About a year ago, we spent an eventful week in the great state of Massachusetts, during which a lot of delicious food was eaten. Nothing more delicious than our meal at Oleana in Cambridge. It remains one of the best restaurant experiences of my life. It was one of those meals where everything kind of collides to make it special—we were on vacation, it was a perfect summer night, and we were seated outdoors. An outstanding parade of dishes came and went from our table and we enjoyed each dish more than the one before. It was all very special. One of the best things we ate was a smoky eggplant puree, and I recently remembered that the recipe was included in Ana Sortun’s cookbook. Why did I wait so long to try it at home?! I made it for the same dinner as the marinated mozzarella. The eggplant was almost as delicious as I remember it being at Oleana—if only we were on vacation! read more+++

Marion Cunningham died last week. Not the mom from Happy Days, but the food writer. Some of you think that is obvious but, trust me, most people think of the mom.

Marion Cunningham may have been my favorite food writer. Not that a title needs to be awarded in that category, I love so many.  But I usually say, when asked, that The Breakfast Book is my favorite cookbook. It is true, though it could not be more different from the other contenders. It is simple and understated, focused on one meal, no fancy photos, just a few simple drawings. Still, it is the one I return to most often and relate to the easiest. Cunningham’s voice was strong and encouraging and I like cozying up to her books. read more+++

Last week Chicago experienced record heat. It is certainly the hottest I remember this city which is more famous for its extreme cold than sweltering temperatures. In the middle of the heatwave, my oven broke. I know, I should not be using my oven in a heatwave—but the 4th of July requires cake! I managed to get the cake baked, but it wasn’t easy. All I could think about was heat—both a lack of it, and an overabundance.

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It is 103°F in Chicago, we’ve had power outages and my oven broke a few days ago. I don’t know what to do about the oven, or the heat, so I am taking a break from my kitchen. We just keep making gazpacho, which I don’t consider cooking, and watching movies.

But the heat hasn’t stopped me from reading cookbooks. read more+++

This is one of those recipes that I have been making for years, but never got around to writing about. I first made it a few years ago when Bryan was out of town. I have not been forgiven. Blueberries are Bryan’s favorite and when we saw this recipe on an episode of America’s Test Kitchen, he wanted it badly. I don’t know why I waited until he was out of town to make it—must have been blueberry season. Now, whenever I make this cake he has some snarky comment like, “Oh, you’re gonna make that? Should I go out of town?” I love him.

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The other day at lunch, my friend Anna was telling me about someone she knew who roasted his own coffee beans at home. I made a joke about how ridiculous that was and then remembered that I had a vat of quinine syrup brewing in my fridge—who am I to judge? read more+++

When life gives you mangoes, make mango sorbet.

That’s what I did a few weeks ago when the hype-person for Mangoes (these jobs!) sent me a box of them in the mail. In terms of things you can find waiting near your front door after work, it was pretty good. I haven’t worked much with mangoes. I eat them, occasionally. The “tropical” fruits remain a little bit of a mystery to me. They are never local, here in Chicago, and every time I buy one I feel slight guilt and confusion. Do they have a season? Are there better times to eat them? I only buy them in winter, when there is no local fruit of any kind.

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I spend a lot of time waiting for spring, and feeling excited about the food that will be available in our markets. But when warm weather finally gets here I find myself wanting to sit in a park or  hang out with friends and my kitchen becomes a bit of a ghost town, at least for the first few weeks of spring. The food I do make is simple and not worth sharing here—a basket of strawberries, a salad. It takes a while to find balance in this new season and to resume taking the outdoors for granted.

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These beauties were paired with the rhubarb fool and make a most excellent spoon for scooping up the cream and jam. Brandy snaps are another popular British sweet that doesn’t appear very often on American menus. They’re lovely and often filled with a cream, like tiny delicate cannoli.

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This is probably an odd pick of recipe from April Bloomfield’s beautiful cookbook, A Girl and Her Pig. The young British chef has made a name for herself cooking with animals and all forms of fat. Those recipes looked great, but I got stuck on this one for a fool (like a fool?). For anyone who doesn’t know what a fool is, (insert joke about you being a fool—somebody stop me!) it is a decidedly British treat of fruit and cream. It is about as simple and satisfying as a dessert gets and good for everyone to have in their bag of tricks. There are so many awesome flavor possibilities, but here we are at the start of the growing season and the first “fruit” out of the gate is rhubarb.

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