how you arrange those three simple ingredients, this dessert is a treat.
Whether you go for the standard toasted marshmallow and wedge of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers, prefer a more creative filling, or transform this sweet treat into something baked or frozen, you’re on track for a delicious summer.
It’s easy to love zucchini and summer squash when they first appear on farmers market tables in vibrant stacks of green and yellow — trickier once we move deeper into the summer and zucchini seems to be stalking us at every turn. This summer, let’s establish some new favorites early on and keep the party going as long as we possibly can.
Here’s your guide to choosing, cooking, and loving zucchini and summer squash, from first blossom to the final garden harvest.
Garlic confit is my secret ingredient, my special sauce, one of my all-time favorite tricks to give any vegetable a makeover. It’s a play on an old technique (preserving meat in its own fat) and a venerable French dish (duck confit). You can use the same fancy term to cook and preserve garlic in essentially the same way. Except, here, olive oil is the fat of choice. The technique produces meltingly tender and sweet cloves, along with a by-product of fragrant and delicious oil. It’s magic.
Product: Midnight Scoop
Price: $50
First Look: This is an ergonomic, heavy-duty ice cream scoop that’s built to dig through hard ice cream and last for a lifetime.
I’m serious about my ice cream. However, there was a period of time in my early 20s when I was a lazy ice cream scooper. I would pull the container from the freezer and use my spoon as a spear to carve out pieces of hard ice cream. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a lot of bent spoons.
I eventually moved on to ice cream scoopers, and most recently was thrilled to take the Midnight Scoop, which is like the Ferrari of ice cream scoopers, for a test ride.
Growing up, I wasn’t the child that minded eating her veggies, but when it came to one in particular, I could sense its evil, slimy presence lurking — waiting to induce horrible gagging noises, a stuck-out tongue, and a ridiculous amount of whining. Summer squash and zuchini, I’m looking at you!
No matter how many times I clean it out and organize it, my fridge is always a mess. I have a tendency to shove things to the back of the fridge, where I forget about them for weeks, until it’s time to clean things out again.
And don’t get me started on how many random condiments are stashed in the door — it’s borderline embarrassing. If I owned my apartment, one solution I’d be considering is replacing the refrigerator with one that has a glass door. If the mess is on display, I’m much more likely to keep it tidy.
I think most of us know (and love) Heidi Swanson’s website, 101 Cookbooks. It has certainly been one of my favorite food reads for many years, and I am always inspired by the way Heidi brings vegetables to the fore, often in unexpected ways. So when we were hunting for some fresh ways to feature zucchini and squash this week, Heidi’s books were one of the first places I looked.
This soup is one of the rare soups that sounds appealing in the summertime — a spicy, tangy blend of Thai red curry paste, coconut milk, tofu, and squash. It’ll make you sweat — in a good way.
Food-packaging technology is part of what ensures the food we buy stays intact during the shipping, shelving, and shopping that needs to happen before we bring it home from the store. For the most part, packaging is fairly effective — even ingenious. However, there are some foods that are packaged in ways that make me shake my fist in frustration: “Why, oh why, do they make it so hard?”
Come on, I know you feel me here. Here are the 10 food-packaging quirks that drive us up the wall and make us ask, “Isn’t there a better way to design this?”
It takes a combination of experience, skill, and patience when smoking meats to juicy perfection, and it used to be that there was only a small window of time to serve the meat when it’s at its best.
