While seasoned Texans may rightfully point out that this past spring and early summer has been spectacularly mild and beautiful, it remains a fact that, like it or not, summer is well on its way, and with it, the heat that our beloved state is so famous for. But while June’s creeping temperatures may not be everyone’s favorite thing, it does provide for an abundance of delicious garden produce, and that is something to be thankful for.
Here at our own humble manse, the intrepid spouse has parlayed hundreds of hours of (once almost literally) back-breaking garden and landscaping work to yield some truly amazing results, and our first major harvest has left us awash in herbs. All the incredible rain we’ve been getting has helped create a lush, green paradise in the corner of the yard, and from it we mine for thyme, basil (three varieties), rosemary, lemon verbena, lemon balm, mint, chives, oregano, parsley, and sage, as well as a few burgeoning okra, with the promise of tomatoes and squash in our future as well. What will we do with all this deliciousness?
I’m so glad you asked.
Eventually, of course, we will dry or freeze the herbs for future use, but for now, in the humid, opulent extravagance of our herb garden in full swing, we will cook with them whenever we get the chance, along with a beautiful array of fruits and vegetables from the Farmer’s Market, which is why cookbooks like Vibrant Food by Kimberly Hasselbrink and The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson (both authors are the creators of fabulous food blogs) are not only stunningly beautiful to peruse, but are also chock full of useful, delicious, seasonal, colorful recipes. I spent an afternoon with these two delightful cookbooks and ended up with the perfect early summer meal.
VIBRANT FOOD
Vibrant Food is a brand new cookbook for the month of June. It is organized according to season, and offers a wonderful array of recipes accompanied by beautifully colorful photographs.
The seasons of course will differ a bit according to where you live, so a “seasonal” approach in a cookbook may not be the most useful organizing principle for some climates, which is why I don’t suggest limiting your perusal to one section only. For this review, I chose to try the Grilled Haloumi with Strawberries and Herbs (p.58), and the Summer Squash Pasta with Green Goddess Dressing (p.92), both from the Summer section of the book, but I could very well have chosen recipes from the Spring, Fall, or Winter sections as well.
I’d never tried Haloumi before, which is a grillable cheese. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped, but I think this mostly has to do with my inexperience; the cheese never melted on the inside, as I’d been led to understand it would…I had to remove it from the pan before it became burned on the outside. The gentleman at the supermarket had nothing but wonderful things to say about Haloumi, though, so I may have to give in another shot in the future.
The strawberry and herb medley, however, was divinely beautiful and completely delicious, and I’ll be making this again and often. It has a variety of uses; for example, we discovered later on in our meal that it is delicious on top of rosemary shortbread.
While I wasn’t as successful with the cheese as I’d like to have been, the plate itself looked absolutely beautiful. One of these days I will try this again for sure.
The Summer Squash Pasta with Green Goddess Dressing was absolutely delicious. Always up for learning a new kitchen skill, I decided to julienne the squash, which was new for me. Let’s just say this may not be my favorite activity in the grand scheme of kitchen activities, but I have to admit it made for a beautiful colander full of curly raw squash “pasta.”
The dressing, a tasty mixture of yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, anchovies, and fresh herbs, took only a matter of minutes to prepare in the food processor, and after that it was simply a matter of tossing the pasta with dressing, pine nuts, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese.
A sprig of purple basil made for a beautiful presentation as well. Bonus: no oven needed. Around this time of year any recipe that is both delicious and doesn’t require any additional heat is almost guaranteed to be instantly beloved.
THE FOREST FEAST
The Forest Feast, published in April, is not only a delightful collection of recipes, but a work of art in and of itself, with each recipe printed in a flowing, hand-painted script against lush forest photography. For our meal, I chose to try the Red Roasted Carrots and Rosemary Shortbread.
I love roasted veggies, especially root vegetables, so I was eager to try these carrots. They didn’t disappoint. While my “famous” (in our house anyway) reluctance to really measure anything resulted in a higher amount of carrots and thus threw the carrots-to-spice ratio slightly out of whack, these were delicious.
Piquant and beautifully orangey-red. While these spices are definitely warming and this recipe seems a little better suited to a fall meal, their warmth and inviting color made a welcome addition to the raw squash pasta dish.
And, then, y’all, the Rosemary Shortbread. Yes. Yes, indeed.
Confession: this is not the first time I’ve made this shortbread, which is almost ridiculously delicious and incredibly easy to whip together in the food processor. Flour, sugar, chopped rosemary, butter = om nom nom times infinity.
It makes the perfect potluck offering, and I can tell you from personal experience that you will have people raving and asking after the recipe in no time. And if you just *happen* to have three rosemary bushes the size of small cars out in the garden? A match made in heaven, friends.
And, as mentioned previously, topped with some herby strawberries: Oh my.
Obviously, we weren’t disappointed:
Two beautiful cookbooks, one beautiful meal.
The Forest Feast features exclusively vegetarian fare and Vibrant Food includes some meat recipes; each offers a wonderful selection. Both are highly recommended for those looking to turn raw produce into works of edible art!
BookPeople 
Cool!