YAY! The NYT Dining Section round-up on time!

God, is anyone else utterly mired in the doldrums of winter? I’ve had it. Truly. I want tomatoes, I want corn, I want cherries, I want a PEACH. I want basil that hasn’t been sitting in my freezer for three months. If I eat another apple or another bite of winter squash or parsnips, I’ll freak out. Don’t test me on this. I really will freak out.

So I felt like I had a bit of a respite when I bought the NYT yesterday. Right there on the Dining section front page was a large, bright photo of fresh milk, butter, ice cream, and yogurt. Aaaah. Thank goodness there are so many small dairies in the NY area! As it is, I already get nearly all our dairy products from Ronnybrook. Nevertheless, I hope to try some of the others listed soon.

There was a small article about medlar preserves from France – the medlar is a small fruit that only softens when it gets frostbite or when in storage. It has a pearlike flavor with a hint of cinnamon, apparently. Which sounds awfully cold-weather-esque to me right now and you all know how I’m hating on winter. Nevertheless, I might be up for trying some of this in the fall.

There has been a lot of press lately about Kim Sunée’s book, Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home, and the NYT has an interview with her this week. I actually received the ARC of this book from my marketing friend at Hachette, but I haven’t gotten more than 20 pages deep. I found Sunée to be a very detached narrator, as if she was constantly holding something back, as if she constantly had her guard up. But I’ll have to give it another try after reading the article. (Note: since I wasn’t into it, I passed the ARC on to my mother-in-law. Last I checked, she was also having trouble really connecting with the book.)

That was about it. Winter is yucky and I’m tired of my neverending cold. Blah.