IT MUST BE SUMMER

I can tell it is summer, because now I am dreaming about cold, sweet, red, dense watermelon – lots of it. Even though I can get by with just a spoonful of ice cream if absolutely necessary (you know about waistlines, don’t you?), when it comes to cocomero (Sicilian word for watermelon) it is either huge slices or forget it.

My wife Lisa and I had lunch in our garden yesterday; perfect San Francisco summer weather, 70 degrees F., gossamer breeze, all shaded by tiny-leafed Japanese maple trees. Simple chicken salad with huge beefsteak tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers, raw snap peas, bruschetta, the best extra virgin olive oil, Trebbiano white wine – what a meal. Watermelon in huge chunks was our dessert. With the giant Bing cherries I got the day before, it was heaven; a bite of melon, a cherry, and so on. Ah, summer.