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Golden Beet Salad with Feta
With their long stems and bright greens, beets lure in quite a few people at the market. They pick them up but then put them down. On their faces I sometimes see the flashbacks to horrible childhood beet experiences, many beginning with the canned red ones. If you have such memories, I recommend the golden variety as the gateway beet that might just make you change your opinion. In contrast to their red counterparts, golden beets are more mellow and slightly sweeter. They perk up with the addition of white wine vinaigrette and feta, making a great lunch salad or side dish. Since beets are filling but won’t leave you…
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Grow Something
Small, and sometimes secret, spaces make the best spots for growing. Acres of fields have their vast beauty, but I have always been drawn to the figs peeking out of a city garden or the potted olive tree. The most flavorful produce is often grown right where you live. It’s hard to get much more fresh than ripe, just-picked tomatoes, and the sweetest, albeit tiniest, strawberries I’ve ever eaten were from a plant I grew at the age of six. Whether you care for a lone berry plant or commit yourself to the summer-long haul of coaxing vegetable vines upward in a narrow yard, find a place to grow something.…
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Chocolate Plum Upside-Down Cake
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold – William Carlos Williams (Excerpt from “This Is Just To Say”) With a delicious plum layer, this chocolate upside-down cake sparked me to repeat William Carlos Williams’ lines in the way that lyrics might play in your mind. As a lover and writer of poetry, I count his work as one of the sensual pieces that is as likely to pop up as any song. Having “eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox,” the speaker apologizes…sort of. They were so sweet and cold, after all. Other poets have turned to the fruit and flowers of the…
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Coconut Honey Lace Cookies
Lace cookies are sweet, crispy thins all the more enticing because they break so easily. Still pliable when removed from a hot oven, they cool quickly, and some likely won’t survive the first transfer from cookie sheet to plate. That’s the best part, as you get to eat all the coconut cookie shards. The inspiration for these cookies came while making last week’s custard tart. I wanted to create a topping that would be brittle like the torched sugar coating on crema catalana or crème brûlée. Thin and crispy coconut lace cookies were a satisfying and crunchy topping for natillas, and they are just as delicious on their own. Ingredients…
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Natillas Tart
Natillas is a rich Spanish custard with vanilla and cinnamon. Delicious on its own, or with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top, it also makes a flavorful filling for almond flavored tart pastry. Top it with thin and crispy coconut lace cookies, and you have a combination of favorite dessert textures and flavors in one. Unlike crema catalana or crème brûlée, natillas does not include the thin layer of caramelized sugar that breaks into shards when tapped with the spoon. Arguably the golden layer is the best part of these European desserts. Instead of torched sugar, I top my natillas tart with cookie crisps that have a similar color and…
