Treat of the Week: A Surprising Summer Feast

I’m not a warm-weather fan.  I don’t like sunshine.  I don’t care for warmth.  Summer, to me, just means squinting and sweating and general crankiness.  The only salvation during the summer, in my opinion, is good summer food.

We kicked off the inevitable summer this weekend at my parents house with a casual feast of homemade pizza and a delightful salad.  Four Italian cheeses, olives, mushrooms, caramelized onions, fresh herbs, artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes topped my mother’s special pizza sauce and a crust fashioned from homemade dough.   My parents actually made five pizzas.  One for dinner and then four smaller ones—two of which I brought home.

The perfect complement to the pizza was a cool salad of fresh greens, carrots, nuts, mozzarella, avocado, blue cheese, olives, blueberries, strawberries, artichoke hearts, radishes, hearts of palm, cucumber and dried cherries.   

The meal concluded with a true summer treat—homemade vanilla ice cream from my mother’s Cuisinart Ice Cream maker.  Dark chocolate was melted into a wonderful hot fudge sauce which shone like polished mahogany.  And, that’s not all!  In keeping with the Italian theme, my mother made gorgeous vanilla biscotti—the perfect texture and packed with pecans—which she carefully dipped in smooth milk chocolate.

So, I may have to rethink my opinion of summer.  If I have to suffer through a little sweating and squinting for fresh ice cream and great food, I’m pretty sure I can do it.