Caprese salad and corn and tomato scramble- today

To me summer isn't made by the hot weather or long days of sunlight. Those things just happen to go hand-in-hand with summer and are to be endured, not enjoyed--I'm an autumn girl! But summer does bring farmer's markets and in-season and local tomatoes and big bunches of basil and simpler cooking, where a dish is stripped down to the most basic elements, which means you need quality ingredients or your dish can be ruined--at the very least, not as tasty as it could be.

Caprese salad (which would cost you at a restaurant) is a prime example. After all, it's just basil, tomato, mozzarella, salt, and a drizzle of olive oil. You can put this together in a minute and you can be reasonably assured that it will be both pretty and so delicious. I am already counting down the days to the next farmer's market and I can't believe I basically forgot about making this salad until today. It's hard to remember how good this salad can be in the months where tomatoes are out of season.

I made this "corn scramble" from a Gourmet recipe for our family barbecue. Kernels of corn cut from fresh cobs, Juliet cherry tomatoes from the farmer's market, some scallions and some butter, salt, pepper, a tiny bit of cider vinegar and olive oil. Again, a low proportion of labor required to the flavor created. Looking at this picture now, it seems that the Chinese bowl I put the salad in is a bit incongruous--I look at it and think those should be baby corns and then I think of that scene from "Big" where Tom Hanks eats the baby corn like you would eat regular corn on the cob--it's nothing if not cinema gold--but at least the bowl kind of matches the tomatoes.