Seasonal Sundays: Late-Summer Entertaining (Week 36)

Grab your phone, all, because we've got "plans" to make, because summer is fleeting and late-summer produce won't last forever. This week's "Seasonal Seven" collection features recipes that are at once casual but special, extra-good for an easy-going gathering with a couple of friends or just an intentional meal for two. I hope you'll find one or two destined as "keepers" in your own recipe repertoire.

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

~ PIN This ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

THANK YOU for stopping in today ... and last week and next week too. "I appreciate you." I do ... and always love hearing from many of you throughout the week. Don't be a stranger!

I a-d-o-r-e this time of year. Summer's best vibes are "mostly" over. It'll still be hot but soon, the mornings will be noticeably not only darker but cooler. Too soon? I'm plotting the second annual pumpkin painting party for the family Littles and their parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles.

And since we so like to have people over when it's cool enough to sit outside or to have the kitchen doors wide open, it's got me to thinking not only "when" and "who?" but also "what?".

Because really, food-wise, summer gains its highest reach during September.

Join me?

In Praise Of ...

• ... Swifties know doubt know this already but I was inexplicably moved to learn that Taylor Swift was named for James Taylor!


• ... dang, it all, our dog has a bum leg, a torn ACL and surgery isn't for more than a month, the good news is that there's time to re-train him to be rest quietly (to avoid further injury and for post-surgery recovery) and wow, I love these versatile open-top dog pen panels (affiliate link), you can pick color, panel height, how many panels, and they go together quick-quick and can be shaped to fit particular spaces, in this case, I put one near my desk and another in our bedroom, each with lots of room for a dog bed and a water bowl on open floor plus a view to the outside, I'm not sure they'd work well for an antsy dog used to jumping and pushing but for our seven-year old dog, they're perfect, much better than the traditional "cage" style crate (we do have one of these, too, it's just not right for the current situation), for our 50-pound dog, I bought 16 32-inch panels, used 9 in one pen, 7 in another,


• ... omg, the peaches this year are soo soooo good, reminding me how one year, when I was a kid, I ate 17 peaches in one day ... yeah, binging but at least on something really good?

Democracy Matters

The country needs calm, thoughtful and assertive voices amid the chaos inflicted by a minority hellbent on taking/retaining generational power by strangling democratic principles and equal rights. None of us have to personally change the world. We just have to do our part. Pick one thing for the top of your To Do List this week.

Every so often, I like to share my favorite sources of information and activism. Hmmm. I just this minute realized that all my favorites are ... women.

My #1 pick will always be the brilliant Heather Cox Richardson who has been writing Letters from an American nearly every single day since September 2019. For me, "Heather" (as we refer to her in this house) is a must-read. She cuts through the day's news and presents an interpretation in a calm, history-grounded voice, with an eye/ear for what will matter to historians in future. Facebook people, she also does twice-weekly talks/lectures: she's whip-smart, speaks in plain language without drama. Yes, I'm a big fan.

Joyce Vance writes another Substack newsletter called Civil Discourse. She's a law professor, a 25-year veteran of the Department of Justice, a former U.S. Attorney, a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC – also a knitter and chicken keeper! The chicks and chicken show up every so often. I have increasing appreciation for her intellect and encouragement. "We're in this together," she signs off.

Jessica Craven's Chop Wood, Carry Water comes 5x a week with encouragement (so important!) plus a meaty list of very specific actions individuals can make, from 2 minutes to maybe an hour. But for anyone who's feeling discouraged, her Sunday "good news" newsletter is a must-read. Prepare to feel re-inspired! (More on Jess below!)

Jess Piper is my latest newsletter crush, she calls herself the "Dirt Road Democrat" and is an activist who ran for office (and lost) in Deep Red Missouri. She's a great writer and storyteller and while The View from Rural Missouri covers Missouri, well, its threads are woven into the fabric of this country.

