Photo experimentation: Panzanella

As you regular readers know (especially those on Instagram - follow me - "lauralutz"), I recently returned from a trip to Europe (Dublin, Zurich, and Hamburg).  We had some jetlag to deal with when we returned, of course, so I've been keeping my meals relatively simple.  One of those meals was Panzanella.  There are lots of recipes for Panzanella (here and here, for example), but I just did my own thing: bread, mozzarella, and tomatoes.  For the bread, I tossed the cubes in olive oil, salt, and pepper; I tossed the oil-saturated bread cubes in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat until they were toasted: croutons!  (Note: croutons are not necessary for this recipe; in fact, this is the first time I've ever toasted the bread.  Usually, I just tear up old bread and that's it)  For the tomatoes, I tossed those in olive oil, salt, and pepper as well.  At which point, I plated the dish.

So here's the thing: I'm not a trained photographer (obviously), and I've never taken a single class.  I have recently acquired a bunch of lenses, plus a fancy flash, and I'm in full experimentation mode.  Add a huge chunk of non-blogging, non-photo-taking time...and I'm such a newbie with all this.

So for fun, here's a sample of my photos for this dish:

I didn't use a flash here.

No flash here either.

No flash.  Just kept changing the angle and F-stop.

I got my Greenmarket flowers into the action...

My particular favorite, of course...lordy...  Obviously, I introduced the flash here.

Less flash...

Even less flash...

I started playing with the flash angle.

I tried using less flash.

Still. Not. Right.

I'm unhappy with all of them, of course, but I kept the whole series as a learning experience. And it adds to the whole experience when Adam says over my shoulder, "Why are all your shots centered?  Try something off-centered!" and Bug says, "Mom!  Mom!  I can get the white board to bounce the light!  Can I be in the picture?  Can we just eat now?"  Lordy.

As for the Panzanella, it's such a lovely end-of-summer dish: simple, light, flavorful.  Normally, I dump all these ingredients into bowls, toss it around, and serve it as a bit of a mess.  This is the first time I've plated it this way and I thought it was pretty classy.

Between teaching at Pratt and our European vacation, this summer has gone by so much faster than I expected.  This was the perfect way to celebrate our return home (and our break from restaurant eating!) and the end of an incredible season.

Eat, drink, and enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

Portion Control

First, I want to state that I did not get through the Leek Soup recalibration: I had a small lunch yesterday.  I just couldn't do it.  I had a leek for breakfast, lots of water...and I felt punch-drunk and off-balance all morning.  Then I got a headache.  Then I couldn't stay hydrated enough.  I got to lunch and thought, "This is craziness.  I feel like I'm on Valium."  For the record, I took Valium when I had a root canal and hated it immensely (both the Valium and the root canal).  So I ate lunch.  No worries.  Clearly, it wasn't for me.  I do still feel like it got me jump-started so that's a good thing.  So for those of you who are trying the recalibration: please listen to  your body and eat if you need to!

So some French words of wisdom for today, quoted from FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT:

Eat only at the table, only sitting down.  Never eat out of cartons.  Use real plates and decent napkins, if you have them, to emphasize the seriousness of the activity.  Eat slowly, chew properly [...] Do not watch television or read the paper.  Think only about what you are eating, smelling, and savoring every bite.  Practice putting down your utensils between every few bites, describing to yourself the flavors and textures in your mouth. (Don't let anyone mock you for acting like a French woman - you will laugh last!)

This is an important passage because it really does redefine the way you eat each meal, at least it did for me.  And I especially appreciate the reminder about people mocking you - I felt ridiculous when I first started eating this way but, ultimately, it became part of my eating ritual (which I'm trying now to reclaim).  You'll feel silly at first but, when you eat better, feel better, and look better, it'll be easy to eat with a knowing smile on your face (yes, I totally had the Mona Lisa in mind when I wrote that...).

So, portion control.  In Mireille Guiliano's follow-up to FWDGF, FRENCH WOMEN FOR ALL SEASONS, she shares the 50% Rule.  I'm paraphrasing but the idea is that you mentally cut your plate in half.  Eat half your meal, mindfully, savoring.  Then stop.  Utensils down.  Evaluate your satisfaction level.  Are you satisfied with what you ate?  Are you finished?  Or are you genuinely still hungry?  If so, then have half of the half that's left.  Then evaluate.  And so on.

