For the last three months, my husband and I have been living without a kitchen. While our house renovation is slowly nearing completion, we have been cooking with only a microwave, a toaster, and a crock-pot. At first, we were very creative with our lunches and dinners, finding imaginative ways to bring together semi-homemade dishes. Unfortunately, our renovation has gone on for entirely too long, we’ve grown weary of our makeshift kitchen, and our meals have become a lackluster expression of our previous meals.

Our recent lack of culinary creativity has caused a positive change, however; we have been relying heavily on fresh foods to make quick meals. We pick fresh produce from our garden, purchase more farmers’ market fare, and eat fruits and vegetables barely dressed and tasting as fresh as summer. Fresh fruits and vegetables are not only one of the best things about summer, but they are refreshing, crisp, nutritious, and require no gourmet trickery to bring out the flavor (or added extra fat and calories!). We have been tossing together fresh greens with fruit, nuts, and cheese. Yogurt has been a breakfast and snack staple with fresh fruit and a dash of honey. We have also been enjoying grilled dinner with friends, bringing veggie skewers for dinner and enticing fruit skewers for dessert. Delicious!

At the center of our refreshing fare has been the humble pear; this fruit has the versatile, delicious ability to fit into any fresh meal. Whether alone or with other fresh fruit, try a pear in a salad, on the grill, or fresh out of hand for a refreshing treat!