The Royal Chef At Home: Easy Seasonal Entertaining

restaurant prices with the five of us and because it was more fun. I remember the slow and unstructured pace of summer. If we were at Skegness, my siblings and I could play outdoors all day long at the beach, assured that dinner would be an amazing piece of fried fish so fresh I imagined it jumping fromthe sea, across the beach and into the pan in our caravan. A vacation highlight was always strawberry picking. Sitting outside with a bowl of fresh strawberries with whipped cream or real clotted cream is such a lovely childhood memory for me. Even our kids can’t wait to go strawberry picking each time we go back to England in the summer. As I grew older the lure of sunshine took me to Italy or Spain, where I could be found at the beach or trawling the outdoor food markets. Now in Texas we do a bit of the reverse: a little less sun and a lot less heat. So we may travel back to England or go to northern California or the East Coast like Massachusetts and Maine. Still we do spend a good bit of time in Dallas

where the stove is unplugged for the summer and we exist on cold salads and anything we can toss on the grill or smoker. By the time the sun dips down in the sky, the evening cools off a bit, and family and friends sit around enjoying a chilled cocktail. I’m usually manning the grill, anything from vegetable kebabs, grilled flatbreads or classic ribs and burgers. Someone always brings a salad or a case of local beer to try. My kids, all teenagers, seem to muster up an army of friends when I'm cooking. They come around to fill their plates with food and then migrate to their favorite spot in the garden to have their own important conversations. The evening unfolds so slowly that it isn’t until we see each other by flickering votive candles that we realize how long we’ve been outside. Time for a bit of ice cream or a cold slice of watermelon to round out the evening. The sky is filled with stars, and it seems a shame to go inside. Maybe just another half hour...

SUMMER

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