One example of exercising portion control is my dinner just last night.  Adam and I had "adult dinner": Lemon-Herb Steak with Warm Potato Salad.  See?  Don't you love being French?  Does that sound like a diet?  Anyway!  I plated our dinner but, before taking it to the table, I asked Adam, "Do we really need all this food on our plates?"  We both looked and Adam said, "I think you can definitely pull enough off to have a nice lunch tomorrow."  He was absolutely right.  So I took a bit off each of our plates, and guess who gets to  have steak and potatoes for lunch?  This gal!  And we ended up eating a little bit less than we might have otherwise!  The key is to really engage your mind in everything you're consuming, especially at the beginning.  Eventually, it'll become intuitive and routine.

Another example is my breakfast this morning:

Apple slices, Idiazabal cheese slices, and whole wheat toast with about a 1/2 teaspoon of butter.  This is about half of what I have been consuming lately.  I normally have a whole apple - this was a half.  I have the same number of cheese slices but I cut them much thinner than usual today.  And I normally put a full teaspoon of butter on my toast.  But I felt no less satisfied this morning.  In fact, I felt downright virtuous and content.

The other idea that Mireille Guiliano talks about is tricking yourself.  I tricked myself with the cheese slices.  Because I had the same number of slices, I didn't feel like I cut down at all - they were just thinner.  The butter?  Didn't miss the other half because my mind was still telling me, "Mmm...butter!"  I also cut my toast in two - it made me feel like I was having more than I was...and it also helped me remember the 50% Rule - I only ate 3/4ths of my toast!

Additionally, my weakness - my "offenders" - is anything salty and crunchy.  I fooled myself with this meal.  The apples and toast were crunchy, and the cheese and butter were slightly salty.  I got to satisfy my jones without downing half a bag of pretzels.  And I got so much more genuine pleasure out of this.

Lastly, Mireille Guiliano, in Chapter 4, talks about her colleague who has nothing but OJ, sugar-laden coffee, and two biscotti for breakfast: pure sugar!  Eventually, this woman starts eating breakfasts similar to mine today.  About this, Guiliano says: "[...] she was seeing breakfast now not as a sugar-charged jump start, but as a ritual of self-pampering; it put her in a sunnier mood to face the day."  I love that.  Couldn't we all use a little more pampering?  And why shouldn't we turn our breakfast into a lovely ritual of being kind and gentle to our minds and bodies?

Eat, drink, and pamper yourself!

Grilled Fontina and Vegetable Antipasti

Choosing this recipe for a weeknight meal came more from the awesome bread I had from the farmers' market than it did from its ease and simplicity.  We bought a loaf of Farm Bread from our favorite baker at the market: Rock Hill Bakehouse; it's dense and jam-packed full of flavor but the downside?  It goes bad.  And fast.  So I try to incorporate it into my meals as much as I can before the mold moves in.

Looking through my saved magazine recipes, I found this one from Food and Wine: Grilled Fontina and Vegetable Antipasti.  The online recipe has all the measurements (the original print version I have doesn't have any amounts or measurements) but the beauty of this recipe is that it's perfect for improvisation, especially if you're nervous about improvising.  Here's how mine turned out:

GRILLED FONTINA AND GRILLED ANTIPASTI

adapted from Food and Wine

8 1/2-inch thick slices of peasant bread

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

12 oz. sliced Fontina cheese

1/2 c. (4 oz.) roasted red peppers, sliced thin

1/2 c. (4 oz.) marinated artichokes, drained and roughly chopped

3 pickled jalapenos, seeded and roughly chopped

1 stalk green garlic, sliced thin (optional)

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Brush the bread on one side with olive oil and arrange, oiled side down, on a work surface.  Top half the slices with Fontina, peppers, artichokes, and jalapenos.  Close the sandwiches.

Preheat a skillet, panini press, or grill (I have a stovetop castiron grill).  Grill the sandwiches over medium heat  until the bread is toasted and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.  Use a panini press - or a spatula - to put pressure on the sandwiches; this helps the cheese melt and melds the flavors together.  Flip the sandwiches to toast the other side.  Take off the grill, halve the sandwiches, and serve right away.  Serves 4.

You can treat these ingredients as guidelines rather than rules; it really is all to taste.  I added fresh ground pepper.  And I also had some fresh green garlic (not the usual dried kind) from the farmers' market so I sliced that super thin and added that as well.  I'm not a fan of olives but maybe some olives might be good too?  If you like more heat, you can add more jalapenos.  It's all up to you.  Fun, right?

