what happens when it’s too hot to actually cook

Today it is too hot to do very much.  After working with children all morning, I had an amazing burger from a little stand in town–local meat, cheese, homemade pickles, and a good slice of tomato on a portuguese bun…yes please–and have since been trying my hardest to remain motionless by several fans in a room with the shades drawn.  Luckily the work I needed to do this afternoon involved only a computer.  And since I finished that, I’ve decided to make a summer list.  It’s a trend in blogs right now (see here, for example), and I like to stay with the times.

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Things to do (and by “do” I probably mean “eat”) this summer:

peach cake with whipped cream

korean bbq including homemade pork buns

blueberries

make mozzerella

mint juleps

swim/canoe/boat in the west river or elsewhere

tomatoes in abundance, especially sun golds hot from the garden

banh mi (from this recipe)

contra dance

pie and lots of it

bacon-fused hot dog/pineapple wonders (thank you for inspiration, fourth of july and chris)

make pickles

make jam

potato salad (possibly this?)

fresh sweet corn on the cob, skip the butter, then leftover corn, off the cob, with big fat slices of juicy tomato

home squeezed lemonade

saturday farmer’s market (better yet, beat the crowd and get there by 10am)

walpole creamery ice cream

update this blog more

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Alright.  Time to get to work…

Aaaaand it’s July!

Bam!
Oh, hello July, where’d you come from?  (Obviously I’m really bad at blogging.)  So…camera still not uploading photos to computer = still no photos on the blog, however, I do have this to say:

Hot dog, fused with pineapple, using bacon.

Happy fourth of July (a day late).

The Sourdough Experiment

I have to preface this by saying that my camera is currently on bedrest and I’ll supply pics shortly.  In the meantime, enjoy my wordsmithship.

So, it’s summer again (what? when did that happen?) and I’ve pulled an old favorite, HomeBaking, off the shelf again.  Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford wrote this cookbook posing as a coffee table book.  I became obsessed originally solely because of the gorgeous full-page full-color photographs.  This is definitely one of those read-front-to-back kinda cookbooks.  For me, anyway. I realize that’s a pretty nerdy admission but there you have it.  But the book is freaking huge and therefore couldn’t travel to London with me, so it’s been shelved since last summer.

After dusting it off a few weeks ago I made the chocolate chip cranberry sweet buns when more than lived up to my expectations.  Then I totally wrecked havoc on the easy cheese and bean rounds, but the ones I made were pretty delish, nonetheless.  Naomi and Jeffrey have been disappointing me a little bit, though.  I finally got down to bread baking, and I opted to make a poolish for the ciabatta recipe.  And what can I say? The end result was “eh”.  I didn’t even mess with the recipe!  (I think).  I saved some of the poolish as they instruct, and have been treating it like a starter.  Today I made sourdough pancakes– pretty excellent flavor, but too dense for a pancake.  They don’t come anywhere near my favorite SDpancake recipe from King Arthor.  Alas, alack.

I’ve also started an experiment.  Recipe-less sourdough bread.  I think it may have too much salt.  It’s supposedly rising right now, so the judges are still out on how bad an idea that was.  I’ll keep you posted.

sidetracked…?

With all the fresh mint taking over the newly growing world there is but one solution: The VerMint Julep.
Crushed ice.
Fresh mint.
Bourbon.
Maple Syrup.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Strike!

For now, I will eat only vegetables. They are too good to be ignored.
Also, LOOK at how pretty the salads are where I work…

(photo by liz)

in the meantime, this is how you make pound cake

Basically. But a little more complicated.

A Winter’s Tale

Outside, it is doing this. I spent a good long time with a 2×4 trying to free the lilacs of the crippling heavy snow.

Meanwhile, inside, friend Lizzie decided to whip up a batch of these.

Biscotti di regina are simple and delicious. They have very little no butter, but I like them anyway. The toasted sesame seeds alone would be enough to win me over, but when dipped in a cup of post-shovelling coffee they are divine. Thanks lizzie!