This afternoon, we were all ready to blog a beautiful dinner salad that we’d made last week. I even wrote the post in advance, and the pictures were ready to go.

Then, fate intervened. Fate, in the form of a delicious summer afternoon snack (if I were fate, I think that I too would like to take this form occasionally), determined that we would not lazily publish that post, which lacked passion and, well, oomph. Post that another day, she said, post me today. You just ate me. I’m fresh in your memories.

Fresh in our memories, yes, and also fresh in our memories. Fresh, sweet, summery, and light. Crunchy and juicy, smooth and refreshing.

The recipe for the cooked cherries is inspired by Mark Bittman’s recent Recipe of the Day. He recommends spooning them over ice cream, and we came up with our own healthier, snackier version. Serve this anytime you’re craving a smile.

Ingredients (serves 2):
about 9 oz. (1 1/2 cartons) vanilla yogurt, we used Light & Fit
2 oz. granola
2 handfuls fresh cherries, halved and pits remove
1 tbsp sugar

Instructions:
Add cherries and 3 tbsp. water to a small pan, and cook over medium heat. Cook for about 2 minutes, until cherries release their natural juices. Stir in sugar, and cook for an additional minute until juice become syrupy, then remove from heat. Divide half of the yogurt between two glasses, then divide granola over it. Divide remaining yogurt, and top with cherries and their syrup.

On a recent recon excursion, we trekked to the restaurant supply district to see what we could see.

We found that some restaurant supply stores were not interested in humoring 2 twenty-somethings wanting to poke their heads into industrial ovens. But we also found that some were happy to let us wander around and scope out the incredible equipment.

Though some suppliers only sold in bulk (like 6 dozen glasses at a time), others sold items individually as well, so we picked up some very mini tart molds. We loved making the strawberry tartlet earlier this week, but we weren’t thrilled with the dough and wanted a second attempt. I’ve always oggled over these beautiful little tarts on other blogs, so it’s very exciting to post our own version.

I’m especially pleased to report that we did not find the recipe from one specific source.  This is not to say that we invented any individual component, but we did have the sense to figure that they would accompany each other well.  Serve them to people who love lovely things.

Ingredients:
(dough)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
7 tbsp cold butter
3 tbsp cold water

(lime filling)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tsp finely grated fresh lime zest

(blackberries and glaze)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 cups blackberries

Instructions:
To make the dough, combine dry ingredients, and rub them into butter until a coarse meal forms.  Drizzle with cold water and stir until dough comes together.  Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.  To make lime filling, whisk together eggs, sugar, and lime juice.  Add butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking constantly, until bubbles appear on surface, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately pour through a sieve into a bowl, discarding solids. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Stir in zest, then chill, covered, at least 1 hour.  To make glazed berries, boil powdered sugar, water, and lime juice in a small saucepan over moderate heat for about 2 minutes, stirring.  Toss berries in glaze, and let cool.  Bake dough in mini tart pans for about 10 minutes with pie weights (like rice or dried beans), then an additional 5 minutes without, until tarts become a light brown.  Let tart shells cool, then fill with lime filling and top with berries.

Call us new-fashioned, but there are few times when we find dinner rolls truly appropriate.

When we’re also eating pasta or rice, dinner rolls seem like overkill. When we’re just serving a light salad, they often don’t match the mood of the meal. But for a recent dinner consisting of roasted chicken and asparagus with a light bean salad, they were just right.

Alex often jokes that I like to calculate the number of hours in between purchasing food and mealtime, and stretch the food preparation out to fill the entire amount of time. He says we can cook the same meal in either 30 minutes or 3 hours, depending on when we get the groceries through the door. These rolls took us about 4 hours (most of that time was spent rising), but you can probably complete them in under 3 if you work efficiently. The recipe is inspired by this one at All Recipes.

Make them in advance, and reheat them in the oven before dinner if you like. They smell so yummy and taste delicious straight from the oven — even better swiped through gravy. Feel free to substitute other herbs that you have on hand.

Ingredients (makes about 12):
1/2 packet dry active yeast
1/2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives
3 1/4 cups all-purpose bread flour
olive oil, for brushing

Instructions:
Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1 cup warm water until foamy, about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, stir together the yeast mixture with milk, eggs, salt, butter, parsley, chives, and 2 cups flour. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough has pulled together (it may be sticky, so feel free to add more flour as necessary). Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bow and coat with oil. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Grease a baking sheet, deflate the dough, and divide it into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball, and place onto the caking sheet. Cover the rolls with a warm, damp cloth, and let rise until doubled in volume again, about 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 350, brush rolls with a bit of olive oil, and make cross-hatches on the dough with a knife. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

During one of our recon missions around Mount Sinai, we encountered heaven. Oh you didn’t know it was on earth? It is — at the corner of 93rd and Lexington. It obviously can’t go by the name Heaven, because it would suffer severe overcrowding, so instead it goes by Kitchen Arts and Letters. It’s a bookstore devoted entirely to cookbooks.

