I spent the spring semester of my junior year in Maine, at a tiny school for environmental studies run by the Chewonki Foundation. Thirty students live in cabins on a peninsula jutting into the Sheepscot River. We studied, did farm chores, mucked about in salt flats, and adventured a lot. We also ate some of the best granola I ever tasted. I don’t know what it’s called, or where to by it. But I’ve tried to recreate it.
Read moreBAKED DOUGHNUTS
I’m not really a doughnut person. Given an array, I’d choose an old-fashioned cake doughnut every time, which really says nothing except that I like cake. Not doughnuts. The Krispy Kreme phase was lost on me: one bite and your doughnut is finished, compacted into a sugar-laden square inch.
I can get behind an apple cider doughnut. I’d eat a cruller. But soft, airy, yeasted doughnuts don’t sway me: too squishy, too shellacked with glaze, all sugar and puff and no heft.
Read moreCHOCOLATE BISCOTTI + STORMY WEATHER
Last week at home on the farm it stormed. The thunderstorm was sudden and intense, like most summer storms. They sweep in from nowhere. The sky stays blue and bright until just before it starts. The only warning is a subtle change in the atmosphere --- the air feels damp and crackles in anticipation as if with some secret electric charge. Clouds gather quickly. The temperature drops ten degrees. A few raindrops fall, becoming a constant patter, and then sheets of water sluice down from above. The rain is so heavy that your shirt soaks through when you dash outside to check your car windows.
Read moreTHE EASIEST STRAWBERRY TART
It's a lovely coincidence when the most beautiful desserts happen to be the easiest, as is the case here. Aside from slicing strawberries -- which I'm going to assume you can handle -- there's very little skill or effort involved at all. You bake a simple graham cracker crust for 10 minutes, then fill it with a blend of Greek yogurt and sweetened whipped cream, and top it with sliced strawberries. Even if you are half asleep, or talking on the phone, or totally intimidated by pastry baking, you can make this.
Read moreCARAMELIZED GARLIC, SPINACH & CHEDDAR QUICHE
I reach over to finish the last sip of my cocktail. A sweet, fizzy blend of muddled blackberries, tequila, lime juice, and club soda, we've named it The 157 and declared it our official apartment cocktail. Dinner is finished. The counter is strewn with dishes: a cutting board, bowls scraped clean, forks.
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