Easy Summer Fruit Salad!
Even though we’re waiting for a Posa’s brekkie-b as we speak (red chile, no meat), we’re really dreaming about later when we get home and put together a fruit salad. It’s getting hotter, and we’re switching over—from eating chile and cheese at all times in an attempt to feel like winter isn’t the worst, to eating fruit as much as possible. Summer is awesome in Santa Fe, and a little melange never hurt anyone. Here’s how we throw together our fave fruit salad:
Cherries
Oh, you’ve got to have cherries, and they’re pretty much everywhere right now because they’re a summer fruit. Now, we grant you they can be a little pricy, but they’re sweet and delicious, so suck it up. We slice them in half and eat whichever half the pit’s still stuck in as we work—that way we get a fun little treat while we’re going about our salad-ness.
Watermelon
Is there a better summer fruit? Nope. And we recommend scoring a watermelon baller if you don’t have one already.
Raspberries and Blackberries
Duh. They’re the berries that taste so nice Brach’s went ahead and created a weird candy version that makes you wonder why you didn’t just buy the fruit in the first place.
Blueberries
We prefer to use these sparingly as they have a kind of earthier taste than the other fruits. Still, a handful or so of blueberries are a welcome addition. Weirdly, the science suggests that frozen blueberries might be better for you in the antioxidant department for some reason, but we’re going to use it fresh for our purposes.
Pineapple (not mandatory)
This is your call since pineapple can dominate the flavors, but a couple chunks won’t kill you, and it’s one of those acidic fruits that does good stuff to your guts.
Once we have all these things in a bowl, we gently mix it all around and then we grate just a little bit of orange and lemon zest on top to taste. TO TASTE, DAMMIT! Follow that up with a slight dusting of brown sugar—and we mean SLIGHT—and a little dash of vanilla extract. Maybe like a teaspoon or so, but it’s your call. Then we stir again. Then we pop it in the fridge for about 20 minutes while we catch up on emails or watch a ‘90s sitcom, then we go nuts on that bad boy. On the side, maybe we’ll slice some fresh avocado and place it on toast (this is called avocado toast), or we’ve even been known to get an herby cheese (like Boursin) and slap it on a sturdy cracker or two. If you make enough, you can have fruit salad later. If you make a little, that’s fine, too!
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EASY BONUS SIMPLE RECIPE!
We’ve also been obsessed lately with these little frozen yogurt bites, so check out this simple recipe:
1. Get a fruit you like, like strawberries or cherries or raspberries or whatever...just one that is kinda juicy.
2. Using a mortar and pestle or any other thing with which you can smash said fruit, smash said fruit.
3. Strain the meat or the pulp or whatever you want to call it so you have a bunch of juice. We don’t have an exact measurement; just do whatever feels right.
4. Get you a good and thicc Greek yogurt (we like vanilla) and plop a bunch in a bowl.
5. Mix that yogurt with the fruit juice you extracted before, then add a generous dollop of honey.
6. Stir it up, little darling, stir it up (until you get a uniform color).
7. Using a spoon, plop little bite-sized yogurt dollops on a baking sheet covered in foil or parchment paper or whatever.
8. Pop in the freezer for a couple hours.
9. Pull out and enjoy!
When you die and wind up in hell, this is what you’ll awake to in all of its horrible, frenetic nightmarishness.
Also
-Heads up: If you’re looking for some of the best fruit around, the Santa Fe Farmers Market still exists. And as a further heads up, the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, which is an institute dedicated to the Farmers Market, is now offering free weekly tours of the market during which you’ll meet farmers and have a nice cup of coffee and such. Tours are limited to 10 people, so reserve you a spot through the link in this item.
-We visited ice cream shop La Lecheria’s new Railyard location not once but twice, and our main takeaway is that it’s really nice to get a cup of coffee in the Railyard in the evening. Owner Joel Coleman’s serving up Java Joe’s, too, so you know it’s good, and lest you forget, Coleman recently left his massively popular Fire & Hops gastropub behind to focus on ice cream. Also, let this be a lesson to Sky Coffee in the Railyard that people will come and drink coffee in the evening.
-Have we mentioned new-ish food truck Monkey’s to you fine folks? We’ve seen some photos online, and we’re very excited to check it out. If you’ve been, let us know what you like!
-Meanwhile, in Pecos, the Bite Me Bakery is serving up a new program dubbed Adopt-a-Hero through which folks can drop $15 (or more) to make sure someone out there fighting the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire gets some baked goods. We like this, because while things like hygiene products and clothes and stuff are nice for donations, people facing hardships can also do with a sweet treat or similar creature comfort. In other words, muffins go a long way toward making folks feel human, and that’s no joke.
-Some Santa Feans might remember The Peach Man—a mysterious dude named Matt who shows up annually with amazing peaches for sale. Turns out he’ll be back around in about two weeks, and you can find him in the parking lot next to Midtown Italian joint Piccolinos. We have no further information at this time.
-Lastly in local jazz this week, the folks at Reunity Resources Farm (which is an AWESOME farm) welcome food system activist Jim Embry to their beautiful acres on Friday, June 3 (that’s the day after The Fork drops). Word is the farm folk have asked Embry to talk about their own food systems, and you can get in on the action. We love Reunity because they have a free food fridge, let everyday folks work the land, have partnered with local orgs for educational opportunities, and they have concerts and stuff in the summer! Anyway, the Embry event is going down at 6 pm, and it’s free, but you have to register here because seating is limited.
-After our item about Rudy’s BBQ last week, Cowgirl BBQ owner Patrick Lambert rightfully reminded us that the Cowgirl is also a local BBQ place. Our take? You don’t wind up with a restaurant that takes up most of a city block if you suck at what you do. Our bad, Patrick!
GAH! Jeeze!
More Tidbits
-We’ve had some time to think about it, and we’re actually OK with the Scatman. He’s dead now, which is too bad, sincerely, and that means he can’t hurt us anymore, too. We remain weirded out by his pop culture pervasiveness to the point of Good Humor parody, but we’re going to move on now.
-Emma Orlow at Eater-dot-com has an interesting piece this week about how New York City restaurants are kind of being forced into playing the Tik-Tok game. For those not in the know, Tik-Tok is an online hellscape through which people with no discernible talents sway for 12 seconds to a mashup of two pop songs and then act like it’s something. Naw, it can help people, we guess, but it seems just making great food isn’t enough anymore.
-NBC News online is tracking the ongoing grocery inflation numbers, and it’s a handy little page to bookmark if you want to stay in the know. What a nightmare world we’ve found ourselves in, right? It’s like the opposite of Miranda in The Tempest in that we’re not thrilled to learn there’s a whole big world of stuff out there. Instead, we’re like inflation Calibans who scream and writhe on the beaches of our worst nightmares while some older dude in charge acts like we’re jerks because we want to live. Haha! Man, we’re nailing this Shakespeare joke. Anyway, groceries are too expensive.
-Some dumb website called Pure Wow-dot-com (no one strained any brain muscles on that one) has the update on products that are new to Trader Joe’s this month. We mention it only because Santa Fe still acts like having a Trader Joe’s is some amazing accomplishment. Us? We like Natural Grocers.
-And that’s it for this week, OK? OKAAAAAAY?!?!?!
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
In this week’s print edition of SFR, the Plaza Café celebrates a new milestone while releasing something gooooooood.
Number of Letters Received
30
*And many of you managed to be nice this time!
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader)
“BBQ is gross, period.”
*We don’t even eat meat and we think that’s insane.
Actually Helpful Tip(s)
The many, MANY suggestions for delicious frozen treats.
*We’re making a list!
Tossin’ salad,
The Fork
