I know what you’re thinking. It’s Saturday night. It’s 5 days til Christmas. And you still have so many gifts to get! Now, I don’t know what trendy tech gadget your brother Bobby might like, but if you’re looking to please your foodie friends (hint, hint last minute family members!)…I might have a few ideas.
I read a lot of cookbooks. I mean a lot, a lot. I read them for fun, like novels, taking in the stories and beautiful photography, for research, looking at the science of how ingredients blend together and what I can create on my own, like poetry, how the components all marry together on a plate just so and for work, helping me pick the perfect book every month to review for the Just Food monthly column I write. I wouldn’t say I’m the authority, but I have some opinions.
Labor Day is always bittersweet. A long weekend that marks the unofficial start of fall but also the end of summer. The city becomes almost barren as people flock to beaches and summer homes, trying to squeeze in those last few moments of sunshine. The summer always flies by, but this year has been exceptionally brief. Maybe it was because of our overambitious travel schedule–I can count two weekends between Memorial Day and now when we were actually home in Brooklyn all weekend–or maybe it’s because this summer was so mild it never felt like a summer. We escaped to the Rockaways once, only for a few hours. No summer movies, street festivals, far too few BBQs. Everything just went so fast. Soon we leave for vacation and my fear is the fall will also quickly pass and we’ll arrive back smack in the middle of another brutal winter.
I have a confession. A couple of years ago I shared a peach salsa recipe. The original recipe was from Put ‘Em Up, still one of my favorite canning books. But the truth is, that was the only year I made that particular salsa. For the last two years I’ve been making a completely different peach salsa. And hiding it from you. Pretending Put ‘Em Up’s recipe was the best one out there. But no. I’ve found better. Can you forgive me?
Brooklyn Locavore 