Favorite Summer Food

What do we love about Summer? The staff have a few favorite ways of enjoying the warm weather in the ways they cook at home. Here are a few suggestions and secrets:

Our favorite dish is fresh corn salad made with sweet white corn, peppers, avocado, cilantro, lemon and lime juice, seasoned with salt. It's very simple, and people love it. My favorite summer dessert is buttermilk cakes topped with slightly sweetened whipped crème fraiche and fresh fruit. You could buy your buttermilk cake at the Dahlia Bakery, or make your own. I use the recipe out of the Cake Bible. There are also recipes for quick, cheater crème fraiche that work in a pinch.
Richmond Tracy, Sales Manager for our rubs and sauces.

Sitting on the roof watching the 4th of July fireworks, sipping a freshly made raspberry margarita is what summer is all about! Put into a blender some freshly picked raspberries, tequila, lime and Cointreau and blend with ice. I don't have a recipe, just taste as you go. If you want to be very patriotic, garnish with a few blueberries - oh my. Or I make cucumber water - the perfect summer refresher ! In a BIG pitcher with filtered water, add 6 thin slices each of cucumbers, lemon, lime, orange. Add a few sprigs of lemon verbena, mint or lemon balm. This smells wonderful and has a very subtle taste - just beautiful in glass pitcher.
Melinda Burdo, Human Resources Chef

I bought a giant BBQ when I was living in Montana. Its about 3 ½ x 3 ½ feet around and it's a sight to see when loaded up with meats and veggies all cooking side by side. I grill whole onions, whole fish, pork tenderloins and I like marinating flank or skirt steaks.
Paul Myers, Dahlia Lounge Sous Chef

Summer is all about garlic dip at our house. My mother would make huge vats of it (literally) with 2 huge bags of potato chips (nothing fancy, only Ruffles will do). The dip consist of cream cheese, beef bouillon cubes, loads of raw garlic, all pureed. It is obscene! Then we would always grill kielbasa from the butcher shop in Black Diamond and churn homemade ice cream in an old fashioned ice cream maker. We never had the rock salt to ice combination exactly right, but it kept the kids busy.
Colleen Kennelly, Etta's Seafood General Manager

It's a waste of butter, but we roll the ear of corn right on top of the whole stick. It's easier than trying to chase around a little pat of butter that keeps rolling off the hot ear of corn.
Gretchen Geisness, Palace Kitchen Mngr

Baby back pork ribs! I know this sounds like a commercial for Tom, but we make baby back ribs at home by rubbing them with Love with Rub pork rub, grilling them, then brushing them with one of Tom's new BBQ sauces for the last 5-10 minutes. This combination makes the best ribs I have ever eaten. We prefer buying our ribs from Don and Joe's in the Market, which seem to have the perfect ratio of meat and fat. When I need to bring something to a potluck bbq, I often bring a big salad with whatever I have in the garden at that moment. I usually grow several kinds of lettuce, plus arugula, radicchio, green beans, peas, tomatoes....the usual suspects. I throw in small handfuls of tender herbs and decorate the top of the salad with herb flowers. (I'm always amazed by how excited people get about the flowers and herbs.) I bring along a jar of vinaigrette so I can toss the salad at the last minute.
Shelley Lance, Quality Control Manager

My favorite memory of summer is when the sweet corn is ready to harvest at my parent's farm. Here's a wonderful recipe for corn fritters that helps use up all the corn; mix in a bowl 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 cups roasted corn kernels, 1 cup whole milk, ½ cup chopped cilantro, 4 eggs, 8 egg yolks and 1 stick of melted butter. Drop by the tablespoon on a hot oiled griddle or cast iron skillet and fry until browned. Hold in a warm oven until all are prepared, then serve.
Mikal Czajkowski, Palace Kitchen Cook

Summer means cooking any and everything on the grill. A whole fish and corn on the cob are staples for me, just seasoned and wrapped in foil. I love to grill fruit, sliced in half and right on the grill; peaches, plums, nectarines, even slices of watermelon.
Toby Matasar, Executive Pastry Chef

My mother's baked beans. Dark with molasses, brightened by mustard, and mellowed with bacon and smoke, these beans are in the oven for a whole day. Even if the windows are open, the aroma radiates throughout the house. Wish I could ever learn to eat them as slowly as they take to bake.
Tom Cole, Etta's Seafood Server

Walla Walla onions and little lamb T Bones - there's something about the Walla Walla sweets on the grill that goes so well with meats. And I make a homemade ginger ale with lime juice.
Sean Hartley, Palace Kitchen Chef.