We all know how to slice fruits into an easy, healthful fruit salad. But how about taking it a step further, creating a sweet-and-savory salad for lunch or dinner?

1. MIX together your favorite greens. We like to add something peppery as a counterpoint to the sweet fruit, such as baby arugula, daikon/radish and/or watercress. We also like to add crunch, in the form of celery, jicama, or water chestnuts (the radish does double duty with pepperiness and crunch). Or…

2. MAKE a grain bowl. Here’s how.

3. TOSS the salad with a light vinaigrette. Try this champagne vinaigrette, or a traditional balsamic vinaigrette, both of which add a bit of sweetness. You can also add a tablespoon of orange juice to a regular vinaigrette.

4. LAYER with sliced stone fruits—either a single fruit or an assortment. You can leave the skins on.

5. SERVE as a side salad or as a main salad with the addition of goat cheese (or other favorite cheese), chicken breast, and/or other protein.
 
 
WHAT ARE STONE FRUITS?

Stone fruits are members of the Prunus genus, and include apricots, cherries, nectarines, olives, peaches, plums, and cross-breeds such as apriums, plumcots, and pluots.

A stone fruit, also called a drupe, is a fruit with a large, hard stone (pit) inside a fleshy fruit. The stone is often thought of as the seed, but the seed is actually inside the stone.

In fact, almonds, pecans, and walnuts are examples of the seeds inside the stones. They’re also drupes, but a type in which we eat the seed inside the pit instead of the surrounding fruit.

Drupes are members of the Rosaceae family—the rose family—which includes shrubs as well as other prominent fruits (in other genera [the plural of genus) such as apples, loquats, pears, quinces, and strawberries.

Not all drupes are stone fruits. The coconut is also a drupe, as are bramble fruits such as blackberries and raspberries. June through September is prime stone fruit season in the U.S.

Don’t forget a regular fruit salad, ice cream, smoothies, and sorbet!

Summer is stone fruit season. Dig in!
 
 
HOW TO ENJOY STONE FRUITS

Chef Johnny Gnall says:

“I like to eat stone fruit raw whenever possible. But grilled stone fruit is also delicious; peaches and nectarines are exquisite.” His advice:

 
 
 
 
 
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[2] A goat cheese and peach sandwich on toasted country bread (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[3] Roasted peaches on a chicken and grain bowl (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] Nectarines, ready to slice into a salad, onto a sandwich, grill for dessert (photo © Frog Hollow Farm).

For pudding lovers and dads who enjoy a sweet-and-salty dessert, here’s a silky pudding that emulates the one served at California Pizza Kitchen. Thanks to FransFavs.com who had the same pudding, went home and recreated it. Thanks, Fran!

The rich caramel pudding is garnished with chocolate cookie crumbs, whipped cream, caramel sauce and flaked sea salt. Any sea salt will do; but if you’re going out to buy sea salt for garnishing, look for Maldon, with its unique triangle-shaped crystals (see photo below, and check out the different types of sea salt).

RECIPE: SALTED CARAMEL PUDDING

Ingredients For 3 Cups (6 Half Cup Servings Or 3 One Cup Servings

For The Cookie Crust

 
For The Pudding

1. MAKE the cookie crust. In a small bowl, mix together the cookie crumbs, butter and salt. Press 2 tablespoons of the crumbs into the bottoms of each of six clear custard/parfait dishes (you can use mason jars, wine goblets or other containers). Reserve the remaining crumbs to sprinkle on top of pudding as a garnish.

2. MAKE the pudding. In a large measuring cup with a pour spout, add 3 cups milk. Set milk and a silicon (heatproof) spatula next to the stovetop.

3. WHISK egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the milk in a medium bowl, until well combined. Set aside.

4. WHISK cornstarch with 1/4 cup of the milk in a small bowl, until smooth. Set aside.

Maldon sea salt has pyramid-shaped crystals. Photo courtesy Maldon Salt Co.

