Berry Season

By Katie Barreira

Happy June! For me, the next couple of months are all about the berries. Sure, you can get them year-round, but these finger-staining gems are entirely different animals in peak season. Not only are in-season berries at the height of juicy sweetness, they’re also much cheaper, so eat up!

One challenge with seasonal berries is that they are so perfectly ripe that they need to be eaten within a day a two. If you find yourself with ready-to-eat berries that you’re not quite able to polish off, don’t fret, just freeze!

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Last Chance: Watermelon Salad

By Lori Powell

The last dog days of summer…humid, hot and in this case, very wet with rain. I start thinking of fall but then again I decided that we should wait just a bit more and savor the last of summer produce.

I’m not sure about you but in my neck of the woods it has been hotter than…. Standing in a sauna, but fully clothed and cooking. Makes me want to consume things that are laden with juice, such as the lovely watermelon, and that doesn’t require fire to eat. So many great things can be made with any of the varieties that you might find at your local farmers’ market, from yellow to red, from large to small, from salsas to cooling drinks.

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Quinoa, Melon, Chorizo and Raisins Make a Simply Delicious Salad

By Sandy Hu

Summer is a time to celebrate the bounty of luscious fresh fruits. While we tend to think of them as a snack for eating out of hand or in desserts, one of the best ways to enjoy fruits is in salads.

California Golden Raisin, Quinoa and Melon Salad features fragrant cantaloupes, which are at their peak from June to September. This salad brings together a variety of flavors in perfect balance: the fruitiness of melon balls with the spicy and savory chorizo, the zest of sherry vinegar, and bursts of concentrated tangy-sweetness from golden raisins. Mint and green onions add freshness. And the South American grain-like quinoa is the perfect foil for the bright flavors and colors.

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Time for Squash Blossoms – Three Easy Uses for Edible Flowers

By Katie Barreira

Zucchini, yellow crooknecks, pattypans…the coming season promises a deluge of thin-skinned gourds. But before the onslaught of summer squash there are squash blossoms, the flowering buds of a squash vine.

These delicate blossoms are entirely edible and usually seen on restaurants’ seasonal menus. Like Jean Georges’s fabled “Peekytoe Crab and Squash Blossom Beignet,” a simple crab salad stuffed into squash blossoms, coated in tempura batter and fried. But the flowers don’t require such flourish.

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In the Mood for Chowdah

By Lori Powell

I seem to be in a fish mood as of late. And sometimes, what is available to me as “fresh” is not looking all that great… or that fresh.

Not all fish keeps well frozen but some companies do get it right. One is Cozy Harbor of Maine’s frozen lobster meat, It’s the perfect dinnertime solution for making fish cakes, lobster salad or yes, lobster chowdah.

Also, since all of the work is done for you (cooking, shelling and cleaning), you have more time to actually enjoy this delicious concoction.

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