Summer Dinner

Last night I took all the foods that make me think of summer and put them all into a single meal. With only one or two exceptions, everything came from either our CSA box or from the tiny little container garden on our porch. I didn't take any any pictures, but many of you asked about recipes when a tweeted about it so here it is.

Corn Relish: This was just off the cuff. I baked four ears of corn in the husk at about 400 degrees for around 15 minutes. When they were cool enough to handle, I cut the kernels off the ears. You don't even really need to cook the corn. It would work fine raw. Then I added about a half of a red onion, very finely chopped. And a red pepper, very finely chopped. We had a sweet jalepeno, so I tossed that in too. Sqeeze of lime, salt and pepper and maybe a dash a cayenne. Yummy.

Cucumber and Dill salad. Again, this is just off the cuff. Sliced cucumbers, chopped garlic, greek yogurt and chopped dill. Salt and pepper to taste and you are off to the races.

Watermelon/avocado salad.

1 small red onion thinly sliced
2 T red wine vinegar
2 ripe avocados
1 lime
1/4 large watermelon (about 6 pounds)
Juice of 1 orange
1 c chopped cilatro
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper

Combine the onion and vinegar and let marinate for several hours or overnight.

Slice the watermelon into 1 inch chunks.

Peel seed and cut the avocado into 1/2 inch pieces. Toss with the lime juice.

Drain onion and toss together with all the other ingredients. Be sure add toss gently or the avocado gets a little mushed up. Also, this is a dish to assemble just before serving for the prettiest presentation.

Tomato Pie This recipe came straight from the most recent issue of Bon Appetit. I substituted basil for dill. I had fresh basil and had already used dill with the cucumbers. I found the dough was too wet. I probably added an additional 1/2 of flour so I could work with it. After that adjustment it was delicious. Seriously decadent. Small tweaks: Next time, I would not add the sugar and salt the filling to taste. I think 3/4 t of salt was a bit much.

























Sweet Corn Gelato. Another Bon Appeitit recipe. It was a little to sweet for my taste. I might have also kept help some of the corn kernels back to add in after processing for texture.

All in all it was a great meal and my bookclub enjoyed it thoroughly. If you try and of it, let me know what you think!