Pure summertime: Blueberry Cake with Buttermilk, Thyme and Lemon Zest

Blueberries, buttermilk, thyme and lemon zest combine to create a delicious cake—and memories of childhood summers in Michigan. Recipe below.

Most of this summer, the blueberries have been terrible—tiny, sour and disgruntled. But suddenly, they have become gorgeous—Michigan blueberries big as marbles, sweet, full of flavor and the most beautiful dusty blue. We’ve been having them on cereal, tossing them in salads (making a vinaigrette using the very pretty blueberry vinegar from Canter-Berry Farms in Washington state) and just plain eating them out of hand.

Ordinarily, I don’t bake in the summer. Even this year, which here in the Midwest has been mild and delightful, I just don’t hold with turning on the oven in July and August. But yesterday—which, natch, was the first really miserably hot day in quite a while—I got the craving. Blueberry cake—we had to have it. Continue reading “Pure summertime: Blueberry Cake with Buttermilk, Thyme and Lemon Zest” →

Seasonal summer cooking, as simple as it gets: Pasta alla Caprese

Pasta turns a classic Italian salad into a quick vegetarian meal, Pasta alla Caprese. Tomatoes, mozzarella and basil are the key ingredients. Recipe below.

The thing about growing tomatoes is this. You plant them as soon as there’s no chance of frost, and then you wait. For a long time, there are no tomatoes. No tomatoes. No tomatoes. Still no tomatoes. And then one day, there are TOMATOES!!! Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, TOMATOES!!! So you find yourself looking for lots of things to do with TOMATOES!!! Continue reading “Seasonal summer cooking, as simple as it gets: Pasta alla Caprese” →

Cooking from the hip: Pork Chops with Peaches and Wilted Frisée

Pork chops are dry brined to keep them juicy and tender, then pan seared with rosemary. They’re topped with peaches and frisée quickly cooked in the same pan. Recipe below.

Forensic anthropologists would have a field day with my right hip pocket. It’s home to an ever shifting collection of folded scraps of paper, most covered with scribbled food notes. Some are shopping lists, folded and refolded to accommodate new lists. Looking at old lists, I can often reconstruct the meals I cooked based on the ingredients acquired. Continue reading “Cooking from the hip: Pork Chops with Peaches and Wilted Frisée” →

Biscuits and Vegetarian Red Eye Gravy to please (and maybe even fool) a meat lover

Adapted from The Southern Vegetarian Cookbook, this red eye gravy gets its umami-rich, sausage-like flavor and texture from mushrooms, herbs and spices. Paired with easy-to-make drop biscuits, it creates an iconic Southern breakfast. Recipes below.

AT DINNER WITH FRIENDS THE OTHER NIGHT, one of the diners at our table exclaimed over a vegetarian entrée on the menu. I realized at that moment that I will never willingly become a vegetarian. If there are meat or seafood options on a menu, I can’t get excited about vegetarian choices. Or as I put it to our companions, “It would take a death threat from my doctor to make me turn vegetarian.” Continue reading “Biscuits and Vegetarian Red Eye Gravy to please (and maybe even fool) a meat lover” →