These are the golden days of fall. Clear skies, fluttering leaves, red dogwood berries, and cooler temperatures. I’m happily rummaging through my sweater drawer, eager for a wardrobe change. Food-wise we are ready for some novelty, too. Summer salads were all well and good, but I’m thinking of heartier fare – I’ll be bidding adieu to estival cucumber salads, and hello to the many permutations of the fortifying squash.

Summer squash – namely zucchini – has worn out its welcome. Winter squash is a blessing. I have been reading recipes for raw, roasted, baked, mashed, grilled, stewed, steamed and souped-up squash. And there are oodles more for the myriad varieties of squash: acorn squash, Delicata squash, butternut squash, Sweet Dumpling squash, Turban squash, Kabocha squash, spaghetti squash, buttercup squash, and lest we forget the obvious – pumpkin squash.

I rely on Food52 for its robust ideas. How brilliant is this? Raw butternut squash: https://food52.com/blog/25641-why-you-should-eat-butternut-squash-raw

For the chilly vegetarians in your COVID pod, this is a way to warm them up with the more delicate taste of roasted acorn squash and apples: https://www.makingthymeforhealth.com/roasted-acorn-squash-and-apple-soup/

Are you trying to cut back on your carbs? Spaghetti squash might be the answer. Of course, adding cheese and bacon, and a side of garlic bread won’t really benefit your lofty dietary goals, but it is delicious: https://www.thespruceeats.com/spaghetti-squash-carbonara-4693656

There are subtle differences among squash varieties. The kabocha (which means pumpkin in Japanese) squash and the buttercup squash look very similar – they are round and squat and green, after all. But the kabocha is rounder, and has a tree-like stem. The buttercup flesh is wetter, while the kabocha is more dense and easier to handle, and more desirable. Seek out the kabocha, accept no substitutes. https://heathereatsalmondbutter.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/gettin-krazy-with-kabocha/

The Delicata squash is cream-colored with orange or green stripes, and it has a delicate, edible rind. Pair it with apples for an aromatic side dish for pork chops: https://www.loveandlemons.com/roasted-delicata-squash/

I love a good, hearty stuffed squash. Many squash are perfectly suited for stuffing and you can stuff with abandon: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2015/11/06/stuffed-winter-squash

Breads! Bake pumpkin bread often during the fall. Homemade pumpkin spices floating around the house will cheer you up and make you smile during these anxious COVID days, which drag on and on. You will feel a great sense of accomplishment, too. Right now, mindfulness and deep breathing are to be encouraged. Plus with a slice of pumpkin bread and a cup of tea, you can take a little afternoon break as you work from home. This is extra special pumpkin bread – it has chocolate! It will give you something to look forward to: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-bread/

Here is a handy overview of winter squashes: https://www.allrecipes.com/article/winter-squash-types/

“It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.”
― Alexander McCall Smith

It is finally starting to cool down, at night at least. I have placed a couple of cheerful pumpkins on the front porch and have replanted the window boxes with chrysanthemums and some pansies. My neighbor keeps rearranging her seasonal troupe of plastic skeletons and ghosts. It is beginning to look a lot like the seasons are going to change. Finally.

Living in the slower-paced smaller COVID world we can spend a day learning how to ferment pickle the slow, traditional way. Or we can quick pickle and get ready to binge Borgen on Netflix. Pickles might be the new COVID sour dough DIY project. Quick pickles can give us a little sunshine on the dinner table when fall’s cooler temperatures and darker nights make us long for summer’s warm sunshine.

My mother favored a tiny one-man butcher shop just around the corner from our house. It was the kind of place that stocked bread and Saltines and penny candy, as well as the hanging slabs of meat kept cold in an old-fashioned wooden refrigerator at the back of the store. While we waited for our pound of cubed steak or a half pound of sliced American cheese, we were sometimes allowed to choose a pickle out of the large barrel located near the front door. They were huge, manatee-sized pickles, which we ate sitting on the step of the shop, with juice running down our arms and onto the sidewalk. (In retrospect I wonder how my mother decided they would be a treat for us, because she didn’t like pickles. Every Thanksgiving she would put out a tiny WASPy bowl of sweet gherkins for a relish dish , but I never saw her eat any.)

