30 Aug 2011 8 Comments
in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: barbecue, BBQ, Beach Boys, Ecclesiastes, figs, pink wine, proseco, rib eye, rosé, summer
Culinarily speaking, summertime is a feminine season. Sure, the dudes are out by the grill — sucking beer, flipping burgers and talking pre-season football. But it is the salads, the lightly seared skinless chicken breast pailliards, the peaches and the pink wines that prevail.
Pink wine and figs
I sit here drinking my pink wine and looking at a bowl of figs, feeling emasculated. By late August, I’m wondering where is the cold weather and a long-braised leg of some animal? More
26 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
in Recipes, Video Tags: guanciale, Italian cooking, Italy, Mark Taylor, mozzarella, recipes, summer, tomatoes, zucchini, zucchini blossoms
We stopped by our friend Heather’s house the other evening for a visit. On the counter were two enormous zucchini.
“Did someone leave those on your porch?” I asked.
“My client gave them to me,” she replied.
How generous of them, I thought to myself.
“They’re too big to eat, right?”
“Well,” I pondered, “you could make a parmagiana kind of thing with them. I’ve got a good recipe for Greek zucchini balls. But those would make about 400.”
Zucchini blossoms
I’m always wary of the food-giving generosity of friends, neighbors, loved ones, strangers and clients. More
26 Jul 2011 10 Comments
in Recipes, Sensational Salads Tags: Cruise America, gazpacho, proscuitto, recipes, salad, scallops, summer, tequila, watermelon
One of the best and worst parts of summer is the watermelon. Sure, everyone loves watermelon, and nothing says summer like a cold, sweet slice on a hot afternoon. That’s the good part. The bad part is that even the “mini” ones are larger than a child’s head. And the big ones are the melon equivalent of a Cruise America RV.
By some point into the summer — usually early to mid July — I begin suffering from watermelon fatigue. My kids insist on watermelon, so I buy the smallest one I can find. And then people begin showing up with them. More
01 Jul 2011 3 Comments
in Recipes Tags: broccoli, estate, Italy, pancetta, pasta, penne, primavera, summer, sun gold tomatoes, tomatoes
Sometimes I’m pressed for time and have to come up with a meal quick. And often, without the leisure to peer at my fridge or sit around thinking about the possibilities, I make the best food. This is one such dish, breathtaking in its simplicity.
Penne l'estate with glass of rosé
27 Sep 2010 12 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Video Tags: chevre, figs, fruit, pancetta, summer
People, I find, either love figs or hate them. Mostly it’s less about the food than the tree. If you love figs and you have a fig tree, you are thrilled every late summer when the branches are nearly exploding with ripe fruit. If you hate figs, you despair as the ground of your garden or driveway are littered with gooey, sticky, fly-covered fruit. Others have fig trees and are merely agnostic about them. “Oh, yeah… it’s a nice tree. But we never eat the figs. No idea what to do with them.”
Eat them, my friends, eat them.
My friends with fig trees are never surprised when they invite us over in the late summer and find me clinging simian-like amidst the high branches of a tree or scaling a wall. Some of them look at me skeptically and ask what on earth I’m going to do with the fruits — fig haters, they. Here’s what I teach them:
I dreamed of having my own fig tree. Last week, we had a surveyor out. We’d always thought our property extended beyond the fence but weren’t sure. I was walking the additional half acre or so we’d picked up in the process with him, and he pointed to a tree. “Well, that’s a strange looking tree!” I looked over, and there hidden among the oaks, a beautiful tall fig tree, reaching its limbs to clear the canopy. Right on the far corner of my own property! So maybe next summer, if you’re lucky, you won’t find me lurking in your yard and scaling your wall…
skinny girls & mayonnaise 