I don’t know if there’s anything so wonderful as watermelon in the summer (unless it’s a nice drippy ice cream cone:). I start picking out juicy melons as soon as they show up in the markets, and by June our fridge is permanently stocked. What I really love is figuring out new ways to serve that delight and surprise. Grilled watermelon is one of my favorites and I’ve made it into a salad here.

It’s Stupendous Salad Week Day 3! Last December my entire (9 of us at the time) family were all together for the first time in over a year. To celebrate I made a six course meal highlighting some of the locations we had each been over the past year. One of my sisters spent a month in Thailand (thai flavors), and Joe and I had spent some time in California (avocado). Voila, Thai Crab Salad with Avocado and Mango.

Day two of Stupendous Summer Salad Week. In the summer my parents don’t turn on the AC until June. Because of that I think I got accustomed to eating salads all summer long – it was too hot to eat anything else. And you can only make so many green lettuce tomato salads, so we’re doing one of my favorite vegetables today — asparagus.

One of my favorite discoveries in Paris was fennel. It’s not a common ingredient in the kitchens in the States (at least in the south), but every French fridge is stocked with it (or more likely their cupboard since refrigerator space is reserved for only the most important items, like milk). I loved learning to cook with it. And since its coming into season here, I wanted my family to experience the glory that is fennel as soon as possible. Here is a recipe for serving it as a salad.