I’ve eaten lots of chocolate-covered snacks.  But, until picking up a tube of these candy-colored seeds, I had never tried this sweet variety of sunflower seeds!  They remind me of a healthier, slightly less sweet version of the ever-popular M & M.  If you happen upon them at your local corner store, give them a try!

There is nothing better that seeing one of my childhood favorite breakfast items making a comeback on brunch menus.  I remember many a Sunday morning with my family at our neighborhood pancake house, my brother and I sharing an apple dutch pancake bigger than our heads combined and covered in a blizzard of powdered sugar.  We were in heaven on those weekend mornings and challenged each other to see who could eat their entire half.

This is my latest retro dutch pancake find.  It was served in an individual caste iron dish and baked with the season’s first crop of local berries.  Light, fluffy and delicious.  I love brunch.

Lemon Verbena, is a fantastic herb, that has a very sharp lemony flavor that is balanced with a delicate, floral and green, herbaceous quality.  It’s often used to scent perfumes and toiletries, but even better when used in cooking.

I like to steep the fresh leaves in an ice cream base to make lemon verbena ice cream, or to tear the leaves over a bowl of fresh berries to make a fancy fruit salad.  It is one of my favorite ingredients to use during the spring and summer and I really look forward to finding new uses for it!

While walking on 23rd Street towards the Hudson River to catch the display of Fourth of July fireworks, my friends and I stopped for an ice cream cone at one of the many trucks dotting each corner along the route from subway to river.

I ordered my favorite, a simple vanilla soft-serve cone dipped in chocolate.  But, in a moment of genius, I asked the ice cream man to top my dipped cone in coating of chocolate sprinkles!  Delicious!  A perfect marriage of textures and flavors!  How did I not think of this as a child?!

Because I now feel like I have to make up for nearly 30 lost years of chocolate-sprinkled ice cream cones, I’m certain that I will have a problem in the warmer months ahead.  Even though the ice cream truck that is parked outside my restaurant everyday is very convenient, I’m not sure my belly will appreciate this new endeavor…

According to the gang at Yumsugar, Sprinkles cupcake shop is serving .75 cent shots of their rich and decadent buttercream frosting…frozen.  Although it never ocurred to me to eat frosting frozen, it sure sounds terrific.  We don’t have a Sprinkles in New Orleans, but I did just get the latest Martha Stewart Cupcake book (genius by the way) and so I’m planning on whipping up a bit of extra frosting to pipe into mini tasting cups and toss into the freezer.  The lazy person in me is also considering going to the local cupcakery and asking them to do it.  Either way, I’m checking it out.

What a sight to see a heaping mound of shell peas at the farmer’s market this week!  I dropped by for a bit of lemon-thyme to use in a sorbet I am making for the dinner menu tonight and couldn’t help but snap a picture of these peas on my way through the market!  So impressive!

Emeril’s BFF, Mario Batali, is serving some fantastic bar snacks at his West Side eatery, Del Posto.  My favorite of the little plates menu was a fancy-pants version of a club sandwich.  The “Hare Club,” sandwiches layers of wild hare and rabbit pate, homemade tomato jam and baby spinach between the thinest slices of white toast I’ve ever seen.  Not too shabby for the end of a toothpick.

 

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Picture 1 from 3: Chive and Pork boiled dumplings are 4 for a $1.50!

Can you believe that this take-out box of four boiled dumplings cost me at $1.50?!  And, better yet, the cooking demo and people-watching comes free of charge!

Way back in April, Lorin wrote about the Ponchatoula strawberry festival and since then, I’ve barely been able to contain my berry-envy!   Thankfully, we’ve finally got some great local strawberries making their way onto the farmer’s market tables here in NY!  While the berries aren’t from New York just yet, Connecticut and New Jersey have been so kind to sell their goods on our side of the state line!

A moment of silence please, for these tiny, yellow, rounds of beauty…..ok, there.  Simply awe-inspiring.  There’s a vendor at our Farmers’ Market who grows an insane number of tomato varieties and I went gaga for these sweet, itty-bitty cherry tomatoes.  Poised to be the salad of summer, I tossed my tomato stash with torn bits of milky-creamy burrata (fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream) and a small amount of a very clean and breezy vinaigrette.  Then I cried.  Tears for tomatoes?  Yep, I’m a big geek.