039: June Cooking Notes

Everything I cooked

Welcome to Home Cooking Diary, a newsletter on my journey as a home cook—the successes and failures alike. Cooking log, photo diary, and recipe recommender. This is a recurring installment in which I recap my month of cooking and highlight noteworthy meals. Note: if you’re reading this as an email, you may want to read it in your browser, lest it get cut off at the end.

Sweet cherries for jam

This letter might have you thinking . . . Wait, what month is it again? What are you saying about June? I meant for this to go out around the first of the month, but in addition to feeling a little overwhelmed, I genuinely have no idea what the date is at any given time, so please forgive my tardiness. Here I go again with the weather report, but it sort of feels like spring, what with all of the rain we’re having. The heavy rains plus summer heat and humidity have meant an onslaught of mosquitoes and noseeums in our yard, but I did manage to plant my little herb (and some vegetable) garden over the Fourth of July weekend. I *think* the constant rain has been good for it, but frankly it’s a bit hard to tell. My tomato and pepper plants seem happy. The herbs are too new for me to know whether they’re properly established, so I fear they will fail to grow once I begin harvesting and pruning, and regrettably the slugs have arrived. Once it stops raining we’ll attempt the beer method. Will report back!

My newly planted herb (plus tomato and pepper) garden. Yes, those chairs are sitting on a slight downslope—it’s fine! ;)

On the cooking front I barely remember what happened in June and did a poor job keeping notes. In a perfect world, my method for tracking my cooking is to make detailed notes in my dairy, but having failed to do so, I end up scrolling my photos app while pulling this monthly newsletter together. Since I sometimes forget to take photos—my weak attempts at modeling healthy phone usage in front of my 15 month old interfere—I’m seeing a lot of gaps—especially at breakfast, and more and more I fail to note or remember what I made for Tycho. For his breakfasts I alternate between eggs (scrambled or my simple frittata) and a waffle with berries and yogurt. I’m starting to switch this up by making overnight oats (which he is really into!). And lunch is usually leftovers from dinner the night before, and for dinner we hopefully eat together as a family—if the timing is right.

Chicken and spring onions braised in white wine with roasted peppers and chickpeas

Having just typed out my list of June meals, I’m realizing that last month I cooked less obsessively from recipes. I made a lot of braises (inspired by my fave: Rachel Roddy’s Chicken Cacciatore), the best one being Chicken and some incredible spring onions braised in white wine, along with fire-roasted red peppers that I added to the pan toward the end. I hope to refine this method and share the recipe soon. Our Sunday grilling has continued (flank or skirt steak grilled alongside vegetables like zucchini or eggplant or cauliflower). On the pasta front, I improvised a really good Pasta alla Norma topped with ricotta, and prepared a delicious walnut sauce for store-bought ravioli (using in part walnut spread from Eataly) that I’ll need to write a letter about because it was incredible.

Strawberries quick-pickled in Balsamic vinegar on top of tangy yogurt, along with almonds and crushed amaretto topping (leftover from my trifle experimentation)

Summer fruit has been elusive this year—perhaps because of the late frost we had here in the Hudson Valley, but I suspect most of our local fruit is landing at the Union Square Greenmarket and other farmer’s markets in the city (at least if Instagram is any indication). We were turned away recently at a local farm that had run out of fruit (until peach season in two to three weeks, they said), and the fruit vendors are gone from my local farmer’s market. I thought I would have done a lot of fruit-forward baking by now. That said, I’ve made some jams and pickled with the in season fruit that I’ve been able to find at the grocery store (rhubarb, strawberries, and sweet cherries). The cherry jam I made was a failure—I let it bubble away in the oven too long, but my rhubarb jam worked. It has been an incredible addition to toasted challah bread; to bowls of tangy local yogurt from Freedom Hill Farm; and to the frozen waffles that have suddenly become a staple in this house (Annie’s is my favorite, and has the least amount of added sodium), and I top them with peanut butter and banana and sea salt and too much jam and honey—not necessarily together! I quick-pickled strawberries in balsamic vinegar, inspired by Alicia Kennedy’s conversation with Julia Skinner (author of Our Fermented Lives), and ate that on top of that same tangy yogurt along with blueberries and almonds/crushed up amaretto cookies. Lastly on the fruit front, I experimented with trifle-making, yielding two versions of a Summer Strawberry Trifle. One a bit more authentic, influenced by a Nigella Lawson preparation, and one a bit more like a strawberry shortcake. The first version, which I said I hated, actually improved considerably with age. It got tastier throughout the days it was in the fridge so Reed and I actually finished the thing. I almost regretted not sharing the original recipe.

Carrot top pesto pasta w/ tomatoes and mozzarella, with sauteed swiss chard

Thanks to our CSA (love you Liberty Street Liquors) we’ve had an abundance of greens, so I find myself making Carrot Top and Garlic Scape Pesto nonstop. Tycho loves pesto pasta so we’ve been having that a lot. Also salsa verde and zhoug (the latter when we get lots of cilantro).

