I have been distracted by life.
Summer is strange. You are enamored yet enraged with it. You embrace the warm sun, the fresh produce, but abhor the mix of humidity and insects. Its definitively better than a North Eastern U.S. winter, except for the nights where mosquitos make you the main entree. Its long and terse. Its bright and its gloomy. I embrace the occasional thunderstorms. Each cleanses the repulsively high air density, which can make me resentful of these warmer months.
Summer mixes up your daily pattern with warm coffee breaks outside, quick vacation trips, and, of course, seasonal produce. That means farmer’s markets and inviting supermarket produce sections. It removes the omnipresent coldness of Manhattan and increases your interests in cooking up a meal after a long day.
The thing I love more than cooking is eating. Seasonal produce appeases almost every trouble I have at the moment. So today, I figured I would post simple photos of natures bounty.
Eggplants. I LOVE eggplant. The overly breaded and overly fried pieces found on sandwiches at old school Italian American delis make me very sad. I faced this while at work, ordering a sandwich too optimistically. But, look at the beauts. A mixture of one’s from the farmers market with other local ones from the grocery store. All different shapes and sizes, all marvelous to look at and eat! I was prepping these for a delicious parmigiana di melanzane.
I forgot to take a photo of the outcome, even though the method I used tastes best when the dish rests for a few minutes. It is one of my favorite meals. It gives your tastebuds a luxurious experience while still being a total comfort food.
Do not worry, my ode to seasonal produce is not over yet.
This past week, I spent three blissful days in Bethany Beach, Delaware. It is a town visited by many families, conveniently located south of Rehobeth Beach and north of Ocean City, Maryland. It is definitively more quiet than the latter and less crowded than the sands back up at the shore. The final 30 miles of the drive were amazing because DE 1 was constructed right in the middle of sprawling green fields with patches of crops. This means lots of small vendors of local produce.
Since it is hard to take a sharp turn at 6o miles an hour, we decided to wait for the second produce market we saw. This one had eery statues, freshly picked green tomatoes, and a welcoming staff.
You would not think of tiny Delaware to grow an ample amount of fruits and vegetables. The fact that it has room to do so gives me hope for more densely populated places, such as Northeastern New Jersey, where your best bet maybe a 5×5 garden on your porch.
The splendor of summer does come in edible form. Granted, I appreciate ALL produce, but there is nothing like a peach at the peak of the season. If you do not love peaches, your life must be dull. Ok, maybe not, but it is definitely not as peachy.
I am letting you know, that my hands are much larger than the average female’s. In other words, these peaches were extremely plump.
There was also reasonably priced corn that was a marvelous side after being simply steamed, without butter!
The only negative thing I should mention about this particular establishment was that it was not all local, seasonal, and organic. While the peaches were from a farm less than 30 miles away, certain produce were from larger sources, such as Driscolls. Do not just assume everything is extremely fresh just because there is the word “local” plastered on the sign and there is a guy working there with a Woodstock haircut. The garlic up front was prepackaged and from China. As explained by my boyfriend’s mom, this means that the garlic could be older than a child.
Do not refrain from asking questions, in any situation in life really!
Now, go out and enjoy the bounty of summer. It is already August, you know!
(^Buy these, cut them, and fry them. Enjoy.)