This weekend marks the
unofficial kick-off of summer, and here in Toronto we couldn’t have asked for
better weather. Let me put it this way; I was in Vegas last weekend and it
feels just as hot today.
The first cottage guests
have already come and gone, the barbecue worked its magic on a dozen summertime
skewers, and the Pinot Grigio was flowing freely.
With people dropping by each weekend, I’m usually on kitchen duty, yet I don’t mind at all because:
1) I enjoy the prep and cooking that goes into making
meals for large groups. Plus, I got the moves like Jagger. (Maybe not. But I’m
fast, and that’s what counts here.)
2) I especially love the challenge of drop-in guests and
middling fridge ingredients. (Top Chef Cottage: Quick Fire Challenge. Make a
vegan feast for 10 in 15 minutes!)
3) Most importantly, if I do the cooking, I don’t do the
cleaning. (Cottage rules.)
What’s more, summertime
cooking is easy cooking. Compared to Christmas’s competitive feasts, during the
summer nobody wants intricate hors d’oeuvres, a big turkey and sides, layered
cakes and cookies, mulled cider and gobs of chocolate. Instead, it’s all about
sparking up the barbecue (or smoker), and throwing on some burgers and steaks,
whipping up big bowls of fresh salads, or even a simple platter of juicy tomatoes with basil and olive oil.
During summer we let the
fresh foods speak for themselves, asparagus, corn and beans becoming the snap, crackle and pop of the vegetable world. Meats sizzle, tofu does its own thing,
and ice cream is ever-present. If you think about it, it’s actually the longest
and busiest entertaining stretch of the year.
In other words, it’s the
perfect time to reciprocate a long put-off dinner invite.
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