My mom's summer salad has been winning hearts and minds (and a contest!) for a few decades.Jessica Webster | AnnArbor.com The summers of my childhood were filled with good food: ice cream topped with just-picked strawberries; corn on the cob, bought from the farm stand up the road, dripping with butter; expertly grilled shish kabob with perfectly marinated beef alternating with wedges of onion, tomato and sweet pepper. One dish, though, that was a staple of our summer dishes that I stubbornly refused to eat was my mother's summer bean salad.