On the Vine

If you’re fortunate enough to have fresh strawberries, and your gardening has favored you with a bumper crop this year, try to keep the berries on the vine as long as possible before harvest.  In so doing, you’ll maximize the sweetness, the juiciness, and everything else which makes just-picked summer strawberries one of life’s sublime…

What’s with These Names?

Last December brought a Dutch Baby, and a month ago came something called a “Grunt.”  What’s left?  What bizarre linguistic twists will the kitchen inspire next?  How about a Berry Fool?  No kidding.  Unlike the other two creations, this name goes back centuries, too.  Plenty of time to change things, but no. In common with…

Ah, Voici las Fraises!

Framboises, myrtilles and mûres too, adding raspberries, blueberries and blackberries to the strawberries whose discovery today’s title celebrates.  (“Ah, voici las fraises!” = “Ah, here are the strawberries!”)  What else would one say in France, when finding the perfect topping for three slices of local shortbread? Sablé Breton (or, “Brittany Sandies”) is France’s version of…

Yearn, No Churn

Up there’s the ice cream maker, a pricey investment now collecting dust on a shelf somewhere in the years between its uses.  Even when the machine’s pulled into service, making good ice cream is so much work.  The constant trips to and from the freezer.  All that churning, too.  There’s no other way to enjoy…

Named for a Tsar, Made for You

A couple centuries or so ago the French chef Escoffier created a new dessert and named it for one of his most prominent aristocratic patrons.  Hence, the world first enjoyed Strawberries Romanoff.  It’s essentially strawberries and cream, but with a French touch making it fit for a Tsar.  A perfect way to savor the sweet…