For the summer holidays, we frequently get together with a number of family friends at a local lake. As part of the tradition, everyone will typically bring a dish or two to share. One that we've been bringing recently is our homemade tomato corn salad.

It was originally created as something healthy for our family to eat that wasn't your typically lettuce-based salad. It continues to evolve based on the seasons, and what's at hand, but this is the broad outline:

Vegetables
2 1/2 pounds grape tomatoes, halved
2 cups corn kernels (frozen, or sliced off the cob)
6 cloves garlic, minced (approx. 2 tablespoons)
15 1/2 oz. chickpeas
2 tbsp capers
8 oz. black olives, sliced
2 c cilantro or parsley, minced (approx. 1 bunch)
1/3 c fresh basil, chiffonade (fine sliced)

Dressing
1 t marjoram, ground
1 t oregano, ground
2 t basil, ground
1 t kosher salt
1 t mustard powder
1 tbsp horseradish mustard
1 t smoked paprika
1 t chile coban
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp stevia

Directions

1. Combine vegetables.

2. Combine all dry spices in a separate bowl. Add oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and mustard. Whisk thoroughly to make a thick dressing.

3. Toss dressing with salad. Chill.

It's been a while since I've worked seriously on pizza. Although we make it at home most Fridays, we typically use the same dough and premade sauce. We like them, but it's more pizza assembly than cooking.

With the beginning of CSA season, farmers markets, and fresh ingredients, the bug to get more adventurous in the kitchen has struck again.

So after poking around online for some ideas, and reviving some theories I'd been ruminating on, I think we had our best from-scratch pizza yet (Kate seconds that!).

This is more an outline than a recipe, but should help me find the way back as I continue to refine.

Dough - mixed in bread machine using Canadian breadbook recipe (1.5x batch size, no additions but Benefiber). Allow to slow ferment for 2-3 hours.

Thoughts: come out slightly wet (easily solved in shaping). Try to hunt down Peter Reinhart's book on Pizza for the overnight dough recipe.

Sauce - 1 can of San Marzano tomatoes. Pull out tomatoes, crush by hand in glass bowl, drain off excess water. Drain water off packing puree (from can), and add as needed to thicken crushed tomatoes. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a little ground fennel, and ground oregano to taste. Do not cook.

Assembly - stretch dough to thin rounds (2x 300g pizza's plus one 300g cheesy bread). Spread sauce (keep thin). Add with fresh mushrooms, chicken, and/or thin tomato slices. Top with thin slices of fresh mozzarella (torn to approximately 1.5" squares). Sprinkle with dried oregano.

Place in oven on stones (preheated to 500 degrees) for 5 minutes. finish last minute under broiler.

Upon removal from over immediately sprinkle with fresh basil (chiffonade), olive oil (good extra virgin with flavor), kosher salt, and grated Parmesan Reggiano.

Enjoy!

Last week Josh Winn and I were at InfoComm09 launching a sister company to In The Round called LiquidPixel Group.

Josh, also a bit of a foodie, and I have an intermittent quest on these trips to find the ultimate BBQ.

To date, our local favorite is Bubba's Q (http://www.bubbasq.com/) in Avon, OH (discovered on a church sound system install job).

InfoComm09, however, was in Olando, and it takes an extra effort to find good food (BBQ or otherwise). The landscape is littered with chains and tourist traps (all-you-can-eat steak for $9.99!).

However, with a little searching, and asking the right people (concierge's aren't always a guaranteed win - some really know their food, some are just trying to shuffle the tourists through) there are some gems to be found.

On our last night this past trip, we stumbled across a serious BBQ contender that we had discovered several years ago, but couldn't remember its location.

How do you know it's a contender? A few good indications.... 1) away from the tourist area, 2) looks more like a fishing shack than a restaurant, 2)picnic tables for seating, 3)make their own sauce (a requirement!), 4) crazy name.

Anyway, after a long week at 10pm at night we found the place just as they were closing and ordered two full slabs. So who are these mystery BBQ masters? Bubbalou's Bodacious BBQ (http://www.bubbalous.com).

Does it beat Bubba's? It's very close -- we may have to go back to Bubba's for further taste testing to know for sure!