I don’t know about you, but I am ready for some summer fun. Accordingly, I hope you are reading this on vacation, or on a boat, or with your feet in a kiddie pool. I’ve been working on clearing out my freezer in hopes of squeezing the bowl for my ice cream maker or my freezer-pop molds in there—this time of year is built for ice cream, sorbet, and paletas. Until I get that task done, though, I will have to settle for store-bought.

IN MY KITCHEN

Lately, my diet has been largely tomato-based: sandwiches, salads, sauces, you name it. I’ve recently gotten really into cherry tomatoes. I’ve been roasting chicken thighs on a bed of them with thyme and garlic, like you see above, and folding the resulting chicken-tomato concoction into rice to serve as a side. I’ve also been sautéing cherry tomatoes with shallots until they release their juices, at which point I add a knob of butter to turn them into a shaggy impromptu pasta sauce. Obviously, these sweet little jewels of summer are fantastic raw; I like a lemony, basil-y salad on the side with anything grilled.

Of course, tomatoes come in all sizes, not just tiny! Put the bigger boys to work in a smoked-jalapeño salsa or a Texas-size dinner salad. Bring a bowl of Texas caviar to a party (and use canned black-eyed peas to avoid heating up your kitchen!), or trot out the Instant Pot to cook up some stewed chicken that works great in tacos, enchiladas, and more. (Substitute two to three big, fresh diced tomatoes for the canned ones in the recipe.)

GET THE RECIPE

Of course, tomatoes come in all sizes, not just tiny! Put the bigger boys to work in a smoked-jalapeño salsa or a Texas-size dinner salad. Bring a bowl of Texas caviar to a party (and use canned black-eyed peas to avoid heating up your kitchen!), or trot out the Instant Pot to cook up some stewed chicken that works great in tacos, enchiladas, and more. (Substitute two to three big, fresh diced tomatoes for the canned ones in the recipe.)

GET THE RECIPE

GET THE RECIPE

GET THE RECIPE

🇫🇷 I reviewed tiny, minimalist San Antonio French restaurant Petit Coquin for the August issue.

🧊 Esquire put Yeti coolers to the test by leaving a few of them out in 117-degree heat in Death Valley for 48 hours.

🥩 Tallow may be trendy right now, but Daniel Vaughn says it’s nothing new for Texas pitmasters.

🫛 How to blanch just about any vegetable.

🧑‍🍳 Happy ninetieth birthday, Jacques Pépin!

IN OTHER NEWS

Austinite Mary Bryant Shrader (Mary’s Nest Cooking School) has her second cookbook coming out soon: The Modern Pioneer Pantry promises to teach canning, pickling, fermenting, and other preservation methods when it is published later this month.

It’s not written by a Texan, but Tim Lopez’s upcoming Kickoff Kitchen, arriving August 26, is relevant to our interests: Each NFL team gets two recipes, which means you’ve got four dishes to make in case of an all-Texas Super Bowl (or to console yourself with, knowing it will never likely happen).

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