I enjoy a cool cucumber salad, with slices of sweet Vidalia onion, and a scattering of Maldon salt is the perfect summer meal. Quick pickles are almost as good as an Indian Summer salad, or sitting on Benny’s Butcher Shop front step, chowing down on a big, honking pickle, watching the neighborhood parade by.

Cheater’s Pickles – From the New York Times
2 English cucumbers
2 tablespoons sugar
Handful of ice cubes
¼ cup rice vinegar, Champagne vinegar, apple cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar
Several pinches of flaky salt, such as Maldon
Several grinds of black pepper, optional
2 tablespoons snipped fresh dill, mint or chives, or a mixture, optional
½ Vidalia onion, sliced into thin half-moons, optional

1.Cut off the ends of the cucumbers and use the tines of a fork to draw long stripes down their lengths. Slice the cucumbers like bread-and-butter pickles, about 1/8-inch thick, and pile them into a large shallow bowl. Sprinkle the sugar over the cucumbers and stir in well. Scatter the ice cubes over the slices and cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Chill in the freezer for 1/2 hour.

2.Drain the cucumbers in a colander and pat dry with a clean kitchen towel. Put the cucumbers back in the bowl, sprinkle the vinegar over them evenly, and stir well. Add the salt and pepper, if using, and stir well to combine. Toss in the herbs and the onions, if using. Refrigerate until ready to serve. They will still be good the next day, though not quite as crisp.

Vivian Howard knows busy. Here is her recipe for quick pickles from PBS’s A Chef’s Life:
http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/quick-pickled-cucumbers-onions/

Of course, our friends at Food52 have the answer for quick pickles, too: https://food52.com/recipes/18162-spicy-dill-quick-pickles

And here is a super quick recipe from Alice Waters for a medley of cucumbers, radishes and watermelon meant to be consumed immediately. Hurry up! Get cracking! We haven’t got anywhere to go!
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/salt-sugar-pickles-363479

“Each day the sun shone, the birds lingered, though the trees were turning, purely out of habit, and their rose and yellow and rust looked strange and beautiful above the brilliant green grass.”
― Elizabeth Enright

Originally I thought I would write a timely piece about tacos to cleverly coincide with National Taco Day, which is October 4. I am a week early, which should give you plenty of time to experiment and try every variation and permutation before the big day actually arrives. It is funny how the calendar keeps playing tricks on me this year. 2020 has been a weird one, to say the least.

Spring was lovely – it didn’t feel like a burden to stay safely at home and watch the daffodils emerge from corners of the garden. The tulips bloomed late and then disappeared in a week. The daffodils hung on for weeks. There were buckets of warm spring rain, which suited the hydrangeas. And the burgeoning mosquitoes. Summer was long and hot. The minute fall arrived (this past Tuesday at 9:30 AM, EDT) it cooled down and I reached for a sweater, which I have since tossed onto the back of a kitchen chair because it has gotten summer-warm again. Just because the calendar says it’s fall doesn’t guarantee that the weather will cooperate.

I used to love running out to the grocery store whenever the whim or the obscure recipes demanded it. Those were the days. Carefree. Mask-free. The wind blowing through my artfully coiffed locks. That was back when I could get haircuts. (I was taller and blonder and thinner in that Katmandu state of mind, too.) Covid-19 has required that we plan ahead, shop less frequently, stay home more, mask up and be mindful of others.

I like to think that I am a frugal New Englander; that I remember to “Use it up, wear it out, made it do, do without.” Somehow I always picture that phrase as coming to me from repeatedly reading Little Women. Surely Beth embroidered it as a lovely cross-stitched sampler that hung over her piano. Or Laura Ingalls Wilder muttered under her breath as she grimly churned butter in a sod-house in Minnesota. But no, it turns out that it was a phrase used in World War II, encouraging us to cheerfully make do with rationing. I guess I need to re-read Little Women.
https://www.eisenhowerfoundation.net/ikeducation/lesson-plans/use-it-wear-it-out-make-it-do-or-do-without#

We have been watching lots of videos, as have you. We fell into Netflix’s Chef’s Table recently. After watching an hour of grim pandemic news it is a relief to see images of people with passions and skills, living happy, pre-pandemic lives, puttering around their well-appointed kitchens making wonderfully bizarre foods. https://philly.eater.com/2019/4/15/18282518/south-philly-barbacoa-cristina-martinez-mexican-restaurant-philadelphia

I used to think narrowly about tacos. I have been amazed to find that tacos are not just browned ground beef, flavored by Old El Paso seasoning mix, served in fried, hard corn tortilla shells, topped with orange cheese. Now I know that tacos will save us during the pandemic, because they make ordinary leftovers exotic. Tacos are magic. I give to you some taco legerdemain:Nights when I have trouble sleeping, instead of worrying about the state of the world, over which I have no control, I try to think about what grooviness I can serve for dinner without going to the grocery store. What is lurking in the fridge or is tucked away in the pantry that can stretch the time until I need to mask up and tear through the grocery store.