Podcast people, you'll appreciate the rich language and extemporary eloquence in Dahlia Lithwick's podcast covering the Supreme Court called Amicus. Isn't that such a great name?! (Amicus is an individual or organization that is not a party to an action but who volunteers or is court-invited to advise on a matter before the court.)

The Words of Wise Women

Jess Piper may center her work and writing in the state of Missouri and her birth state of Arkansas (both deep Red States) but she is a national treasure. If you want an example of someone who just up and decided to devote her working life to make the world a better place, Jess is your inspiration. (I definitely recommend her Substack newsletter, The View from Rural Missouri. It's free to subscribe but there's also an option to support her work financially.)

She's definitely one of the wisest women, heavens, humans, I know.

This week, she wrote about why some of the people who support Trump and his cronies are supporting someone who doesn't support them: if they vote, they're effectively voting against their own interests.

• "... you have to have the time and resources and head space to really dig into a huge and disorganized mess like politics. If you’re working a full-time job with kids who play sports and have homework and need to eat and need clean clothes and need a lunch packed, well there goes your time and resources to study politics and political races. You’re just trying to make it. There’s only so much time in the day." ~ Jess Piper in her Substack, Why Don't They Pay Attention?

Made Me Think ...

There is no single particular noun
for the way a friendship,
stretched over time, grows thin,
then one day snaps with a popping sound.

~ "Special Problems in Vocabulary" by Tony Hoagland

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THE SEASONAL SEVEN:

For this week's recipes, I aimed for recipes with still-summery flavors and combinations that ...

• ... are fun and casual, just a couple of courses, no sweating it out in a still-hot kitchen
• ... easy to prepare for a small group but aren't too much for an intentional meal for two
• ... lean on late-summer produce
• ... aren't afraid of a fab dessert!

• THE RECIPE Roasted Eggplant Salad with Tomato-Caper Salsa Gorgeous make-ahead salad.
• ANOTHER TAKE Tomatoes & Fresh Mozzarella for a Crowd A quick and easy way to serve two of summer's best treats.

• THE RECIPE Beet Salad with Sumac, Yogurt & Pita A quick beet salad turned appetizer when served with garlicky yogurt and fresh pita bread.
• ANOTHER TAKE Twice-Roasted Beets with Red Grapes, Cherries, Blueberries & Avocado Feta Cream Looks like a "fancy pants" salad but just roasted beets roasted a second time alongside summer fruits like grapes and cherries and blueberries.

• THE RECIPE Sheetpan Salmon with Garden Hash & Creamy Avocado Sauce One pan, one oven, one magnificent meal. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Summer Seafood Chowder Shrimp and scallops in a milky broth, with barely cooked tomato, corn and my favorite vegetable this summer, okra.

• THE RECIPE Black Beans & Rice Skillet Casserole with Smoked Chicken Simple comfort food with smoky flavors.
• ANOTHER TAKE Hurricane Rice with Shrimp & Sausage A Cajun skillet, on the table in 30 minutes. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Green Chili Burgers Just good meat with a good green salsa.
• ANOTHER TAKE Simple Lentil Salad with Seasonal Vegetables A concept recipe for a supper salad. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Dimply Plum Cake A rustic, barely sweet cake topped with jammy plums. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Summer Three-Berry Pie An all-berry pie (or fruit crisp), glistening with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Simple Sliced Peaches Just four ingredients, turns tables to silent. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Peach Blueberry Cake Country-rustic and delicious! (PIN This)

What's Brand-Spankin' New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE RECIPE Pesto Pasta Primavera Another Quick Supper, so many veggies, not much pasta. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Pasta with Zucchini Noodles, Ricotta & Basil Pesto A summery Meatless Monday vegetarian supper.

