Summer Kick Off

A sweaty city summer is on the horizon so we eat by candlelight staring out our one big window dreaming of porches and pools.

If you squint the broccoli rabe could look like an upstate forest sauteed in tons of butter.

We paired the broccoli rabe with sweet apple smoked chicken sausage, and made a chilled salad of cucumbers, cilantro, carrots, onions and Vietnamese dressing. Wine in old jelly jars.


We took a cue from Ben on the mashed potatoes: sage butter. Easy and instantly delicious. Lucas contributed a dish of yellow squash - chopped and roasted in the oven with butter until perfectly edible. He also wrapped onion halves in tinfoil and threw them in the oven which made them sweet and a solid side dish. Whatever poolside barbecues, we'll just dip our toes in the tub afterwards.

Ham Poetry

Hamburgers, we just can't seem to quit you.
We wax poetic about billy burgers at the casual Williamsburger on S2nd and Wythe.
Loosening the beef
the butchers pound the harlequin flesh
of heavy bovine divinity
that we will consume
in dripping chop meat burgers
between beaded buns burned
in the crisp air conception of spring
at the barbeque
on the tarpaulin silver tar roof
above the bay and
with one delicate derivative of hunger
we’ll lap our lips
of juices of divinity and yell
“Thank you butchers!
For pounding my meat
to golden perfection!”
and we’ll finish our fast burg meat
in the Billyburg street below
as we’ll have decided to take
a stroll on over
and hold hands high
with jiggley shaking shoulders
and tell loudly our neighbors
small delicious details
about the benefits
of a done-right-be-heavy hammer
in combination with a cow.
- a poem by Dan Herschlein

A Motley Meal

Our recent meat binge has us craving vegetable delights. We disregard menu cohesion for a mixed-up meal of old faves and new creations. The centerpiece is a recipe from Dosia's childhood- Creme of Jalapeno Soup. A spicy mixture of pureed vegetables and monteray jack cheese topped with a green sauce of roasted serrano, garlic and cilantro has her nostalgic for her father's fresh-from-the-garden peppers.

Ben's contribution: Shredded sweet potatoes in brown sage butter which were quick and so delicious.
Also Ben's: pizza with homemade marinara, mozzarella, zucchini and artichoke - the perfect dipping tool for the soup. Of couse, we only put the vegetables on half the pizza to accommodate the small children in our family (Adam Wilson).


Fennel salad with asparagus and cauliflower, tossed in a dressing of anchovies, lemon, mustard, olive oil, garlic and egg yolk. The final plate.