Sometimes summer overwhelms me. The abundance of it. I'm nowhere near complaining; I recognize it almost as a seasonal form of ADD that I get when I roll up to a farm stand. Eggplant! Swiss chard! Wait, no … rainbow carrots! Remember the contest that Toys R Us hosted in the 80s where you raced against the clock, grabbing every toy in sight, dashing up and down the store's aisles with an overburdened cart and trying not to lose all bowel control? That is basically me when let loose at a farmer's market. All those colors, tastes, and textures—it's almost too much. As the seasons turn and the air dries out and the days chap at every inch of exposed skin, the tendency is to go heavy and rich. Not so with summer. On a recent balmy evening, I invited some folks (who in turn invited some more) to come over for a late-summer feast. There was fruit from a neighbor's yard! We got to grill it outside! And a simple fish dish, stuffed with garden herbs and paired with fresh, crisp salads that hardly saw the flick of a flame. And nothing comes closer to embodying summer for me than a dessert of sweet cake, cream and berries. This is surely the season we wait all year for.Watch the first episode of The Dinner Bell, and then learn how to make everything from the late-summer menu at The Dinner Bell recipe collection.
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