I'm on the bacon bandwagon and I love myself a chunk of rare steak.  But I do try to keep it to a minimum and, more often than not, we eat vegetarian meals around here.  This one is packed with flavor, and the variations are endless.  Lastly, I can easily deconstruct it for Bug: she just had cheese on hers (a.k.a. a grilled cheese sandwich).

Eat, drink, and don't skimp on flavor just because it's a weeknight.

Roast Chicken

We went to the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday, and I was so excited about the sun beating down that I  insisted Adam go do the shopping while I watched Bug on the playground, thus allowing my skin to darken from white to...something closer to off-white.  Adam brought back the bounty (sugar snap peas!  strawberries!  asparagus!) and announced that he also got a whole chicken from our favorite stand: Grazin' Angus Acres.  A whole chicken?  What?  We don't tend to eat chicken - it's dry and bland more often than not, it seems - but here's the story Adam told me:

He went to the Grazin' Angus guys to get the eggs and flap steak we love.  They told Adam about the chicken and, of course, he was dismissive.  Long story short, they all but challenged Adam to try it and even went so far as to say, "If you don't like our chicken, you won't like any chicken."  Big words.  But this is one of the joys of buying from a purveyor you know and trust: we knew that these guys weren't saying all this lightly and we have learned to trust both them and their products.  So Adam bought a chicken - all that was left was a rather large one that cost us a cool $37!  And they were holding it for us while Adam sat in the sun with me, relaying this story.  The Grazin' Angus guys also told Adam that all the chicken needed was salt and pepper on the skin.  If you have some gorgeous fresh herbs, stuff those in the cavity.  But that's all.

This is where I kind of lost it.  "Not even lemon?  You sure?  Because I have a le..."

"No, no lemon."

"Seriously?"

"Laura, I'm just telling you what the man said to me.  Ask him yourself when we pick up the bird."

Fine, I will, I thought.  So we pick up the chicken and he tells us that, ideally, you want a 500-degree oven for an hour and 15 minutes; this will create a lot of smoke so, if you're living in an apartment like us, then you can do 450-degrees for the same amount of time.  He confirmed salt and pepper on the outside.  And then I asked, "And in the cavity?"

"Herbs, maybe.  Rosemary is fine.  Just a small amount of thyme - thyme can overpower it."

"And what about lemon?  I have a le..."

"Don't you dare put lemon in my chicken!!!!"

I threw up my hands and begged for mercy, hoping he'd still let us walk away with his chicken (he did).  And our interaction ended with a promise that "you'll be spoiled by our chicken, just like we spoiled you with our eggs and beef!"

We got home and I cranked the oven to 500-degrees.  I knew it would smoke too much for our little 900-square foot apartment but I had to at least try, right?  I sprinkled the outside with kosher salt and fresh pepper, and I crammed the cavity full of rosemary.  I was soooo skeptical.  I wasn't a believer and had no trust.  So I put a ton of rosemary in that thing.

Then it was in the oven.  At 20 minutes, I had to take the battery out of our smoke alarm.  At 35 minutes, I turned the oven down to 450 degrees.  Adam told me the whole floor smelled like roast chicken.  You're welcome, neighbors.  At an hour and 15 minutes, it came out.  Easy as that.  And here's the result:

The verdict?  Outstanding.  The meat was so juicy, of course, but what struck me most was the sweetness.  I had never tasted chicken that was sweet...and flavorful with little help from me.  It was gorgeous.  And the juices had pooled up in the bottom of the platter so we dipped our bites in the juice, which took it up to a whole other level.  The only thing I might have done differently was add more salt and pepper before roasting but, really, I'm being nitpicky.  It was damn near perfect.

We ate it with raw sugar snap peas (from the Migliorelli Farm stand in Union Square) tossed in olive oil and flake salt:

And black-pepper Parmesan bread (from the Rock Hill Bakehouse stand) dipped in olive oil and course sea salt:

What an amazing Saturday meal!

And what about Bug?  Well, she liked the peas and she liked the bread.  We told her she had to at least try the chicken (which she normally won't touch).  When she asked for the wing, we were skeptical.  But what do you know...she ate the whole wing.  Then she at a leg.  In short, she loved it.  Do I think she'll be a chicken eater from now on?  Of course not.  I'm certain this was a fluke.  But between Bug eating the chicken and the Grazin' Angus Acres guys...clearly, I'm not always right.

Eat, drink, and happily admit defeat.

Together Again!

Adam got home late last night, about an hour after I fell asleep and looong after Bug had gone down for the night.  I hardly responded when he spoke to me at midnight, even though my mind still registered his arrival.