Bucatini with tinned tuna, fresh tomato, and castelvetrano olives

Lastly, I’ve returned to old favorites and found some new. Lukas Volger’s Confit of White Beans with lots of oregano (which I originally came across in the Rancho Gordo Bean Club newsletter); Bucatini with tinned tuna and fresh tomatoes and castelvetrano olives; Mina Stone’s Oven Chickpeas, and her Roasted Italian Sausage and Vegetables dish; Alison Roman’s Chicken Piccata, Slow-roasted Citrus Salmon (always served atop a fresh salad), and Vinegar-braised chicken with farro and greens. Eden Grinshpan is a favorite Instagram-follow of mine and I finally tried a couple of her recipes, both of which were a delight. I brought her Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf Cake to my postpartum support group (a hit, I think) and her saffron rice bowl with a cucumber salad and jammy egg is just wonderful. Rice bowls continue to be my jam in general. I used the leftover saffron rice to accompany tuna salad and pea shoots and it was a great combo.

Slow-roasted citrus salmon (recipe, Alison Roman)

That’s it from me this time! I like this more simplified format for my monthly Cooking Notes. What do you think? Thank you, as ever, for reading.

xo AV

Saffron rice with tuna salad and pea shoots

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Everything I cooked in June

6.3.23 / Grilled flank steak with grilled eggplant, asparagus, red peppers and spring onions (the spring onions rocked)

6.4.23 / Broccoli pasta; Lemon-Fennel Semolina Cake (Alison Roman, Sweet Enough)

6.5.23 / Rice bowl with leftover flank steak, eggplant and arugula from our CSA; Vinegar-braised chicken with farro (Alison Roman, Dining In); Cherry Jam

6.6.23 / Zucchini scramble; Rice bowl with leftover steak and sweet potatoes

6.7.23 / Store-bought ravioli with walnut sauce (this walnut sauce is insane—recipe coming for a future newsletter)

6.9.23 / Rice bowl with sardines and topped with edible herbs and flowers; Oven Chickpeas (Mina Stone, Lemon, Love, & Olive Oil); Braised chicken breast with spring onions and jarred fire-roasted red peppers (very proud of this dish! recipe to come)

6.10.23 / Gyranbap with zhoug; crudites with cherry tomato jam, walnut sauce, zhoug and chickpeas

6.11.23 / Scrambled eggs and toast; Pasta all Norma with ricotta and basil

6.12.23 / Yogurt with rhubarb-strawberry jam from Little Earth Farms; scrambled eggs; farfalle with gorgonzola sauce

6.13.23 / Waffle with rhubarb-strawberry jam; Charred roasted cauliflower zhoug and a salad of spring greens and herbs (Alexis DeBroschnek, To the Last Bite)

6.14.23 / Spinach frittata; Cornbread (Alison Roman, Sweet Enough); Sourdough toast with peanut butter, nutritional yeast, sea salt and honey (idea copied from Eric Kim’s instagram) (this didn’t really work for me. Pretty weird.)

6.15.23 / Salad with chickpeas; Pot of black beans; Black bean taquitos with black beans and jalapeno and cheese (riffed from Bryan Washington, NYT Magazine)

6.16.23 / Waffle with jam and peanut butter; yogurt with peanut butter +maple with a waffle and berries; jalapeno cornbread (Alison Roman, Sweet Enough); Chicken braised in lemon + water + Better than Bouillon with yukon gold potatoes, red onions, and braised spinach added at the end

6.17.23 / Scrambled eggs and toast; Rhubarb jam; Shortcake (Alison Roman, Sweet Enough)

6.18.23 / Strawberry trifle 1; toasted challah bread w/ rhubarb jam; Skirt steak with steak tartar sauce (Alison Roman, A Newsletter) w/ sourdough toast; Summer Strawberry Trifle

6.19.23 / waffles with peanut butter and strawberries; Ricotta and honey and berries for Tycho; Simple mini trifle; Lemon Poppy Seed Cake (Eden Grinsphan); Italian Sausage and vegetables (Mina Stone, Lemon, Love and Olive Oil) (I continue to make this sheet pan dinner every two weeks or so)

6.20.23 / Pot of chickpeas; Chickpea and salad of CSA greens with fennel vinaigrette; Balsamic-pickled strawberries; Lentils with fennel (Rancho Gordo newsletter) with braised chicken breast, plus salad

6.21.23 / Challah toast with rhubarb jam; Carrot top pesto; Pasta with pesto

6.22.23 / Tangy yogurt w/ rhubarb jam + blueberries; challah toast with peanut butter and sea salt and banana and rhubarb jam (not altogether)

6.23.23 / Balsamic strawberries + tangy yogurt w/ berries and sliced almonds; Pot of Royal Corona Beans; Snack of waffle and peanut butter and honey; Confit of white beans with oregano (Lukas Volger from the RG Bean Club newsletter)

6.24.23 / Chicken piccata w/ a salad of lettuces and radishes from our CSA

6.25.23 / Zucchini scramble with toast; Bucatini with tinned tuna, fresh tomatoes, and castelvetrano olives

6.26.23 / Spinach frittata; Jalapeno cornbread

6.27.23 / Saffron rice w/ cucumber salad and a 7-minute egg (Eden Grinsphan)

6.28.23 / Carrot top pesto; pesto pasta

6.29.23 / Saffron rice w/ more cucumbers and avocado; Sugar Snap peas generously dressed in olive oil and sea salt, dipped in mayonnaise (idea stolen from Trevor Joyce’s Instagram)

6.30.23 / Saffron rice w/ tuna salad and pea shoots; Citrus slow-roasted salmon with thyme, on top of lettuces dressed in olive oil and lemon juice

Sugar snap peas dressed in lots of olive oil and Maldon sea salt, to dip in mayonnaise