By this point of the summer, meals at the Foodie Tot house tend to become simple variations of mixed grill or summer salads. To say I am obsessed with the pairing of summer tomatoes and peaches would be an understatement. This Italian bread salad, incorporating the two plus sweet corn, is the perfect showcase for summer’s peak ingredients and is a quick, no-cook, one-dish-meal that’s perfect for busy summer weekends.

Recipe: Tomato Peach Panzanella

Ingredients:

• 4 slices day-old hearty Italian bread or corn bread
• 2 large very ripe tomatoes
• 2 large very ripe peaches
• 2 ears corn, shucked
• several basil leaves, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces aged white cheddar, cubed

vinaigrette:

• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions: Toast the bread slices and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Cut the tomatoes and peaches into 1/2-inch cubes as well. Cut the corn kernels off the cobs. In a bowl, layer the bread, tomatoes, peaches and corn. Whisk together oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to make vinaigrette. Sprinkle vinaigrette and basil over salad and toss gently. Stir in cheese and let stand for 10 minutes before serving to allow flavors to blend. Makes 4 servings. Enjoy!

Farms of Origin: peaches, Bigg Riggs (WV); tomatoes, basil, sweet corn, Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA (VA); cheddar, Tom the Cheese Guy (PA); bread (dinner rolls), Valentine’s Country Bakery & Meat (VA); from the Alexandria Upper King Street and McLean Farmers Markets.

More peach & tomato recipes:

• Roasted Peach & Tomatillo Salsa
• Grilled Nectarine Tomato Salad as seen on Cookie magazine’s One Little Bite!
• Chesapeake Corn, Peach & Tomato Crepes
• Pork Tenderloin with Tomato-Peach Compote from Gourmet

What’s your favorite peach/tomato recipe?

One Local Summer is an annual challenge in which people around the world join together for 13 weeks of seasonal eating, supporting local farmers and exploring their local foodsheds. Visit FarmtoPhilly on Tuesdays for the weekly round-up; here’s what my neighbors in the Southern region cooked up this week.

This Sunday the toddler and I donned our rain coats and braved the winter monsoon to visit the Dupont Circle Market. I’m like a kid loose in the candy store whenever I get to Dupont, even at the end of November, and this week was no exception. In the market basket: Cibola Farms buffalo stew meat, Brussels sprouts (on the stalk), red Anjou and seckel pears, quince, Stayman apples, watermelon radish, baby carrots, sunchokes, leek, Maitake mushrooms, Keswick ricotta, Atwater’s peasant wheat bread and a drinkable pumpkin yogurt (which the toddler chugged 2/3 of on the drive home!).

Market Menus: Sunday evening we had buffalo chili and Farmer John’s cornbread, along with parmesan Brussels sprouts. (Toddler tasted but rejected the sprouts, while the chili was dubbed, “Touchdown! chili” and devoured two nights in a row.) I’m planning to make a soup with the sunchokes and leek. And this salad was just for me, as the toddler deemed the radish too spicy and I’m the only blue cheese lover in the family (so far). You can omit the radish for a sweeter variation, but more adventurous taste buds will appreciate the balance of tangy and sweet flavors that play off the Irish blue cheese.

Recipe: Watermelon Radish, Red Pear and Cashel Blue Salad

Watermelon radishes are white on the outside, slightly larger than your typical radish but otherwise unsurprising, until you slice into them and get a peak at their deep fuschia interior. Sliced, they look like watermelon slices, hence the name. They have a sharp bite, which plays nicely off the sweet pears and touch of honey in this vinaigrette.

Ingredients:

• 1 red Anjou pear
• 1 watermelon radish
• 2 ounces Cashel Irish blue cheese

Vinaigrette:

• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
• 1/2 teaspoon honey

Instructions: Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together and set aside. Peel the radish and thinly slice both the radish and the pear. (Optional, serve over arugula or mesclun greens.) Serves 2. Enjoy!

P.S. Have I mentioned my cheese project? Read my review of Cashel Irish Blue, and if you’re on twitter, be sure to follow @100cheeses for updates and the latest in curd news and cheese recipes.

Despite the intense heat, the Alexandria markets were mobbed this weekend. I’m actually starting to prefer the West End Market over Del Ray, because DR is just too crowded this summer. And West End has more and cheaper fruit and berries. (Blueberries at Del Ray were $3.50/pt, while Papa’s at WE had them for $3/pt, $5.75/qt. or 2 qts./$11 – a savings of 75cents per pint!) You also get a wider variety by market hopping, as each farm has a slightly different growing schedule. Last week, I picked up Papa’s last two pints of blueberries and asked if that was the last of the season, but he said he’d have them for another week or two. His cherries then were labeled “last week,” so I was surprised that Toigo had them this week. One of the benefits of having farms from all around DC is that we get a longer range for most items — Virginia farms usually have things first, while Pennsylvania farmers keep bringing them for a few weeks longer.

In other Alexandria market news, Tom the Cheese Guy is headed to the Annapolis Great Grapes festival next weekend; his wife will be at the markets with only pre-cut portions of his aged cheeses. The honey stand is only coming once a month now due to winter losses this year, so if you missed them at Del Ray you’re out of luck until the 3rd weekend in August. But, Buzz Bakery keeps Virginia honey in stock in the meantime.

