(with a wave to William Carlos Williams)

Thank you for the peach pie

red gold, gooey, thick and crusty:

peaches carried heaped in a basket

up the hill from the tree we planted

seven years ago, watched over,

pruned, debugged, (harvested

one rock of a peach that first year)

and now its branches bent to the ground

on the uphill side, their burden of fuzzy

softening fruit almost more joy

than they can bear. Read on… »

There’s a reason, of course, that stone fruits and almonds are such a natural match, flavorwise–the pits of peaches, nectarines and apricots contain a kernel that is called the “poor man’s almond” because it tastes almondy, if a bit bitter. The kernel also contains cyanide (it sucks to be poor). It’s also what amaretto liqueur and those delicious little amaretti cookies are flavored with, as the cyanide apparently dissipates when the pits are roasted or processed. (Booze and cookies, the poor man’s salve.)

This cakey cobbler, or cobblery cake, pairs almonds and summer fruits with delicious results. It’s a very light dessert, perfect for a summer brunch or breakfast. I enjoy it straight, but you can gussy it up with Greek yogurt or a dollop of sweetened sour cream or mascarpone. Read on… »

Summer is my favorite food season. I know, I know–I just said that spring was my favorite. But I was just caught up in the lamb and peas and fava beans. I’ve also repeatedly claimed the fall as my favorite–all that squash, and pie!–and winter, since I love pot roast and potatoes. But in summer, we grow our own bounty chez moi, and there’s just nothing can beat that.

One of our annual harvests is the olallieberry, which winds delicately around our patio and every year gives us just enough berries to top our cereal or desserts. (An almond-milk blancmange I recently concocted was a natural fit.) I was first introduced to olallieberries when I was a kid and spent summers in Santa Cruz. We made a pilgrimage most Julys to Phipps Farm in Pescadero, CA, where we ate and picked our way through the day, and then went home purple-faced to stuff our freezer full of berries for the year to come. Read on… »

In the process of working on Be Thrifty, I came across creative uses for all kinds of food bits that might otherwise be tossed (cheese nubbins, celery orphans, stale pita). You’ll have to buy the book to get the full story on those, but here’s a freebie. I recently baked a cake and then shaved pieces off of it so it would be a perfect rectangle, and was left with a heaping plate of chocolate cake parts. The thrifty Brits are a good always a good place to turn, so I thought I’d make an English trifle, with layers of cake, whipped cream and berries. But then, I realized, I’d have to eat it all at once. I have no dinner parties on the horizon, and didn’t want to basically force myself to eat an entire chocolate trifle, so that idea was nixed. The solution (as with most dilemmas) was ice cream. I had a partially eaten carton of vanilla ice cream, which I softened slightly and then mashed up with the cake bits. (If I had had peanut butter chips or caramel on hand, I would’ve added them, too.) I refroze the treat, and dug in. This is also a great way to use cookies or brownies that are going stale–the ice cream softens them up, and they freeze to a nice chewiness. There you have it–the cheapest ice cream flavor (vanilla) transformed into a Ben & Jerry’s worthy frozen showstopper.

I prefer to think of Valentine’s Day as a national holiday devoted to chocolate. Forget the love and romance and blah blah blah, it’s about finding new and exciting ways to consume the hallowed cacao. To wit: Mark Bittman may have whipped up a chocolate souffle on the Today show this morning, but the best thing in the New York Times today (good news, for a change) is this recipe for rich dairy-free hot chocolate. I don’t know why I never thought to use coconut milk—soy milk makes nasty cocoa—kudos to Melissa Clark! Next up, the Los Angeles Times. Their story on Nutella seems at first like an odd exercise in the obvious (”The Italian chocolate and hazelnut spread has its devoted fans.”), but if you stick with it, author Amy Scattergood describes how to make your own Nutella! I’m sure it’s not cheaper than the real thing, but she says her version is less sweet and without that “vague aftertaste.” I’ll try it, next time I find hazelnut oil on sale. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe trots out its favorite Valentine bonbons. (Note: If anyone out there is trying to win my heart, start with Roni-Sue’s bacon buttercrunch.) Last but not least, I wrote up a cocoacentric meal for Tango magazine some time ago—but some things, namely chocolate, never get old.