One thing I’ve never gotten used to, living in the Pacific Northwest.. For every 10 months or so of rain, sleet, freezing rain, cloudy days, and lack of heat, we have just about 2 months of sweaty, sticky, hot hot hot, weather.

I don’t know what the deal is, but I just can’t seem to function on these days. Never have. During my childhood I was thankful that it was hot during the summer when school was out, because I knew I’d be miserable in our school building, which lacked air conditioning, fans, or any other sort of cool down devices. We had these little half windows that on the hotter days that actually happened during the school year, they’d prop open with a stack of books, and students would be so distracted creating paper fans and being hot, that it was nearly impossible to focus on whatever our teacher was trying to tell us.

During recess, most students would go run outside, try to burn off their fidgets, or cool themselves under the shade of the overhang in the back of the school yard.  Not me though. I went to the libraryneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com.

Sure, I loved books. I loved school in general. I was a teachers aide, an office aide, I gave up my lunch hour recess to file papers and answer phones in the principals office. But my reason for visiting the library wasn’t exactly in the search for higher learning.

They kept all the fans in the library.

Me, and a handful of other kids who’d learned this secret, would gather around one of the short tables, and the librarian, who apparently felt sorry for us, would set one of the fans next to our table, so it would blow the already cool air of the windowless library on us.

We had a pretty cool librarian, she told us we could eat our lunches in the library, so long as there were no books on our table, and anything we drank had to have a resealable opening.

My mom would make my lunch every day. We didn’t have a lot of money, so I basically had the same thing for lunch every day. I didn’t mind, it was full of my favourite stuff-

Capri sun, peanutbutter sandwich (or fluffernutter, or peanutbutter rollups. Some variation of peanutbutter and bread) 1 or 2 boiled eggs, carrot slices and a little tupperware container with ranch dressing, and a fruit cup.

You know the kind, Del Monte brand fruit cups, in the metal containers with the lid that made the “PhhhloaOCk” sound when you popped it open?

They were cheap, I remember my mom buying them 5 for a dollar. Normally they weren’t so cheap, but she bought them from the canned food warehouse, which is a place that sells stuff for less because its been mislabeled, or something else. Its where all the halloween themed cereal goes AFTER halloween.

So, I had one in my lunch every day. I remember my favourite part of the fruit cup was the cherry slice, even though sometimes, it didn’t have one. Otherwise it was made up of  peaches, melon, pineapple, orange bits, pear and whatever else, I loved this bright ending to my lunch.

So here is my version of the fruit cup. More cherries, melon, some peach slices, lychee, and a little agave nectar.

Anyways, so the librarian wouldn’t let me drink my capri sun in the library, but she made an exception for my fruit cup. I think maybe after a few lunches she realized that my family didn’t have the money to put everything in resealable containers, or something. I dunno.

Either way, I’ve always been fond of fruit salads during the summer, when the only way to escape the heat is by sitting infront of a fan, sipping on a cold beverage… and enjoying a bowl full of cool juicy fruit.

Pretty tasty for a hot summer day like today, when its impossible to cook inside your house. I think we’ll be barbecuing for the next feel weeks, if this keeps up.

Hope everyone else is doing well, and enjoying their summer!

I know we’ve all experienced fruit salads. Some weighed down with cool whip, whipped cream, or even submerged in gelatin.

My summer fruits salad is quick, easy, and the fruits are interchangeable. So long as they’re in season, its a nice pick me up for a balmy day when the sun has taken just about everything out of you.

There are only two things I think every fruit salad needs. Sweet Cherries, and agave nectar.

Have you ever had a fruit salad where all the fruits were a similar colour, even if they weren’t naturally that colour? Thats because the juices were all absorbed into the various fruits. Agave nectar actually keeps that from happening in the short term, making the salad look more fresh, crisp, and the fruits their natural colours.

I recommend using about a tablespoon of agave nectar for every half cup of split red berries (this doesn’t work so well with raspberries, those should be added JUST before serving). Put the berries and the agave nectar in a ziploc bag, and toss until the berries are fully coated.

Other fruits you can use for this fruit salad-

Apple chunks or slices
Melon balls, or chunks
Peaches
Pears
Apricots
Citrus Supremes
lychee segments
cherries
strawberries
blackberries
raspberries
blueberries
boysenberries
marionberries
huckleberries
olalie berries
(you get the drift, any kind of berry will work)

Just make sure you cut the pieces into bite sized sections, toss together, and let their natural juices be the connective tissue, rather than using dairy products or gelatin.

Be sure to serve cold, and enjoy!

-A.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 2:20 am and is filed under July 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.