Good new summer recipes

Here are a few things I've been cooking up during a week of vacation at home. Summery, light, mostly grilled, and just plain delicious. 

First, spinach bean dip by Giada De Laurentiis with a sweet balsamic note and garlicky spinach mixed with cannelinni beans. 

Wilt 2 salad bags of spinach with a couple cloves of minced garlic and a little EVOO, let it cool, then food process it with a can of rinsed cannelinni beans, 1.5 T of balsamic, 1.5 T of lemon juice, salt, and pepper until thick and smooth. Eat with pita chips, toast, crudite, on a sandwich, with some roasted potatoes, on a wrap...you get the idea.

Next, grilled veggies.

I chopped bell pepper in half, zucchini in half lengthwise, then in half crosswise to make quarters, red onion into eighths, baby potatoes into 1/4 inch slices, yellow squash  the same as zucchini, and grape tomatoes left whole.

I tossed all on a sheet pan with some EVOO, a liberal drizzle of balsamic, salt, pepper,and herbes de provence. I heated the grill to medium high, then threw the veggies on the grill. I kept the tomatoes together in one corner of the grill, because they need to come off the grill first. After just about a minute or two, turning over to grill marks all over the tomatoes, I took them off. I turned the other veggies after about two or three minutes, then closed the lid to let them soften a bit for roughly 5 minutes. Get all the veg nice and charred, then take them off the grill. I served these with a green salad topped with white bean salad, similar to the one I posted about earlier this spring. 

Last night I made grilled salmon, rubbed with cumin, coriander, herbes de provence, and salt and pepper. I put that spice mix in a dish, onto which I placed the salmon, skin up, then let it sit for 30 minutes in the fridge. I heated the grill to medium, then oiled it well to prevent sticking, which was mostly successful. I grilled the fish, skin side down first, for about 4 minutes, flipped it with a spatula, then let it grill another 4-5 minutes. I took the skin off, and served this with grilled artichokes. The salmon was still rare in the middle and nice and juicy. I've read that salmon should be cooked 10 minutes per inch of thickness, which is a good reference. The artichokes were quartered, de-choked, and trimmed, then boiled for about 10 minutes prior to grilling. I seasoned those, grilled them for a couple minutes a side, and made a sauce for dipping. The sauce was made of juice of half a lemon, about 3 T chopped parsley, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1/3 c roughly of plain yogurt, and 1 t. EVOO, all combined well.

Tonight, I'm planning an asparagus and sundried-tomato-basil-chevre fritatta, plus a side of fresh tomatoes with basil. All this inspired by ingredients found with my mom at a farmer's market this morning-asparagus, farmstead chevre, tomatoes, and basil. Gotta do it local, Southern Oregon style.