New Best Ever

Tomatoes-wise, the cherry one has my heart. The sweetest garden morsel in a manageable pebble size—you can put a handful in your mouth, which I often do.

Now is when I tell you about my new cooking jam: the galette. Kinda like a pie, but messier and lazier and incendiarily delicious. The dough, which bakes up all beautiful and buttery, is slapped together in a big bowl. The innards are whatever you want them to be (I did cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, and pan-fried leek). Rolling pin the crust flat, pile wonderful food stuff in the center, and then lovingly fold it all up like a baby in a blanket. It's the oven, really, that does all the work.

But there is freedom to the galette. Fuck the recipes. Make whatever kind you want. Peaches and blueberries? Squash, pine nuts, and pecarino? Yes and yes. It's all good.

Just know that if you have flour/butter/something in season to put inside, then a brilliant meal is always achievable.

Not pretty looking, necessarily—but pretty in your mouth!

What To Do With Vodka

The weather got its act together sometime yesterday afternoon. Auspiciously—because tomorrow is July.

Like we need any reason beyond bright yellow sunshine to buy vodka, but here's why I need a bottle of Monopolowa, STAT: I made rose-petal simple syrup. What I did was I walked into my backyard and clipped some hot-pink rose flowers that were wildly in bloom. "Foraging" is what the kids are calling it these days. I tore the petals and placed them in a pot with equal parts water and sugar (a cup of each, I reckon)—simmering them for a few, letting them sit for a few, and straining.

My big plan now is: Combine with vodka and soda water, and drink. The end. Wanna come over and have one with me?

Best Camp Meal 2014

Recent camping-meal move: fire-pit nachos.

I made them after the longest, funnest day of wandering through woods and swimming in cold, sun-glimmering waters. I did not take a picture of them, though (I'm not programmed to "food-Gram" for some reason).

Yes, yes, food when you're camping always tastes better. All that fresh air, et cetera. But! I'm gonna argue here that these nachos are legitimately good (the Monterey Jack melts ungodly smooth/creamy, and that Trader Joe's Taco Mix kicks). They're also hecka easy. I mean all the shit below travels well. And the campfire inferno toasts and browns and bubbles things in wonderful—if unexpected ways.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this meal is, for those who care, my new campfire jam for the rest of summer ’14.

What you need:

1 can of black beans

1 brick of Monterey jack cheese

1 pack of Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning Mix

1 can of Trader Joe's Black Olives

1 bag of tortilla chips

1 pan (that you don't mind getting all covered with campfire soot)

1 giant piece of aluminum foil

What you do:

Mix together the black beans and, like, half the taco mix.

Chop the cheese and olives.

Pile everything onto a metric ton of chips spread evenly over a baking sheet.

Cover completely with tin foil.

Get some good embers going, and cook on a grill over the fire for as long as it takes to get things where yo want ’em, melting and toasting-wise (for us, maybe 10 mins? but every fire is different ya know).