Summertime Food - Fresh and Easy
In the summertime, mornings start slowly in the Cottage Kitchen. Waking early to the sound of a gentle rain thrumming steadily over the west gable, it’s like something out of paradise to be able to roll over and snuggle back down into the warm covers. Rainy Michigan mornings are lovely to listen to from a warm spot under the covers.
In ancient Camelot, King Arthur issued a decree that “it will never rain ‘till after midnight.” In the Cottage Kitchen this summer, it only rains before noon. We do what needs to be done in the way of shopping, cleaning, and puttering around the house before we head for the beach at about noon, carrying coolers and towels, beach chairs and umbrellas. The swimming has been great – at least it’s been great for people like myself who are from the north and who can take water temperatures below 65 degrees. We play rummy, smear ourselves with SPF 15, swim, lounge in the sun, and visit with our neighbors who stop by to share a beer and gossip. On the best days, when there’s no breeze and the lake is flat, friends will often show up with a boat and water skis. Life is very good.
On lazy summer days like these we want simple food, fresh, that’s easy to prepare. We want to enjoy Western Michigan’s bountiful produce, including peaches, plums, apricots, blueberries, nectarines, squash, leafy greens, and some of the most spectacular sweet corn available. A pox upon people who will come to Western Michigan in the summertime and open a can of fruit cocktail to serve with dinner. Fie upon anyone who would come to Western Michigan in the summertime and serve frozen or canned green peas when you can buy fresh shelled green peas at any one of a half dozen fruit and vegetable stands along the famous Blue Star Highway. Around here, using canned or frozen corn in the summertime is practically a federal offense.
The sweet corn actually deserves a column all of its own. To meet Cottage Kitchen standards, it must be locally grown, freshly picked and unshucked. We shuck it just before dinner, minutes before the kettle of water has started to boil. We boil it for just two minutes. Any longer and the kernels may grow tough and the flavor can dissipate.
And dinner? Just heat up the grill. I like to coat a fine cut of meat, chicken, or a fish filet with olive oil, then cover it with a delicious dry “rub” before sticking it over hot coals. Sometimes, for the extra flavor, I add mesquite pellets to the coals. Earthy Delights carries several different kinds of wonderfully flavored rubs, including Green Tea, Espresso, Peking, Mole, Tunisian, and Thai. There are few things in life more tantalizing than the fragrance of something spicy cooking over the coals.
For me, the end of the rainbow is a place where tangles of honeysuckle attract hummingbirds, where the ice makes a delicately musical sound in a glass of gin and tonic, where the breeze from the lake rustles the leaves in the black locust trees, and where the waves wash steadily over the shingle of golden beach at the bottom of the cliff. Someone has put a Chris Isaacson CD on the stereo, and it seems to go perfectly with the spicy scent of tenderloins on the grill. The Michigan tomatoes are starting to come in. The zucchini is ripe. The blueberries are at their finest. For dinner tonight we’re enjoying a Thai rub on grilled pork tenderloins served with creamed fresh sweet corn.
In ancient Camelot, King Arthur issued a decree that “it will never rain ‘till after midnight.” In the Cottage Kitchen this summer, it only rains before noon. We do what needs to be done in the way of shopping, cleaning, and puttering around the house before we head for the beach at about noon, carrying coolers and towels, beach chairs and umbrellas. The swimming has been great – at least it’s been great for people like myself who are from the north and who can take water temperatures below 65 degrees. We play rummy, smear ourselves with SPF 15, swim, lounge in the sun, and visit with our neighbors who stop by to share a beer and gossip. On the best days, when there’s no breeze and the lake is flat, friends will often show up with a boat and water skis. Life is very good.
On lazy summer days like these we want simple food, fresh, that’s easy to prepare. We want to enjoy Western Michigan’s bountiful produce, including peaches, plums, apricots, blueberries, nectarines, squash, leafy greens, and some of the most spectacular sweet corn available. A pox upon people who will come to Western Michigan in the summertime and open a can of fruit cocktail to serve with dinner. Fie upon anyone who would come to Western Michigan in the summertime and serve frozen or canned green peas when you can buy fresh shelled green peas at any one of a half dozen fruit and vegetable stands along the famous Blue Star Highway. Around here, using canned or frozen corn in the summertime is practically a federal offense.
The sweet corn actually deserves a column all of its own. To meet Cottage Kitchen standards, it must be locally grown, freshly picked and unshucked. We shuck it just before dinner, minutes before the kettle of water has started to boil. We boil it for just two minutes. Any longer and the kernels may grow tough and the flavor can dissipate.
And dinner? Just heat up the grill. I like to coat a fine cut of meat, chicken, or a fish filet with olive oil, then cover it with a delicious dry “rub” before sticking it over hot coals. Sometimes, for the extra flavor, I add mesquite pellets to the coals. Earthy Delights carries several different kinds of wonderfully flavored rubs, including Green Tea, Espresso, Peking, Mole, Tunisian, and Thai. There are few things in life more tantalizing than the fragrance of something spicy cooking over the coals.
For me, the end of the rainbow is a place where tangles of honeysuckle attract hummingbirds, where the ice makes a delicately musical sound in a glass of gin and tonic, where the breeze from the lake rustles the leaves in the black locust trees, and where the waves wash steadily over the shingle of golden beach at the bottom of the cliff. Someone has put a Chris Isaacson CD on the stereo, and it seems to go perfectly with the spicy scent of tenderloins on the grill. The Michigan tomatoes are starting to come in. The zucchini is ripe. The blueberries are at their finest. For dinner tonight we’re enjoying a Thai rub on grilled pork tenderloins served with creamed fresh sweet corn.
posted by JTH at 12:00 PM
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