summer weekend cooking kickoff
plus: spring cleaning in the recipe archives
Monday, May 22, 2023
Good afternoon!
One of my best friends had a summer kickoff barbecue in her Brooklyn yard yesterday and it was perfect. She smoked a brisket. We grilled prawns in their shells (the way I suggest in the Crispy Chili Garlic Butter Shrimp in Smitten Kitchen Keepers). I made a lentil salad, a strawberry summer sheet cake with fresh strawberries from the market, and some rhubarb syrup (I’ll jot down the recipe next time) for rhubarb gin-and-tonics and I saw friends I’ve known for 20+ years and I’m officially extremely ready for summer weekend cooking [and to try to train myself, likely with limited success again, to not complain about how hot it is outside this summer]. How about you? If you’re looking for inspiration, I’ve got a few more favorites below, perfect for the long holiday weekend ahead. I hope you have a delicious one.
Cheers,
Deb
Smitten Kitchen Keepers is six months old! I simply cannot wrap my head around the fact that a book that included a tour with 32 events in 22 metropolitan areas, a book that so many of you are still tagging me in photos of dishes you’re cooking from it daily, has only been around for half a year. I’m thrilled that this warmer weather means you might be able to cook some of my summery favorites in the book: 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 (my birthday cake next month), blondie chipwiches (in my freezer right now). I hope you love them as much as we do.
Some people spring clean their homes; I spring clean my archives. Here are four classic SK recipes that have gotten a little glow-up and refresh over the last couple weeks so they now take less time, less fuss, and work more reliably for everyone:
cottage cheese pancakes | recipe
bacon, egg, and leek risotto | recipe
spaghetti pangrattato with crispy eggs | recipe
lemon yogurt (anything) cake | recipe
mama canales-garcia's avocado-shrimp salsa
Sure, nobody *needs* an excuse to have chips and salsa for dinner, but if ever there was one, this -- as much a chunky salad as a scoopable dip -- would have to be it.
napa cabbage salad with buttermilk dressing
A giant salad that's at the halfway point between a salad and slaw with a lightweight ranch-style dressing that would be good on anything on earth, but especially crunchy raw vegetables, is the exact kind of dish I crave on a hot, sticky day.
corn chowder salad
Corn chowder, reimagined as a salad, from only six ingredients and using a single pan. Obviously, this is exactly what we have to cook next.
pasta salad with roasted carrots and sunflower seed dressing
A pasta salad for pasta salad-phobes that has a dressing with crunch and acidity, and vegetables for substance, not just flecks of color. The result is a spring dreaming-of-summer favorite.
summer ricotta with grilled vegetables
A love letter to homemade ricotta and my favorite way to serve it in the summer, that is with whatever vegetables and bread look good, grilled. It's great for potlucks, host gifts, and it's also the warm-weather light meal of my dreams. I hope you're inspired.
fake shack burger
I used to believe I couldn't possibly make the kinds of burgers I prefer -- thin, smashed to a salty craggy-edged crisp -- without an outdoor grill and I was so wrong. Here's everything you need to know to make a glorious imitation of a Shake Shack burger at home with no special tools or obscure ingredients.
carrot and white bean burgers
An unfussy veggie burger recipe using simple pantry ingredients from Lukas Volger. Add smashed avocado, pickled red onion, and hot sauce and you’re in for a colorful treat, a perfect addition to your Memorial Day menu.
almond rhubarb picnic bars
A buttery shortbread base + almond cream filling + a tile of sweet-tart rhubarb on top = this is one of my favorite spring dessert bars, portable enough to go wherever you do.
strawberry summer sheet cake
One of our favorite summer cakes, ever -- with sunken berries that melt into jammy puddles and edges that brown and become faintly crisp -- one-bowl-ed and ready to feed the crowd that forms whenever you make it.
easy drop berry shortcakes
A tall, craggy, crunchy-edged shortcake that’s a cinch to make, requiring no rolling pins, round cutters, unusual ingredients, or more pressingly, advanced planning to put together. Just add berries and cream.
porch swing
This best-named cocktail mixes everything that tastes good on warm days in a single glass: lemonade, iced tea, cucumber slices, a little fizz and some Pimm's too. It's wildly refreshing.
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!
