Asparagus & Fresh Ricotta Grilled Flatbread

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Grilled Flatbread with Asparagus Ribbons & Ricotta If I don’t post any new recipes here for a while, just assume it’s because I’m making and eating this flatbread for every meal.  

The flatbread is a piece of pizza dough stretched into a rectangle and grilled until it gets a little charred here and there.  It’s topped with a crisp salad of asparagus ribbons and mixed herbs, dollops of fresh ricotta, and a handful of crushed pistachios.  It screams springs and it screams “yes, I’m a pizza, but I’m also a vehicle for salad so you can eat me whenever you feel like it.”  Which will be quite often.

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Grilled Calamari with Sweet Corn, Tomato & Basil Salad

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Grilled Calamari, Sweet Corn & Tomato Salad

The end of August always messes with me.  It used to be the pain of going back to school, now it’s the pain of losing access to my beloved summer produce.  This year it’s especially bad; even though it’s still hot and even though I just picked my first tomato a week ago, there’s that whisper of fall in the air.  I feel like I’m just getting started and it’s almost over.

But we shan’t dwell.  No, we’d best ignore the school buses practicing their routes, the saw bugs buzzing at dusk and dawn, the pumpkin-festooned covers of  magazines that have started arriving, and just go on and enjoy what we’ve got while it’s here.  We’d best make hay while the sun shines.

So let’s do this.  Let’s make another tasty salad jammed with summer flavors: ripe tomatoes from the garden, sweet corn, and basil.  It’s still too warm to cook indoors, so , obviously, we’ll have to put the grill to use.  Why don’t we add some calamari and take it from simple summer side dish to stunning summer entree?  Ready?  Let’s do this late-summer dinner dance.

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Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Tomato & Olive Relish

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Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Tomato & Olive RelishHave you ever been to a party that starts out really fun but gets destroyed by some camera-toting loony?  You know the type I’m talking about, the person who keeps interrupting the fun to get people to smile for photos to add to his/her scrapbook or facebook page (or blog…) to prove how much fun the event was.

I felt like that person as I snapped pictures of this grilled flank steak.  See, this steak is a party on a plate.  It’s been grilled to rosy perfection, showered with sweet corn confetti, treated to decadent clumps of creamy blue cheese.  There it was, my dinner, having the time of its life, and there I was, the party spoiler, considering rearranging the corn with a pair of tweezers (just kidding–I’m not that far gone) and turning everyone’s happy party smile into a get-me-outta-here grimace.

So I called it a day, dropped the camera, and joined the party.  I wish I had a really stunning picture to illustrate how good this steak was, but often the tastiest food you see on blogs is the worst photographed because the cook/photographer just has to get in there and enjoy it.  You’ll just have to take my word/rambling analogy for it.

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Lavender & Honey Grilled Lamb Chops

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Grilled Lavender & Rosemary Lamb ChopsI was showing pictures from my recent trip to Croatia to a friend and I found myself lamenting the fact that my trip was about a week before the fields of lavender were in bloom.  The same thing happened when I went to Provence, the other place I’ve been that is specifically known for its beautiful purple fields of lavender.

Then it dawned on me–it’s time to stop whining about “problems” that are far from being actual problems.  Not to mention the fact that I’ve got 2 bushy lavender plants in my own yard that are purple and incredibly fragrant right now.  It’s time to start seeing the forest through all these dang trees.

And it’s dinner time.  Let’s fire up the grill and rub lamb chops with the fragrant lavender buds then brush them with honey.  We’ll serve them up with smashed white beans, pop open a bottle of wine, and settle in for leisurely, lavender-scented evening on the patio.

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Grilled Garlic Scape Hot Dogs

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Grilled Garlic Scape Hot Dog

If I am remembered for contributing 1 dish to the food world, I’m rooting for my “scape-dog”.  Not only is the name punny and hilarious, it’s an awfully good way to enjoy 2 of summer’s best features: grilled hot dogs and zesty green garlic scapes.

Let’s go over the scape-dog’s history.  Last year was the first time I took the plunge at the farmer’s market and actually bought a bunch of garlic scapes.  I’d seen them, but I had never known exactly what they were or how they could be used.  They’re thin green stalks that grow up from a garlic bulb.  They pop out of the ground, twisting and curling until they end in what looks like a tightly closed, spindly flower.  Garlic scapes get snipped off in early summer so they don’t suck up all nutrients needed for the garlic bulb to grow large and plump.  They then get trucked off to farmer’s markets and end up in the hands of people like me that aren’t completely sure what to do next.

Garlic Scapes

I figured out what to do in a hurry though.  Turns out I liked them.  No, loved them.  I ate them sautéed, grilled, roasted, and raw.  I had them on pizza, with pasta, as a salad, and in eggs.  I bought bunch after bunch and started pushing them on friends and family.  When they were all but coming out my ears, I stumbled upon my favorite application for them: grilled and used as a hot dog garnish.  Oh, yeah, I’m talking a good charred dog with a smear of mustard and a few grilled scapes dancing out of the bun.  Just add a cold beer and a picnic table and it’s easy summer eating at its finest.

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