Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen

Looky here, a mulberry tree. Right? I am not totally positive at what point these can be picked, but if the bird poop that surrounded this tree last year is anything to go by, I need to wait until they are a MUCH darker purple. Also, I am not entirely sure what to make with them when I pick them. Maybe jam? Or wine?

Making Rice Krispie Treats with brown butter is nothing new, it is however, new to me. I love RKTs, always have. They are ridiculously fast to make and I've made them with Trix, Fruity Pebbles, Coco Puffs, Fruit Loops... if it's a totally non-nutritive sugary cereal, I will combine it with butter and marshmallows melted together and basically eat it out of hand for the next day or so. Oh and also, all the ingredients can be found easily - my bodega carries them even.  So when someone's Facebook status referenced making RKTs with brown butter my mouth watered immediately. And this weekend I made two batches. To one batch I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla bean paste. To the other batch I added vanilla bean paste, extra vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. To both batches I added rainbow nonpareils for fun. And oh my my my, are they ever delicious! SO much better with brown butter! And have one very vanilla-ey and the other a little spiced makes them even more t

Yogurzilla killed the Strawberry and is on the march looking for YOU! These fun tote bags are a collaboration between yours truly and the ridiculously talented Jesse at South End Textiles . We've got a couple of other designs in the works to be unveiled in the next few weeks. However once the purple Yogurzilla is gone, it's gone like Donkey Kong. Maybe it will come back in yellow or green or Bedazzled (TM), but if you have your little heart set on purple you will want to get it now as there are only 25   24 23 of these limited edition bad boys. Yep. Already sold two. Shoot me an email, bangbang, if you are interested. I am happy to mail them for free in the US and yep, I take PayPal. Otherwise come by the SoWa market on June 19th and get one yo'self. RAWR!

I am hopeless at making American-style salads, totally and utterly useless at it. In my entire life I have never had success at combining lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery, etc into a bowl with dressing to produce something palatable. Everything is badly proportioned - too chunky, too leafy, too dressed, too vinegary, and it is the same at a salad bar. My salad bar salads end up being little sections of this and that - a glop of cottage cheese here, a sad pile of pinto beans there, jalapenos strewn over the top. I ask you, does any of that sound appealing? No, the word you want is appalling. Fortunately I am half French and that half knows how to make European-style salads. This basically means tossing things with a very nice vinaigrette. My two basic salads in this style would be the shredded carrot with raisins (or dried cranberries) and the chickpea, tomato, and mozzarella salad, with pesto. This is that salad and I have pretty much eaten it every day this week: