Sorry for the delay, but the weather here over the past week in Chicago has really put a cramp in my cooking and baking. It’s just too nice to stay inside and do either.

The past couple days have been a lovely blur of seltzer water, iced drinks and freezes, and slurpees. Things you can savor out in the heat and play well with the beach. Things that require not a lick of flame or the zap of a microwave to make ready. I’ve consistently gone to the beach the last five days in a row. Ah, the end of college and the beginning of summer.

What a wonderful thing.

Of course, chocolate just doesn’t hold up to this kind of heat, so I’ve had to tap out my treats. Ice cream is in constant rotation, but sometimes you just need a little crunch.

Homemade pecan toffee popcorn fits the bill. Every Friday from January to May I would commute downtown for an internship, and every Friday I would get off a couple stops early in the Loop to stop by Garrett’s popcorn. It’s the smell, really, that gets you. More piquant and rich than wafts of homemade ice cream cones, Garrett’s popcorn really fills the air. For months, I was powerless against such smells. And then, I decided to make it at home.

The only hour the oven has been on in the past week was yesterday, quite early in the morning before the 95 degree day really set in. A nibble here, a bite after lunch, this popcorn is the sweetness of summer, distilled. Or rather, caramelized and toasted. And clearly, there isn’t anything better than a caramel summer.

Recipe on the following page.

One day, yes, all my teeth will fall out. Most likely earlier than average, considering the amount of sugar going into my breakfasts. But that day is not now, or even later this week and thus, it’s cookies for breakfast.

A little chocolate here, bittersweet and white together, combined for a perfect brownie-like bite. Counteract the richness with a healthy dose of pristine powdered sugar and hello Snowdrops.

It’s summer outside but in the cookie jar, it’s only winter. Snowdrops, or chocolate crackle cookies, are one of those lovely baked goods that are more impressive in appearance that one would expect, considering how easy they are to make. A little rolling of the dough, a powdered sugar bath and voila! Snowdrop cookies by the dozen.

Eventually I suppose, I’ll have to sit down and make a real breakfast. One with flax, orange juice, and maybe some wheat toast, a breakfast that is lacking in large quantities of sugar. There’ll be no sugar in my coffee, no cookies in sight. But hey, I’m about a month off from the end of school. I think a couple cookies are in order.

Recipe on the following page.

Last Wednesday I had the perfect meal. It began with gruyere donuts, stayed a while with a rye flight and a deconstructed rabbit pot pie, and ended with gougeres filled with mornay sauce. Yes, the each bookend to this perfect meal was gruyere.

All bookends should be gruyere-based, as it turns out. Just imagine, beginning and ending with a cheese that has just the right balance of nuttiness, richness, and salt. A cheese between soft and hard. The perfect cheese.

As it happens, no meal can last forever but there’s the beauty in cooking. Gougeres with mornay sauce on Wednesday, polenta cakes with mornay sauce on Monday. Because apparently, Bakelist is all about piling things atop polenta these days. A couple roasted asparagus in there just for a little green. And so at least one thing on the plate isn’t loaded with cheese.

Not that I’d ever complain about such a plate…

Recipe on the following page.

Can’t stop, won’t stop. Must pickle. Spicy pickled carrots, the absolute perfect complement to any lunch or afternoon snack.

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Sometimes you want a bowl of comfort for breakfast and what’s more, you want it savory. None of that creamy oatmeal drizzled with maple syrup and topped with brown sugar nonsense. Nope, none of that. Though that can be nice too, I’m never one to knock sugar… But sometimes, what you’d rather have is a bit more cheesy, salty, and hey, maybe topped with a bit of bacon. Yes, that sounds nice.

There is nothing quite like a hot bowl of polenta for breakfast, brunch, or really even dinner. Polenta, that slightly coarser cousin to grits, is a bowl full of body, of rich carbs swirled together with cheese and butter. Topped off with a few slices of bacon and a fried egg, it is the perfect thing to start a day or greet you at the end of one.