• THE RECIPE Jerusalem Turkey Burgers with Zucchini Moist, flavorful burgers specked with grated zucchini and fresh herbs. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Chicken Burgers with Fresh Spinach, Feta and Garden Tzatziki Sauce Summery Greek-style chicken sandwich with chunky Greek tzatziki. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Easy Blueberry Vinaigrette A summer salad dressing, such lovely color. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Blueberry Salsa A savory fruit salsa?!

• THE RECIPE Easy Sautéed Red & Yellow Peppers A simple, colorful side dish. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Peperonata with Potatoes The classic Italian side dish, rustic and colorful.

September: Reader Favorites

• THE RECIPE Calico Beans aka "Alanna's Famous Cowboy Beans" A hearty baked-bean dish, meaty enough for supper, but more often served as a side at potlucks. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Greek Baked Beans (Gigantes Plaki) Cooked until creamy in the oven. (PIN This)

September: Lost Recipes

• THE RECIPE Lamb Stew with Sweet Tomato Jam A Moroccan-style lamb stew.
• ANOTHER TAKE Perfect Lamb Chops How to cook lamb chops perfectly each and every time. (PIN This)

The Kitchen Parade Almanac: Looking Ahead ...

• August 31st - September 2nd - Labor Day Weekend (Labour Day in Canada!)
• September 8th - Grandparents' Day
• September 11th - Patriot's Day, And the River Was Like Glass: A 9/11 Remembrance
• September 22nd - First Day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere
• October 1st - Alanna's Unofficial First Day of Fall
• October 2nd - 4th - Rosh Hashanah
• October 11th - 12th - Yom Kippur
• October 14th - Canadian Thanksgiving
• October 14th - Columbus Day (also Indigenous Peoples' Day)
• October 31st - Halloween

Looking Back ...

THIS WEEK, YEARS PAST
• 2022 Lazy Late-Summer Breakfasts (Week 36)
• 2023 Lazy Weekend Breakfasts (Week 36) (PIN This)

RECENT WEEKS
• Recipes That Inspire JOY (Week 35) (PIN This)
• Summer Sandwiches (Week 34) (PIN This)
• Summer's Best Tomatoes (Week 33) (PIN This)
• Dog Days of August (Week 32) (PIN This)
• Cool as Cucumbers (Week 31) (PIN This)
• Summer Sweet Corn (Week 29) (PIN This)
• Peach Season! (Week 28) (PIN This)
• Red, White (& Blue) (Week 27) (PIN This)
• Let's Beat This Heat (Week 26) (PIN This)
• No-Ordinary Green Beans for Summer (Week 24) (PIN This)
• Summer Easy (Week 22) (PIN This)
• Summery Spreads & Dips (Week 21) (PIN This)

Soups & Salads Especially for September

• SEPTEMBER's COLLECTION Seasonal Soup & Salad Recipes for September It's back to school but summer's not over quite yet!


• BUT DON'T MISS Mighty Perfect Cabbage & Broccoli Coleslaw Cooked a little, just a little.
• AND THIS Cherry Tomato & White Bean Salad Hearty & filling, the almost-creamy beans are infused with rosemary and garlic.
• AND THIS TOO Quinoa Salad with Tomato-Balsamic Vinaigrette Served warm or chilled with seasonal veggies.

Good to Know!

• THE RECIPE How to Roast Peppers in the Oven
• ANOTHER TAKE How to Roast a Pepper on a Gas Stove

Silly (But Fun?!) Food Holidays

• September 1st — National Tofu Day (Marinated Tofu Stir-Fry)
• September 2nd — World Coconut Day (Golden Coconut Cookies)
• September 4th — Eat an Extra Dessert Day (dessert recipes)
• September 4th — National Macadamia Nut Day (Cranberry Macadamia-Butter Cookies)
• September 5th — National Cheese Pizza Day (Easy Mini Kale Pizzas (Spaghetti Sauce "Doctored" with Kale) )
• September 6th — National Coffee Ice Cream Day (Master Homemade Ice Cream Recipe (Skinny))
• September 7th — National Acorn Squash Day (Acorn Squash with Quinoa & Cherries)
• September 7th — Salami Day (Big Italian Chopped Salad)

The Best No-Recipe Recipe I Made This Week

Lots of Late-Summer Vegetables + Smoked Gouda = A Wonderful Vegetable Skillet

I used an onion, an eggplant, a poblano, a red pepper, a zucchini, a yellow squash, lots of fresh herbs, barely cooked so not raw but not mush, either. No tomato, so less acidic than my usual vegetable stews. This one may well make it to Kitchen Parade but not until next summer. So good!

