Simple Pleasures

I love the berries of summer and finding new ways to incorporate them in meals. In my opinion a simple salad for lunch on a hot day is a great way to experiment with the flavors of berries. In order to combat the junk food craving my 5 year old is having we took a trip to Dean and Don's and came home with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, apricots, plums, and nectarines. My son has already eaten all of the raspberries and blackberries, but I got my hands on some of the blueberries before they were gone too. I made a simple salad of rocket greens, 1 oz. of feta, a handful of blueberries, lemon juice, and pepper. Next time I will have to add just a hit of zest so that I can add another bold color to this dish. Simple but satisfying lunch.

Dean and Don's

There is a great seasonal produce place that open in April, closes in November and other than the farmer's market is the best place to gt fresh produce around here. John, Emma, and I headed over to see what was in this weekend. Wow did we find some tasty treats. John wanted a watermelon, instead of a whole one we found an already cut up one that was the right size for us, and allowed Emma to try her first bite of watermelon. I found a perfect 1/2 cantaloupe to enjoy the prosciutto sitting in my fridge with. There were pre-season strawberries that if I did not know when the right part of the season was I would not have know they were early based on the flavor of these ones. John found some shortcakes to go with so this morning we enjoyed strawberry shortcake sans the whip cream for breakfast. Plus I have two strawberry recipes that I want to try out so those are on the menu in a day or two. There was local asparagus that had some of the deepest purple tips I had ever seen. Navel oranges, new potatoes in a basket, and an apple for John rounded out our purchases. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the tomatoes that are on the menu tonight, some great beefsteaks that smelled fresh picked. I am in fresh fruit and veggie heaven and the kids are loving it too.