To add to the wonder—as if bacon, eggs, and cheese could get any better—polenta practically makes itself. Cornmeal, water, and just a dab of attention results in a beautiful polenta. After that, any and all cheese can be added. Polenta is a great vessel for all the leftover bits of cheese you may have lying around and while I went with the classic brunch trio, you can really top polenta with anything. Leftover greens, garlic, a swirl of crème fraiche, anything goes. Consider a bowl of polenta like a blank pizza crust—anything can be piled high on top. Except this time around, there is no dough to roll.  Bellissima.

Recipe on the following page.

Some of the best things to wander into a kitchen and find in the mornings are swirled and covered with streusel. Though to be fair, some of the best things ever, regardless of time and location are swirled and covered with streusel.

I’m breakfast-cake addicted, as this lemon loaf and pound cake prove. There is truly nothing better than a slice of cake for breakfast. Not that statement really needs any backing-up or further argument. It’s a slice of cake after all, and you’re only young once. Might as well eat cake for breakfast. Especially when there’s no one around to tell you not to…

This cake really isn’t anything special, save for the fact that it’s absolutely delicious. It’s a standard coffee cake, complete with streusel, except in loaf form for easy consumption. Just imagine, a slice of coffee cake on the way to class, alongside coffee, with a good book, or after a night of bar trivia. Yup. Fills in the space in your stomach left behind by pitchers.

Unfortunately, my title-machine was a bit broken. I’m going to say it was distracted by an overload of cake. Hence the hastily tagged on ‘loaf.’ Sorry. If you’re really that disappointed in my creative-naming abilities, I suggest making a cake. And having a bit for breakfast. Any disappointment will disappear, I promise.

Recipe on the following page.

Good, simple food is an experience. When a meal is good, it’s so much more than sustenance. It’s about more than fuel, about three squares. Good food, especially when it consists of simple, fresh ingredients and minimal preparation, is about happiness. A meal is good when it causes you to stop, to position yourself around the plate and really revel in what you’re eating. Good food should make you happy, simply because it is delicious.

Good food also however, tastes all the better when it requires little prep. When you start with good ingredients, a good meal is never far away. This white bean tuna salad is all about fresh herbs, simple preparation, and good combinations. The white beans add creaminess to the salad, while the tuna provides protein. Additionally, it comes with an awesomely simple, zippy parsley dressing. All in all, it takes about 15 minutes to make, maximum. That’s good food, alongside some good cooking.

Recipe on the following page.

No, don’t eat that mayonnaise. Make your own aioli!

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Lentil Spread. It’s totally level two hummus. Delicious, green lentil level two hummus. Welcome to Hummio Party.

Click here for the recipe, and to read more.

Protein, protein, where are you? How do I get you on my plate?

Like most college students, in addition to being generally lost and blundering through day-to-day life, I am constantly in need of more protein. Carbs and sugars, being possibly the easiest things to both procure and make, are never in short supply. Fruits and vegetables take a bit more forethought, namely making sure one eats them before they go all rotty in the crisper. But protein, lean, fatty, white, dark, soy, succulent protein, is a fair bit harder to come by.

As to why, that’s not so clear. But I’ll guesstimate and say that it has something to with both price and difficulty of preparation. It’s much harder to make a chicken breast taste good than it is to pull together a salad. At least in my kitchen. Pureed soups, as it appears, are much easier for me to make than a hamburger. While that may make no logical, or practical sense, it’s the truth in my kitchen.

This week, I set out to fix the protein dearth, with quinoa. While that may seem a great deal harder than cooking up a piece of chicken– and it very well may be– it sure is more interesting. And colorful. And flavorful, too. A curried quinoa salad in fact, fulfills my protein requirement. Quinoa, being the super grain, has an inherent amount of protein and topped with a spiced Greek yogurt dressing, this salad is unstoppable in its desire to protein-ate.

The puns are back—clearly my brain has been fed. It must be the quinoa salad, with its spicy nuttiness, the sweetness from the cranberries, the toasted quality of the almonds, and the freshness of the parsley and carrots. It’s the kind of protein-packed dished that happily sits in the refrigerator for days, waiting patiently to add a side of protein to any part of the day. Or a spoonful, eaten standing up. What a team player, this curried quinoa salad is.

Recipe on the following page.