After a run of fairly inspired cooking—or at least inspired-FEELING, I kind of dropped off in May. Fortunately my husband stepped up to the plate, and fortunately he has become a pretty good cook over the years. His favorite cookbooks are Casual Cooking, Simple to Spectacular, Joy of Cooking, and The Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Between these he makes a great Steak Frites, Roasts chicken with the best of them, and made the most delicious chicken soup I’ve ever had.

My non-cooking really showed this weekend when for lunch what I ate was ½ a can of tuna mixed with a handful of raisins, a hard-boiled egg and a tablespoon of chopped red onion. Tossed with salt and olive oil, this was quite tasty, and somewhat filling, very much a dish you might eat in Sicily, but it also made me feel underfed and un-cared for. Sundays are for sticky buns or banana bread, or french toast, or soufflés and salad, and bacon. My husband had a pita and a hardboiled egg. So, it’s time to get back in the saddle again. And Sunday afternoon we made ragu (ALL AFTERNOON), which was perfect for dinner with a glass of chianti and a salad of fiddlehead ferns (I never realized how much of a New Englander in my appetites I was until I started keeping better track of what we ate, last year)—ragu isn’t very summery usually, but it was 50 degrees here, and perfect.

So, June 1. I need a list of food to make to spur me on, and ensure there something to snack on in the afternoon, a treat for the weekend mornings, food for the baby, lunch for me, and oh yeah, I think my husband would like to stop doing all of the cooking right about now.


May’s list:
1. Chicken Liver Pate with (revised, improved) Rosemary Crackers (or shortbread)
2. Scallops (not sure how, just craving scallops)
3. Spaghetti alle Vonghole
4. Strawberry Shortcake
5. English Muffins
6. Jam / Marmalade
7. Carrot Salad
8.Anadama Bread
9. Meatloaf
10. Scallion Pancakes
And, 11. Salmon Cakes, Rhubarb Fool, Salade Nicoise

We had:
6. Jam / Marmalade
11. Salade Nicoise

June’s food forays:
1. Chicken Liver Pate with (revised, improved) Rosemary Crackers (or shortbread)
2. Pudding
3. Melon dressed with Lime
4. Prosciutto and Melon
5. Lamb Vindaloo
6. Skate or Sand Dabs with sesame/balsamic sauce
7. Puttanesca, Pesto. I love easy summer pasta
8. Anadama bread, damn it (and Zucchini bread, and English Muffins)
9. And bring on the Mexican: tacos, avocado soup, corn fritters
10. Trout. It’s time.


And I'm looking at The Tuscan Year and we'll be going to Alemany in two weeks. Inspriation, here I come.