5. MAKE the caramel: In a stainless steel (or light colored) 3-quart saucepan, add the sugar and set over medium heat. Swirl the pan as the sugar begins to melt. Use the silicon spatula to move the sugar from side to side as necessary to help it melt and caramelize evenly. When the sugar melts entirely and is a medium-dark caramel color, promptly remove from the heat.

6. STAND back and carefully stir in the remaining milk. The mixture will boil and sputter furiously. The caramel may seize into a solid sugary mass. If so, when the mixture stops sputtering, bring it to a simmer over medium heat while stirring to melt the seized caramel. Scrape the bottom and sides of the saucepan with the silicon spatula to make sure all seized caramel dissolves.

7. STIR, and then add the cornstarch mixture to the pan; stir to combine and bring the pudding to a very slow simmer. Simmer, stirring or whisking for 2 minutes to thicken. Decrease heat to medium-low so that pudding is no longer simmering.

9. RAISE the heat slightly and continue stirring the pudding until it thickens to the point that it thickly coats the back of the spatula, 2-4 minutes. Don’t boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, vanilla, and salt until the butter is melted.

10. IMMEDIATELY POUR the pudding through a single mesh strainer into a medium mixing bowl or 4-cup glass measuring cup. Alternatively, you can pour pudding directly into six (or fewer if you want larger servings) 1/2-cup serving dishes. Quickly press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming.

11. COOL, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours. To serve, spoon pudding into six, 1/2-cup ramekins (if you didn’t do this earlier). Top each serving with a generous mound of whipped cream and sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs. Drizzle with optional caramel sauce. Serve immediately.
  

The Better Chip, makers of inspired corn chips in Beets, Chipotle, traditional Corn, Jalapenos, Spinach & Kale, sent us some equally inspired nacho recipes for the World Cup.

Using popular ingredients from the teams’ home cuisines, the international nacho menu includes:

 
And if you can get hold of international beers to pair with them, have fun with it!

Discover more about The Better Chip on the company website.

We’re such a crab cake fan that we almost never pass them by when we find them on a menu.

You can make crab cakes from scratch for this recipe, but we had a “doggie bag” crab cake from a restaurant dinner. Rather than reheat it, we adapted this recipe from Genji:

Ingredients

1. CREATE a bed of greens on a plate. Place the crab cake in the center.

2. ADD the other ingredients in “rays” around the crab cake (like rays of sunlight around the sun).

3. GARNISH as desired. Serve with dressing on the side.
 
Suggested beverage: iced green jasmine tea.

 
Variations

We recently wandered into City Sandwich, a New York City sub shop with a different perspective: top-quality ingredients sandwiched without any mayonnaise or fatty sauces.

Chef Michael Guerrieri, who was born in Naples, raised in New York and cooked in Lisbon, has created a menu of Italian-Portuguese fusion sandwiches. He swapped the mayo for yogurt sauces and a splash of olive oil, and traded conventional submarine rolls for those from a Portuguese bakery, working with the baker to perfect the consistency of the bread.

His menu of sandwich is named for friends and family, suggesting an idea for a sandwich-making party at home. Lay out the ingredients, let everyone design his or her own sandwich, and email the results and ingredients to all participants.

Here’s a sampling of the menu at City Sandwich—a long list with choices among eggs, meats, raw food, vegetarian and vegan ingredients—clearly a different mix inside the sub. But we wanted to eat everything, and even after cuts, the list is:

 
If the choice seems overwhelming: It is!

There are also 12 different egg sandwiches, and seasonal specialties. Check out the menu on the website.

You need to study the menu and make choices before showing up to order.

 
*Alheira is a Portuguese sausage made with meats other than pork (usually veal, duck, chicken, quail or rabbit) and bread; linguiça is a smoke-cured pork sausage seasoned with garlic and paprika; morcela is a traditional Portuguese and Brazilian black sausage; paio is a smoked Portuguese and Brazilian sausage made of pork loin, garlic, bell pepper and salt.