Leftovers are our friends, and leftovers as tacos are friends with beer and chips. Tacos are better than casseroles. Consequently I have learned to keep a stash of corn tortillas in the fridge, which are the basis for tacos. (Sometimes I have flour tortillas, too. In a pinch we can make quesadillas, which make an easy, cheesy side dish.)

Most all of the time we have these items, too. Although I have to ask the Family Nose to test the sour cream container for viability:

Meat – leftover roast beef, steak, chicken, salmon, pork, lamb
Refried beans – try to get the vegetarian kind to avoid lard
Rice – we always make too much, so there is always a stash in the freezer
Corn or flour shell tortillas
Toppings
Shredded lettuce or cabbage
Chopped tomato
Chopped Vidalia onion, green onion, red onion
Radishes (some may lurk in the way back)
Cilantro (it is amazing how much fresh cilantro will add to a store-bought salsa)
Guacamole (I never have avocados, but you might)
Salsa
Salsa verde
Sour cream (from a couple of weeks ago, usually)
Shredded cheese – we mix mozzarella with cheddar
Jalapeños – we always have a jar of pickled jalapeños, but fresh pack a better kick, and will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks
Lime juice for a refreshing citrus jolt – bottled will do in a pinch
Olives
Hot sauce
Corn

I used to fry the tortillas to death, thinking that the packaged hard shells we found in the grocery store were authentic. Such foolishness! Now I either lightly fry the shells in a skillet or griddle and warm both sides of each tortilla until they are warm and soft. Or, to keep the stove top from getting splattered, I drape the shells over the wire oven racks in a 350°F oven for about 5-7 minutes. Some recipes say spray with oil, but really, spray? Aren’t we trying to save the planet? I say leave the shells in the oven until you have found the degree of crispiness you enjoy the most. Low cal, and ozone friendly

Good luck with your National Taco Day celebration. You can never rehearse too much, or too often. Just remember to keep some tortillas (and beer) in the fridge, and some extra chips in the pantry. Make yourself happy puttering in the kitchen.

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”
-Calvin Trillin

Salt Fat Acid Heat guru Samin Nosrat’s brilliant take: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/29/slow-roasted-pork-taco-recipe-salted-caramel-cookies-samin-nosrat

Here is a vegetarian take on tacos, too: https://shaneandsimple.com/crunchy-baked-taco-shells/

Fish: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/grilling-tilapia-fish-tacos.html

https://everydaydishes.com/simple-food-recipes/leftover-roast-beef-street-tacos/

https://www.howsweeteats.com/2017/06/lets-set-taco-bar-fathers-day/

I love the simplicity of summer cooking, mostly because my summertime philosophy is to send as much of the cooking outside to Mr. Friday and his grill as I possibly can, without seeming churlish. Or manipulative. Or lazy. He is better suited to repel the advances of mosquitos, and Luke the wonder dog lives in hope of a game of The B Word. I am naturally inclined to stay in the kitchen, monitoring the wine levels, while washing berries or whipping cream. Or checking Instagram.

The end of September is that odd time of the year when some mornings it is cool enough for a light jacket, which we will regret wearing along about eleven, when the temperature rises. The angle of light is changing, the sun is going down earlier, a handful of leaves is falling, and we are about ready for a change. Summer is a grand season, but I am looking forward to sweater weather.

And while we wait for the weather to catch up with the calendar, let’s move out to the back porch for a glass of wine. It’s almost dinnertime. There are more cardinals squawking in the hedge. I can hear geese some afternoons, and I watch the squirrels’ hunting parties rustling around while they are checking on this year’s pecan harvest. Luke is grateful for the extra distractions.

