Welcome to the unofficial start of the summer season! While the temperatures are warming up and the opportunities for getting outside are slowly opening up, enjoy these titles to ring in the season. Please stay safe!
Are you firing up the grill? These cookbooks, available on our eLibraryNJ platform, might give you some inspiration:
Good Housekeeping Ultimate Grilling Cookbook touts 250 recipes, including tantalizing Taco Dogs and Gingery Glazed Salmon.
Mark Bittman always provides practical recipes for every occasion. Featuring 20 recipes with 32 variations, here is a collection of his recipes dedicated to Summer. Take a look through it before you visit the farmer’s market (some are opening this weekend).
Plan your side dishes using Choosing Sides. The Honey Balsamic Peaches and Burrata sound heavenly.
Based on British recipes, you should be able to adapt the recipes from A Taste for All Seasons to our available produce. It’s fun to read the British names for common foods (courgettes are zucchini, for instance).
Need a beverage to accompany that delicious grilled meal? Who knew you could devote an entire book to Iced Tea? Or maybe you want to try a new cocktail. Sips and Apps will give you some inspiration.
Let’s not forget the desserts! Although it’s a debate about whether S’mores are better than ice cream, you can’t go wrong with homemade ice cream. The Everything Ice Cream, Gelato and Frozen Desserts Cookbook has it all covered.
If planting a garden is on your weekend to-do list, or you already planted and are dreaming of a bumper crop in a few months, dream away with Homegrown Pure and Simple. You could also adapt this to a trip to the farmer’s market if you do not have a green thumb.
Maybe you would rather sit back and relax while someone else does all the food preparation, or you want to relax while your ice cream sets. Try one of these fun summer reads as you sip that tasty summer beverage:
Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
Summer Blowout, by Claire Cook
All Summer Long, by Dorothea Benton Frank
Razor Girl, by Carl Hiaasen
I Will Save You, by Matt de la Pena
Lake of the Ozarks, by Bill Geist
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan
Funny Girl, by Nick Hornby
The Beach House, by James Patterson
Orchid Beach, by Stuart Woods