Small Bites

Hi y’all and happy Monday. What a gorgeous day. I’m on the porch staring at the purslane that has crept all over my garden while I was gone for 10 days. God I hate that weed. (Yes, yes, I know… you can eat it. I hate it so much I don’t want to.)

I got one set of local links up, but before I go on to the next, I thought I’d show you the highlights of a week of summer eating. For my week off, I headed to my parent’s lake cabin in Sale Creek, Tenn. The Chattanooga Farmers Market is one terrific market, and we stocked up on everything from peaches to tomatoes to corn to green beans to eggs. (We got our meat at Greenlife, which is one of the only organic/local/natural grocery stores for miles and miles.)

As is right to do on vacation, let’s start with drinks.

Just because I was away didn’t mean I wanted to give up my Long Island wine. We brought a bunch of 2008 Wolffer Rose, bought from the Westchester Wine Warehouse. Tart and refreshing.

Another evening, we went down to the dock to enjoy a Fox Meadow rose we picked up from Viriginia.

We also had cocktails a couple of times. One sweltering evening we made Caiparinhas.

Yes, that’s a screened-in porch. I’ve been coming to this lake cabin since I was a kid, and we always would play cards into the evening on the porch. This vacation was no exception. (Though on a big glass wrought-iron table in the center for the room…. these chairs are for cocktail hour):

Love the view:

OK, on to dinners. Some of you may have picked up that hickory-smoked chicken is a dish I make a lot in summer. This time, we served it with corn on the cob, heirloom tomatoes and green beans in a walnut-lemon butter (soft butter, chopped walnuts, lemon zest, lemon juice, S&P):

Another night, we did tacos. Little hard to see, but…. chicken, avocado, lettuce, chopped tomatoes, cilantro and salsa. Served with corn (natch) and homemade tortillas and refried beans we picked up from an outfit called Zocalo at the Chattanooga Market.

I seem to be the burger queen this summer. I don’t know why, but I seem to be eating more burgers than usual. This week, no exception. Served with corn relish with peaches and red onion (I did a demo of that at the Peekskill Farmers Market a couple years ago… video here… recipe later…) and a green bean and Sun Gold tomato salad with red wine vinaigrette:

On our last night, I used up all the farm-fresh vegetables in a casserole that layered zucchini, corn on the cob, tomatoes and basil with feta cheese and was topped with panko. I adapted it from this recipe for Zucchini Casserole in this month’s Food & Wine. We served with herb-marinated steak, my mother-in-law Doris’ cucumber and onion salad and a caprese with fresh mozzarella procured at Greenlife (the only place I could find it).

That may have been my favorite meal of the trip. The casserole was darn good.

My lunches were pretty delicious, too. One day, the first BLT of 2009:

OMG. Please please don’t let the tomato blight rob us of these this year. Or these… another lunch… caprese salad with purple basil:

And even my brekkys were great. Yogurt with sliced peaches. Come on:

The lake cabin is a 15-hour drive, so we don’t get to go very often. But along the way — besides playing with my new iPhone (!!!) — I made one great discovery: Hardee’s. Seriously. I know I said I’ve been eating a lot of burgers this summer, but they’re the ones I make at home. I’m not usually at fast food restaurants. But this burger at Hardee’s — they call it a Thickburger — was really great. Especially for a fast food restaurant:

Red onion, fresh lettuce, Angus beef, pickles, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and mayo. And the fries were piping hot and crispy. If you’re down South and needing a quick burger, I highly recommend it.

And those, folks, were the highlights. I miss it already!

(PS: Want any of the recipes? Just comment below and I’ll make separate posts for you!)

Photo Caption: lj07200local023