6.26.2012

Also, my July issue arrived yesterday, just to taunt me

Well, the high today is 106, so here we are in the mouth of the beast at last. As you may recall, this is where my brain starts to melt slowly out of my ears, so let's take some dramatic measures and have dessert first.

BA#22: Pink lady milkshakes. To be fair to Bon Appetit, all of the ice cream recipes in this issue are contributions from what I'm guessing are very fine establishments across the country, and not something they cooked up in their secret underground BA lair. STILL, one of the major issues I've had with this project so far is my thwarted desire to leave well enough alone. What do you mean you want me to demolish this perfectly nice cantaloupe and then stir basil into it? What am I, a monster? Can't I just make a regular ice cream cone? Why do I have to sully this delicious adobo sauce with shrimp? And now, this: why mix rum and vinegar and pepper into already-delicious strawberry ice cream?

This strikes me as a waste of both rum and ice cream. And vinegar. I don't actually have a lot of call for pink peppercorns.
Having said that, the vinegar worked better than I was expecting. Anna got the no-rum, no-pepper kid's version. Let's see how she compares to the BA kid this time.


You know, that's actually...not too far off. Lucky for me BA picked some Very Serious children for this issue.
BA#23: Cocoa-date truffles. I was irritated at this one from the get-go because it required me to buy raw cacao powder, which is not inexpensive, and also it's billed as a "healthy dessert," and I had to roll sticky globs into crushed stuff and just, sigh.


Anyway, they're all gone now and I'm buying more dates at the store today.

BA:24: Grilled pork chops and peaches with pole beans. Honestly, when I took the 60 SUMMER RECIPES dive, this was pretty much what I was hoping for. Grilled deliciousness! I did not like the beans, because I believe green beans should be so mushy as to barely be considered a solid, and also taste mostly of bacon. Certainly not marjoram. Marjoram tastes like perfume.

But grilled peaches taste like summmmmmmmer. (In the good, mythical-fun-summer way. Actual summer tastes like hot asphalt and mosquito repellant.)
BA#25: Spiced cucumbers and coconut milk. I like how the guy who came up with this recipe is all, "I'm the only person in the world who has ever cooked cucumbers," and I'm all, "Hi, I'd like you to meet my deep and abiding love affair with fried pickles." So, I didn't find this weird. I did find it...lacking something.

Breading and a side of ranch.
Anna has branched out into self-portraiture.


How you doing, Ivy? Still got your embrace-face on?

My little summer stalwart.