Jerk Shrimp with a Zingy Salad

Summer is winding down, but it's still warm enough that sometimes dinner just needs to be a light salad. Then again, there's a cool breeze a-blowin' so you need something to punch it up a bit. This is a salad with a whole host of strong flavors jostling together. Somehow, they end up not in battle with each other, but complementing each other. As if the knights decided to let themselves each win the rose in turn.

Summer Pesto

You know those days when you're hungry and tired and even sauteing up a few veggies for dinner sounds like the most onerous task imaginable? Living in this city means that we have a world of cuisines just at our fingertips - a few clicks on Seamless, and voila, 30 minutes later a yummy hot meal is at your door. Unfortunately, those yummy hot meals are also more often than not just a slick too greasy and just a lick too salty to be healthy. So for those nights, it's nice to have a home cooked healthy meal on hand for which all you need to do is to boil a pot of water. Enter home made pesto! Full of nutritious greens with a generous helping of mint and basil to give it a fresh zing, and a scattering of cashew nuts to add a buttery richness.

Sugar Kiss Melon Salad

Inspired by TheKitchn's post on adding melons to salad (and having, conveniently, a yummy half of a sugar kiss melon on hand) I thought I'd try out a melon salad myself. I was going to just pick up some spicy arugula to go with it, but at the grocery store I saw some bouncy mint and basil, and thought I'd like a little extra zing to the simple salad.