June Gloom done. I started the month of drab and dreary (for California that is) with cooler weather cooking of Tuscan pork stew. I hesitantly accepted the shank from a leftover pork roast from Cecilia. I boiled the bone with cannellini beans and then added fennel bulb, onions, garlic, and lots of herbs--parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. And then Cecilia gave me even more leftover roast pork. T'was delicious despite dubiousness over a large pork bone.
I capped that foggy summer meal with apple hand pies
I also started reading a vintage cook book I got from Buy Nothing.
I couldn't help but notice the illustration on the back cover by Dora Maar, and how do I know about that surrealist painter? Why she was a mistress of Pablo Picasso, whose art I really enjoy though I detest how he treated the women in his life. Reading Toklas's cookbook was the start of turning actual pages in a book rather than scrolling through Facebook and Instagram reels or plunging into rabbit holes of Internet articles. Her tales of dining and cooking in post World War II Europe are very reminiscent of the kitchen meditations of Tamar Adler, who also has another book published last year that I now want to read. I'm doing a bit of a digital detox and have been reading more physical books, and am finally feeling like I'm leading the more beautiful (albeit) messy life I’ve always wanted. Yesterday I capped off the first month of summer by watching whales in Monterey. Truly glorious.
What truly captures summer for me is vegetable cookery. I recently bought this cookbook from Kitchen Arts & Letters because it's published in Europe and one I wouldn't find in a chain bookstore here in the U.S.
I inaugurated cooking from the Scottish chef's collection of recipe with this salsa verde, which I slathered on bell peppers I roasted in my new portable Smokey Joe charcoal grill. The 14" Weber is kind of too small for my grilling needs, but then again I used to grill on tiny hibachis. I also grilled sliced eggplant, which I slathered with leftover tahini sauce. I also grilled zucchini and yellow squash which along with feta cheese (didn't use the pickled cauliflower after all) went into the focaccia bread Cecilia baked for a sandwich picnic.
I didn't get a chance to photograph my vegetable sandwich before eating. I was busy constructing other people's focaccia sandwiches of Caprese and Italian salumeria with arugula.
I loved my sandwich so much that it's going on repeat for summer meals. I aim to bake focaccia too. But for today's leftover vegetables, I'll just pick some bread up at the supermarket.
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