Have any of you been? The selection was remarkable, and the owner was so kind and knowledgeable! Little does he know, we’re plotting to become the corner kids who he has to kick out for loitering around the place. We ended up purchasing a cookbook, entitled Small Bites, which has great ideas for party snacks, cocktail nibbles, and the like.

Last night, we used a recipe from the book to make rolled zucchini ribbons, filled with goat cheese, mint, arugula, and tied with a chive. My friends from camp are visiting, and we all prepared them for pre-dinner snack.

This is certainly not the most simple appetizer to throw together — broiling zucchini can be annoying in the heat, and rolling and tying the zucchinis is somewhat time-consuming. It’s definitely worth it though, the flavors were so unique and yummy, and they looked stunning. We recommend broiling the zucchini in advance and letting it cool in the refrigerator.

Ingredients (makes about 20 rolls):
4-5 small zucchini
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 thumb-sized red chili peppers, seeds removed and thinly sliced
small bunch fresh chives
4 oz. fresh goat cheese
handful fresh mint leaves
2 small handfuls baby arugula

Instructions:
Heat the broiler to high. Cut the zucchini into lengthwise slices, about 1/4-inch thick. Brush with 2 tbsp olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and broil on both sides until zucchini have grill stripes. Heat remaining oil in a frying pan, and crisp chili peppers for about 3 minutes over medium heat. Drain on paper towels. Bring a small saucepan of water to boil. Drop chives in water, and immediately remove with a slotted spoon then dry on paper towels. Spread each zucchini slice with about 1 tsp goat cheese, then sprinkle mint leaves over, and place arugula and chili slivers so that they will stick up. Gently roll the slice, and tie a chive around the roll. Trim chive ends if necessary, and refrigerate or serve immediately.

Hello, city.

We’re in New York on a recon mission. Just scoping out the neighborhoods (read: the food stores — we visited about five today), poking around our new apartment buildings, visiting friends.

And, oh yes, hounding farmer’s markets. Armed with a map and a schedule, we’ve hit two already, including the revered Union Square Greenmarket. It was everything we dreamed it would be — bright and juicy cherries, delicately leafy greens, sleek summer squash, plus produce we’d never encountered before. We were especially enamored with the strawberries, perfectly ripened into beautiful red hearts. We took home a carton, determined to work them into a dessert worthy of their loveliness.

This strawberry tart wasn’t particularly sweet, but we didn’t mean it to be. We chose a not-to-sweet dough recipe, add only a touch of sugar to the strawberries, and chose to top it with a dark chocolate. It looked fabulous though, and tasted fresh and not overwhelming. This is definitely a recipe to tinker with — we’ll definitely be working different summer fruits into versions throughout the summer.

Ingredients (makes two tartlets):
(dough)
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1/8 cup ice water

(filling)
1 pint strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup sugar
2 oz. dark chocolate
mint, for garnish

Instructions:
Make the dough by combining flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add butter, and mix thoroughly with fingers until a coarse meal forms. Add water, and stir with a fork, then pull dough together into a ball. Divide dough in half, wrap each piece in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough and press into tartlet pans, then line with foil and add pie weights (dry beans and rice work, too). Bake for 15 minutes with foil and weights, then remove and cook for an additional 7-10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Meanwhile, mix strawberries and sugar together. Cool dough completely, then remove from tartlet pan. Fill shell with strawberries, and drizzle with melted chocolate (you can melt it in the microwave by heating for 15 seconds at a time, then stirring). Garnish with mint, and serve.

One of the best parts about becoming grown ups (that happened already, right?), is that we love more foods.

When I was younger, I gagged over asparagus, brussel sprouts or beets. Now, I adore all three. And whenever I gravitate toward beets in the grocery store, I imagine my 11-year old self casting me a scornful glare. If she were here, we would NOT be allowed to make this dish. Eye roll.

But grown up me loves beets, and really loves this salad — in which they play a starring role. Supporting actors include radishes (it’s their debut into our cooking repertoire) and cucumbers (type cast as the mild-mannered salad ingredient). We sought inspiration from this salad on Serious Eats.

Pretty as an appetizer or very light main course salad, you can serve this over lettuce as we did, or on its own.

Ingredients:
1 bunch beets
1 English cucumber
1 bunch radishes
1/2 red onion
salt to taste
pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil (plus more for roasting beets)
1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint (or more or less to taste)
1 head romaine lettuce

(balsamic vinaigrette)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2/3 cups olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Wash beets, and place them in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil. Add a little water to the pan to prevent beets from sticking. Roast in the oven at 350 until beets are easily pierced with a knife, about an hour. Let cool, then peel off the skins and slice into quarter-inch slices. Prepare cucumber salad by removing seeds from cucumber, then cutting the cucumber into very thin slices. Place cucumber in a bowl, then thinly slice radishes (you can use a peeler for this) and red onion, and add to the bowl. Add mint, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Make the balsamic vinaigrette by whisking together ingredients. Divide romaine among four plates, top with beets, then cucumber and radish salad. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette over top, and serve.