Summertime... and the living is easy... Salad

Summertime. Hot, Humid, Beautiful rays of sunshine, scorching heat waves, and lemonade. This time of year speaks to crops coming to term, farmers hard at work, markets, fresh blueberries, nectarines, raspberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn. all lovely summertime fruits and vegetables. 

Now the words i've used above are probably a fair description of most of your summertime weather.Unless you are living in Nova Scotia where we are having torrential downpours between days of gentle heat. 

Please do not read my tone wrong in this blog. I am actually laughing as I type and hear the pitter patter of yet another downfall outside. The rain is not making me bitter, it is just giving me an excuse to buy colourful rain gear. With summer we take the good with the bad, as similar to recipe creation. Sometimes our recipes turn out great! Sometimes they fall a little short. But everyday is new.. and that is all part of the adventure. 

Tonight to celebrate the summer that we've been missing, I want to share with you an old favorite. This salad I love to eat on a very hot afternoon, when the sun is so strong you sweat in the shade and eating anything seems like a chore. I promise when you taste the flavors in this salad eating will become fun.

Summertime Salad

- 3 Cobs Corn, Par Boiled. Boil the corn for 2 min with their husks on and then remove. If you boil the corn with their husks on you wont have a huge mess in your kitchen when you try to remove them. You also only want to parboil these because you will cook them the rest of the way on the BBQ

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-2 Nectarines cut in half and pitted

-  3 Green onions                             

- 1 Yellow Zucchini cut lengthwise

Olive Oil

Salt/Pepper

To garnish before serving:

Fresh Basil, Lemon Juice, Olive Oil, Pepper

Place nectarines, green onions, cut zucchini and parboiled corn in a bowl. Drizzle with Olive oil, salt and pepper so that all ingredients are lightly coated. Fire up the Barbeque. *Please be kind to yourself... if you are in a heat wave do not barbeque them during the day you will hate me and be ferociously hot standing in front of the bbq. Wait!! Grill the evening before you want to serve the salad, enjoy the evening air and hopefully do this while drinking something enjoyable and cold*

Your barbeque should be on medium heat, make sure to give your barbeque a few minutes after you light it to come to this temperature. Do not just throw the fruit and vegetables on right away. 

Grill the Nectarine, Corn, zucchini and Green onion lightly on each side turning every 2-3 minutes (The zucchini will be more like 1-2 minutes because it is thinner than the rest). You don't want to char them, you just want to have their natural juices release, light coloring and a hint of yummy bbq flavour. 

Once the nectarines, green onion, zucchini and corn is nicely grilled take of the heat and place on a cutting board. Cut the corn off the husks and place back in the bowl. Next finely chop the green onion and mix with the corn. let the zucchini stay as is and place it in the bowl. No need to chop the the nectarine either. Now cover and let sit in the fridge overnight. The natural juice from the nectarine will combine with the more savory green onion, the sweet corn will play of the char of the zucchini. All flavours will play together nicely as it sits in your fridge overnight. 

To serve: Place 3 slices of the zucchini in the center of a plate, place the nectarine skin side down on top and then scope the corn and green onion over the nectarine. Garnish wish fresh basil. either cut or ripped. Add a small drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice and fresh ground pepper . If you are feeling cheesy =)..... you can sprinkle some goats cheese, feta or even shaved Parmigiano Reggiano on top. If you are craving more of a lettuce based salad, use these ingredients to top your lettuce of choice. Last but not least if you are all about texture and want some crunch throw in some lightly toasted walnuts.

 Alas, no salad for me this evening. I'd be washed out with the rain. Here's hoping that a sunflower and spot of tea inspire simple heat and good cooking for tomorrow.

Eat drink and enjoy!