Summer Lovin

Last weekend, as I sat down to a batch of homemade blueberry pancakes made by my friend Libby at her beautiful Wisconsin lake house, I announced "everything tastes better when someone else makes it."  It's true, isn't it?  But one could expand that statement and simply say, everything tastes better in summer.  It does!   Grilled meat and vegetables, summer fruit, and dinners outside:   food just bursts with flavor in the summer.  Here are a few yummy summer highlights, all from this week.

Tuesday:  The boss comes over for dinner.

One might feel pressure engaging in this particular activity but I happen to have the nicest, most easygoing boss on the planet, so I didn't stress too much Still, you do want to get it right, you know?  I decided to make a classic summer steak salad.
 

  Wash up several types of lettuce

Grill some veggies after drizzling with olive oil, s&p

 Steam some corn

 Then arrange standard salad supplies on a low platter - side walls are helpful!

 Marinate some flank steak in worcestershire, soy sauce, balsamic, garlic, salt & pepper. I did it overnight but you could do an hour at room temp.  Grill it for 14 minutes on medium heat.  Then let it rest a bit before slicing.

 Then shear the corn, cut up the grilled veggies & assemble all on the platter with the steak on top. 

Serve with a balsamic vinaigrette, blu cheese if you like it, corn bread and some yummy crusty bread.

Then make a killer chocolate dessert - summer berry brownie torte

I think César liked it!

Thursday:  West Side Story at Ravinia

When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way

I had to include this because seeing WSS projected on the lawn  with the CSO providing the score live was, well, spectacular.  And delicious.  Pasta Salad, leftover steak salad (!), proseco and dark chocolate. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday:  Girls Weekend

This past weekend, Libby invited a few of us up to her lake house, north of Madison.  It was beautiful and peaceful and pristine and just a lovely respite from it all.  I was late to rsvp so didn't participate in the meal planning, but man, these ladies had the food thing DOWN.  Even lunch included a dessert!! But dinner was outstanding - grilled portabellos & zucchini, grilled salmon & a variety of salads. 

The salmon was brushed with lemon olive oil then crusted with kosher salt.  After grilling to perfection, we added chopped fresh dill and lemon wedges.  To die for.

See?  So peaceful at the lake.  Shoutout to the WOWs

Monday:  Sailing & summer birthday

To cap off this outstanding summer week, my sweet husband turned 51 yesterday.  Doug is a big sailor.  It's pretty much his favorite thing to do.  I am not so fond of flying across Lake Michigan on a Hobie 16.  I'm not a fraidy cat in the rest of mylife but there's something decidedly uncomfortable to me about heading away from shore and bobbing around on that giant lake.   But at least once a year I suck it up and don my sailor suit, and it's usually on Doug's birthday.   So Monday night our dear friends the Sheridans joined us for a birthday sail and beach dinner.




The wind was whipping, it was chilly but fun out there on the lake, we pushed the boat to max load/capacity but had a blast and got soaked.  Then we beached the boat, set up our table and had a feast,  toasting the birthday boy's 51st.  A perfect summer night to cap a  perfect summer week.










On the menu: 
Pizza Pasta Salad, grilled chicken & fruit salad.
And cupcakes

Mark and Mary Sheridan

Post-sail selfie.  Happy birthday, Doug!!

Oh, and to make it an absolutely perfect summer night, you should always serve hop, skip and go nakeds.  Lo mejor in summer drinks.  Your friends will love you even more.

Hop, Skip & Go Naked

1 can lemonade concentrate

1 empty lemonade concentrate can full of vodka

4 beers (we prefer Miller Lite or Bud Lite but any mild beer like corona is good)

mix in a pitcher and serve over ice.