So when I woke up this morning, I was thrilled he was there.  As I'm sure you guessed, we were awakened by Bug...with a hug!  She climbed on Adam, hugging him, which then woke me up.  Perfect, right?

We got the idea to make Adam breakfast in bed as a welcome home gift:

We made bacon - our favorite kind, from Dickson's Farmstand Meats in Chelsea Market - with scrambled eggs.  And I found some Eckerton tomatoes at Manhattan Fruit Exchange yesterday so I cut those up, and tossed them with salt, pepper, lemon zest, and olive oil.  Bug was in charge of making toast and buttering it.

Breakfast in bed on a sunny Saturday morning.  Really, at that moment, I knew that I didn't need anything else in the world to make me happy.

And, as a treat to myself for making it through a challenging week, I poured a glass (okay, fine, two glasses) of prosecco.

Eat, drink, and enjoy happy reunions.

Gwyneth

I feel weird admitting this but I have ambivalent feelings about Gwyneth Paltrow. I saw her in Sliding Doors first, then Shakespeare in Love (with a small detour at Moonlight and Valentino - LOVED the scene where she's playing air drums!)...and decided that if I were to look like anyone else but me, I'd want to look like her. And there's a little of the WWGD feeling in me: What Would Gwyneth Do? She's impeccably groomed, well-spoken, engaging, glamorous, fashionable...so how would I react to a situation if I were as seemingly pulled-together and self-possessed as Gwyn?

Then I saw Spain...On the Road Again with Gwyneth, Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, and Claudia Bassols and only adored her more. I mean, BFFs with Michael Stipe?! Those big sunglasses and pashminas?! Yes, please.

Then GOOP happened. And I got pissed off. Why? Because I have real issues with celebrities who try to claim "I'm just an ordinary person." That attempt to make us believe that they're just like us little people. Um, no, you're not. I could go on a rampage here, but I'm certain I don't need to - you know what I'm getting at. Long rant short: no, you're not like me. And until you're in my shoes, stop proclaiming to be. I totally felt like Gwyneth went there.

So I cook recipes from Spain...A Culinary Road Trip with ambivalence these days. Like tonight. I was desperate for something to cook tonight and ultimately turned to Spain. And I found it: Pan Con Tomate and Catalan-Style Spinach. With a side of jamon Serrano? Yes, please. This is what happened:

It was heaven. Exactly what I asked for. Simple and easy to make, but the flavors were gorgeous and refreshing. Unbeknownst to me when I planned the meal, it also straddled the changing seasons perfectly: it was comforting and warm, but still seasonal and fresh.

You'll notice that I changed up the Pan Con Tomate recipe a bit. I had plum tomatoes on hand. I split one in half and rubbed it all over the bread, like the recipe said. All kinds of pulpy juiciness all over that charred bread. But I still had two tomatoes left over. So I chopped them up and tossed them with salt, pepper, and lemon zest. Spread them over the bread. Finished with flaky salt and lots of pepper.

Also, I didn't have the dried currants that were called for in the spinach recipe so I used dried cranberries to great effect. Definitely feel free to substitute.

So, dammit, GP still wins. The score? Gwyneth: 4, Laura: 0 (reference the migas, as well as the empanadas and tortilla espanola). She and Mario make a killer cookbook and travel memoir - perhaps I should forgive her GOOP and just channel her fabulousness.

Eat, drink, and be okay with who you are...even if it's not Gwyneth.

Links à deux

Rarely do I care that I don't bake. I just don't have a sweet tooth so I'm never motivated to go through the effort. People often ask me how I can have "only one" square of chocolate after my lunch: "You can stop at only one?!" Why, yes. Yes, I can.

What no one comments on is how I manage to scarf down an entire plate of nachos by myself. I exercise little to no restraint for nachos. I make room because I love all things crunchy, salty, and cilantro-y. On nacho nights, I consciously eat light the entire day because I know I'm going to go the distance for dinner. That's just me. Desserts? Meh. Chips? Awwww yeah, baby.

Anyway...every once in awhile, someone makes me wish I baked. Usually when they bake something savory. I give you Simmer Till Done's Upside-Down Tomato Basil Bread. Holy crap. I want it and I want it now. And Marilyn gives fantastic instructions in case things aren't looking right - she's making baking sound do-able...even for me. However, the very idea of cranking my oven up to 400 degrees for more than an hour is unthinkable right now, my un-air-conditioned kitchen being the gateway to hell in the summertime. But for all you people lucky enough to cook in air-conditioned bliss, you're welcome.

