Ralphie's Special Tacos

This recipe comes from Saveur Magazine - a magazine I wholeheartedly recommend for pictures and inspiration, but decidedly not for the recipes.  On occasion, though, I do try them out.  I tried these tacos to try a chicken-cooking technique I had not tried before.  Basically you boil a whole chicken, shred it, and then fry it to get the crispy edges.  Unfortunately I didn't get the required heat in the pan, and all the juices that are saved through boiling the chicken cooked right out of the meat when it went in the pan.  I think with more heat and hotter oil I could do a much better job next time.  They were still tasty.

Sweetgreen Bondi at Home

Hot summer days are great for making a meal out of a tasty salad, but unfortunately all my salads start to look the same after a while.  Enter some creative inspiration from local salad joint menus like Chop't and Sweetgreen.  Sweetgreen especially has some really interesting combination ideas.  This is the Bondi from their menu, you can find it here.  The killer ingredient here are the wasabi peas with a crunchiness that does not wilt and a bit of a cleansing spicy kick!

Baby Spinach and Mesclun.
Corn.
Hearts of Palm.  (Trader Joe's good for these.)
Avocado.
Wasabi peas.
Add chicken if you want.
Whip up some dressing with sesame oil base.  I would have loved to try the miso but we didn't have any on hand.  You could experiment with tahini or peanut butter.

Summer Sandwich

Fresh tomatoes.
Fresh green beans lightly sauteed in olive oil.
Scrambled eggs.
Crusty toast.
A taste of cured orange fennel salami.

Equals open-faced summer sandwiches.

Summertime is when you can look around your kitchen and make something simple in a few minutes out of what you have foraged from the grocery store or farm stands.  The salami is amazing and came from our foraging expedition to San Francisco.  you can order online from Boccalone's online store.  We tried this one and the Nduja, which are both incredible.  If you sample any others, let me know.