By Michelle Beck

Summer fruit season is finally beginning! We are picking more boysenberries every day, but our apricots, which are a later variety, remain stubbornly green. Apriums and early varieties of apricots are in season, however, so we have had plenty of delicious fruit in the house.

Apriums

An aprium is a cross between an apricot and a plum, with the apricot predominating. They look very much like apricots, but they have a firmer texture and a slightly plummy flavor. Apriums are wonderful raw, of course, and make good jam. Just use the Sure-Jell in the pink box and follow the directions for apricot jam found inside the box. Apriums can be used in any recipe calling for apricots. Apricots are probably my favorite fruit, but I don’t love the early varieties, so I will write more about them in a few weeks.

Memorial Day barbecue

This weekend is Memorial Day, and in addition to honoring our fallen military members, many people host barbecues. It’s usually very hot on Memorial Day, but it’s hard to say with this crazy spring weather we’ve had!

If you plan to serve hamburgers, I would encourage you at the very least not to buy frozen, pre-formed burgers. If you haven’t tried it yet, check out the grass-fed beef from Springville Ranch sold at the Bakersfield Farmers’ Market (8 a.m. to noon Saturdays, 3201 F St.). Other choices would be buying high-quality hamburger or grinding your own. I’ll be discussing more meat sources in a future column.

Many vegetarian burger options exist including Sunshine Burgers, which are sunflower-based and contain no wheat or soy, so they are perfect for those who have allergies. Lassen’s carries these and many other brands in their freezer section. Other veggie burgers can be found at most grocery stores. Be sure to read the ingredient list, though. As veggie burgers have become more popular, some highly-processed brands have entered the market. Just because a box is marked “veggie burger” doesn’t mean the contents are necessarily healthy.

Veggie burgers are also easy to make. A couple of choices are these black bean burgers or these spicy lentil-walnut burgers.

Different kinds of cheese are great on burgers, from provolone to sharp cheddar to pepper jack. Trader Joe’s has a new cheese called granite cheese. It is a mix of blue and jack cheese, and comes pre-sliced.

Many bun options exist, but if you have never tried hamburger rolls from our local Pyranees Bakery, you are missing out.

For a fun, spicy take on ketchup, try Melinda’s jalapeno ketchup. It is all-natural and contains no high-fructose corn syrup.

Hot dogs are another traditional, if not-so-healthy, barbecue favorite. Trader Joe’s carries nitrate-free hot dogs, but according to this report from Consumer Reports, they may be no better than regular ones. Kosher hot dogs may be marginally better, according to this information from Hebrew National. It basically boils down to this: hot dogs are not good for you, and a trip to the hot dog factory would probably turn you away from them forever, but a very occasional one is probably not the end of the world.

Potato Salad

A barbecue is not a barbecue without a good homemade potato salad. I think store-bought potato salad is vile, but this traditional potato salad from Cook’s Illustrated is excellent. My mom always put black olives in her potato salad, and we will find any reason to use them, so when I made it, I omitted the relish and added finely chopped dill pickle and sliced black olives.

Another variation is this recipe, which uses sour cream, scallions (green onions) and bacon, which as we all know, makes everything better.

This  French-style potato salad uses new potatoes, no mayonnaise and a lemon vinaigrette.

Coleslaw

Watery, bland, store-bought coleslaw goes beyond mere vileness and attains the level of Crime Against Humanity. With the easy availability of coleslaw mix, there is no reason not to toss together a quick, homemade coleslaw.

For a easy, traditional coleslaw, try this recipe or this creamy coleslaw from Bobby Flay of the Food Network.

This  Texas coleslaw uses onions, peppers and a vinaigrette instead of a mayo-based dressing.

We love this peanut broccoli slaw recipe from Trader Joe’s.

This iceberg slaw uses crunchy iceberg lettuce in a buttermilk-yogurt dressing.

Fruit Salad

With all of the great fruit available right now, a fruit salad is a welcome addition to a barbecue.

Here is a recipe for mango-blueberry and ginger fruit salad, and here is one for summer fruit salad with mint sugar.

Dessert

For dessert, cherries and berries or strawberries are delicious in a variety of recipes. I tried the Gluten-Free Pantry’s Crisp and Crumble Mix over my boysenberries, and it was great. Cone’s carries it, which is convenient if you are going to Trader Joe’s. If it ever warms up, ice cream is also a welcome dessert.

You can make homemade ice cream, and either make it part of a sundae bar, or sandwich it between two of your favorite cookies.

Mud pie is also a favorite choice. Be sure to use a high-quality ice cream without a bunch of unpronounceable ingredients. It really does taste better.

Sour cream-lemon icebox pie is another cool, tart dessert choice.

Freezing strawberries

I tried something new to freeze strawberries this year. Smoothies are a popular breakfast and snack choice at my house, and strawberries are a favorite ingredient. I bought some silicone baking cups a while back. I don’t bake with them; I bought them to use as small containers for dip and other food to make things more interesting for the small fry of the house. They are very flexible, so I put the cups in my muffin pan, then washed, rinsed and sliced strawberries. I filled the cups with the strawberries and froze them. Since the silicone is flexible, it was easy to pop out the strawberry clusters, and they are the perfect size to fit in our little blender.  I store the strawberry clusters in a zippered plastic bag in the freezer. This local strawberry stand will be open a little longer, but if you want to freeze strawberries, don’t delay.

A quick word about smoothies

Smoothies are thought of as a healthy treat, and they can be when they contain traditional smoothie ingredients like yogurt and fruit. When items such as ice cream and chocolate syrup enter the blender, however, what you have is no longer a smoothie but a milkshake. Places like Jamba Juice have delicious drinks, but be sure to check the ingredients and calorie count. Some of these “healthy” treats are really desserts. The healthiest choice is using plain yogurt and fruit, but flavored, sweetened yogurt without high-fructose corn syrup is also a reasonable choice.