Summer in the South, the heat, the humidity, is best dealt with by a cool slice of fresh watermelon.  The thwack of a big knife slicing into the thick rind and the slurp as it cuts through the flesh is up there on the list of summer sounds with crickets humming and the sprinkler whirring.  [...]

This is hardly a recipe, more like a set of instructions, but I wanted to share it before this long weekend of picnics and cookouts and gatherings, because it is so good and so simple and so perfect for this last official weekend of summer.  I first had this in South Africa several years ago, [...]

  Ah, summer in the South. It is hot as a skillet here, with temperatures topping the 102 degree mark. So there really is no option but to make as much iced tea as possible. For the only real solution to a southern summer (okay, besides air conditioning) is endless glasses of tea. This brew [...]