9 Delicious Summertime Foods ...

Watermelon is without a double one of the most delicious summertime foods you can eat. This juicy, vibrant, colorful fruit is like the epitome of summer. I can't remember a single summer where I didn't spend at least one day/night gorging on watermelon with my friends and family. My mom likes to eat it with salt, the Better Half likes to fill a huge punch bowl full of the stuff, and I like to spit the seeds at targets. Regardless of how you eat it, just ingesting it is like swallowing a little bit of summertime heaven!

I'm actually using barbeque as a catch all term here, because there are so many things you can throw on the grill, you know? To me, it's not summer if there aren't some days where all I eat are grilled hotdogs and hamburgers. You can actually make barbeque as well, in the shape of barbequed beef or pork or chicken. However, if it ain't sizzlin on the grill, dahlin, I just don't want it.

As grateful as I am that you can buy frozen corn on the cob all year round, I am always more grateful for summer. Those stacks and stacks of fresh corn you find in the grocery store or produce stands are gorgeous to me. Pyramid after pyramid of tasty, sweet-kernel sunshine – what could be better? There's nothing like tearing off the husks yourself, wrapping the ears in tinfoil, and throwing them on the grill. Did you ever notice that, if you get a little char on there, it tastes like popcorn?

There are other delicious summertime foods that are available all year round, but still taste better when they pop up during the summer months. Ices – icees, water ice, whatever you call them – are just one of those items. The ones I'm talking about are sort of like a lemonade slush, where the vendors scoop them out of a huge mixture consisting of water, shaved ice, lemon wedges (and their juice), and sugar. They're so refreshing on hot days!

Of course, it's never summer if you don't have ice cream. Yeah, ice cream's available all the time, too – but soft serve towering in a cone is my favorite. I've also been known to chase down the local ice cream truck, so I can enjoy all the flavors of my youth. You know those banana/chocolate rockets? Heaven!

When I was a little girl in West Virginia, our property was surrounded by wild blackberry bushes. Some of my fondest memories involve picking bucketfuls with my mom and dad – and eating every second handful or so. Summer is a great time for fresh wild berries, like blackberries, raspberries, and wild strawberries. They never taste better than they do in the heart of summer.

Again, yeah, you can get salad any old time you want to, but somehow it just tastes better in the summertime. You can get all kinds of in-season vegetables – and fruits, if you like – to put in it. When you have it alongside some tasty barbeque, it's just phenomenal.

One of the most popular, delicious summertime foods is steak. When you throw it on the grill, you know just by hearing the sizzle that it's going to taste delicious. Charred on the outside and rare on the inside is the way I like it, and I never enjoy it more than when it's cooked on the grill in the middle of July.

I long for summer so I can get squash. I love zucchini too, but squash is my favorite, and it too is never tastier than it is in the summertime. Plus, it's such an innately happy vegetable, as brightly yellow as the sun, that you just have to feel good when you eat it.

I can't wait to cookout, and to peruse fresh produce markets to see what scrumptious fruits and vegetables I can find. There are so many delicious summertime foods that I'm just grateful the season is also conducive to staying active and getting exercise! What kinds of yummy foods are you looking forward to enjoying this summer?

Top Photo Credit: TheBusyBrain