I anticipate the delights of the upcoming change of season, but I am also kvetching about the things I didn’t accomplish this summer: books I didn’t read, the croquet we never played, the back porch we didn’t paint, the European trip that was cancelled because of COVID, the domestic travel we couldn’t manage because of COVID; just lots of time at home, frozen in anxiety-ridden pandemic angst. Something has got to give!

Cooler weather means I will return to the kitchen and will rummage about for the big stew pots, the loaf pans, the Crock Pot and the recipes that will stick-to-our-ribs and our COVID bellies. Stews, chilies, spaghetti sauces, meatloaves, lasagnes, breads, brownies and pot pies. Spices swirling in the air. Baking. Planning Thanksgiving. I’m dreaming of a change from this stinking hot long, long summer. And then there are sugar plums that arrive in December! And having to figure out what to do for the Christmas card this year!

We do not ease our way back inside from the summer spent cooking outside on the grill. It is an abrupt change. Labor Day has come and gone, slamming the screen door behind it. I hear there might be some football. And while we wait for a vaccine I might as well get back into the kitchen – the summer holiday is over.

It’s going to rain this weekend with remnants of Hurricane Sally tooling around out there and if you can’t get outside to the grill – never fear. This is a good transitional side dish: oven roasted broccolini with lemons and Parmesan. Mr. Friday has been experimenting with broccolini on the grill this summer, and now it is coming inside. https://heronearth.com/roasted-broccolini-and-lemon-with-crispy-parmesan

If you don’t mind shopping for slivered almonds, you can try this version: https://daniliciousdishes.com/roasted-broccolini-w-garlic-parmesan-and-charred-lemon/

I’m going to ask Mr. Friday to help me with the cast iron skillet prep for hamburgers. There is one more week of September left, and I plan on relishing one last burger.

“Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away
Our hearts were ringing
In the key that our souls were singing
As we danced in the night
Remember how the stars stole the night away…”
-Earth, Wind & Fire

https://genius.com/Earth-wind-and-fire-september-lyrics

Lunch has always been my favorite meal. I look forward to it every day, even when it is just a sandwich and a handful of chips. (I’ll save the apple for a mid-afternoon snack.) I love walking away from the studio, strolling the 25 feet or so into the kitchen, where I generally sit at the counter and eat by myself. (There is nothing that relieves the existential boredom of a morning of solitary cross hatching like a little blue glass bowl of potato chips.) Perched on a stool, I can look out on the neighbors’ comings and goings, read a magazine, drop a bread crust (by accident!) for Luke the wonder dog, and just enjoy a slight change of scene. Life is not very exciting when you have always worked from home, and sometimes all it takes is a ham sandwich on rye, with a generous schmear of spicy brown mustard to get creative enough for the demands the afternoons bring .

This year, the COVID-19 year, there are greater challenges for some that merely changing the view won’t help. The lucky ones, we who can work from home, are now sometimes juggling a couple of children and assorted class curricula on top of our work. There are others who are able to send their masked children off to actual real life school rooms. Will the children eat their lunches in a cafeteria or from social distances at their desks? Maybe there will be picnic tables outside, while the weather is still nice? Will the children bring lunches from home, or eat school-provided meals?

Whether you are sitting at the kitchen table by yourself, or packing a lunch for someone else, you need good ideas every day. Which can be a daunting prospect. Making lunch interesting and healthy is a real concern. Energy! Nutrition! Protein! Variety! And you can’t just slide by using up the hurricane-supply-peanut butter. On Sundays, while you are planning your dinners for the week, you need to plan out lunches, too. Take a page from practically perfect Amanda Hesser from Food52. She packs fabulously original lunches for her children. We could hate her if she wan’t so clever. And her ideas are reasonable. They don’t call for too many obscure and expensive ingredients. With a little practice, we might just be trainable. Because we know there will be dessert.
https://food52.com/blog/17941-13-greatest-hits-from-amanda-s-kids-lunches

Get out the tiny little Tupperwear containers, find all the maddeningly elusive lids, and start chopping. Make little Bento boxes of luncheon-y delights for every day. Shake up your routine, and experiment. Swipe on some chutney. Dust a sandwich with a handful of sprouts. Forgo the Pepperidge Farm white bread and try Naan bread. Don’t forget leftovers! Our Tall One made some interesting combinations with leftovers from Thanksgiving, theorizing that everything tastes delicious on a crescent roll, especially when daubed judiciously with cranberry sauce.