At Del Ray, I picked up white nectarines, peaches, tomatoes and jalapenos (D&S), sweet cherries (Toigo), blueberries, honey mushrooms, mozzarella.

At West End: apricots (last week) and blueberries (Papa’s Orchard, 2 qts./$11), cantaloupe, peppers, orange romas, sweet plums and ramp mustard (Bigg Riggs), waterlemon jelly (Crackpot Gourmet, watermelon & lemongrass).

On the menu – One Local Summer Supper: Saturday night, my in-laws were in town so I cooked a fairly simple, all-local dinner of chimichurri flank steak, buttermilk & herb marinated chicken breast, tomato mozzarella salad and potato salad. I used my patriotic potatoes from Bigg Riggs Farm (WV, 117mi.) in a German-style salad. I picked up Bigg Rigg’s ramp mustard, at Tiffany’s recommendation (check out her story of visiting Bigg Rigg’s last week!), and will definitely try this again using that mustard. Since I made this Saturday, I had to make do with non-local Guldens. Incidentally, red and blue potatoes are more pink and purple when cooked, so this would make a great summer bridal or baby shower dish as well…

Recipe: Patriotic Potato Salad

Ingredients:

• 6 cups new potatoes, washed and cut into large chunks
• 1 sm sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/4 c brown mustard
• 1/2 c cider vinegar
• 1 t corn starch*
• 1 t plus 1/4 c water
• 2 T chopped fresh chives or parsley
• salt & pepper

Instructions:

Bring large pot of water to a boil. Add potatoes and reduce heat, simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are just tender when pricked with fork. Drain and rinse with cold water. Pour olive oil in pan and saute onion over medium heat until translucent. Add mustard and vinegar. Stir cornstarch into 1 teaspoon water, then add to pot, along with additional 1/4 c water. Simmer for a minute until sauce thickens. Return potatoes to pan, stir to coat and add herbs, salt and pepper. Best served warm or at room temperature. Makes 6-8 servings.

*I recently discovered tapioca starch at my local natural foods store, which I used in place of the cornstarch.

For brunch on Sunday, we had the juiciest fruit salad of market-fresh cantaloupe, peaches and blueberries — plus bread with Waterlemon jelly, (deli) chicken salad, and leftover salads from the night before. Followed by … homemade cherry pie. Yum!

Everyday Food’s Dinner Tonight recently posted some no-recipe, quick dinner ideas. During the summer months, one of my favorite quick dinner strategies is to make a salad using the bounty of that week’s CSA delivery. The general formula is to cook a quick-cooking grain, usually quinoa or cous cous, mix with fruit (fresh or dried) and protein (chicken, pork &/or nuts) and serve atop the fresh greens with a simple vinaigrette. This is even quicker when you have leftover meat on hand. Last week, I had some peaches from the market, pork chops, and there were sweet onions, garlic scape, basil and lettuce in the CSA bag. Later in the summer when tomatoes are plentiful I often make a tomato/basil/mozzarella version. But in the meantime, the first summer peaches called for pork. Here’s what we wound up with this past week.

Recipe: Peachy Pork Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 c quinoa
• 1 c chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 c water
• 2 boneless pork chops
• salt
• smoked paprika
• olive oil
• 1 sweet/yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic scape or 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1/3 c chopped almonds
• 2 peaches, chopped
• 6 leaves basil, chopped
• 1 head lettuce, rinsed
• red wine vinegar and/or lemon juice
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

Place quinoa, broth and water in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Water should be completely absorbed.

While quinoa cooks, heat 1 T olive oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Add onions and cook 6-8 minutes, until golden brown. (If using garlic clove, add to pan for last 1-2 minutes.) Remove from pan. Season pork chops with salt and smoked paprika (or your favorite seasoned salt) and cook 3-4 minutes per side (less if using thin-cut chops). Remove, let sit while assembling salad.

Assemble salad – gently mix almonds, peaches and basil into quinoa. Arrange lettuce, top with onions, garlic scape and quinoa mixture. Slice pork chops and place on top.

Vinaigrette: mix 2 T each olive oil and red wine vinegar, add salt, pepper and a splash of lemon juice.

Makes 2-4 servings.

This week at market, I picked up a bag of Red Russian Kale from the greens lady (K&S Farm, Southern Md.). She said it was a milder kale that could be eaten in salad, rather than needing to be cooked. I also got mozzarella from Tom the Cheese Guy, and was envisioning a more typical summer tomato mozzarella salad, but changed course after tasting the kale. Somewhere between a spicy arugula and slightly bitter spinach, it cried out for something sweet. I used a few strawberries left over from the weekend’s crisp (great way to use berries on the verge of going bad) to make a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette that was the perfect topping to some spring onion greens, mozzarella and kale.

Recipe: Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

Mash several very ripe strawberries, add 1 T olive oil and 3 T balsamic vinegar, a squeeze of lemon juice, pinch of salt and several turns of freshly-ground black pepper. Whisk and allow to stand for 20-30 minutes to let flavors meld.

This would also make a great glaze for chicken or fish.