Fruits of our labor?

Still life with lemon curd

Busy day today. After a full morning in the office and a quick jaunt outdoors to plant a row of basil, we drove to Loganville, Ga., to the Grower's Outlet. The s.o. had heard of it from some friends and wanted to see if it was "all that." It was. Unbelievable prices, and nice plants, too. I got the dwarf banana plant you see in the photo. Supposedly it will make real bananas if we manage not to kill it.

While we were in the Atlanta metro, we went to the DeKalb Farmer's Market and got groceries. I bought a bag of Meyer lemons because they were perfectly ripe and fragrant. There was no time to lose--they'd be over the hill in a day or so. So during halftime of the NCAA final (yaaaaaayyy Florida!), I made Bakerina's Meyer lemon curd. Wow! Bakerina is a woman who knows her way around a double boiler. It'll be a miracle if we don't eat every bit of the curd straight from the jar. Not that there'd be anything wrong with that.

A weekend in pictures

The weather has turned absolutely gorgeous--a little hot, even. It's like the Mediterranean. I am basking in it, even though somewhere inside the logical part of my brain, I know it needs to rain a LOT more than it has been.

Friday was L2's birthday, so while I was in the kitchen knocking out pies and cookies for the farmers' market, I made her this:



It's a plain spongecake roll (from the recipe in Fanny Farmer) filled with a mixture of whipped cream and Meyer lemon curd. I gather from the phone calls we got later that it tasted good!

Saturday morning was all about fun and friends and springiness. While I was at the opening day of the Oconee Farmers' Market, the s.o. went fishing with his friend B and B's son. The white bass are spawning, and apparently male fish are like all of us: when they are occupied by matters of the heart and loins, they lose their mental edge. There are now 18 fish in our fridge!



So we are going to B's house this evening to grill some fish. Excellent.

We then attended the Saturday night auction. Most of the recent auctions haven't proven very interesting, but last night was back on form. I got an honest-to-gosh Bedazzler (careful clicking that link; annoying celebrity testimonials will ensue) for $4 and a Bundt-shaped unglazed earthenware oven dish for $3 (any ideas what I should do with it, fellow foodies? my first thought is an Italian cheese bread ring). The s.o. got a couple of items, too. And unrelated to the actual auctioning that was going on, I bought this:



Stew, J, and my mom will recognize this as one of the many pieces of inexplicable folk art that decorates the walls of the auction hall. We've loved this one for months; it certainly poses an interesting question, but it is a question that I cannot for the life of me imagine anyone around here posing. So while I was talking to the cashier last night, I finally asked how much it was. The answer, my friends, was $5.75. How could I say no to that?

She got sauce

For no good reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to compile a list of my top 10 most favorite foods. So I did.

It's meaningless. Tomorrow it will certainly change. Whole cuisines that I am passionate about (Mexican and Greek, for example) are omitted here--and now that I think of it, kataifi me crema or guacamole may deserve a place on the list.* But here it is, for better or for worse, in no particular order:

• French bread with Brie - evidence, I think, that my palate still lives in the 1980s.

• Grapefruit halves with granulated sugar - preferably white grapefruit, because the astringency contrasts so beautifully with the sweetness. Pink grapefruit I prefer to eat plain. Either one must be refrigerator-cold.

• Vietnamese noodle salad with mock duck - with a ton of fish-sauce dressing poured on it.

• Meyer lemon curd - alone, on toast, in a tiny tart shell, or swirled with Greek yogurt.

• Rhubarb pie - or cherry, I can't decide. Must be made according to my family recipe.

• Peanut butter and banana sandwich - either on good grainy whole-wheat bread, or (just as appealing) on thick slabs of French or Italian bread. Not fried. Not even toasted. Banana very slightly underripe.

• Vegetable samosas - spicy, redolent of ajwain seeds, with a side of tamarind sauce.

• BBQ pork shoulder sandwich - with pickles, slaw, and a good dribble of hot, vinegary sauce. Not just anybody's, of course; there's a wide gulf between the best and the rest. My favorite is from Cantrell's in Nashville.

• Bratwurst - grilled, on a bun, with sauerkraut and relish and onions, washed down with the first, coldest sips of the s.o.'s beer at a baseball game.

• Lightly sugared fresh strawberries - just enough so that their juice comes out. Excellent over warm buttermilk biscuits and/or with whipped cream, but equally perfect slurped up alone with a spoon.

I think we can conclude a few things from this list: (1) I like fruit, (2) I like bread, and (3) I have an iron stomach. All true. What's on your list?

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* L2 recently called me and asked if I needed anything from the grocery store. "Avocados!" I replied. "I've been craving guacamole for days." She obliged--brought me corn chips, too--and I ate almost the entire batch in one sitting. I really, really love guacamole.

Landmark

We are eating the first asparagus spear of the season!

Yes, just one. I made it into a frittata with homemade bacon, eggs, and the egg whites that were left over from making the Meyer lemon curd.

Muy bueno. And even better: IT'S RAINING!