Too Many Cooks: Our Summer Bucket List

You'll be hearing from the staff at Food52 every week in Too Many Cooks, our group column in which we pool our answers to questions about food, cooking, life, and more.

It's almost that time again -- that time to kiss our precious tomatoes, corn, stone fruits, and other summer treasures goodbye. But before we get nostalgic, we want to make sure we take advantage of these last weeks while we have the chance. Which brings us to this week's question:

What's on your bucket list to make before summer comes to a close?

Are you baking pie? Eating thick tomato slices sprinkled with salt? Or churning out as many pies as humanly possible? Tell us in the comments!

Merrill: Blueberry jam using wild Maine blueberries!

Christina: Can I just put in an order for Merrill's blueberry jam?

Maddy: Having just discovered that I can buy fresh avocados at California farmers markets (!!), my plan is to eat as many of them as possible. Also, fresh grapes. They're amazing out here.

 

Marian: Creamed corn. Corn pudding. And more eggplant parm. 

Lauren: I always make a big batch of blueberry syrup to use in oatmeal throughout the winter. On my to-do list next week! 

Kenzi: Marian you stole my dishes! All of my dishes.  

Ryan: Just a simple caprese salad with big thick tomato slices.

Allison: I'm going to eat as many tomatoes as I possibly can. 

More: Don't worry about slicing your tomatoes -- we've got the perfect knife.

Bryce: No stone fruit will pass this way without being added to a cake, crumble, pie, or galette, or just eaten plain. NONE shall pass. 

Brette: I am still not over tomatoes; I want to make BOTH finalists for next week, and fattoush, and caprese salad. Also this Corn Salad with Caramelized Onions.

Lindsay: I'm with Brette, bring on the tomatoes! I can't stop eating tomatoes with ricotta cream, pea shoots, and basil salt -- but I'm going to force myself to save some from my garden for tomato jam and freezer batches of tomato sauce.

Karl: I've enjoyed grilling the heck out of baby eggplants of late, the more caramelized the better.

Hannah: My mom has heirloom tomatoes growing in her garden with my name on them, and I can’t wait to introduce her to this Tomato Crostata With Honey-Thyme Glaze. Sarah Jampel -- I'll always consider this recipe as yours.  

Kristen: I'm already having separation anxiety from corn. These will help.

Sarah: I made those last night, Kristen!

Gabriella: Alice Waters' Ratatouille, served with thick slices of seeded bread. Also, I will continue preserving any and all fresh-picked berries in gin and using them in champagne cocktails. 

Amanda S: Anything and everything with PEACHES. Peach pie, peach tart, peach cobbler, peach salad, peach pandowdy. I can't stop and won't stop until I'm forced. 

Merrill: Peaches and Maine blueberries!

Amelia: Growing up, my town had an annual Peach Festival, which celebrated all things peach. (I still think I could have made a pretty good Peach Queen...) So peaches are sort of a nostalgic fruit for me and I can't get enough at this time of year.

Stephanie: Tomatoes. All the tomatoes. I bought some at a market the other day and somehow by the time I got home they had all disappeared. They were like candy. 

Amanda: Peach pie. Peach tart. Blueberry schlumpf. Pasta with roasted tomatoes and corn. Corn chowder. BLTs. 

Bea: Jars, jars, jars, and jars of dill pickles! 

Christina: I'd like to put in an order for these too, please.

Tell us: What's on your summer bucket list?

Photos by Jennifer Causey, Sarah Shatz, James Ransom, Yossy Arefi, and Eric Moran