Blueberries!

Not the most original or inspiring title ever, but, honestly, that was the cry of joy from Laura when she read over the packing list to this week's CSA box. We haven't had fresh Georgia blueberries in nine months.

The box also included beautiful green and purple Romano beans, that will go to my Mom's house tonight - a thank you for babysitting. She'll probably cook them in typical Southern style. If they were lingering, I'd either make a bean and tomato braise or perhaps soupe au pistou, a recipe from a recent Gourmet magazine. It's a summer soup featuring green beans, tomatoes, summer squash, potatoes and pasta.

And there's some beautiful summer squash, a fair portion, tender and ready for either the pistou or maybe the summer squash soup from Scott Peacock's Gift of Southern Cooking. I made squash casserole last week, and I loved it, but, amazingly, it's not a big hit with my family. I rarely casserole anything, so it's treated with deep suspicion a la maison. (that French just keeps slipping in.)

Additionally:

1. Two cukes to join the pair already in the crisper. I suspect a cucumber salad is in my future.

2. A pretty garnish portion of purple basil, including the flower. I can use the farmer's market basil to make pesto and use this basil on the top of the pasta. A blog-worthy picture, to be sure.

3. A lovely head of butter lettuce, my favorite. I rinsed and spun it dry, salad-ready.

4. A couple of sweet potatoes. These will keep, so I can amass a collection for a pie, or perhaps roast them to serve with a simple supper.

5. A purdy bunch of purple and white radishes. The greens were past their prime, so I lobbed them off, rinsed the roots and put them in a container of ice water. This is my proven method for prolonging the freshness of tender roots vegetables like radishes. I'm longing to try the braised radishes in Gourmet Cookbook, or perhaps in something like egg salad. I can't stop thinking about egg salad on whole wheat bread and finely chopped radishes are divine in egg salad.

The only miss this week was a slimy bunch of broccoli. Frankly, it looked like it was picked too late - the yellow buds were a dead giveaway. In the interest of reduce, reuse and recycle, I trimmed off the slimy buds for the compost pile and saved the stalks for some sort of stock or maybe in a cheesy broccoli soup or maybe slaw, we'll see.

The Opposite of Convenience Food

Mom loved last week's CSA box contents and we loved our week at the beach. Sun, sand, seashells, putt-putt, and copious amounts of steamed seafood. Heaven, sheer heaven, or at least, this redneck girl's idea of heaven. Back to mom: upon our return, we were given the pecans from last week's box. I guess this means I need to invest in a nutcracker. My very generous neighbors gave me a five-pound bag of unshelled pecans that's been sitting in the pantry for a couple of months, so between the two stores, I should have enough nuts to make a pie or something pretty special.

Just perusing the cookbooks on my desk, and have come up with a few ideas. From "Beans, Greens and Sweet Georgia Peaches," recipes include a Salad with Apple, Pecans and Clemson Blue Cheese; Baked Apples with Bourbon and Pecans (the author, Damon Lee Fowler, must keep the Maker's Mark next to the breadbox, it's called for quite frequently); Brown Butter Pecans (which I think would be luscious in home-churned vanilla ice cream); and Pecan Pie and Pecan Shortbread. All very tempting.

My favorite 1,000-page book, "The Gourmet Cookbook" suggests a Bananas Foster Cheesecake, or Catfish Fillets with Pecans and Butter Sauce. Sables and Cheddar Crackers have a certain savory appeal. The recipe for Inside-Out German Chocolate Cake sounds like a winner. Coconut, pecans, ganache, dulce de leche, how can you go wrong?

But, first, to the hardware store for a nutcracker and some quality nut-cracking time.

How to Frost a Cake

(Above) Glossy ganache frosting. Check.

(Above) Clean hands and cake. Check.



(Above) 1st layer. Check. 2nd layer. Check.


(Above) Sprinkles. Double Check.

(Above) Not exactly worthy of Martha Stewart, or even Martha Washington, but it tasted great! (And I cleaned up the platter before serving it to the birthday boy.)

Daddy requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday. I used the Golden Cake with Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting from the Gourmet Cookbook, the recipe is also at Epicurious.com. The cake was pretty good, but the frosting was spectacular. It used a pound and a quarter of milk chocolate and three-quarters of a pound of semisweet chocolate, melted and smoothed out with three cups of sour cream and a shot of vanilla. The resulting frosting was glossy, rich and probably the most beautiful bowl of chocolate I've ever seen in my life. It made the cake.

She's Back in the Kitchen & Taking Names

After a brief hiatus spent job-hunting and adjusting to having two young children in school, not to mention aimless hours searching for gas stations with fuel to sell, I've returned to the kitchen, my source for solace in the approaching autumn. The light through the window has changed, it's amber coming through at a different angle, backlighting the spider web on the porch. My soul seeks comfort food, but my warm house isn't quite ready for day-long braises and Dutch ovens bubbling over with stewed chicken and bready dumplings. Ratatouille, thick with chunks of eggplant swimming in fresh tomato, I've found, speaks to my soul and lets me walk away from the table without needing a starch-induced nap.

There are at least two approaches to preparing ratatouille: the one-pot method, where each item is chopped and added to the pan gradually. This yields a tasty, but homogeneous stew. My preferred method requires roasting some of the vegetables, namely the eggplant, to give some textural variety to the final product. My favorite is derived from the Gourmet Cookbook. Here is the recipe, with my variations noted in parentheses.

Ratatouille

4 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
8 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup copped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I left this out, due to my garden's parsley crop failure)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (I don't think I used this much. I just added a bit as I went along)
1 (2 lb.) eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes (I use 3 or 4 Japanese eggplants, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced into 1-inch cubes)
2 1/4 tsp. salt (I didn't measure salt, but tasted as I went along)
2 large onions, (halved and then cut into 4 wedges per half)
3 assorted bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into 1-inch wide pieces
4 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into 3/4 inch think pieces (I used yellow summer sqash instead and peeled it first, just because I always do)
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine tomatoes, garlic, parsley, basil and 1/3 cup oil in a 5-quart heavy pot, bring to a simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break down and sauce is slightly thickened, about 30 minutes.

(The instructions then describe salting eggplant, which I did not do because I used the Japanese eggplants. They are petite and do not require salting to remove the bitter liquid.)

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch skillet over moderate heat. Add onions with 1/4 tsp. salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to 12 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer onions to a large bowl. Add 3 more tablespoons oil to skillet and cook bell peppers, with 1/4 tsp. salt, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer peppers to bowl with onions. Add 3 more tabespoons oil to skillet and cook squash with 1/4 tsp. salt, stirring occasionally until softened, 8 to 10 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer squash to bowl with other vegetables.

While squash is cooking, add remaining oil to skillet and cook eggplant over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add vegetables, remaining 1 tsp. salt, and pepper to tomato sauce and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender, about 1 hour. Season ratatouille with salt (and a few generous grinds of black pepper). Cool, uncovered, and serve warm at room temperature.

A container of ratatouille in the fridge is as good as having a jar of peanut butter in the pantry. This versatile stew can be eaten warm or at room temperature. It's also excellent with garlicky sausage bits stirred in or perhaps some flaky white fish, which reminds me of my uncle's seafood stew served when I was (quite a bit) younger.