Spago House Dressing

By Andrew Hunter

This is salad season and we like to take full advantage of summer’s garden crops. Fresh summer vegetables are so delicious, they need an equally delicious dressing.

Our favorite is the house dressing at Spago, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, where the stars dine.

This time of year, when the temperatures are soaring, salads are always a welcome addition to the family table. We love to buy the season’s freshest veggies that we find at the market to make salads like the recipe in our Farmer’s Market Tour post.

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Ratatouille – a Provençal Taste of Summer

By Sandy Hu

In the summer, I dream of Provence – the dry-hot heat, cicadas thrumming, fields of sunflowers and lavender, and farmers’ markets filled to bursting with fresh produce of the region. One day, I want to rent a little house in the country and spend a few weeks reading, puttering about, shopping with my straw basket on market days and cooking leisurely meals while I sip delicious Provençal rosés.

I was in a Provençal state of mind, when I invited my Twitter friend from Hawaii to dinner last Wednesday night. So I made a simple meal starting with tapenade and crostini. Steve grilled a butterflied leg of lamb marinated in olive oil and garlic. And to complete the menu, I roasted some new potatoes, made ratatouille and baked lemon tart for dessert.

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