Coconut Cream Pie & Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

Last night's cake was so pretty, but I subbed fine cornmeal for the called-for polenta, and the resulting corn'iness was too pronounced for my taste. And I love corn. Just not what I was expecting although it'd be great with a summer berry compote. Alas, as it is something like 11 horrid degrees here today, a summer berry compote is not to be. No worries! I'd devoted today to cooking -yay!- and started by making my spectacular coconut cream pie. We won't touch it until tomorrow, but it's a perfect pie and will be well worth waiting for.

Let's give a shout out to natural light. It may be cold today but the sunlight is streaming through my windows. Natural light is a photographers best free friend!

www.em-i-lis.com

www.em-i-lis.com

I also made a big sack of homemade bread crumbs (all the better to coat Valentine's Day Chicken Kiev), cleaned an enormous bunch of purple mustard greens which are so mustardy that I felt I'd been sniffing wasabi powder (love that freshness!) and cooked some of Marcella Hazan's renowned tomato sauce with onion and butterfor the kids' dinner tonight. 

Where the hell has this been all my life? Liz Larkin, if you're reading this, you are surely wondering what rock I've been under. Four ingredients and to.die.for. Photo later after their meal!

Happy Father's Day, Farmers Market haul

Happy Dad day to all you fathers, uncles, gramps, mentors and big brothers out there. The kids made Tom cards, and we brought him coffee and the paper in bed. Then, he took a long bike ride while the boys and I went to the farmers market. Summer is definitely in swing, and the produce is a feast for the eyes. I bought a flat of strawberries and a huge bag of rhubarb, some broccolini, pattypan and regular summer squash, wax beans, sugar snap peas and a gorgeous bunch of chioggia beets. Also, because my NM friend, Laura, has written often about Lambs Quarters but I've never seen them out here, I was psyched to see and immediately bought a bunch this morning. See below!

Yesterday, I bought pluots and black velvet apricots. If you haven't already inferred, I have major plans to make lots o jam this week!

I also made a batch of Grilled Pizza Dough a la Peter Reinhart, and damnation is the coconut cream pie magnificent.

Really rainy day

I needed to stay in today anyway -hours of writing and edits and cooking to do- so am really enjoying the rainstorm we're having. Have been having. Are to continue having. Percy and I took a walk during a dry interlude and at one point I also donned my magenta raincoat to quickly cover my favorite delicate plants with a wide variety of bucket, but right now, my gutters are overflowing, the pets are snoring next to me on the couch, and I'm in a peaceful yet productive stupor, lulled by the concert of white noise coming at me from the outside.

I finally made a batch of the vanilla fig scones that I love and having been dying for, finished a first-round edit of a lengthy doc for school, bathed Percy, kinda tidied up and am about to make a strawberry cake. I noticed that my Perfect Coconut Cream Pie is featured in a Food 52 article on 12 Eats for Easter. Nice!!