I haul this list out this out annually, without shame. Feel free to make your own spreadsheet, so you will never have another moment of hesitation. At least with regard to lunch. The Spy Test Kitchen came up with this flexible list of ingredients for packing school lunches a few years ago. It is just as timely today:

Luncheon Variations

Column A
Let’s start with bread:
Ciabatta bread
Rye bread
Whole grain breads
Hard rolls
Portuguese rolls
French baguette
Italian bread
Brioche
Flour tortillas
Croissants
Bagels
Challah bread
Crostini
Cornbread
Naan bread
Focaccia bread
Pita bread
If storing overnight, top bread with lettuce first, then the spreads, to keep sandwich from getting soggy.

Column B
Next, the spread:
Mayo
Sriracha
Ketchup
Dijon mustard
Honey mustard
Italian dressing
Russian dressing
Cranberry sauce
Pesto sauce
Hummus
Tapenade
Sour cream
Chutney
Butter
Hot sauce
Salsa
Salsa verde

Column C
Cheeses:
Swiss cheese
American cheese
Mozzarella
Blue cheese
Cream cheese
Havarti cheese
Ricotta cheese
Cheddar cheese
Provolone cheese
Brie cheese
Cottage cheese
Goat cheese

Column D
The main ingredient:
Meatloaf
Turkey
Chicken
Corned beef
Bacon
Crumbled hard boiled eggs
Scrambled eggs
Corned beef
Salami
Italian sausage
Ham
Roast beef
Egg salad
Tuna salad
Ham salad
Crab salad
Chicken salad
Turkey salad
Lobster salad
Tofu

Column E
The decorative (and tasty) elements:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Basil
Onion
Avocado
Cucumber
Cilantro
Shredded carrots
Jalapenos
Cole slaw
Sliced apples
Sliced red peppers
Arugula
Sprouts
Radicchio
Watercress
Sliced pears
Apricots
Pickles
Spinach
Artichoke hearts
Grapes
Strawberries
Figs

Column F
Finger foods:
Cherries
Carrots
Strawberries
Green Beans
Broccoli
Celery
Edemame
Granola
Rice cakes
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Melon balls
Raisins
Broccoli
Blueberries

“ ‘We could take our lunch,’ said Katherine.‘What kind of sandwiches?’ said Mark.
‘Jam,’ said Martha thoughtfully, ‘and peanut-butter-and-banana, and cream-cheese-and-honey, and date-and-nut, and prune-and marshmallow…’”
-Edward Eager, Magic by the Lake

It’s the calendar end-of-the-summer moment even though the temperatures tell us something completely different. It’s almost time to start squirreling away the acorns, can the tomatoes, clean the gutters and haul the boat out for the last time. Then again, you have a three-day weekend, nowhere to go, and a perfectly good back yard that encourages social distancing. It is time for you to have an end-of-summer blowout with the half dozen people in your quarantine pod. Let’s cook all those dishes that we never have got around to this summer and have some great Instagram-envy-inducing moments.

Crab fest! Hooray. https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/fooddrink/how-to-throw-the-perfect-crab-feast/

Kabobs. Here are dozens of ideas: https://www.southernliving.com/food/holidays-occasions/easy-grilled-kabobs-recipe

Baby back ribs. Stay home. Stay safe! https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/the-best-baby-back-ribs-1241297

Lobster. And lobster rolls. Go to the source: https://lobsterfrommaine.com/steaming-lobster/

Grilled Shrimp. Variety is the spice of grilling shrimp: https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-best-grilled-shrimp-recipes-333576

Grilled pizza. We stick to the basics, because we value our finger prints, but you can get very fancy if you wish. https://www.brit.co/grilled-pizza-recipes/

Grilled corn. We usually just wrap the ears of corn in aluminum foil, with a couple of pats of butter and a handful of Maldon salt, but we are set in our ways. Feel free to experiment: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/honey-buttered-grilled-corn

Grilled potatoes. Thanks, Martha! https://www.marthastewart.com/355490/grilled-potato-wedges

Grilled asparagus. You can’t go wrong with Alice Waters and garlic: https://www.mountainfeed.com/blogs/learn/homemade-aioli

Pesto. Shame on you. Get cracking: https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/fat/basil-pesto

Be slightly au courant. Watermelon Frosé: https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a32702671/mason-jar-watermelon-frose/

Pina coladas. It’s the last weekend of summer. It’s your last chance: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bas-best-pina-colada

Key Lime Pie. This is the best never-fail Key Lime Pie recipe we have ever found, and yet, we haven’t made one this year. Shocking. Look in the bottled lemon juice section of the grocery store. Buy a graham cracker crust. Make good whipped cream. You will never regret the calories. Trust me: https://keylimejuice.com/nellie-joes-key-lime-pie/

S’mores. Forget the campfire, and do them on the grill: https://www.grubstreet.com/2020/09/adam-platt-on-smores.html?

