Monday, June 12, 2023
Good afternoon!
I am the latter. [Twitter]
I do have this conversation with myself all too often! And this. [TikTok]
Greetings from back in NYC! I spent a couple brief days in San Francisco and Napa last week for something I can share this fall but did my best to squeeze in some essentials, like dinner at Zuni Cafe, Model Bakery english muffins, and burgers and onion rings at Gott’s. I got back in time to spend a busy weekend with kids (and also celebrating my birthday, yay) and as I’m pretty sure I haven’t cooked in 10 days, I’m now raring to go. Don’t you love that? I’m currently focused on all things grilling, as it feels all wrong to be running the air-conditioning *and* the oven any more than absolutely necessary. This weekend is Father’s Day and I’ve put together a menu of my grilling and grill-adjacent summer favorites that I hope leaves you inspired.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. I’m thrilled that this warmer weather means you might be able to cook some of my summery favorites from my most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, such as: zucchini cornbread and tomato butter, snow peas with pecorino and walnuts, cucumber salad with garlicky dill yogurt, clam chowder with bacon croutons, zucchini and pesto lasagna, and crispy chili garlic butter shrimp, raspberry crostata, strawberry summer stack cake, and the blondie chipwiches (on deck this week, and every week of the summer).
corn salad with chile and lime
Loosely modeled on esquites, this salad is a layered assembly with a creamy, cold and sharp dressing below, warm charred corn in the middle, and a mix of lime, pickled onions, and chile powder on top. The result is basically inhale-able. I could eat this every week all summer long.
grilled pepper and torn mozzarella panzanella
This is one of my favorite summer dishes, ever, cooked almost entirely on the grill (or under the broiler, if you're grill-less). I want to eat it every day and every weekend all summer. If you do not fall in love, I promise to come and rid you of your leftovers, deal?
dilled potato and pickled cucumber salad
This is my family's favorite potato salad, one that's as populated with vegetables — crunchy, delicious ones, like radishes and lightly pickled cucumbers — as it is with potatoes, so it feels like something you might eat with dinner in warmer weather, and not only as a bbq side.
exceptional grilled chicken
Exceptional grilled chicken -- grilled chicken that’s forgiving of human (whoops I left it on a couple minutes too long), grill (my grill suggests heat more than it blasts it), and chicken (you can buy what the grocery store has in stock that day) imperfections — is absolutely failproof with this method, and your dinner deserves nothing less.
grilled pizza
Grilled pizza tastes incredible -- better texture, charred spots reminiscent of the best brick-oven stuff -- and once your dough is prepared or purchased, can be heading for your belly in 10 minutes, leaving you more time to sit outside with ice clinking in your glass, enjoying a summer weekend.
garlic lime steak and noodle salad
A salty-tangy-sweet-spicy steak salad with an emphasis on fresh colorful ingredients has become a summer staple around here. We serve it assemble-your-own style, so everyone can fix their plates with as much or as little of each element as they wish. I think our weeks will be better with this in it.
grilled peach splits
This is my favorite grilled dessert: peaches drizzled with salted bourbon caramel, sprinkled with pecan sandies crumbles then heaped with a belly-full of ice cream. No peaches where you are? Try with rings of pineapple.
brownie ice cream sandwiches
Ice cream sandwiches made with thin sheets of fudgy brownies > ice cream sandwiches made with cookies, unquestionably. Now that we have that sorted, you could be eating these in all of 90 minutes. Your future self thanks you.
frozen watermelon mojitos
There is no time like a heat wave to find new, amazing things to do with watermelon, in this case, freezing it in cubes and blending it with lime juice, rum, and mint for the best frozen mojito I've ever had. (P.S. It's also extremely delicious without the rum.)
vermontucky lemonade
Letter of recommendation for a day that feels like high summer: Maple syrup-sweetened lemonade and bourbon over ice cubes clinking in a very cold glass. If you’ve got any mint, it’s extra refreshing shaken with a sprig or two.
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!