Strascinati with tomato and basil sauce (strascinati con pomodoro e basilico) and the art of pasta-making with Master of None.

Strascinati con pomodoro e basilico

I’ve decided that I’m going to master making pasta completely by hand. This thought first came about a few weeks ago when I was trying and (mostly) succeeding in making a Puglian dough out of water and semolina flour, but was cemented when we finally sat down to watch the season two premiere of Master of None. Earlier that evening I had been feeling rather vulnerable and grouchy but thought that a solid workout and some soothing yoga had calmed my nerves. Then Aziz Ansari has to go and make a big, soaring love letter to classic Italian cinema and show this sequence:

‘wichcraft’s black chile oil and cooking through our cookbook shelves in 2017.

Fried oysters with avocado and black chile oil from ‘wichcraft

Whenever someone makes a crack about the flimsiness of IKEA furniture I want to tell them the story of our two tall BILLY bookcases that have moved from New Haven to New York to Stamford and then to two apartments in Baltimore. They’ve held up remarkably well given all of that activity, and right now one of them is playing host to 102 of our cookbooks, plus my various issues of Cherry Bombe, Lucky Peach (RIP), Fine Cooking, and Food and Wine. When I was organizing this shelf again after Christmas, I realized that I really shouldn’t buy one more cookbook until I’ve given all of our current ones a spin, perhaps signaling any that might not be living up to expectations and could potentially be given away.

Grapefruit moonshine and rosemary sparkler, pending a better name.

Grapefruit Moonshine and Rosemary Sparkler

When you go to a local food festival and end up tasting a really delicious grapefruit-infused moonshine you obviously need to buy yourself a bottle of it to take home…but then the question remains: what to make with it? This was the conundrum I had after picking up a bottle of Belle Isle’s Ruby Red Moonshine at the Emporiyum Baltimore last month, and after poking around the interwebs for about twenty minutes scrolling through a slideshow of grapefruit-forward cocktails, I eventually stumbled on my answer.

Simple and fast: spicy chicken thighs brushed with honey and apple cider vinegar.

Spicy Broiled Chicken Brushed with Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar

While usually I’m really, really on top of my meal-planning game, there have been a few errant days where not only do I fail to think of a dish before we go to the store, but I’ll realize the day that I need to cook that I have zero ideas in mind. When this happened a few months ago I started Googling to see what I could whip up with what we had in our pantry. (Protip: have a well-stocked pantry for such emergencies as these.) Pretty quickly I stumbled on a Cooking Light recipe for spicy broiled chicken thighs that looked really good and extremely easy to make, so I bookmarked it and made it that night, using onion powder for garlic powder as we had plenty of the former and none of the latter. (I’ve since rectified this, naturally.)

Lamb and herb meatballs with yogurt-herb-lemon sauce, or springtime in a bowl.

Lamb-herb meatballs with yogurt-lemon-herb sauce.

It is unequivocally spring around here, and every day it’s as if there’s something new to savor: longer days, warmer weather, the trees finally budding back to life and offering some gorgeous color. I try to keep reminding myself of this while I’ve been struggling with some writer’s block recently for a variety of reasons ranging from being busy with social engagements to feeling ennui in the spring, and the latter feeling is totally bullshit. Spring should be the last season in which ennui should be able to take hold of me, because for once everything I love is coming back: the light, the lush greenery, and the better produce. How can I struggle with existential crises when spring onions are back in the market?

Sabor de soledad, runny fritatta edition.

Spring Onion Frittata on Toast

Do you have those recipes where you have them flagged for seemingly ever but never bother to make them? On my list of those was a spring onion frittata from Franny’s meant to serve over toast. The primary reason why I held off on this, I think, was poor timing–whenever I would happen to flip through the book looking for meal ideas spring onions would never be in season, and while the recipe claims you can use scallions in their place, it didn’t feel like the same sort of recipe at all. Fortunately, Michael made a stop at the Teet on his way home from the airport two weeks ago to get some groceries for dinner that night, and was very excited to show me that spring onions were finally back in season. Finally remembering this recipe at the appropriate time, I bought another bunch the following weekend because by hell or high water, I was making this dish, goddamnit. I even made a special trip to Dawson’s by my office the day I planned to make it to get some good bread and actually make toast to serve with this.

Pan-roasted mushroom salad with pickled sunchokes and braised pistachios from Momofuku.

Pan-roasted mushroom salad with pickled sunchokes and braised pistachios

As happy as I am that winter is officially OVER, I’m really over this back and forth on cold weather versus hot weather we’re having right now. (Currently I’m writing this while wearing a scarf, a sweater, pants, and flip-flops as the temperatures drop into the 40s, and yet it’s supposed to be sunny and in the low 70s this weekend.) Be that as it may, at least we can all be thankful that springtime produce is slowly making its way into the market. Spring onions are already there, and I’m counting down the weeks for ramp season to be upon us–I have a feeling I’ll be trolling Whole Foods and Dawson’s on a weekly basis to get my hands on those.