You don’t need lots of expensive ingredients, and the method is very forgivable; I’ve changed out the strawberry for raspberry and even peach, all with the same deliciously smooth results.

Pour, mix and serve yourself up some summer.  A drink for when the livin’ is easy and your cares are few.  Bottoms up!

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Now onto the mini round-up tonight.

Claire from Cooking Is Medicine is up first tonight with a celebration of summer with her kabobs … mmm, love mushrooms on the grill.

Patsy from Family, Friends and Food takes care of our sweet tooth with her Raspberry Streusel Bars from Cooks’ Illustrated:

Newcomer Nidhi from Charche Chauke Ke joins us this week with her Apple Peanut Canapes:

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The Panzanella version that I usually go for is this Tyler Florence one from his Eat This Book cookbook; it’s such a great way to celebrate summer.  The picture of the recipe was one I took the first time I made it.  Recently, the folks at San Pellegrino asked if they could use my photo on their website (see screenshot below, and larger version here), and I readily agreed.  It makes me giggle to think that my salad from New Jersey is on their website on a page that talks about Italy’s old world charm, but it is absolutely flattering nonetheless. 

Haven’t tried Panzanella yet?  What are you waiting for?

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Until recently…

I’ve been promising Nicholas, my fellow little lemonade lover, that we would make lemonade at home this summer. And then when I spied a recipe for lemonade that omitted the whole simple syrup step altogether, I was even more eager to follow through on my promise. Last night was the night. Armed with 10 organic lemons from Whole Foods, we made half a batch of lemonade. Tomorrow’s mission is to find a pitcher large enough to accommodate a full recipe, but halving worked just fine in the meantime.

It does take a few minutes to squeeze the juice out of ten lemons, but I promise the effort is worth it. When drinking lemonade, I tend to find that it’s either too tart or too sweet, but I’ve got to say, this one was perfect. It was tart, but not so tart that I found myself reaching to add more sugar. In just a few hours, the entire pitcher we made was gone, devoured by adults and kids alike with refills all around.

So go on and taste a bit ‘o summer. You’ll be glad you did.

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The recipe, like most, if not all, of hers, was dirt simple. Boil wine in a saucepan with olive oil and a bay leaf. Add rice, lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes until done. Since we were having company over for dinner, and knowing The Husband’s penchant for all things rice, I doubled the recipe. I have to say, the smell of wine as it was heating up was overpowering, and when the rice was done, it still was. Not only overpowering but absolutely inedible. It was like pouring yourself a glass of wine and adding some bits of cooked rice to your glass.  It pained me to do so, but it seriously is the first recipe of hers I’ve thrown away. It just wasn’t salvageable. Forget the fact that it was her recipe … I can’t remember a time when I have trashed a dish that didn’t even make it to the table. Just.plain.inedible. Consider this a public service announcement.

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The Chocolate Lady is back this week, this time with New Moon Radishes.  Perfect timing for me.  I bought a bunch of gorgeous radishes at the farmer’s market this past weekend, and now I know just what to do with them.  They’ll go perfectly on the baguette I got from Whole Foods yesterday.

Our favorite med student is up next, sharing a simple salad that is perfect to tote along to work for lunch:

The Modern Apron succumbs to the alluring pea and leaves her pea-hating days behind, at least long enough to enjoy Cream Peas with Pancetta:

Sarah from What Smells So Good whips up the gorgeous (and local!) Ponzu Noodle Salad:

Scribbles and Bites has a party in a bowl with her trio of healthy salads:

Blog Appetit makes a California heat wave a little bit better with her Cold Asian Noodles with Lots of Shredded Veggies and a Peanut-Tofu Sauce:

As for me?  On Sunday night, the boys were out, so I took advantage of a nearly empty house and made Trevor’s Ragu Bolognese.  It takes just a few minutes to assemble, and then quietly does its thing on the stovetop for an hour and a half.  This time, instead of 2 cups of white wine, I used one cup of white and 1 cup of a Spanish red I had on hand, and it was still just as good.  I nixed the celery altogether (just have a thing about hot celery) and used shredded carrots instead of diced (had some leftover).  Seriously, if you haven’t tried this recipe yet, you must.  The sauce is so good it’s hard to stop eating it straight from the pot.  In fact, when I delivered a small container of it to one of our neighbors, I handed over a spoon so she could try it right away while it was still warm.  Swoon-worthy, I tell you.  Swoon-worthy.  With the carrots and tomato paste, it’s the perfect addition for tonight’s round-up.  Yum-O.

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