It's time to talk about the things of summer. Summer clothes, summer activities, summer desires, summer foods. Maybe the easiest to identify with no ulterior motives, is summer food. At least that doesn't have anything to do with buying beach towels and flip-flops, signing up for two weeks in an inexpensive Florida beach motel (try and find one) or worrying about which suntan lotion is cancer-causing. Summer food seems like something everybody agrees on.
You get the real impact of summer food when you have visitors-a family, maybe related to you, maybe not. Two kids, probably, or more. A mom and a dad, probably related to you some way, maybe not. Anyway, friends. They love the bedrooms, the view from your deck, they've played a round of golf, done tennis and putt-putt, walked the track, oohed and aahed over the garden (if you can put that name to a patch of almost bare ground with deer footprints all over it). Okay-your guests have sampled all the beauties-yours and nature's. They've done one or two of the local restaurants but confess that they really want home cooking. They flatter you a bit, talking about your reputation as a brownie maker and you hope you've thrown all the instant brownie mix boxes away. They keep saying-"don't go to any trouble" as if they meant it so you decide to offer them "table-de-casa" otherwise known as "what you see is what you get and if it isn't in the ice box or on the shelf-come to your own conclusion." I assure them that nobody will go hungry.
Starts with breakfast. Your average family of four or five, all appear to be classically average. That means you can figure out what they want by what they do. They read the paper, work the crosswords, watch TV, comment on the niceness of nature, apply sunscreen and "Deep Woods Off" when stepping outside. They do justice to all the amenities. But now there's the question of breakfast. Anyone for breakfast? Oh yes. A chorus of appreciative responses fills the house. Breakfast-most important meal of the day. Rice Krispies? One of those fancy cereals with chunks of coconut, nuts and orange peelings? Never been opened? (You've run the darkest Marks-A-Lot over the expiration date)., Cream-or that is milk? No it's not soy. No it's not fat-free. No it's not fresh from a goat farm. Forget milk, they like it dry. I watch the five year old gag on a spoon full of dry Rice Krispies.
Maybe fruit? Grapefuit interferes with a medicine she's taking. Melon does strange things to certain areas of the digestive system . No details please. A slice of watermelon, cut only yesterday? Seeds? Yes it has seeds. No problem picking them out and if you swallow one or two, so what? That's when I find out just how dangerous it is to allow seeds into the human digestive system.. Dried fruit? Raisins? Nuts? Forget breakfast. Coffee's plenty. Artificial creamer? Yes-another reason to get out the Marks-A-Lot. Eggs? Bad for you-too much cholesterol. Bacon? Do not even mention the word.
Lunch will be sandwiches, wonderful sandwiches. Everybody makes their own.-some lettuce, mayo, pickle relish, maybe mustard, anything you want. It's all here. Just pretend this is a deli. You try to do what they do. Set it all out on the table. Make your own. But the kiddies don't like bread. At least not dark bread. Can you have a sandwich without bread? Ah yes, tortillas. My kitchen becomes a Mexican Cocina. How quickly we make the change. Everybody's happy.
Dinner? This is going to be a tough one to tackle. Thank goodness somebody asks how far away is the Dairy Queen. We sit down to burgers. I add a sack of potato chips. Nobody asks how old they are. Soon we are all sitting at the table, pleasantly munching, planning events for the rest of the visit and nobody asking about the expiration date.
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