John McGrew Background Art

Top 3: from Chuck Jones' "The Aristo-Cat". Bottom 3: From Chuck Jones' "Waikiki Wabbit." Via Michael Sporn Animation.

Folk Art Trees

 

Meg Wilson, mybookcovers.blogspot.com

 

Johann Adam Eyer, American Folk Art Museum

 

Jonathan Pool family record, American Folk Art Museum

 

Meg Wilson, mybookcovers.blogspot.com

 

Polly Collins, American Folk Art Museum

 

Visions of the Heavenly Sphere: A Study in Shaker 

Religious Art by Edward Deming Andrews

 

Visions of the Heavenly Sphere

 

Visions of the Heavenly Sphere

Clafoutis is Totally a Breakfast Food

This dessert is right in my wheelhouse: deceptively easy yet impressive, elegant but a little rustic. It is also incredibly photogenic, if I may say.

It helps that we have started having people over for brunch, which means I can take pictures in daylight. But it also opens up the challenges of a seemingly simple meal; one thinks of eggs, but I'd say Rule #1 of hosting brunch is don't pick something made-to-order, like omelets. Baked eggs lend themselves to all kinds of neat combinations. The last two times I've experimented with this, I've been too hungry and concerned with the eggs getting cold to photograph, but definitely try this one.


I know turning the oven on in the middle of the day in July is not ideal, but it's probably worth it to have food that can hit everyone's plate simultaneously.

Anyway, clafoutis: despite the stuffy-sounding name, it's the easiest thing in the world, and probably totally adaptable to lots of different fruits. It came from my Eggs book that I got in Portland, Maine (also a lot of yummy baked eggs recipes, not to mention souffles and all kinds of stuff). It's pretty much the same as the recipe below I think I used a glug of Pimm's instead of Kirsch.


Cherry Clafoutis (from Saveur)

1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
6 eggs
6 tbsp. sugar
1 1⁄4 cups milk
2 tbsp. kirsch
Pinch salt
3⁄4 cup flour
3 cups black cherries, pitted or unpitted
Confectioners' sugar (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Generously butter a 9" cast-iron skillet or baking dish. Combine vanilla extract, eggs, sugar, milk, kirsch, and salt in a blender. Blend for a few seconds to mix ingredients, then add flour and blend until smooth, about 1 minute.

2. Pour batter into buttered skillet, then distribute cherries evenly over top. Bake until a skewer inserted into batter comes out clean and a golden brown crust has formed on top and bottom of clafoutis, about 30 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar if you like.

In-Betweeny Baking

It used to ruffle me when people allowed their moods to change completely depending on the weather. Now it seems, however, that I am one of those people. When mere wisps of clouds momentarily obscure the summer sun, I feel all productive feelings drain out me; I am ready to resign the day and lock myself indoors for a day of baking and all things Austen.


So what to do in balmy June when the grey skies throb with the threat of rain and one doesn't particularly feel like making anything crispy and cold and featuring cilantro?

Today was such a day, and it also happened to be a use-up-what's-in-the-pantry day, as we are shamefully suspended at the co-op (not that shamefully, actually). I came across a little sack of Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Hot Cereal, left months ago by a visiting friend. As I am still developing my thing for grains and learning how to use them best, I decided -- and here comes the not-very-exciting part -- to make the muffin recipe right from the back of the bag. I also got to use our leftover buttermilk which, apparently, never goes bad. The addition of summer fruit takes the winter-comfort-food edge off.


I realized halfway through the process, however, that I do not actually own muffin pans. Then I spotted the silicon cannele molds, remnants of J.'s short-lived obsession with recreating the little heaven-cakes we had in Paris. The shape is like a miniature bundt cake, skinny and fluted. I loved the idea of a slim, elegant muffin with no mushroom top. The state of muffins in this country is getting out of control, and I'd like to think I'm doing my part. Nobody needs the crumby monstrosities you see nowadays. There, I said it.


The only dilemma is, do you serve it rounded side up like a little cake, or pretty bottom-up as you would a cannele?

And don't forget that the fruit and moisture will sink to the bottom, so don't just go by the top when you are checking for doneness. I like mine a little soft on the bottom, though.


10-Grain Muffins

1 large egg
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. butter
1 c. unbleached white flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal*
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
[1 1/4 c. berries or diced fruit, optional]
*A medley of pretty much every grain you can think of. I assume substitutes would work here.

Mix 10 cereal and milk. Allow to stand for 10 minutes while preheating oven and assembling other ingredients: cream sugar, butter and egg together. Add dry ingredients and milk mixture. Stir only until mixed. [Fold in fruit.] Spoon into greased muffin pan. Bake at 400*F for 15 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Fast French

It is 10am on the day you have a lunch date with your fabulous hostess (and fellow francophile) friend. You are in charge of bringing a delicious picnic. What ingredient will ensure ease in both cooking and transportation while being delicious and sophisticated? If you said frozen puff pastry, you are correct.

I may be entering a tart phase. I landed home from the store an hour before my date and ended up with this beauty. My only mistake was letting the pastry roll into whatever shape it felt like, which ended up being too long for any container and for my bike basket. The diagonally-laid asparagus, however, was my stroke of genius.

Pack some mixed greens, a jam jar of vinaigrette with homemade mayonnaise, and a couple pain au chocolat, and you have a picnic. Recipe from Everyday Food.

BYO Dinner

Turns out, when New Yorkers move to a new apartment that does not have a grill like their old place, they will actually offer to come to your house and cook for you just for the chance to get near the old propane again.

I'm totally fine with this arrangement. We get stuck with the dishes, yes, but I get all afternoon to make a pretty new dessert that gets plenty of glory.


And I am also very intrigued by this idea of infusing whipped cream. Pretty simple really, just like making a syrup. In this case it was chopped-up basil. I wonder if you could do the same with mint, lavender.... citrus zest? Would the acid do something funky to the cream? Anyway, the basil gave a lovely, mild taste to the cream, and the fried basil leaves were a sophisticated and surprisingly tasty touch to a pretty rustic dessert.

The weird 50s-style photography is because of crappy overhead lighting, but part of me is kind of digging that look.

Scrabble Night

I had an evening at home with J for the first time all week, and what I really wanted was a straightforward, healthful meal that, despite the simplicity of the flavors and presentation, required a boatload of chopping.


I went for a variation on my favorite template, the barley salad, and a new favorite way to do fish, one of those so-simple-I-can't-believe-there's-an-actual-recipe recipes. The easy part is that the vegetable and the starch are streamlined into one side dish. The other part is the chopping of all the different veggies (I went with asparagus, mushrooms, chard, and caramelized onions), which might be frustrating on a night when I didn't have a couple hours to spare listening to the soothing tones of NPR with the back doors open, zenning out and chopping away.


I lost the Scrabble game by the way. I don't want to talk about it.