The other link I offer you is Amateur Gourmet's review of Julie & Julia. He said it perfectly and he convinced me that having the juxtaposition between Julie Powell and Julia Child not only worked but was necessary to the movie. And I teared up a bit when he mentioned the movie being about connections: Julia and Paul, Julie and Eric, Julia and her collaborators, Julie and her friends...on and on. I was already feeling so glowy and happy about the movie, and now I love it even more.

Eat, drink, and make Upside-Down Tomato Basil Bread so I can live vicariously through you!

Vacation, Part II: Oregon

So the second part of our vacation was a trip to Oregon to visit my in-laws. Again, I found myself wondering why - why - did I ever leave...until Adam reminded me - again - how much I loathe the constant gray. Nevertheless, here are a few of the things we did:

• Mexican and Salvadoran cuisine at Los Dos Hermanos in Keizer. I haven't had a lot of Salvadoran* food, but I do credit myself with knowing good food when I taste it...and this is gooooood. I am a HUGE fan of their pupusas (here is a recipe that I've used to try to imitate them), and we went through two pitchers of their margaritas. Good times, good times. It's a great local family-run joint and, even though I can't imagine you'd ever be there, I can't recommend it highly enough the next time you're in Keizer.

• I drank a ridiculous amount of local wines: Cubanisimo 2006 Pinot Noir (major spice), King Estate Pinot Gris, King Estate 2007 "Next" Pinot Noir (light and fruity, perfect summer red), and Firesteed Pinot Noir. And that was only the local wines...there were others...
  
  
• As usual, we stocked up on all our local produce at EZ Orchards. The photo below is a meal mostly bought from them: local Willamette Valley Cheese Co. cheeses, caramelized local Walla Walla onions, local raspberries and marionberries, Great Harvest bread, and non-local salami bought at Whole Foods. To top it off, this lovely lunch was eaten while fishing along the Santiam River.
  
  
• And no trip to Oregon is complete without a trip to McMenamins. The BEST tater tots, great burgers, and fantastic local beers: I splurged and drank TWO pints of their Wheat beer. I love the atmosphere too - dark wood, jukebox, mismatched tables and chairs. Not to mention that the servers will let you sit forever, if you want. It's about the closest thing we have to pubs in the U.S.
  
  
  
  
• We also went to Great Harvest Bread Co. and bought one of the biggest ice cream sandwiches EVER. Also bought some fresh bread to go with all our meals.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Ram is a microbrewery across the street from my alma mater, and I drank waaaaay too many Long Island Ice Teas there in my youth (they were only $2!!!). I made up for it this time by drinking an excellent microbrew: Big Horn Blonde. You don't need to know that it was a 24 ouncer...see, I can still put 'em away!
  
  
• Last but not least, we scored a tour at the "we don't give tours to the public" Kettle Chips processing plant. I'll be writing an entire post dedicated to the tour, but let me tell you now that it was truly a pinnacle for me. Absolutely fascinating.

The food scene in Oregon is everything it is rumored to be: focus on fresh, local ingredients with a natural, relaxed, laid-back vibe. I ate well, my friends, and it was wonderful.

Eat, drink, and cheers to the West Coast, my homeland.

* So Los Dos Hermanos spells it "Salvadoran" but I keep reading it "Salvadorian" other places. I can't tell definitively which it is.

Spain...On the Road Again (The Book)

Like all good librarians, I check books out from my local library.  Like a bad librarian, I love to write in my books...which is why I am a book buyer.  I dog-ear to mark my place and I love using a highlighter to mark special passages.  And my cookbooks are the worst: they've been dog-eared and highlighted...but I also spill things on them and make all kinds of notes for each recipe I try.  I'd feel bad except that I feel that I'm personalizing my books and, years from now, perhaps my grandchildren will read all my notes and be able to see the passages I loved and it'll make it all more personal.  But what I do with cookbooks is check them out from the library first and try some recipes to see if the book is worth buying.  If I like the test group, then I'll go ahead and buy it so I can start making my notes.  

I recently checked out Spain: A Culinary Road Trip by Mario Batali "with Gwyneth Paltrow."  And the first three recipes were a smashing success.

