Earlier this week, while enjoying my usual early morning routine of sipping coffee, catching up on blog posts, and postponing looking at my work email for as long as possible, I happened upon Lan’s question: What color would you describe your days right now? It made me pause, not in search of an answer, but in surprise at how quickly mine came to me.

Lately, my days have been a little grey. This is due, in part, to the much-needed rainy spring weather. But mostly to the fact that I am, for the first time in a long while, single. After nearly four years, Johnny and I decided to part ways last week. It was not preceded by constant arguing or festering animosity, nor was it entirely unexpected. We’ve simply realized that we are better friends than anything else, and that freedom from the constraints of a relationship would be best for both of us, as individuals and as friends. Despite the fact that this is the most amicable end to a relationship I’ve experienced, the sadness is no less difficult to bear. It makes food taste bland, turns seemingly normal breaths into heavy sighs, and makes it impossible to write this post without pausing to brush away a few tears.

The weather, thankfully, has been kind enough to match my mood. I’m enjoying the overcast days, the (sometimes epic) rain showers, and even the thunderstorms that wake me up at 3:00am. But before all this grey spring weather, we experienced an early summer spell here in the northeast, which prompted me to make these sodas.

Ever since this celery cocktail, I have been thinking about ways to incorporate other seemingly unusual vegetables into drinks. I wanted to start by making a non-boozified drink, especially after Alanna made this gorgeous celery soda that sounded all sorts of refreshing. I quickly fixated on red bell pepper + lemon, and then basil crept its way into the theoretical mix. But to be honest, I totally did not know what to expect when I combined all of these things together. I juiced the pepper and the citrus and made an agave syrup for sweetener, then I just kind of stood back and stared at all the separate ingredients sitting on my counter, moving in every few moments to bring two things up to my nose at a time and contemplate what they would taste like together. Bell peppers, while sweet, refreshing things to chomp on, have quite a flavor. And a glass of that liquid unadulterated flavor seemed a little intense to me once I had it right in front of my face. Finally, I muddled a tiny bit of basil in the bottom of a glass, added small amounts of the rest of the ingredients, and took a sip of the base, sans seltzer. And damn, you guys, was it delicious!

The lemon is the key to bringing an awesome brightness and balance to this drink. The agave syrup worked nicely as a sweetener, but I think a honey syrup would be equally (if not more) tasty. The basil adds some welcome earthy notes, but be careful not to overdo it, since too much can ruin the whole thing. My next step (obv) was to experiment with adding booze! Gin was good, although I found the juniper-y notes to be a bit much, especially in combination with the basil. Vodka would of course work well, since it wouldn’t really bring much to the party, flavor-wise. But the best combination, hands down, was with rum. (Which I’d kind of figured, as I’ve been super intrigued by this infusion since last year.)

The rum blends seamlessly with everything else in the drink, and makes the whole thing taste of summer. I bottled up a few and brought them to a bbq, and they were mostly met with rave reviews. (One friend described them as “interesting,” but hey, pepper juice just isn’t for everyone.) Overall, I am really digging this whole straight juice in drinks as opposed to flavored simple syrup. The taste is unparalleled, and it gives you a lot more control over the various components of the drink, rather than having the flavor of the fruit/vegetable intertwined with the sweetness. I am looking forward to experimenting with lots more juice-based drinks this summer.

Red Bell Pepper, Lemon, & Basil Soda

makes: two 8 oz. sodas

• 3 oz. red bell pepper juice
• 3 oz. lemon juice
• 2 oz. agave or honey syrup (1 part agave/honey : 1 part water)
• 2 basil leaves
• 8 oz. seltzer

Muddle basil in the bottom of a shaker. Fill with ice, then add pepper juice, lemon juice, and syrup, and shake to combine. Strain into two glasses filled with ice, then top with seltzer.

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The Danny Torrance

makes: one drink

• 2 oz. gold rum (Gosling’s will do nicely)
• 1 oz. red bell pepper juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 3/4 oz. agave or honey syrup (1 part agave/honey : 1 part water)
• 2 basil leaves
• seltzer

Lightly muddle basil in the bottom of a shaker. Fill with ice, then add rum, pepper juice, lemon juice, and syrup, and shake to combine. Strain into a glass filled with ice and top with seltzer.

I’m curious — is it just me, or has the spring ramp craze been extra crazed this year? At first, I thought maybe it just seemed that way because I finally started using Instagram (total old lady when it comes to embracing new forms of social media). But when I asked my mom last weekend if she and my dad had ever seen any ramps in the woods, she replied, “What is it with those things? Wai Shun (long-time family friend who owns a Japanese restaurant in Delhi, NY) asked me the same thing the other week.” She went on to say that they’d never come upon any, which surprises me considering their property consists of around 60 acres of forest-y land adjoining 500 acres of state land. She then called yesterday to tell me that she’d spoken with the woman who runs a little garden center/farm stand in the neighboring town, and when my mom asked her about ramps, she was equally unsure of their existence on her property, although thought that might be what’s been growing under her blueberry bushes. But she said that just that past weekend, some douchetastic guy that was clearly up visiting from the city (better known ’round those parts as a “citiot”) came into the store demandingly searching for ramps as well.

If the ramp market has yet to be tapped in that part of upstate NY, it’s probably a good thing. Since I’d only been introduced to ramps two years ago, I hadn’t given much thought to over-foraging until Laura wrote this post last week. I’d still like to search my parents’ woods myself, though, just to see what I can find. Perhaps my parents can spend their retirement foraging and making a fortune off selling ramps to the citiots.

