Ginger Lime Chicken and the Past Days of Summer

Say it ain't so, the last days of summer are upon us. *Can we have a collective a moment of silence in observance of the passing of this cherished season.* Dear summer, I'm sure going to miss you, especially since I squandered most of the season of the sun literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off, toeing the line of sanity and reason, having little time rest nor blog. 'Till the next time we meet, I shall be waiting, and I'll be ready.

Anon.

As you would imagine, all things involving ginger and citrus=good summer eats. Throw in a copious amount of pestle-ground black pepper, as I am prone to do, and what you end up with is the start of something wonderful, and the perfect grilled chicken for a hot summer's day picnic the Reggae Wine Festival. 

Meatless Monday: Fire Roasted Corn Salad

S U M M E R T I M E

and the livin' is easy....

If only that were true. I love summer, but even if the livin' were easy, it would still most certainly be busy, almost to the point of absurdity, especially for a sun worshiper like me. You see, during late fall through early spring, I suffer from a mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as the I hate everyone and everything because the sun went down at 4:30pm and I have to walk home and then walk the poodle when it's 25 degrees outside not counting the windchill, it's too cold to anything fun and tomatoes are out of season, when the EFF is it going to be summer again?! blues.  Then, after I spend the better half of a year wishing for summer, it finally arrives, and before you can say sunscreen, I'm practically running around outside waving my hands over my head, shouting Ke$ha lyrics at strangers because THIS PLACE'S ABOUT TO BLOW-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH-OH  it's summer! During the 90 glorious days in which sunshine pours from the heavens in copious quantities, I make it my personal mission to eat, drink, laugh, splash, and frolic my way into summer bliss at any and every given opportunity. Yes, it's that serious.

So I decided that the epicurean-focused portion of my quest for summertime bliss could not and would not be complete without a fabulous picnic at the Reggae Wine Festival. That's right, reggae bands+wine+bougie picnic=Awesome. Naturally, I felt that my fabulous picnic spread would be nothing less than uncivilized without a fantastic summer salad, and thought it nothing less than divine intervention when I came across a video of Chef Marcus Samuelsson making a roasted corn salad, and then found the perfect recipe from Williams-Sonoma.