Goodbye, Summer!

“Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.”
― Carl Sandburg

By the time you read this I should be out of the studio, out of the kitchen, and off-line. Maybe I will even switch my phone to airplane mode so I stop getting pinged by spam and requests for political donations. That is an excellent idea. I will wedge myself into a comfy position on the bank of the river with my book, my watercolors, and look out adoringly at Mr. Friday as he casts away for trout. Though he keeps muttering about “Non-hatch. Non-hatch…” I guess we will be flipping burgers over the campfire tonight and not fish.

Because I am feeling generous (and grateful) for being out of town and enjoying myself, I will share with you these easiest of dessert ideas. I cannot call it a recipe, because it is time-honored, greatly revered, summertime, PTA, Junior League cookbook, crowd-sharing genius notion of combining ingredients. The only skill you need is for whipping cream, and I trust you can do that without having to look at YouTube videos. (And do not disappoint me by using Cool Whip. It is fake and phony and an anathema.)

Summer Classic: Ice Cream Pie

1. Go to the store and buy a prepared pie shell. Spend $3. It’s worth it. I bought a shortbread pie shell, but you can use a graham cracker pie shell, or a chocolatey Oreo shell. (Shameless shill that I am, I used a Keebler pie shell. If you want to toil earnestly in a hot kitchen, you can grind up gingersnaps and make your own, but I am on vacation, and with all the time I am saving, I will write you a postcard.)

2. Buy half a gallon of ice cream. I opted for Breyer’s strawberry, but I bet a blueberry ice cream, or even French vanilla would be yummy. Here is an edited list of the veritable panoply of Breyer’s ice cream flavors: Cherry Vanilla, Peach, Chocolate Truffle, Heath Bar, Tiramisu, Butter Pecan, Butterscotch Blondie, Coffee, Chocolate, Thin Mint, Samoas, Waffle Cone, Oreo Cookies and Snickers. Those are just the ice creams. There are even more gelatos! Ben and Jerry have a kabillion flavors, too: https://www.benjerry.com/flavors/ice-cream-pints

3. Buy a pint of heavy whipping cream. I always buy the store brand. But you can get fancy and go all organic and buy an over-priced name brand is you wish.

4. Find some deelish seasonal fruit. Mr. Friday’s eyes were bigger than his breakfast stomach, so we had a lot of strawberries and blueberries in the fridge. Sliced peaches would be very pretty. Raspberries or blackberries are always enjoyable. Use your head, and whatever you have on hand or can score at the farmers’ market. Think about what would be easiest to eat while sitting in the dark on the back porch when you are waiting for the Perseid Meteor Showers to explode over your head.

5. Open the pie shell packaging. Open the ice cream container. Let the ice cream soften up a little bit. Be sure to take a couple of test spoonfuls. Use an ice cream scoop to dig the ice cream out of the container, and to plop it into the pie crust shell. After a couple of minutes I schmeared the ice cream nice and flat using an offset icing spatula, which gave me the Food52 vibe of urbane sophistication. I like to look like I know what I am doing, even if it is only me and Luke the wonder dog alone in the kitchen. Pop the ice cream-filled shell back into the freezer while you whip the cream.

6. Slice the strawberries or peaches. I always toss strawberries in a little lemon juice and sugar.

7. Using your sophisticated city slicker offset icing spatula, twirl the freshly whipped cream onto the layer of ice cream. Delicately arrange the fruit on top of the ice cream. Somehow the blueberries that I centered carefully drifted a little to the northwest, after I moved on to the strawberries, but that is a gravitational mystery that will never be solved. Put everything back in the freezer to firm up.

8. Flip your burgers. Or grill the trout. Have some green salad. And then slice up the pie. Sit back. Settle in. Tune out. Cool down. Enjoy.

https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/10-minute-ice-cream-pie/ (They advocate Cool Whip! Heresy!)

