Figs and Flights is a blog all about food and travel. Hungry for more food content? Browse the recipes here. 

Summer is my favorite season for eating. I love the simple meals, seasonal flavors, and outdoor grilling and eating. Don't miss the popular summer recipes for cous cous salad with grilled halloumi cheese, watermelon cocktails, or cool watermelon and cucumber salad.

Summer is in full swing and I've jumped on the smoothie bowl trend. Yes, a smoothie in a bowl requires a spoon instead of a straw. The most substantial and delicious difference are the toppings. Get creative and use many! 

I've got THREE ways for you make your own smoothie bowl. Chose from 1. a chocolate banana açaí bowl, 2. a strawberry, peanut butter, and jelly bowl, or 3. a tropical pink pitaya bowl and enjoy a CHILL breakfast or snack on the next hot summer day.

I was just in my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA for a visit. One of our city's greatest culinary contributions are Pittsburgh Salads which are LOADED with toppings and french fries!

These salads are a full meal and include veggies, meat, cheese, garlic bread, fries, and anything else you'd like to add. The finishing touch comes from buffalo chicken, grilled steak or shrimp, or even sriracha tofu!

This quarantine life has me cooking so much more than usual.

It's also got me evaluating everything. What do I like? What don't I like? What do I need more of? What do I need less of? Which things make me really happy? 

In my ongoing effort to cook often and create foods that are fresh and flavorful I've rounded up the kitchen tools that make eating well easier. I've got a ton of gadgets and gismos and these are the best ones that I find myself using frequently. 

Maybe you've never had a fig. If you haven't and I handed you one you'd say: "I don't even know how to eat this!" 

Well here we are: I've made a whole list, complete with pictures, for how to eat figs. Your first fig should be fresh, right from the tree. You can eat it all, the skin and the inside, just not top of the stem. There's no seed inside. Just take a BIG OLE BITE. Then, once you're in love, use this list to get creative with your new favorite fruit. 
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I love figs, clearly, as I've named my blog in honor of them. It all started in the backyard of  my Pap Pap (that's Pittsburgh-speak for Grandfather) when I was a kid. He'd pull fresh figs right off of the tree and he'd let me eat as many as I wanted! The hard part, back then, was waiting for the figs to be in season. The hard part, still, is waiting for the figs to be in season! 

Pap sold that house when I was in second grade and went to the eternal fig tree in the sky when I was in college. Good news, though, I grew up and bought a house that came complete with a yard and a fig tree! I never feel my Pap's spirit more than when I'm back there picking figs and eating them without a care in the world (see photo of me IN the tree).

​Those of you who've been reading my blogs since the old days might remember my older blog and "The House with the Fig Tree" stories from when we'd just moved in to our house.

The first time I tried halloumi cheese was at a restaurant called Lola in downtown Seattle. I was there for brunch and ordered Halloumi Cheese Kebabs with Kalamata figs. I had no idea what halloumi was but I love cheese and it came with figs so I ordered it.  

The kebabs came and they looked crazy with squares of cheese that hadn't melted and dried figs all lined up on a skewer. I was worried about what I ordered. It almost looked like marshmallows and mushrooms! Alas it was a wonderful breakfast and I was amazed by this cheese that a) paired well with figs and b) didn't melt when cooked!

That began my love affair with halloumi cheese. Let's figure out just what in the world this odd cheese is and exactly how to cook and eat it.