| Good morning, and happy weekend to you. Once again, this is Olga, assistant recipes editor at Post Food, filling in for Becky, who is on vacation this week. She'll be back in your inbox next Saturday. I'm about to go on vacation myself — Delaware shore, here I come — and have ambitious plans: sleeping, eating, reading, knitting, putting together a 1000-piece Pokémon puzzle, and losing at Uno to my 10-year-old who is an Uno strategy mastermind. Also, exercising, because it keeps me sane(r) these days. One thing I don't plan on doing much of? Cooking. As someone who makes almost every meal my family consumes, much as I love being in the kitchen — after all, developing and testing recipes is my bread and butter (sometimes literally) — I like to take a break when on vacation. Plus, as roughly half of the country is going through another heatwave, doing anything in the kitchen that raises the temperature of your home seems counterproductive. But since we're not going to eat out for every meal — that would break our budget — what I will cook will be in the no- to barely-any-cooking-required categories. And this week's recipes fit the bill perfectly. Ellie Krieger's Lemon Pepper Chicken Wraps With Goat Cheese and Honeydew, for instance, add a few unexpected elements that take them from predictable to delightful. A layer of tangy goat cheese delivers a creamy zing; peak-season honeydew adds juicy sweetness; and basil leaves impart distinct summer vibes to this no-cook lunch or dinner that comes together in minutes. (And if you'd rather hit the drive-through than cook, Tim Carman tried and ranked 8 fast-food brands' chicken wraps, all in the name of service journalism. Come for the rankings, stay for the utter talent that is Tim's writing.) As I do this time of year, summer after summer, I also plan on eating my weight in tomatoes. I serve them with practically anything and everything: sliced and fanned out and sprinkled with a little flaky sea salt; zhuzhed up with a pinch of sugar and drizzled with my favorite olive oil and good balsamic; tossed in pasta or eaten in a sandwich. I've even been known to eat one out of hand, like an apple, standing over a sink, with juices running down my arm. So you can bet I'll be making Aaron Hutcherson's Parmesan-Crusted Tomato Grilled Cheese — a mash-up of grilled cheese and Southern tomato sandwiches — this week. The savory parmesan crust is 🧑🍳🤌. Best of all, it'll make an easy, summery dinner in 15 minutes, and can be put together even in the barest of rental kitchens. In her recipe for Steak Tacos With Cucumber Salsa this week, Daniela Galarza looks to the cooling properties of cucumbers to balance out the meaty dish. While the salsa steals the spotlight from quick-cooking steak, don't sleep on those onions that cook alongside the meat. (They were my favorite part of the dish.) I also learned a smart, I-can't-believe-I-didn't-think-of-it-myself trick, which is to use Tajín chile and lime seasoning as a dry rub/marinade on steak. I can't wait to try it with other proteins, too. Cucumbers were also on Carrie Allan's mind with a Cucumber Martini, a smart twist on a classic cocktail, where cukes and lime zest infuse gin for a drink that tastes familiar but dialed up to 11, refreshment-wise. Carrie favors English cucumbers for this drink, if only because their long strips of peel make an elegant — and refreshing — garnish. If you find yourself awash in a particular fruit or vegetable, perhaps you want to prolong its flavor and lifespan by blanching it. Aaron Hutcherson wrote a quick explainer of what blanching is — and what it does. However you plan to spend your week — whether in or out of the kitchen — I hope it's filled with glorious summer produce and delicious food. There's so much that's out of our control these days that if a juicy peach or silky plum or sunny-sweet corn on the cob brings a smile to your face, it's worth seeking out. Until next time, happy cooking — and eating. |
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