Summer cooking

While it doesn’t always feel like summer here to me (I think the temperature has been above 80º F three times so far), we are starting to get summery produce in our baskets and at the market.

Apricots, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, fava beans, lettuce and eggs.

The apricots barely made it through the weekend, but the rest of the basket contents have made for some delicious lunches and dinners this week.  I made a salad using the lettuce, some of the tomatoes and part of a cucumber, that I topped with steak and a little grated Havarti cheese (from our trip to Denmark).  I also made a version of this salad with some of the potatoes and cucumber (and picked up the remaining vegetables in the recipe from the market).  Finally, we had pasta (which I made from scratch, using up some of the eggs) with the fava beans and the rest of the tomatoes.  

I took a break from cooking on the 4th of July so that we could get cheeseburgers at Big Fernand.  We thought a little American food in Paris would be a great way to celebrate the holiday.  We arrived just before restaurant opened for dinner at 7:30 pm and there were already a few people waiting.  While we waited, one of the employees brought menus out and explained to me and J that all of their vegetables are picked up at the market each morning, the beef is ground in-house to ensure the quality of the meat, and the rolls are baked specially for the restaurant.  You can choose your own toppings, but we each went with one of their suggested combinations.  They were by far the best hamburgers we have had in Paris and we will definitely be back.