Oh yes. A mad busy month, including a hilarious surprise birthday/culinary class/cook your own dinner party, and a really fun evening being a “congratulations on the birth of your baby” present*. Now I’m trying to get everything organized before I leave for a 10 week contract in France. Do you like how nonchalantly I said that? I am, shall we say, a little excited at the thought of being let loose in coastal Provence with 12 to 20 people to feed every day. I should be able to post updates from there, depending on the availability of a computer and of moments in which to draw breath. And if neither are accessible, I’ll be taking plenty of notes and pictures to bring you, gentle reader, a cornucopia of French deliciousness once I get back to NYC in mid September.

In the meantime, some tid-bits from the past week will follow.

(*No, I didn’t have to tie a ribbon round my neck: friends of the new parents gave them a Particular Gift Certificate for a tasting menu with wines. It was a first for me that the object of the celebration wasn’t an active participant in the feast, but we like to make allowances for the sleep requirements of those under 6 months and we had just as good a time with her on the other end of the baby monitor. I also have no doubt, having met her parents, that she will be trying everything on the menu the minute she figures out the business end of a spoon.)

Duck*, wild turkey, chicken, pheasant from the farmer’s market in Rhinebeck, NY

*or goose? The friend who brought these to me couldn’t remember (too much fresh country air) – but I’m pretty sure it’s a duck egg.

fried fresh whitebait with saffron aioli: crisp, salty, fishy, garlicky and impossibly more-ish

A trip to Jackson Heights scored us deliciously light jalebi, snacks for t&t’s Bollywood party, a brilliant new bhangra CD (Punjabi Vibes, for Promotional Use Only) for $1, and, randomly, a glass bottle of nam manglak – a Thai drink of honey, water and sugar with germinated basil seeds; I’ve always loved the look of it – think frog spawn – but never tried it before. It’s very sweet, and the texture of the seeds is wonderful. They pop if you can catch them between your teeth, followed by the tiniest crunch in the centre. But there’s no denying that visually it appeals to my inner six-year-old, and all I could think of was spring pond-hunting expeditions with nets and jelly jars. So I added rice vinegar, mirin and salt to make a sweet and sour dipping sauce perfect for spring rolls filled with watercress, pea shoots, cucumber, green onion, sweet lettuce and plenty of whole leaves of basil, mint and coriander. Fresh, delicious, simple…. and you can still torment your more squeamish friends. (If you try this, beware of cans of Golden King nuoc hot e, the Taiwanese version, which has banana flavoring in it. Now that’s squirm-inducing.)

Max, who is 5 and loves lobster, grew this for me in a bowl of water. What do you think – Thermidor or Newburg?

The spring in my step isn’t just a Spring thing. It’s because it’s rhubarb season.

rhubarb snow with ginger and black pepper crumble and prickly pear

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Why are these people standing in line for 40 minutes at 4 o’clock on a beautiful sunday afternoon?

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This is a veritable UN of green leafy goodness. So there’s only one way to ensure world peace.
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We’re up. And hopscotching, if not exactly running. But thanks to the ministrations (and eternal patience) of genius Jeremy, this journal is getting pummeled into shape and will be finished soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the content, brush up on your Portuguese by deciphering some of the original formatting, and don’t worry, because we won’t be green for long.

And yes these posts are chronologically a little out of whack, but hey, I’ve been saving them specially for the occasion. Let’s just pretend.

UPDATE No more green Portuguese! We love Jeremy.

I’m feeling the need to be braise-y, so I can get warm again. Pork, apples, quinces*, onions, leeks, shallots, thyme, lots of black pepper, all into the oven for as long as it takes, with mashed potatoes and kale as companions. The nice thing about braising is that the smell from the oven all afternoon makes you all feel warmer psychosomatically, so by the time you eat, you’re already half defrosted. A full plate, a grateful room mate to do the dishes and two extra blankets on the bed when you fall in to it are the last part of the prescription.

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(ring, ring)
me: Hello?
DWR: Hi. This is Design Within Reach, the Chelsea studio. We need chair cookies.
me: …..?
DWR: You know, for our “Re-imagining the Chair” event. We need iconic chair cookies. 150 of them.
me: No problem.
DWR: And can they be iced? And at least some of them sparkly? It is Christmas, after all.
me: But of course. Now where did I put that exacto knife?

Students from the Illustration Department at Parsons were given Bellini chairs to, well, re-imagine. Bradford Shellhammer has a great photo set of the results of their creativity, the reception, and the cookies with their full-size compadres, here.

It was really fun to play with the silhouettes of different famous chair designs to see which would make the strongest shapes for the cookies. (No disrespect intended to messrs Jacobsen, Panton, Bellini and Vignelli by recreating them in two-dimensional cookie dough. I mean heck, Eames and Saarinen didn’t even make the cut.)

“Is there anything good on the telly? I’ve got an idea of something to throw together for supper, and we can have it on trays,” she says. Way to raise the bar, Mum.

black olive and thyme souffles, marinated roasted peppers, salad and pain au levain

Meat from the hill, fish from the sea, fruit and veg from the garden. Sticky buns from the bakery, flying saucers from Charlie’s, and surfing at midnight because the sun hasn’t set yet and Lizzie has an extra wetsuit, so why not? And yes, it’s the north coast of Scotland, but the sky really is that blue.

A combined Halloween, pumpkin patch and birthday party for the fabulous Floyd. I think the adults outnumbered the kids: at least we served way more pomegranate and champagne cocktails than we did juice boxes but maybe the under-tens had false IDs.

little devils’ eggs

iced pumpkin spice cookies on lollipop sticks

candy apples coated in caramel, milk chocolate, white chocolate and sugar sprinkles….. just to make sure

(sing it, Franky baby)

Requirements: some tuile batter, gel food coloring, acetate sheets and an exacto knife. Oh, and it can’t be raining. I mean, it can, but you’ll make yourself crazy trying to make tuiles if it’s humid, so if it is, don’t. You know.

This is my London.