cobbled.

after i was sick (and unsure of what made me so), i felt i had to be cooking everything in the fridge to kill the pathogens. while not everything (or potentially, anything) in the refrigerator was "tainted," i made a peach cobbler, which was delicious.

there's no recipe. i can't remember how i did it.

like on top chef.

i don't watch top chef. i don't have television, much less cable. but everyone seems to love it. kim challenged me to continue making food without buying anything. this continued to get crazier as we packed more items in the kitchen.

i made short-grain brown rice in vegetable broth instead of water. i sauteed farm-fresh summer squash, sweet corn and peppers, and onion in butter in the cast-iron skillet. i chilled each separately in the refrigerator. i then chopped yellow and red heirloom tomatoes, as well as carrots and basil. it was stirred together to become a lovely cold rice salad.
dessert. blueberry cobbler, made with the frozen blueberries. i used the recipe from last summer. it was enjoyed with chocolate ice cream, haagen-dazs. the best thing in the freezer growing up.
last night, we ordered pizza. there are no utensils, plates, pots, cutting boards, et cetera in the kitchen. it would have been impossible to cook. i move tomorrow and so i plan to resume cooking soon. please stand by during this commercial break.

for now.

the nytimes has two recipes that i have kept on my desktop for a week. i want to make both; they sound so tasty. like summer. i am putting them here in the blog so that, you too, can enjoy them. because i think they are guaranteed goodness. i promise to write again after i make both, which i will. i mean it.

1. sun-cooked strawberry preserves.
2. rhubarb raspberry cobbler with cornmeal biscuits.

you want them NOW, don't you?

p.s. there's also this article about how the city has made a commitment to putting more vegetable carts in lower-income parts of the city. and soon, they will take food stamps as well. in harlem, i spent a lot of time with the "fruit man." it was a million times better than the unfortunate grocery stores and, sometimes, i got free treats. and a lovely turkish man to chat with while i chose vegetables.

cobbler cobble hill

my camera is misbehaving. well, not the camera itself. it's either the battery or the battery charger. so no new photographs for the moment. poo.

anyhow, i made peach-blueberry cobbler for july 4th at natalka's new house. (she actually lives in an old school!) i had never made cobbler before so i placed a lot of trust in the recipe of the may 2008 cooking light. it asked for blackberries, but they were too expensive so i used blueberries. it was so easy and tasty. find the recipe here.

i also made lemon-ginger frozen yogurt. i made ice cream for natalka's birthday last year and never got to give it to her. i used a new recipe, this one from the may 2008 bon appetit. we're all magazines today. it was light and fresh, sort of like pinkberry but better, and homemade. i don't understand the fanaticism around pinkberry; it's just yogurt. expensive yogurt.

by the way, i love cooking light magazine. it's so good. it never asks me to use weird processed ingredients, or anything out of season. the recipes are tasty, and there are lots of vegetarian ones.

what cooking or food magazines do y'all use? any?