All in a Day's Eating

I thought I'd share mostly what I generally eat in a summer day.  Sometimes it's just nice to have inspiration of what to cook or put together.  This morning I started with crepes.  Usually we make pancakes, but one of my children requested crepes for breakfast.  It was so good.  I loaded mine with peaches, blueberry thyme compote that I had from a pound cake, whip cream and a little bit of granola. My favorite recipe comes from Alton Brown.  The batter is always perfect.  I use the 20 minute wait time to cut fruit or anything else that is going in them. Perhaps something savory for dinner.

Lunch was cherry gazpacho. It is just light and delicious.  As you can see I served it with avocado toast and tomatoes.  

Since it was Friday and nice out my husband and I went out for a glass of wine and some snacks at our local wine bar.  This is something we've been doing a lot this summer and it is such a enjoyable simple date. 

For dinner, after the wine bar,I like to keep it simple.  So I made an easy beef stir fry using my zucchini from my garden and mushrooms from the farmers' market. 

Hope this inspires you to eat good food and enjoy nature's bounty.

Bon appétit, and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

What going on in the Kitchen

I truly love summer.  Maybe part of it is because I am home more, but I think the other part of that is mid to late summer all of the wonderful local produce that starts coming my way.  I thought I'd share what I've been up to in the kitchen lately.  The summer has been hot so my garden has been doing much better this year, as long as I keep up with the watering.  Because of that we've had a lot of wonderful Caprese salads. This is really one of my favorite lunches.  I always use the best quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar I can find, Round Pond Estate is one of my favorites.

I also love a peach pie.  My oldest daughter has to be gluten free so we experimented with gf crust and found that America's Test Kitchen How Can it be Gluten Free crust is really the best.  It only lasts about 2 days so eat the pie quickly.

For lunch or breakfasts migas has been popular in our house.  We decided to top it with avocado, tomatoes and cilantro.  With lunch on the weekend I served it with a Spanish rosé  and for breakfast just with my coffee and extra fruit.

I also tried garlic scrapes for the first time.  I'm not quite sure what I think of them.  They are more peppery than I thought they'd be.  Perhaps it just that they are older in the season. I read if you blanch them for 30 seconds they loose some of their peppery flavor.  Maybe that's something to try.

However, I did make garlic scrape pesto.  Any type of pesto from the summer is such a welcome taste in the middle of a Midwest winter. I freeze it in an ice cube tray and pop it in a plastic freezer bag when frozen.

I hope you have been enjoying your summer.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth