hot hot heat.
Hello again, thank you so much for all your lovely messages of congratulations and well wishes on my pregnancy, we are thrilled and it’s lovely to feel your love + support, too. I am feeling well and so ready to meet this tiny human in about five weeks. It seems like an eternity that I have been pregnant, and yet also like a blink of an eye- school will be starting up again in just a little over a month. Time plays such tricks in our minds. Meanwhile, summer marches on here, the heat is insistent and has a searing, fiendish intensity. My garden is reliably soldiering on, but it’s painfully obvious which plants are native to hot climates and which aren’t. My zinnias and cosmos, chiles and tomatoes are all extremely happy, and my Rouge Vif D’Etampes pumpkins seem to double in size every day. Dahlias and hydrangeas wilt and curl under, browning in the sun, needing a cool drink and a spot of shade, like me if I am out in the afternoon. I do most outside things in the morning until I feel as wilty as my plants, then come inside to punctuate my afternoons with granitas, cold drinks, and of course, watermelon. Is there anything more refreshing than cold melon?
I love them all, the dusky, rich sweetness of cantaloupe, refreshing verdant honeydew; but watermelon, with its cheery bright red is what I eat most of. I prefer seeded watermelons, I think they have much more flavor and I eat/crunch the seeds along with the fruit (my grandma always did this, but no one else I know does/everyone thinks its weird?) but they can be harder to find. Most often I eat melon plain or with a drizzle of olive oil + salt. If the melon is excellent- if it splits open on its own like a bursting zipper with the lightest touch of a knife- I eat it as is, in huge slices, with the juice streaming down my chin + elbows, which I find perversely satisfying. My sweet partner, a very particular Virgo who likes to eat things with a knife and fork and napkin, is secretly horrified ;) . In the last few weeks, however, I have been making this salad, which I’ve been making evolving iterations of for years. Knife and fork are good here. Another no-recipe recipe, the basic premise is to start with a very good melon, then bolster it with something crunchy, spicy, and herby. All the cooling flavors and crunchy textures are a delight to eat, while decidedly making you perk up like a watered flower in the afternoon sun.
watermelon + cucumber salad
The melon should be cold, ripe + sweet, and ideally use your hands to mix, it melds the flavors together in a way utensils don’t. For a variation, try cantaloupe (instead of watermelon), cilantro (instead of basil), and jalapeño or serrano (instead of red chile) + lime (instead of lemon). Delicious.
a small, v crunchy and cold cucumber
a generous slice of cold watermelon
a small sprig of basil
a small sprig of mint
a few very thin slices of fresh red chiles, or pinch of red chile flakes
squeeze of lemon, to taste
a drizzle of olive oil
salt
Slice the cucumber and watermelon into bite size pieces and place on a plate. I like to cut them thinly so all the flavors mix more, but however you like is good. Tear the basil and mint leaves into smallish pieces on top of melon and cuc. Add the chiles, drizzle over the lemon and olive oil, then season with salt. Using clean hands, toss everything together well. Eat immediately.