Another family fave: https://butteryourbiscuit.com/chocolate-wafer-icebox-cake/ Although ours never look quite so pretty!

https://www.keebler.com/en/yummy-recipes/pie-crust/raspberry-shortcake-pie/

“Have you ever spent days and days and days making up flavors of ice cream that no one’s ever eaten before? Like chicken and telephone ice cream? Green mouse ice cream was the worst. I didn’t like that at all.”
― Neil Gaiman

These are the longest days of the year – waiting for summer to depart and for the cool breezes of fall to waft over our fevered brows. Trying to stay home during lockdown and being socially distant has taken all the spirit out of us. Even Luke the wonder dog is loathe to walk in the afternoons: we lurch from shadow to shadow, seeking coolth and respite as we stagger through our mindful paces. We don’t even have the first day of school to look forward to – no lunch boxes this year, for a while, anyway. We have been overcome by ennui.

It has been time to get a grip, and make changes ourselves. It’s time to do some easy peasy baking; baking that delivers deliciousness for our minimal investment of time (and skill). It’s time for focaccia. Which is sublime when hot from the oven. It is good warm, it freezes well, and can be eaten for any meal. It is deeply satisfying to bake something warm and oozing olive oil and garlic – without all the bother of the bother of sour dough starter maintenance or that ubiquitous banana bread that found its way onto every homebound COVID-19’s avoiders to-do list.

Focaccia can be mixed up after breakfast, and ignored until an hour before dinner. Or you can make the dough after watching the Reid Out, letting it rise over night, to be put it in the oven tomorrow night. Yet, if you are suddenly seized with the yen for warm, home-baked bread, you can start the dough at lunch and hurry it along through the afternoon, and start baking in time for cocktail hour. We spent this week experimenting.

Years ago I found a mix for focaccia at our local IGA market and it was a revelation to someone who had grown up on Pepperidge Farm white bread, Levy’s Jewish rye bread and the occasional loaf of freshly baked Italian bread from the red sauce Italian restaurant my family frequented for high holy days. I wasn’t used to crusty, fresh, yeasty bread. During my European interlude I had the standard American food epiphany upon discovering baguettes, brioche, pain perdu, tigella, naan, crumpets, scones, hot cross buns, broa, zopf, sfincione, challah, pita, ciabatta, and finally focaccia di Recco col formaggio. Translation: my unformed suburban brain was blown.

Moving to the south brought me a deep appreciation for the complex simplicity of the biscuit. Moving further south (though considering Florida “south” is often debated, volubly) we found a wonderful French bakery, and we worked our way through their inventory of baked daily epi breads, baguettes, pain aux chocolate, croissants, and brioche. These days I cannot wander down Flagler Street into Jim and Kim’s bakery. I am stuck at home, but luckily the internet provides me with all kinds of inspiration.

This week our first batch of homemade focaccia was wrong in so many ways. The pan I used was too small, so the dough rose to epic, cornbread-y heights. Focaccia is considered a flatbread, or a hearth bread, not a soufflé. I also relied on the recipe, instead of my experience, and merely coated the pan with olive oil. What I should have done was use a larger, shallower pan, (thank you, Food52 for the sheet pan suggestion) and line it first with parchment paper, and then generously coat it with olive oil.

The second batch was better, and more attractive. I dotted the dimpled top with halved cherry tomatoes, and a scattering of Maldon salt, finely minced garlic, and fresh rosemary. You can also consider cheese, basil, and onion. To bask in the glow of the Mediterranean, you could add lemon slices and green olives. For a more abundantly flavored focaccia you could add Prosciutto, mushrooms, and arugula. If you’d like something sweeter, for a breakfast dish, consider honey, apples, raisins, raw sugar, orange peel or lemon zest.

I aspire to baking airy, crisp baguettes, and hope in time I will master some of the necessary skills. In the meantime, I am content to have spent a week learning about the simple goodness of focaccia. In these perilous times, it is good to ratchet down some of the anxiety with soothing oozy, warm, crunchy, garlicky goodness. And with the stash in the freezer, it is always close at hand.

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight…Bread making is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
― M.F.K. Fisher

https://www.tasteatlas.com/focaccia

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/easy-no-knead-focaccia

https://food52.com/blog/23694-focaccia-bread-recipe-weekend-baking-project-with-kids