Ask the Readers By Carla Slavey
What are your favorite summer foods?
On a hot, muggy summer day, there are a few foods we can count on to round out the perfect meal. Salad, for one. That’ s salad in either its potato or pasta forms, anyway.
Those two items were some of the reoccurring answers to this month’ s SEKL readers poll question: What is your favorite summertime food?
The problem with summer, however, is that the weather means outdoor fun is on the schedule: Swimming in the lake, hiking or camping with friends, or taking a trip to the beach.
That is the best excuse we could come up with here at the magazine for the fact that very few people actually answered our Facebook poll question this month. Everyone was out having fun, rather than staying glued to their social media.
And that’ s perfectly fair. I, too, would rather be relaxing by a pool and sipping on a strawberry smoothie than helping to put together a magazine.
Of those who did respond to our poll question, three listed pasta salad as one of their go-to foods, while one listed potato salad.
So, what are my favorite foods? As stated above, I have developed a taste for chilled strawberry drinks. That includes the aforementioned smoothie, but I’ m not against milk shakes or, on the rare occasion, a frozen strawberry daiquiri.
Summertime treats – homemade ice cream, veggies straight from the garden, or even an outdoor grilled hamburger – can take us back to a specific time and place. We can remember those Fourth of July cookouts where the smell of hot dogs eventually gives way to the smell of the burning powder from bottle rockets and sparklers. Or, maybe getting a bite from a tomato straight from the vine takes you back to the days of canning veggies with your grandmother, and – if you were unlucky – sitting on the porch stringing all those buckets of beans that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
The point is, summer has a specific flavor, one that can be as smoky as a BBQ sandwich or as cold as the brain freeze one gets from a freezer pop.
So get out there and taste everything that summer has to offer. Before you know it, those cold winter winds will be back, and you’ ll be longing for the days where you were so busy enjoying the sun that you could ignore those pesky internet polls( said with affection, of course).
Betty Caudill:“ Ice cold watermelon on a hot day, some spaghetti pasta salad on the picnic with lots fresh veggies in Italian dressing, nothing like flavor ice popsicles,( and) a day at the lake.”
Jill Roy:“ Pasta Salad is a favorite of mine. Also a plate of double chocolate brownies.”
Richard Butler:“ Pasta salad.”
Tina Ball Campbell:“ Potato salad, coleslaw and watermelon.”
28 • SEKY- Southeast Kentucky Life JULY 2025 28 • SEKY- Southeast Kentucky Life JULY 2025