Author: Debbi Covington

“Watermelon, watermelon, how it drips, how it dripsUp and down your elbows, up and down your elbowsSpit the pits! Spit the pits! “ -sung to “Frere Jacques”It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3! Look the watermelon over. You’re looking for a firm, symmetrical watermelon that’s free from bruises, cuts or dents. Lift it up. The watermelon should be heavy for it’s size. Watermelon is 92% water, most of the weight is water. Turn it over. The underside of the watermelon should have a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun.

This is the second summer that Vince has planted a complete herb garden in our yard. It’s so wonderful to walk out back and harvest fresh herbs for our meals every evening. This week’s recipes all feature fresh herbs. If you don’t have an herb garden you can usually find them at your local supermarket or better yet – at one of our many farmers’ markets. Enjoy!Basil (Ocimum basilicum): Called the “royal herb” by ancient Greeks, this annual is a member of the mint family.  Fresh basil has a pungent flavor that some describe as a cross between licorice and cloves. 

Beaufort County is blessed with an abundance of delicious produce!  There’s nothing tastier than a fresh-picked tomato from St. Helena Island or a juicy ripe South Carolina peach.  How lucky we are to have a great place to shop where we can purchase this locally-grown bounty!  I’m talking about our wonderful farmers’ markets.  The markets – open Wednesdays in downtown Beaufort, Friday afternoons at Habersham, Saturday mornings in Pork Royal, Thursday afternoons in downtown Bluffton, and Friday mornings at Honey Horn on Hilton Head – are great places to shop for the freshest fruits, vegetables, home-baked breads and plants. 

Nothing says “sunshine” like a lemon!  The lemon is a symbol of tart refreshment; its color and fragrance lift our spirits before we even taste it.  Lemons, like salt, bring out the flavors of other ingredients and make everything taste fresher and brighter.  They work wonders in savory dishes and truly shine in desserts. Just a squeeze of juice, a paper-thin slice, or a curl of zest adds a piquant zing, a tart edge and a lovely aroma.  Lemon tastes good with almost everything!  It marries well with all sorts of herbs and spices, berries and other fruits, spirits and liqueurs, and even edible flowers.  There are three types of lemon: common, rough and sweet. 

You don’t have to live in the South to practice the tradition of Southern hospitality.  It’s true that much of the South has grown and changed, but a warm welcome is a Southern tradition that remains.  True Southern hostesses are always prepared with sweet tea and a “little something to eat” to offer their guests.  This week’s menu highlights some old Southern favorites with updated twists.  The meal begins with Fried Chicken Breasts with Honey-Pecan Sauce.

The words fresh and light perfectly describe the kind of innovative, delicious food that so many of us want to cook and eat today.  We like peak-of-the season ingredients prepared in simple ways that best enhance their flavors. Not so long ago, if friends said they were cooking and eating fresh and light food, we would automatically assume they were on a diet.  I suspect that the majority of people do so for one simple reason – low-fat, high-quality foods, imaginatively prepared, taste great!

Honey is honey. It’s just that simple. A bottle of pure honey contains a natural sweet substance, produced by honey bees, from nectar of plants or secretions of living parts of plants. Honey is made by bees in one of the world’s most efficient facilities, the beehive. The 60,000 or so bees in a beehive may collectively travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just one pound of honey! Honey has been found to have medicinal qualities. Local honey is well known to assist in allergy relief and is a rich source of antioxidants. 

Last month, on the internet of all places, there was a wicked rumor that my all-time favorite childhood cereal was being taken off the market. The reason the cereal was being removed from supermarket shelves was because it contains a mere 12 grams of sugar per serving. Seriously?! What would Cap’n Crunch be without sugar!? The good news is that the Captain isn’t being forced to walk the plank and that Cap’n Crunch is still available. In celebration of this happy news I decided to look for recipes that used Cap’n Crunch cereal as an ingredient. Does anyone else remember the yummy chicken tenders from Planet Hollywood that were rolled in crushed cereal and then deep fried?

                 Potluck dinners are a great way to get together with friends and enjoy some tasty dishes! Whenever the impulse to host a casual party strikes, you can call up your friends, tell them you’re organizing a potluck, and ask them to bring along one dish to share with the rest of the group. Although the term “potluck” suggests a random assortment of dishes, it’s likely to turn out better if you do a little bit of organizing. If you don’t want to risk the chance that everyone will bring only desserts, begin by assigning your guests a specific course to bring along.