Cold Suppers

In Washington, the approach of summer means that a heavy blanket of hot, humid air will soon be thrown over the city. Once that happens, eating hot food, much less preparing it, is not very appealing. And so the cold supper just makes sense.

That was the direction I went last night, even though it wasn't particularly hot. Instead, my motivation was a good combination of ingredients from the garden: A Tom Thumb mini-head lettuce, some sugar snap peas, sweet Walla Walla onions, and a couple of radishes. I added some chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, and one yellow bell pepper that was left over from the marketing early this week. I poached some chicken breasts in broth, shredded them, made a lemon vinaigrette, and put the whole mess together. I should have walked out to the backyard to get a handful of herbs (some lemon thyme and parsley, maybe, or some marjoram), but I was too lazy. The salad was still pretty tasty.

To go along with the salad I made some buttermilk biscuits, which I think are one of the most perfect foods around. I use a recipe from a cookbook called Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African American Churches, by Joyce White. I am a little ashamed that the biscuit recipe is the only one in the book that I really use; I have just never gotten around to exploring the rest of the collection. But it is a really good biscuit recipe, so I probably should inaugurate a weekly soul food night for at least a couple of months.