Despite being hot here in Valencia most of the year one thing which has signified the start of summer and the need to refresh oneself is the appearance of Gazpacho on almost every menu. Made well it is truly one of the most satisfying things one can eat in the heat. Served ice-cold and filled with the season’s finest tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers; those adverse to ‘cold soup’ need to experience the real thing.

Summer’s coming! Well for those of us living in the non-temperate Northern Hemisphere it is anyway. And with summer comes the bountiful fresh fruit and frequent summer barbecues. Usually when I go to a barbeque I’ll like to bring some sort of dish with substance, to show off the homemade veggie burgers and quiches, but sometimes, you just gotta be lazy. Let someone else do that work for you. When that happens my go-to dish is often a fruit salad.

Peanut butter–yes. Bananas–yes. Greek Yogurt– yes. Healthy– yes. Breakfast— what a way to start off! These aren’t technically fluffernutters, as the “fluff” signifies the use of marshmallow fluff, but they’re so similar and “yogurnutter” sounds kind of silly to me. Yogurnutter. Yooooggguuuurrrrnnnuuutttteeerrrr. Hmm… Yogurnutter it is. Greek Yogurnutters.

Pho, often considered the national dish of Vietnam, is a rice noodle dish that uses a beef bone broth. It’s hard to describe the basic, yet complex taste that comes from this unique mix of broth, beef, spices and herbs – I recommend just going to your local pho joint and trying it for yourself. You’ll be hooked. I had my first bowl right after moving to Hawaii in 2001, and ever since then I’ve been slightly obsessed with figuring it how to make it at home.

The past few days have been macaron mania in my kitchen and I’ve still only made about half my list of flavours. I made lemon, pistachio, chocolate hazelnut, and coffee. They’re all absolutely delicious although the texture is a little off in all of them in one way or another.

I couldn’t bear to cook in the house today.  We cooked in yesterday, although it was 93 degrees F outside, our house seemed like a sauna.  I suppose we could have turned on the air conditioner, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that because it is only May.  But I digress.  It was the perfect to take the cooking outdoors, and I’ll take any excuse to play, I mean, cook on my Big Green Egg.

We had some friends over this past weekend and I went a little fruity-wine-crazy for the occasion. I usually default to white wine sangria, but lately I’ve been favoring red wine, so I wanted to give its sangria counterpart a try. Consequently I made too much of each to fit in my fabulous containers that I had no other choice but make a combination of the two. One of the perks of sangria is that you need to buy cheap wine.

Because this dish is so flavorful I serve it with roasted or steamed asparagus and a lovely saffron infused rice.

In the United States, sardines are the wallflowers at the culinary sock hop.  Alone, unloved, lampooned in cartoons.  Too bad.  Sardines are cheap, unbelievably good for you, and as everyone in the Mediterranean well knows, absolutely delicious with a rich meaty flavor.  They’re packed with protein and nutrients that contribute to cardiovascular health, like vitamin B-12 and the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.

For tonight’s recipe I’m carrying on the California vibe with some tasty Veggie Kebabs. It’s about to be swimsuit season so why not munch on something healthy and delicious.