"summer" news and stories

Roasted broccoli with shrimp. Photo: Sarah LeTrent

Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."

Grilling out defines summer, but after a busy weekday, few people feel like manning the grill or huddling over a hot grill pan. In this recipe, the oven does all the dirty work for you.

Enter this often overlooked and underrated method of cooking: roasting.

Try this method for broccoli and shrimp. Roasting caramelizes the natural sugars and brings out both ingredients' natural sweetness.

Nectarine Galette. Photo: Smitten Kitchen.

We have a confession to make: We have a really hard time not turning Feast Your Eyes into a direct daily feed from Smitten Kitchen. Not only does the blog's author, Deb, constantly concoct an amazing array of seasonally diverse dishes over and over and over again, she manages to always take incredibly flattering photographs of her subjects.

Case in point: this nectarine galette -- a flat, round tart which Deb claims is "ridiculously easy to make." Making it look beautiful, however, is another story, yet somehow she manages to make that sound simple too: "A single pie crust, a brush of melted butter, a sprinkling of sugar and big wedges of peak-season fruit, in this case, arranged on a bed of ground almonds, baked until the edges are browned and the fruit is starting to caramelize."

Yeah... we'll just watch from over here -- with mouths watering, of course.

[Via Smitten Kitchen]

Fresh Summer Limes. Photo: Flickr, Darwin Bell

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

Back in the early 1980s, when my Aunt Evie was putting together our family cookbook, my mother volunteered a recipe on my behalf. Titled "Brucie's Microwave Cheesecakes," it stood alongside my cousin Teddy's "Sesame Street Cookies" and my cousin Cathy's "Oven Fried Chicken," evidence that, at age 8, I was already a kitchen prodigy. However, it was all a lie: My recipe was stolen from the "Sunset Microwave Cookbook."

Years later, I found out that my cousins' recipes were also reprinted from various sources. In the meantime, however, I felt like a plagiarist and was always careful to point out that it wasn't my recipe, but rather one that I made a lot. Even so, there was something about my culinary larceny -- intentional or not -- that rubbed me the wrong way.

Recently, as I was working my way through various family dishes, I decided to give this one another shot. While the recipe that follows owes much of its inspiration to the fine folks at "Sunset," the ingredients, preparation method and taste are definitely my own, and I take full responsibility for all of the above!

Get the recipe for lime cheesecake tarts after the jump!

Smoked brie. Photo: Erica George Dines Photography

Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.

Whether you are having guests over for a grill-out or just cooking for the family, start up your grill a few minutes early and smoke your own cheese for an amazing yet easy-to-prepare appetizer.

Plank grilling is a familiar concept when it comes to cooking salmon and other types of fish, but you can also use wood to smoke brie, cheddar, Gouda and mozzarella in just 10 to 15 minutes.

When you purchase cheeses like "smoked Gouda" from your supermarket, the taste is oftentimes artificial, with a strong aftertaste. By using cedar, maple, alder or other flavors of wood, you can add an all-natural smoky taste to almost any cheese.

Melon agua fresca. Photo: Smitten Kitchen.

There is perhaps nothing more refreshing on a hot day than a fruity drink. Sure, ice cream, Popsicles and beer all have their place in the chill summer pantheon, but the combination of something already so summery (fruit) with nature's most refreshing resource (water) is pure heaven when the thermometer is pushing 90 or 100 degrees. And no one does fruity drinks better than Mexicans (margarita, anyone?).

Shown above are gloriously green and outrageously orange aguas frescas, which translates loosely to "fresh waters." These are typically blended with fruits, cereals or seeds and, of course, sugar. These colorful concoctions from Deb at Smitten Kitchen are made with cantaloupe and honeydew melon, lime juice, sugar, salt, water and seltzer.

The twist of lime on each glass serves as a reminder that though these drinks don't contain any alcohol, they're still suitable to serve to grown-ups at fiestas.

[Via Smitten Kitchen]