A Quick Peek Into a Real-Life Kitchen

Just so you know, everything's not all pretty pictures around here, in the background is a pile of dirty dishes. And just like many (all?) of us, come five o'clock, I too draw a blank about what to make for supper, despite so many recipes I so dearly love. Here's a quick peek from this week.

• THIS WEEK I'm off chicken. A bad experience with chicken will do that to you. The first time, "off" lasted for years. This time, it's already been a few weeks. So this week, I switched from a rotisserie chicken for these enchiladas to the wonderful pre-cooked fish (faux crab) used in Light & Lemony Crab Salad. The fish is a protein staple here so I'm glad to have another way to use it up. This was so good!
• THE RECIPE Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas Quick way to get a green chile fix.

Just Updated!

• THE TIP How to Freeze Stock in Canning Jars Thrifty practice for green kitchens. (PIN This)
• CHICKEN STOCK No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock How to turn making chicken stock from a production into No-Big-Deal.
• VEGETABLE STOCK No-Big-Deal Vegetable Stock for the Slow Cooker Just 4 common vegetables, just 3 hours. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Oaxaca Tlayuda (Mexican Flat Tacos) Easy, healthy build-your-own crispy baked tortillas. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Ten-Minute Foolproof Enchilada Sauce for Ten-Minute Enchiladas.

What the Doctor Ordered: Something to Read

So. No book recommendation this week: you already know I'm enamored with the Louise Penny mysteries set in a small community in rural Quebec. I want to live in Three Pines! I want to walk to a bistro that puts warm croissants on the table. I want friends who gather as the snow falls, where a gracious host ladles Beef Bourguignon (French Beef Stew) into bowls.

But. My husband had his usual medical checkup this week. All good!

Much to my surprise, our doctor (who's already for low-key "prescriptions") gave us both a "prescription" that can't be filled at the pharmacy. Instead, it can only be filled by us and not by me for him or him for me but BY HIM and BY ME.

The prescription is to read ... and not just read anything. Reading about work doesn't qualify. Reading the news doesn't qualify. Reading non-fiction doesn't qualify. (Though I'd sure make a case for the newer style of non-fiction sometimes called narrative non-fiction, creative non-fiction and literary non-fiction.) Listening probably doesn't qualify but he's ok with reading on a Kindle/etc vs a hardcopy book.

He wants us to read fiction and a particular form of fiction.

Why is our doctor recommending novels?

He is much impressed by new research showing that particular types of reading stave off dementia.

He prescribes reading novels, books that require a week or more to finish. The point is to exercise our brains, holding what happened in the first chapter in order to understand the last. He's especially keen on thrillers and mysteries because there's so much detail, often highly pertinent, that explains the book's progression.

Me, I'm paying attention. I'm re-listening to a Louise Penny book The Great Reckoning because I realized I'd missed an entire character who was introduced early then stayed mostly hidden until a climactic ending.

And hey, let me say that the Louise Penny books really fit the doctor's prescription because not only is there a plotline in each book, there are multiple story arcs that cross from the first book until the last. (And hey! She has a new book coming out this fall!)

• NO TIME TO READ? How I Read 4X More This Year Than Last What I gave up, how I read so much, what I read.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail (my current address is in the FAQs), dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

• Any advice for Seasonal Sundays?
• Just one thing that would make it more useful for you?
• Anything else? Chime in, chat away.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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