I have officially packed my winter clothes away. Brian and I had a bread salad with dinner on Sunday night. I am nursing blisters on my feet from wearing shoes without socks for the first time in months. Spring is in the air– and that means rhubarb!
I picked up my first few stalks of the season last week, and they were lovely– so astringent, beautifully pink, with just the right amount of pucker. I made a bit of compote with them. No, not the compote that is dowdy, and full of dried fruit. This compote was bright and cheery, scented with vanilla with just a kiss of sugar. I ate it as a topping for Greek yogurt during the week, and then had it as a scrumptious embellishment for buttermilk pancakes on the weekend.
The recipe is over on iVillage. Happy Spring!
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I went apple picking again. Correction– I went apple, crabapple and quince picking, and I went a little crazy. 22 pounds of crazy. The apples are enormous, and delicious, but enormous none the less– imagine the head of a small child, covered in delicate, chewy and edible bright green skin. But apples, unlike so many summer stone fruits, stay fresh for quite some time after picking. Even with this rule in mind, I knew that all of my apples would be needing some assistance in their depletion. So, I made a pie.
I will be the first person to tell you that apple pie is not my favorite; I much prefer the typical pies of summer. I love pie; and I like apples, but I always feel so moderate about an apple pie. So this was a single crust pie that I [...]

It seems hard to believe that I have been on the East Coast for going on four years, with over one third of that time in New England, yet I had never gone apple picking. It just seemed almost too quaint for me; I buy my apples from the farmer’s market or the grocery store, thank you very much! Well, I will admit when I am wrong. I went to pick apples, and I loved it!
Over the weekend, I went with some friends to an orchard in Glastonbury, CT, not knowing what to expect. Would I have to climb ladders to pick some measly apples; what would the varieties be; and just how large was an apple orchard anyway? All of my questions were answered– and apple picking did not disappoint! Rows of trees were so heavy with fruit, the branches were bending to [...]

But it tasted kind of awful. Recently I picked up Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials Fruit, and as I was glancing through the pictures (because they really are the best part of her books) a Plum and Chocolate Clafoutis bounced off the page at me. It looked delicious, and made me think why hadn’t I thought of that? Well, I will tell you why– it’s gross! How could something so simple, with well-loved ingredients come out so wrong? So here is picture of my failed, too-dense, overly chocolaty, flat, mess of a dessert. Oh well, you win some, and clearly, you lose some.

from Nosheteria

I used to dislike lemon desserts; they just seemed like a giant waste of time. If I wanted something sweet, I would go for chocolate, smooth and creamy, every time. But as I got older, my palate as well as my appetite grew. I learned to appreciate the delicacy, the brightness, that puckery twang of a good lemon dessert. And now, many years later, I even crave a little bit of lemon zest in my sweets. Chocolate may be tried and true, but lemon is clean and lustrous.
When glancing at a recipe, there are some that read only like a list of ingredients. Nothing about it calls out to you, beckoning from the stove. Then there are the recipes that are utterly enticing. You make your ways through the basics: a bit of sugar (got it), some flour (yes?), buttermilk (mmm), lots [...]