Friday Round-up

When I have a bag of pre-mixed cobbler topping ready to go, I am always a half hour away from the best summer dessert. (Also nice if you’re traveling somewhere and don’t want to buy or schlep all your baking supplies.)

Is it November 4 yet? Just pre-ordered what is sure to be the cookbook of fall 2014.

Super-cool trick for cutting small tomatoes.

The Lost Art of Conversation. The link is old, but the topic will never be.

Hooray! Bon Appetit‘s Best New Restaurant nominees are out.

I’ve always been impressed by Times reporter C.J. Chivers, but I think I’m more impressed with his 12-year-old, striped-bass-filleting son.

Speaking of kids in the kitchen: I had a quart of buttermilk in danger of going bad, so yesterday I handed my kids two recipes: Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins (winner; bookmark it!) and Buttermilk Ranch salad dressing. (We’ll get to striped bass ceviche some day.)

This might be one of Roz Chast’s all-time greatest cartoons. Maybe because it describes the exact the way I work.

Still a few weeks of summer left to squeeze in a seafood boil.

Why sales of packaged, processed foods are declining. 

In my fantasy of fantasies, my walk-in pantry will one day look like this. (But first: a house with a walk-in pantry!)

Book Update. Look what landed on my doorstep this week! Publication is two weeks away and I have a few readings/events lined up that I wanted you to know about: September 9: Spoken Interludes (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY); September 13 Powerhouse on 8th (Brooklyn); September 21  “A Barn Raising Brunch” (Great Barrington, MA); October date TBD: Mom2Mom (Chicago). Hope to see you on the road!

You can pre-order Dinner: The Playbook from all the usual suspects: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & Indiebound.

Have a great weekend.