From the summer kitchen

With the deck project having taken away crucial barbecuing space this summer, and with the milder temperatures not preventing me from turning on the oven, it's been a slightly different kind of summer table spread. Here are the things I remembered to document:

For breakfast...

Dutch babies. I experimented with a couple different recipes, including a gluten-free variety, to get the perfect baby for all. These were a special request for Joel's dad's birthday breakfast.  Pictured here was the first try, and my favorite basic recipe from a 1974 Scandinavian cookbook from Sunset magazine (thanks, Mom!), baked in a cake pan. It has a little lemon zest and cardamom in the batter, which is simply nice. I mean, it's really hard to screw these up. But they always feel special.

Buttermilk sandwich bread...which I used for croque madames...in honor of the final stage of the Tour de France, which as I might have mentioned before, I won. 

Blueberry scones. Made on a slightly hungover Sunday morning after a night out with my gal pals, who sent me home on my bike with a pint of freshly picked blueberries in my pannier. I used a recipe for whole-wheat buttermilk scones that called for raisins, which I subbed with the berries. The scones were a tad dry (whole wheat flour AND oatmeal) so the berries added a nice burst of juice and flavor.

Baked banana buttermilk donuts. My local kitchen supply store had a sale during the 4th of July on all products that were made in the U.S.A., which included a donut pan I've lusted after for years, so I took it as a sign and bought it. Thanks, America. Because I had buttermilk and overripe bananas, I looked online to see how to combine it into donuts. We topped these with Nutella. It tasted more like a muffin. But donut shaped.

(If you can't tell, I seem to have a lot of buttermilk to deal with.)

For dinner:

Roasted dill salmon. Dill doesn't often get its day in our house, but I had a real craving for it and this recipe from the New York Times was quick and delicious. You simply make a marinade of 1/4 c. lime juice, 2 T. olive oil, 2 T. soy sauce, 2 T. maple syrup, 3 T. chopped fresh dill, 1/4 tsp. turmeric and a pinch of saffron (if you have it - I didn't), and a crushed garlic clove. Place salmon fillets skin side down on a lined rimmed baking sheet (smaller is better), season with salt and pepper, and pour the marinade over and let it sit for about 15 minutes as the oven heats to 425. Then transfer it to the oven for about 10 minutes and serve with rice or whatever. 

Sesame soba noodle salad with roasted mushrooms and tofu. It's probably one of my favorite meals and I don't make it often enough. It's so savory, crunchy (that's cucumber in there...not avocado) and satisfying and I'm always glad to have leftovers for lunch. The recipe comes from Melissa Clark's Cook This Now...like so many recipes I post on this blog.

Soupe au pistou. I held onto this recipe from my Milk Street mag a couple months back for pesto season. It's weird because you'd think the last thing you'd want to make in summer is soup, but this celebrates all its flavors and it was so, so good. Fresh tomatoes, green beans, carrots, beans, garlic and small pasta go into the soup, and the pesto is added as a garnish. It's nice to have a partner who works from home and can prep this on a weekday afternoon and tend to it as needed (cooked from dried beans), otherwise this would have definitely been a weekend meal. 

Chicken Milanese with tomato, mozzarella and basil salad. Because after a long day, it feels good to take a meat pounder to some chicken cutlets. The basil dressing that goes with this is divine. Another gift from Melissa Clark via the New York Times.

Chicken tinga tacos. This is something Joel makes and it's one of my forever favorites. I don't care about other recipes for chicken tacos or burritos anymore. I contribute the pickled onions and a side of Rancho Gordo beans. 

For dessert:

Smoked paprika peanut butter cookies. I got the recipe from David Lebovitz's blog and was totally starstruck (in the nerdiest of ways) when he shared my post on Instagram and used it as an opportunity to link to the recipe again. To be honest, I was expecting more smoke, but ultimately these were just strangely colored but very delicious, chewy peanut butter cookies. 

S'mores blondies. If these aren't viral on the internet yet, they will be. Gooey as all get-out. I took to calling them power bars.