Lisa's Beautiful Figs

Ahhh, I think I finally got my cooking mojo back. I haven't felt inspired recently-- too many other things on my mind. Summer seems to have burst upon us in a flurry of stone fruit and tomatoes, and I just wasn't ready for it. But today as I work, I am roasting a turkey breast (for sandwiches through the week) and soon will be baking a plum upside-down cake. Probably the first of several this summer. It's such an easy and pretty dessert, especially with dark red plums that melt their colors into the cake. It should be delicious: it has a stick and a half of butter in it! But it's total comfort food. Have a salad and don't worry about it.

My friend Lisa, who doesn't like figs, has a beautiful, squat, old fig tree in her backyard that produces gorgeous, fat, ripe figs, which she graciously shares with me. I think these will be grilled tomorrow and dotted with blue cheese and maybe a little fresh basil from the veggie box. I love them wrapped with bacon or pancetta, or prosciutto, too, but it just seems like too much fuss on a hot day to sit around wrapping sweaty pork over figs.

I hope I wasn't too cavalier about suggesting that you ignore the salmonella issue and tomatoes. Buy fresh and local whenever you can. I still believe that there is something fishy about the whole thing, but I'm not sure what. And anyone with a compromised immune system, small children and the elderly of course cannot be so glib about the possibility of contracting a disease.

Sweet corn is out, as are tomatoes, which will lead to some of my favorite simple salads. Sometimes, early in the week when I have some time to prepare, I might boil five or six eggs, some beets, cook up some beans, and maybe some carrots, and dress all of the vegetables with a little olive oil and rice vinegar so that we can have interesting cold salads for the rest of the week. It's so nice to have all of the elements already prepared crisp and cold in the refrigerator. Add a little tuna (just a little) or cooked chicken, or sliced cured meats-- or just the eggs, and it's a pretty satisfying no-fuss cold dinner. One of my favorite early summer salads is arugula, sweet corn shaved off the cob, shaved pecorino or parmesan cheese, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, or just arugula, prosciutto and the cheese, dressed the same way. Chive blossoms are a pretty accent if you have them.

Still having trouble with email. Still dealing with impossibly slow download times and various other maddening technical difficulties which may prevent me from communicating. But today turned out to be such a nice day that I'm not going to get upset about it. As soon as the cake is in the oven, I'll come back and try to call tech support. I hope I get a Canadian.