Celebration of Summer (Food)

My best memories of growing up in Alabama are the summers, and some of my best memories of those summers revolve around summer food. Mom Orton’s kitchen filled with the smell of frying okra. Papa Don teaching us the nearly lost art (at least among children!) of rolling corn silks into cigarettes. The 4^th of July at Grandma’s, anxiously waiting for the homemade ice cream to stop churning. Mom growing so much in her garden, she gave away baskets to everyone who came near our house. Peeling pink-eyed purple hull peas until our thumbs were stained deep purple, then trying to convince our friends it was so much fun and they needed to learn.

Lately the farmers market has been flooding me with memories and food too good not to share, so a few nights ago, I invited some friends over to celebrate summer and the food that’s growing around Gainesville right now. 

Full disclosure: These photos are staged leftovers. Actually cooking for a crowd left my kitchen a teetotal disaster area. 

Recipes

Creole Corn Chowder: I had never used Tony’s seasoning until met Adam, who loves it on everything. These days we rarely eat Bagel Bites with Tony’s or Ramen with Tony’s – two college favs – but the cayenne pepper and chili powder in Tony’s are the perfect way to spice up a Simple Summer Corn Soup recipe by the Minimalist Baker. For gorgeous photographs of the soup and its ingredients, check out her blog.  Mine never turns out quite so lovely, but I did recently invest in a nice big stockpot, so I can now use my immersion blender without showering my kitchen and myself in hot soup. Baby steps.

In a rush, I’ve made this soup with fresh frozen corn instead of fresh corn, so that’s definitely an option after the local corn harvest season passes. Still, sometimes it’s nice to start with the whole food then bully your loved ones into helping you deal with it. Corn silk cigarettes: optional.

Zucchini Fritters with Sriracha Cream Sauce: When I made a batch for just Adam and me (pictured here), they came out fine, but trying to cook a bunch of them as my guests arrived was sort of a mess. But no one really cared, because the Sriracha sauce – oh my gosh, the Sriracha sauce. The other day I saw someone on Pinterest making sauce out of Sriracha, Greek Yogurt, salt, and pepper. How did I never think of this before?!? This will be good on so many things!!! Brilliant.

Roasted Squash and Okra: I hate to pick favorites when it comes to roasted veggies, but okra is right up there. See instructions here.

Pink-Eyed Peas: I texted Mom 30 min before dinner asking her how long to cook the peas, and blessedly she said 30 min. I just heated some garlic and onion with olive oil in a sauce pan, then added peas and water and kept them at a low boil until the peas were tender. That’s not exactly a recipe, but again, I had EXACTLY 30 MINUTES. 

Dessert: I've been eating homemade ice cream all my life, but I just got my own ice cream freezer, so this was my very first attempt to make it myself. For whatever reason - size of the freezer's ice bucket, amount of rock salt, heat on the porch, impatience and lack of attention - the ice cream didn't freeze all that hard. (And without the expert help of Hunter and Mary Leigh, we'd still be waiting for that churn to stop!) So the peach crisp and ice cream wasn't quite as picture perfect as the times I've made it with store bought ice cream, but it was infinitely more delicious. Nothing tastes like summer more than homemade ice cream. Nothing.

Note that the recipe below has the option to use eggs OR Egg Beaters. Mom's rule: Use real raw eggs if you're serving only family members, Egg Beaters if some of your guests aren't blood kin. Family love > salmonella. Everyone knows that.