morsels & sauces

  If this were high school, I am not sure Bryan Petroff and Douglas Quint of Big Gay Ice Cream  fame would have asked me to sign their yearbooks. I would have admired from afar their insouciance, their use of Bea Arthur and a unicorn licking a rainbow ice cream cone as mascots, and their snarky humor, and then perhaps they would have rolled their eyes that I would have even used the word insouciance . And certainly Petroff and Quint's debut cookbook is going to force you to muster up those awkward teenage years known as high school, for their collection of recipes is designed as a yearbook complete with an introductory letter from Monsignor Anthony Bourdain (Headmaster), somewhat naughty signatures in the front pages of the book, chapters separated out into each class year (freshman through senior complete with class photos in front of a laser-light backdrop), and fake advertisements at the back, including those for eyebrow shaping (by Debi, ask about the...

Memorial Day calls for an easy dessert after a dinner of husband-smoked pork ribs and an in-law-constructed glorious eggplant dish (from Ottolenghi’s Plenty , no less). Thus, it was the perfect time to trot out Donna Hay’s cookbook Flavours . As I have mentioned before (and before and before ), I am a fan of Australia’s Ms. Hay, as her recipes are simple and easy to execute. There is nothing fancy or flashy about her work, but it is always tasty enough to serve to guests and easy enough for a weeknight meal. Memorial Day was overcast and foggy up in Fort Bragg—the perfect kind of day for me, although others were disappointed that the fog didn’t lift and we were left eating indoors rather than out in the garden. However, the fog is the perfect vehicle for a morning spent grading and cooking and an early afternoon spent jogging by the beach while the husband grilled ribs and at one point seemed to be washing the side of the house with a long handled brush. To each his own....

My mom's birthday was two weeks ago. Because we live so far away from one another, we haven't spent a birthday together in quite some time. However, this year to celebrate, I sent my mom a cake in a jar. She tells me that she is going to make it next week with my littlest niece, just as something to do while my mom is babysitting her. How lovely. This cake gets to be for both my mom and the littlest of our family. A few years ago a good friend of mine sent me a lovely sage blackberry jam from this cookbook ( Food in Jars ) as part of a Secret Santa care package. I slathered it on toast, and it was oh, so good. I admit I may have even eaten it with a spoon. Immediately, I started following Marisa McClellan's blog , and while I wasn't ready to commit to canning, I was living vicariously through those who do. I made a mental note to snap up this cookbook if I ever saw it in the used bookstore. Lucky for me, a month or so back Pegasus books had a copy on the s...