I made the Tortilla Espanola* first, and it was simple beyond belief.  I didn't change a thing from the recipe and, as it suggested, I served it with jamon and a salad for dinner:

The second dish I made was the empanada.  This one surprised me a bit because I'm used to eating empanadas in restaurants where they come more individually packaged.  This dish confused me as to the difference between calzone and empanada (is it just the difference between Italian and Spanish?).  Either way, the flavor was rich and outstanding.  I halved the recipe for Adam, Bug, and me and it was more than enough for the three of us: I had enough leftovers for two lunches.  And be careful on the cooking time - I cooked it about 27 minutes and it was about 7-9 minutes too long - perhaps because I had halved the recipe.  Anyway, watch the cooking time:

The last dish was the migas, and it was both unique and simple.  The flavor was insane.  I did modify the heck out of this one.  Unfortunately, I don't have photos (my parents were here and I didn't want to be all weird and bloggy about our dinner)...but here is my version of the recipe:

4 c. bread crumbs (I used a baguette)

2 c. panko bread crumbs (I ran out of baguette)

1/3 c. olive oil

6 garlic cloves, not peeled

1/2 lb. Spanish chorizo, casings removed and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1/2 lb. pancetta in one piece, cut into 1/2-inch dice

A large bunch of grapes

4 roasted red peppers, peeled, seeded, and cut into wide strips

Tear up approximately 1/2 a baguette into a food processor.  Process until roughly ground.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add the garlic and stir until lightly browned and fragrant, 1-2 minutes.  Add the chorizo and pancetta and cook, stirring, until the meat is lightly browned and starting to render its fat, about 8 minutes.  Add the bread crumbs (baguette and panko), mix thoroughly, and cook, stirring, until the crumbs are lightly browned (the crumbs are going to soak up all the oil and pork fat - I told you it was insane).  Serve with the grapes and roasted peppers (peel the cloves if you like, or let your guests do it...I peeled mine).

The only thing I would change about this one is I would double the garlic.  Seriously.  The garlic ends up getting roasted in its skin so it's incredibly soft and sweet.  It takes each bite to the next level and we all ended up fighting over the measly 6 cloves in the recipe.

So this makes it official: this cookbook is a buyer!  I'm looking forward to writing notes in the margins for posterity!

Eat, drink, and be okay with owning a book by Gwyneth Paltrow.

* Apologies for my lack of proper accents on the Spanish words.  Does anyone know how to do this on Blogger?  Normally I just import from Google Docs, but...

Let's hit the links!

• Georgeanne Brennan, who I fell in love with after reading Pig in Provence , has some great suggestions for using leftover bread. I've already used a couple of her ideas to great success. I love that she mentions breadcrumbs tossed with pasta: carbs on carbs is one of life's great but simple pleasures. Don't think about it - just do it.
  
• The Washington Post had an article about the growing number of recreational cooking schools. I also recently read about one in NYC. This is actually something I was thinking I'd like to do post-culinary school. But not if everyone else is doing it...
  


• Mark Bittman writes about having dinner with Patricia Wells. Which is only a dream of mine. One day - mark my words - I'm going to attend one of her cooking classes in Provence.
  


• I've mentioned my local cheese shop, Cheese of the World, before: Zagat said it was the best place for cheese in Queens. Well, apparently their supplier didn't let them in on the 300% tariff on Roquefort news. My husband mentioned the tariff and our favorite guy (nicknamed by us "Handsome Guy") had no idea what we were talking about. Handsome Guy gave Adam a bar of chocolate (Cafe-Tasse!) as a thank you and was calling his supplier as Adam walked out the door. Read this at Murray's Cheese too. Now there's word that the tariff has been delayed a month while the U.S. and France negotiate.
  


• I'm currently reading The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000 Year Old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight by Mark Caro. Thus far, it's a fascinating read. Caro takes a journalistic approach, much like Michael Pollan and Jennifer 8. Lee. For an interesting argument, read this review.
  


• Want to take better food photos? For the Love of Food has some terrific suggestions and hints, and not all of them require expensive equipment.
  


• I was rather surprised to see Alice Waters smiling at me from my NY Times Sunday Business section this past weekend. Civil Eats posted an interesting personal reflection, inspired by the article (note: it's decidedly pro-Alice...and it's a shame that I feel I need to state that as a disclaimer. Sigh).
  


• Lest we get too precious and foodie-like, I'll post this link. Thanks to Adam for sending this to me - he inspired my stomach bile to rise while sitting at my work computer this morning.
  

And in a complete departure, I'll link to something children's literature-related. Collecting Children's Books discusses a science book from the 1940s, and I think you'll want to take a look at the illustrator. Reading this post was an exceptional way to start my morning.