Cover photo partially redacted for your safety. Because horseradish, often, is Not Safe. Not for work. Not for polite company. And certainly not for expectant, insistent little pups who run counter-side as soon as they hear the clink-scrape of the carrot peeler.* Who knows whether it was squeamishness or unfamiliarity that put off our CSA…
Category: ate it up
consumed
This little piggy went to a party
Who takes Mexican cookies to a Lunar New Year party? That would be me. But these crisp, orange-scented, piggy biscuits are tough to resist. And in the Year of the Pig? That’s a free pass. I first had piggies from a storefront bakery in Pilsen (Chicago, not Czech Republic), right down 18th Street from The National…
Babycakes
This year’s “summer” CSA season is winding down—just three weeks left—and it’s been a rough one for farmers and gardeners in our neck of the woods. Stifling heat mid-summer, bookended by two of the wettest months on record (indeed, Philadelphia surpassed its annual average rainfall totals in just the first nine months of the year),…
Middle-Age Spread
This here Yankee was well into her forties before she tried Pimento Cheese. She is, apparently, making up for lost time. I’ve been CSAing with Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op for eight years now. This past week was the first time I scored a bag of pimento peppers. Bingo. Pimento Cheese Spread As with pesto, potato…
Easy-Street Corn
A couple weeks ago, an ear of grilled corn rolled into a couple bloops of mayo from my BLT, and I was reminded how much I like elotes, the Mexican street corn. So the next time I made corn (the next day, actually), I got out the mayo and the lime and the paprika and…
Compound Interest
In my book, butter is always good. But some butter is better than others. And Summerbutter—a compound butter made with pureed tomatoes and a dash of salt—is nearly perfect. Echoing Marcella Hazan’s iconic tomato sauce (while rivaling the simplicity of cacio e pepe), Summerbutter lives to lend a decadent, velvet wrap to hot noodles (or even zoodles)….
Roasted Rhubarb Vinaigrette
Last week, I had a few stalks of rhubarb leftover after a crumble-for-two. Before they got lost and rubbery beneath the early-CSA kale, arugula, and spinach in the crisper, I transformed them into a bright and tangy topping for all that early-CSA kale, arugula, and spinach in the crisper. Those sturdy, deep, dark greens demand…
#crumblebrag
Behold, the humble crumble. Not much to look at. Kinda slumpy, really. But this rhubarb-rye dessert’s beauty—warming and comforting and rich and heady with the cool spring’s first harvest—can’t adequately be captured by the camera. For that, you need your nose. And a spoon. Rhubarb-Rye Crumble Sized for two generous portions (with maybe a little…
Party Nuts
I’ve been making some version of these herbed “bar snack” nuts for about fifteen years now, and it’s only in the last few that I’ve noticed a quirk—a quirk not in the recipe, but rather a quirk in me. It seems I pick out all the almonds first. What’s up with that? I love almonds….
Boxing Day 