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Hi Reader,

I've been enjoying the weather and fun of seeing the garden produce veggies and flowers. Right now I'm still enjoying watering in the mornings (ha! You know that won't last...) and we're almost done with all the "have-to" yard projects (I have one more pestering area to weed and protect from the deer).

So, yeah - early summer.💜

Since summer is on my mind, I thought I'd share with you some of my site's most popular summer season recipes. I took a look at last summer's top recipes to make two lists - one of top preserving recipes and one of best easy meal (or in one case, meal topping) recipes.

I hope these lists help you as the summer progresses to find things to make for meals and use up the season's produce goodies!

Most Popular Easy Summer Meals

• ​Creamy Pesto Pasta - Obviously because it's so quick and easy to add veggies and grilled meat to! You can have Mediterranean flavors by using this pesto pasta recipe.
• ​Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (While not a meal, super popular in the summer for topping any type of lettuce wrap or grain bowl!)
• ​Easy Grilled Veggies - This is how to make wonderful vegetables on a gas or charcoal grill (we now have a Blackstone, so I should update this with the technique for that!).
• ​Make-Ahead Chicken Foil Dinner - Perfect for camping or grilling at home when you need the meal prepped and ready. I also love these Lemon-Fish-Green-Beans packets.
• ​Easy Zucchini Meatballs - serve them right away or make a big batch and freeze these for later (just one more way to freeze zucchini that you'll actually use!).

Most Popular Summer Preserving Recipes

• ​Best Thick Canned Salsa
• ​Copycat Rotel
• ​Pizza Sauce
• ​Garlic Pickled Beans
• ​Fridge Garlic Dill Pickles (they last more than a year in the fridge and stay crisp!)

Grill Basket

We used this grill basket a few times a week to grill whatever veggies were coming in from the garden during the summer when we had a gas grill. They were the BEST this way - perfectly done and still with a bit of charring.

We now use a Blackstone griddle so don't need a basket, but if you have a gas or charcoal grill, a basket is the only way to get veggies cooked in smaller pieces like I show in my recipe.

From The Blog

​Simple & Quick Spicy Peanut Sauce​ When I have this in the fridge, I drizzle it on everything! Really good on grilled chicken salad bowls and anything with noodles. ​ RECIPE HERE! ​

​THE Addictive Tomato Chutney​ I've updated this classic recipe (it's been on the site since 2009!) with a better tutorial, FAQs, and bigger photos. It's one of my most popular recipes of all time.💜 ​ RECIPE HERE! ​

A Few More Things

Something to watch and to read:

• ​Penguin Bloom on Netflix: this 2021 movie was suggested for us and it was a good pick! It's about a family tragedy and how an orphaned magpie helped them heal and come together again (the kids named the bird "penguin" because it was black and white 😂). It wasn't just heartwarming, but also thoughtful and deep - we were talking about it days afterwards!
• ​Same Time Next Summer, Annabel Monaghan: I listened to this book while gardening and it was a perfect "beach read" kind of book that also hit on some hard things and life transitions. The heroine was a bit clueless (I guessed the success of her first boyfriend right away and she seemed to miss the many, many clues 😂), but it was still a fun book to pass the time.

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I'd love to know what you've been watching or reading - hit reply and let me know! Have a wonderful week!

PS- Remember to tag me on Instagram so I can see what you're making!

Remember it's easy to save recipes on An Oregon Cottage! Just click the heart when browsing to save your personal favorites! TIP: when you click on the link, it will take you to my site - click the heart like you see here to the left - it will be on the bottom right on the site. A pop up form will come up for you to create an account (or sign in if you already have). You need to create a password for this account (no info is kept besides your email) and then you can save all recipes and articles to this account and access it anytime to remember what you want and choose what to make!

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