The most delicious thing in the world is an ice cold lemonade on a hot Fourth of July afternoon. Do you remember that feeling? You’ve just panted triumphantly around a dusty baseball diamond, or bicycled through the shimmering heat to drop your bike on the lawn and race to the front porch, to be rewarded with an icy glass of citrus juice that glides down the throat, cooling every molecule of your body from the inside out. Here are three […]
Homemade ice cream without the machine! Who knew this could be so easy? Hats off to Martha Stewart for finding a way to make ice cream at home without an ice cream maker. This doesn’t involve rock salt, Ziploc bags, constant stirring, or residual mess. It does make a really rich, sweet ice cream: the kind of dessert you eat in small portions and savor for its freshness. I used fresh blackberries and threw in a couple of tablespoons of […]
I love a great bowl of breakfast-brunch – the kind of weekend meal that keeps you going all day because it’s filling, deeply satisfying, and delicious. This recipe makes use of leftover polenta (if you’ve never made polenta, it’s as easy as making oatmeal), and involves the frying of a couple of eggs and a quick sauté of whatever veggies and herbs you have on hand. The polenta had been part of dinner the night before, and I spread it […]
One bowl dinners – especially one bowl dinners that can be grilled – are about the easiest summer meal there is. I especially love this one because the corn salad can be made ahead, and then it takes less than five minutes to grill the shrimp and the garlic bread. It’s the perfect meal when you want something simple but delicious, and you don’t want to pay too much attention to the cooking – maybe you’re having friends over and […]
Potatoes may not be the first thing on your list to throw on a grill, but potatoes and grills belong together. This is just the kind of salad I would have wanted for a White House Congressional Picnic menu: it’s colorful, unusual (purple basil, purple potatoes, almonds, cucumbers, and cilantro pesto), and it doesn’t have any ingredients that would spoil as it sits on a buffet in the brutal Washington heat. The annual Congressional Picnic is an enormous outdoor party […]
