Summer food, summer memories

This weekend my family and I were the fortunate recipients of a bunch of sweet corn straight from the field and a big bag of red potatoes dug up only days before. (Thanks Granna and Pawpaw!) It took everything I had not to throw those babies in pots of boiling water and chow down immediately. But we had people coming and a graduation to celebrate so I had to wait.

The first chance I got yesterday, I went to our local farmer's market and picked up some fresh squash and tomatoes. I also picked up peaches, pears, spinach, and a summer lettuce mix and rushed home with my culinary treasures.

Soon the kitchen smells lofting through our home were gentle reminders of my summers as a child. Meal after meal during those hot months as a youth were comprised of food straight from our garden or those of generous neighbors. We didn't run the air conditioner, even in the hundred degree Texas heat, but we were lucky enough to have a pool so our parents told us to jump in, cool off and then drip dry; air conditioning was expensive. And if we were hungry, we were to make a tomato sandwich or grab a peach off the tree because the only heat generated in that house would be pots of boiling water at dinner time for corn or other fresh veggies we'd accumulated.

That's what my kitchen smelled like last night. It was the sweet smell of the corn. It was the scent of potatoes boiling and the buttery aroma of squash simmering. I sliced huge tomatoes and covered them in salt and pepper.

It was good; in fact, it was downright delicious. So delicious that today I had a whole tomato for lunch and two ears of sweet corn straight from the fridge. And yet again I was transported back to those simple times when I was young and life was nothing more than a series of dips in the pool and meals that filled you up, body and soul.