Pea Soup à la Cappuccino

Imagine June. A table at the edge of a porch overlooking misty Lake Geneva. Thunder storm brewing. Sparrows flitting in and out, trying to share lunch with a bunch of regulars and a few dazzled newcomers.  And then, there arrives a perfect pea soup. White scoop of barely cooked peas suspended over a bowl of [...]

Read Full Post »

The Best Banana Bread

I’ve been making this classic since I was a kid. I wrote down the recipe in a childish script in a now tattered spiral notebook, along with a few others that I still cherish. I later transcribed it, again hand-written, into a three-ring binder some time around graduate school, typed it to be “official” who [...]

Read Full Post »

Cucumber Salad with Pickled Spring Onions

About a month ago, just as spring onions were starting to bulb, I picked up several bunches of scallion-like specimens with violet flesh, which were being discarded in our local organic produce market. While the green ends were somewhat compromised, nothing was wrong with the bulb end. Pickled in a simple solution of vinegar and [...]

Read Full Post »

Risotto with Sweet Peas

When short-term crops come into the garden and market, I tend to make as many variations as I can. I know that we can rely on our great supermarkets, especially in New York City, to provide us with anything from anywhere, anytime.  While that’s great fun, and makes for amazing eating, I still prefer the [...]

Read Full Post »

Sour Cherry Jam

Our local organic orchard grows about a dozen types of cherries that all ripen at once, typically around Fathers’ Day. It’s shocking that over 300 cherry trees laden with thousands of pounds of fruit can be picked out over one weekend, but it’s true. Blink and you miss it, as I have many times. As [...]

Read Full Post »

Broccoli with Sweet Preserved Kumquats

When I was at a local pea patch last weekend, I spotted a neighboring crop of broccoli that was starting to head and couldn’t resist cutting a few. Just-picked spring broccoli is a far cry from what you get in the supermarket or even from the farm in fall. Tender and sweet, it cooks in [...]

Read Full Post »

Bread Pudding with Alliums: Leek, Green Garlic, Garlic Scapes and Chives

Ah, another bread pudding to satisfy my other half’s culinary cravings. A reminder that there’s a chunk of stale bread in the drawer… what can you make of it? Sometimes just crumbs but this week a savory bread pudding, eggy and creamy in texture and chock full of the season’s fresh local alliums, members of [...]

Read Full Post »

Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet with Ginger

I recalled from last year’s excellent rhubarb sorbet that rhubarb creates a good texture and the addition of a little corn syrup allowed a creamy and non-icy texture.  This year, I decided to incorporate strawberries and spice it up with ginger. I often see candied ginger added to jams and other concoctions, so I “candied” [...]

Read Full Post »

Spring Zucchini Salad: First Harvest, Simply Served

The cross section of the first zucchini from my garden reveals a pattern of its life: nascent seeds on graceful branches, translucent flesh gradually tinged green inward from the shining green orb. Lovely and fresh.  I’m having a good time watching the summer squash grow: male flowers tall on thin stems, female flowers nurturing their [...]

Read Full Post »

Cold Green Pea and Mint Soup

This soup captures the moment in late spring when shelling peas are at their peak and mint is young, when the weather is hinting of heat, the moment when cold food is once again welcome. Inspired by a so-called “green pea gazpacho” that I ate at the Mövenpick Hotel in Geneva last week, I went [...]

Read Full Post »