Hi there! Stephanie here. This is my first contribution to My Cooking Spot, and I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I grew up in Texas and really, really love Mexican food. I grew up cooking with my friends’ abuelitas, and really can’t get enough of the nuanced style of Mexican and Tex-Mex cooking.
Roasted Beet, Heirloom Tomato Salad with Ricotta Salata
It’s the peak of summer harvest here in the Pacific Northwest. Gardens are over-flowing with the bounty. Local farmers markets are saturated with the vivacious tastes, smells, and colors of the season. Co-workers bring in boxes full of produce, letting the bright colors seep into the office, laying out the summer bounty in the break room, making the donuts seem sad and desperate. Neighbors drop off baskets overflowing with greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and purples so deep and rich you can hardly believe it.
Your mind starts to race as you think of all the recipes to be explored. Your heart quickens as you dream of the canning to be done; to capture the tastes to be savored on a cold winter day as you open summer captured in a jar. You start to salivate as you think of sitting down to a meal, oh the cooking to be done! But instead of turning on the stove and tying the apron strings on, you slice a tomato and sprinkle it with salt, taking a bite of it raw. It is perfection on the tongue, so sweet and juicy; it makes you wonder what piece of plastic has been posing as a “tomato” the rest of the year in your grocery store. Yes, it’s time to enjoy the splendor of what the good earth has to offer.
Herb Butter on Sweet Summer Corn
Summer. It’s finally here! One of my personal favorite ways to while away the summer days is spending time outside any way that I can. In New York City it was always a challenge, no car to escape the city, no mountain to climb to feel the solitude, no hammock to relax in while the hours slipped by. So I would walk by the water, wander in Central Park, take in the farmers market or go to one of the many street festivals. It was at such a festival that I had my first taste of Street Corn. I was instantly hooked!