What You Eat Is What You Get

Here in Chicago, our summer weather is sometimes as unpleasant as our infamous winter weather. The thermostat routinely hits 90+ degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity is even worse. Just walking to the train and back makes you sweat. It’s not like this every day — or even on consecutive days. When one of those incredibly hot-and-humid days hits us, I can barely stand to drink coffee, much less eat a full meal. But as it is, you have to eat. One of the good things about our summer is that even this early in the season, our farmers’ market produce is pretty varied and excellent. So I pulled together this light, tasty, all veggie meal that was nearly perfect for the super-sticky dog days of June. I used a significant amount of butter on the squash, which you could probably lessen if you wanted, but to me, it kind of made the meal.

Patty-Pan Squash
Serves 2

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 cloves garlic, peeled
1 pint patty pan squash, each piece cut in half
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons paprika

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan on medium. Add garlic cloves, then squash, cut-side up, and add salt and paprika. Pan-fry squash until soft, adding paprika and salt to taste as necessary. Remove squash one by one with tongs and put on plates to serve. Top with four cloves garlic each. Spoon leftover butter-paprika mixture from pan over squash and garlic cloves. Serve while warm.

Pea, Smoked Salmon, and Mint Salad
Serves 2

1 cup fresh English peas, shelled
1 tsp hazelnut oil
3 oz. smoked salmon, chopped
2 tablespoons mint leaves, torn

Boil salted water in a steamer, then place peas into steamer basket, steam until tender. Remove steamer basket, rinse peas with cold water until room temperature and put into bowl. Add hazelnut oil and mix until coated. Add salmon and mint, then toss lightly and serve.

We’ve got World Cup fever in the Kuenn-Phipps household, in part because soccer is a sport that Keith a) understands and b) actually likes. So today I googled “soccer food,” unsure what your typical hooligan eats at a match, besides beer, obvs. What I got out of that was a post on a gossip site about how Landon Donovan likes In-n-Out burgers and that Tim Howard likes bourbon.

So I decided to just make bangers and mash, although it was a twist on the traditional version. I skipped the gravy and  used Russian blue potatoes I picked up at the farmers’ market this week. It was, dare I say, delicious. And the perfect accompaniment to the first half of this game. (Go USA!)

Bangers and Mash
Serves 2

1 Polish sausage
4 small Russian blue potatoes, skin-on.
2 teaspoons butter
Salt to taste

Grill sausage whole until outside is blackened and inside is cooked through, turning when necessary to ensure cooking on all four sides. Meanwhile, boil a pot of salted water. Add potatoes and boil until fork-tender, about 20 minutes. Remove potatoes from water (I pulled them out with a fork), set aside to cool briefly. Put two potatoes onto each plate, mash lightly. Top with butter and salt.

When the sausage is finished, remove from grill and cut in half. Serve with mustard over potatoes.

Last night, Keith and I were sitting on our porch, enjoying a summer cocktail I’d made that afternoon and discussing what we should call it. The base was a minty lemonade I’d made on Friday night. Keith suggested the Aznavour, after the French-Armenian star of Shoot the Piano Player.

“It would just be a cool name for a drink,” he said.

“If I’m going to name a drink for an actor,” I replied, “I’m naming it after my favorite actor.” So, without further adieu:

The Brian Cox

Lemonade base (makes 6 glasses)

5-7 fresh mint stalks, to taste
1 tray’s worth of ice cubes
Juice of 4 lemons
1 cup simple syrup
20 oz. water

Combine all in order in a resealable pitcher. Shake slightly to mix; store in refrigerator.

To make the Brian Cox:

1 stalk fresh mint
4 ice cubes
2 oz. vodka
Lemonade
Splash of grenadine

Put stalk at bottom of glass, cover with ice cubes. Pour vodka over ice cubes, fill with lemonade mixture. Add splash of grenadine. Serve and enjoy!