No Regrets!
Monday, June 25, 2012 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
Some years, summer seems to just pass me by. It’s Memorial Day, we invite a few friends and we grill something. And next it’s Labor Day and summer’s over. I’m left wondering, where did the season go?
Like New Year’s resolutions, this summer, I’m making a list of all I hope to accomplish in food. Since Wednesday was the first day of summer, I don’t think I’m too late with my checklist.
My goals are to take advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables to make classic summer dishes, and to capture and preserve the taste of summer to savor the rest of the year. I want to do all of this effortlessly, of course, without spending hours in the kitchen.
Special Fork’s 30-minute prep time maximum for all of our recipes is as much of a time commitment as I want to make, so our bloggers’ recipes are perfect for my needs. I’ve been combing through previous blogs for inspiration.
So here’s my list. What’s on yours? I’ll let you know, come Labor Day, how many I accomplish.
- Make batches of pesto and freeze extras for winter
- Grow more herbs in our garden
- Fill my house with sunflowers and lavender and pretend I’m vacationing in Provence
- Spend 20 minutes to make strawberry freezer jam (they make great hostess gifts in the winter); Steve is already ahead of me, having put up two batches of apricot jam last week
- Make summer fruit salsa to serve with taco chips
- Blend up a fruity (alcoholic) drink and enjoy it outdoors on the chaise while reading a riveting mystery
- Cook a big batch of Boston baked beans – the authentic kind, made from scratch
- Shell and cook fresh English peas
- Grill corn on the cob and make some delectable toppings for it
- Assemble classic lobster rolls for an Atlantic taste of summer
- Buy a juicy-sweet watermelon and turn it into watermelon salad
- Serve gazpacho as the refreshing first course for a summer party
- Toss together a chef’s salad on a sweltering summer night when it’s too hot to cook
- Have more summer grilling parties
- Fix the outdoor heater so we can dine out on the deck on weekdays (it gets cool by 4 p.m. in San Francisco most summer days)
- Go on more picnics – even if it’s just to Golden Gate Park.
Have a wonderful summer!
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