Knowing that today is the Summer Solstice my heart is jumping around like we’re about to have popsicles and run through the sprinkler. I did not actually make popsicles because I only thought about it when I wrote that sentence, but it would have been a great idea. Also, I do not own a sprinkler. You know what? I can make popsicles tomorrow and we’ll eat them with our friends tomorrow night after our pizza party — we’re grilling the pizzas out on the deck. Not on the deck, but the grill is on the deck! Have you grilled your pizza? It’s a culinary experience I want for you as much as I want to eat a popsicle. I make my own pizza dough (the secret ingredient is maple syrup) and my own popsicles. Normally I love using avocado as my base, but we don’t currently have any in the house. However, that sweet, ripe, begging to be eaten peach from last Saturday’s farmers’ market might just end up blended on the end of a stick. Popsicles will be made and eaten; at this point I’m committed, and they will be draped in dark chocolate with sea salt crystals studded across their lick-able surface, presentation-ready, always.
It’s the harvest that thrills me this time of year. Is it even possible to consume enough tomatoes? Here’s my favorite thing to do with them — thick slices on top of toasted homemade bread slathered with mayonnaise and sprinkled on top with salt and pepper. If you have it and have a hankering for it, gently cover the tomato slices with some fresh basil leaves like a light little summer blanket — not too heavy because it’s too hot, but just enough to keep the fan air from blowing you cold while you sleep — is a surprising delight. Speaking of mayonnaise, do you have a preference for brand or is that just us southerners attached to our spread like we are to the King James version of the Bible?
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The other night I made the most delicious salad, which by the way, is my favorite cuisine. It was pure, unadulterated summertime in my mouth, exploding with seasonal surprises, and I was squealing like I was sliding down the water slide at age 12. Fresh peaches, peeled and sliced, juicy tomatoes, sliced, croutons (which I made from the last of the current loaf of bread, which you have to keep in the fridge during the summer or else it goes bad quicker than your momma can shout all your names at you because you left the refrigerator door open for too long and we’re not cooling the kitchen, mind you), and some chopped fresh basil plus some chopped fresh mint, and the easiest pour of olive oil and red wine vinegar and I topped that whole thing with some vegan feta because I have a dairy allergy or else I would have done goat cheese. Divinity in a bowl, y’all.
And what I will not leave off our summer plate are the yellow squash and zucchini that I fry up with some onions on the stovetop until they’re basically caramelized, and I’m telling you you’ve never had anything so damn delicious, not ever in your life. And when we were kids and my mama made that squash from what we grew in our very own garden and I turned up my nose and had to plug it to get it down because we could not not eat what we’d grown — what in the Sam Hill was I even thinking way back then? Only about getting back outside tomorrow to run through the sprinkler, and getting fresh cut grass clippings stuck all over my feet, and drying myself off hanging from the dogwood tree branch I used as my personal reading nook, and eating a peach from our very own tree overhanging the back of the garage.