grilled chicken tortillas with avocado salsa, black beans and beer-braised onions

I love summer for so many reasons, but perhaps my favorite thing of all is that cooking is so easy and carefree. Grilled chicken and fish, tossed salads, burgers on the BBQ, roasted vegetables and summer fruit pies grace the menu and most of these amazing flavors can be created with food grown in your own backyard. I especially love visiting the farmers market during this time of year because I know I can buy fresh fare grown right here at home. There’s something so heartwarming about that.

When we were little, my parents visited u-pick farms for the fruit and vegetables they didn’t grow at home. I remember coming home with baskets of fresh strawberries and barrels of fresh corn and even though they had a tomato garden, we always stopped to pick more. They would parboil the tomatoes, remove the skin, freeze them and all winter long we enjoyed the flavors of summer in soups, sauces, cobblers and pies. On the way back into the city, we'd stop at this quaint little cafe and enjoy fresh apple pie and ice cream. To this day, I don't know the name of it because we always referred to it as 'The Apple Pie Shop." 

Our garden is still very young, but our children love watching its progress. They beam with excitement when the tomato plants have grown or when the herbs are ready for picking. I smile when I think about them developing their love for gardening and cooking. The process of planting, growing and picking their own food is quite thrilling for them and they love coming up with ways to use our homegrown goods in dishes we make at home. I think once the garden has matured, I’ll dedicate an entire meal using only ingredients found in our backyard. I might even encourage them to plan the menu and I can’t help but wonder what delightful flavors they’ll want to meld together. This morning they announced they wanted to use chives and mint in the burgers we're making tonight, and I know they're looking forward to picking them from the garden box.

The meal below is effortless. You can throw it together on a whim and even though the recipe calls for marinading the chicken overnight, it's not an absolute necessity. The marinade simply enhances the flavors. We used fresh herbs from the garden and local tomatoes, peppers and garlic. It's a fantastically easy and hearty meal the whole family is sure to love.

little gardener hard at work