(Also, I have a number of friends and I’m sure a lot of readers from downstate, so I’d like to assure everyone that we certainly don’t think you’re all citiots! :) That term is reserved for the weekenders that speed through our towns, talk down to locals, and have their cell phones permanently attached to their faces. Ugh.)

Given the ramp craze, I probably don’t need to explain too much about these delicious little things, despite the fact that they can be hard to come by in certain places. My love of them kind of fascinates me, considering just how much I hate onions. (You can read more about my introduction to ramps in this post.) Between their short season and the fact that I tend to cook and eat ALL the ramps before I can even think about getting out my camera, I don’t have the chance to get in many posts about them. You aren’t really missing out though, since I’m pretty much just caramelizing them every time, then putting them in or on whatever else I’m making. I’d love to try oven roasting them or making them into pesto, or incorporating them into butter (omg right?) too. Eventually, this will happen. But right now, we’re going to talk about caramelizing, and pairing them with one of my other favorite spring veggies — asparagus.

I wanted to keep this pizza on the lighter side, so I made the crust a lot thinner than usual, and dialed back the cheese to allow the veggies to be the real stars. The base of the pizza is a healthy dose of Greek yogurt dotted with agave, thyme, and goat cheese, then topped with caramelized ramps, asparagus ribbons, and some baby kale, plus a little bit of parmesan and fontina, and some red pepper flakes. The one thing I had intended to do once the pizza came out of the oven was drizzle a balsamic reduction all over it, but I completely forgot! You should do that, though, if you make this pizza. (It was a totally passable version of delicious without it, but really, balsamic reduction. It can do no wrong.)

Since ramps consist of a bulb and greens, I caramelize them in three stages: The bulbs go in the pan first, then the section where the leaves me the bulb, and finally, the greens. I added the leftover asparagus heads and stems to the pan at stage two as well. The asparagus ribbons and baby kale get tossed with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt (if you have some smoked sea salt on hand, definitely use that). The tang of the Greek yogurt base works really well with the greens and the occasional kick from the red pepper flakes. The cheese mostly hangs out at the back of the flavor party, lending a hint of earthiness from the fontina and saltiness from the parmesan, and the occasional punch of decadence from the goat cheese. I can only imagine that a drizzle of balsamic would have made the whole thing perfect, but there’s always next time!

Caramelized Ramp & Ribboned Asparagus Pizza

• half of this pizza dough recipe (for a thin crust pizza)
• cornmeal for dusting (or parchment paper)
• 1 small bunch of ramps (approximately a dozen)
• half a dozen medium-sized asparagus, shaved into ribbons, remaining heads and stems reserved
• handful of baby kale (or another green of your preference)
• 1/3–1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup of freshly grated parmesan
• 1/3 cup of freshly grated fontina
• fresh thyme
• agave or honey
• pinch of smoked sea salt
• red pepper flakes
• olive oil (no more than 2–3 tbsp should do it)
• healthy pinch of kosher salt

To caramelize the ramps:

Wash ramps thoroughly to remove any dirt. Cut bulbs from ramps a little bit below where the leaves begin. Make a second cut separating the section where the bulb meets the leaves. Finally, chop remaining greens into large-ish pieces.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet over low heat. Add ramp bulbs and sprinkle with the healthy pinch of kosher salt. Cook, stirring often, for 10–15 minutes, or until bulbs begin to soften and lightly brown. Add the stem-meets-bulb sections to the pan along with the reserved heads and stems of the asparagus. Cook for another 7–10 minutes, or until the bulbs have become quite soft and nicely browned. Add remaining greens and cook until thoroughly wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make the pizza:

Preheat oven with your pizza stone to 500°. (If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can bake your pizza on the back of a baking sheet. [I actually had to do this to make this pizza, because my pizza stone was MIA! Turns out it was in the stairwell storage space. I put it there during Easter and then forgot about it......] Just preheat the baking sheet in the oven for about 15 minutes, then carefully slide the pizza right onto the back of it. I recommend using parchment paper if you follow this method, since it just makes things so much easier.)

Toss asparagus ribbons and baby kale with a drizzle of olive oil and the smoked sea salt. Set aside.

Dust your pizza peel with cornmeal. Shape dough, getting crust as thin as possible without tearing. Spread Greek yogurt over the surface, then dot with agave or honey and sprinkle with fresh thyme. Add some small bits of goat cheese (I made mine a little larger than pea-size and spaced them about an inch and a half-ish from each other.) Spread half of the parmesan and fontina over the pizza, then evenly distribute ramps, asparagus, and baby kale. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and top with the remaining cheese.

Combine one tablespoon of olive oil and one tablespoon of agave/honey in a bowl and whisk to combine. Brush onto crust.

Bake pizza for about 12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest for a few minutes. Top with a drizzle of balsamic reduction to make things extra delicious!

Hey guys! I totally meant to get this post up over the weekend, but I wound up with a super-full docket on Saturday between gallivanting around the first summer market, making you all a rockin’ pizza (with ramps, oh yeah), snapping some photos of J’s band in the afternoon, then heading down to NY to visit my parents. To all the mothers out there, and to my mom most especially — Happy Mother’s Day! Being around my mom this weekend as she proudly showed off her giant gardens she planted this past week, it’s hard to believe that only four months ago she was lying in a hospital bed recovering from a mastectomy. I love you, mom, and I am so not surprised that you’re totally kicking stupid cancer’s ass.

I haven’t had a chance to do one of these Rewinds in a little while (buried in work, enjoying the spring weather when I actually have a free moment, blah blah bah), so some of these things go back a couple weeks, and might not be new to everyone. If they are, yay! If not, revisiting is always fun. :)

1. Izy’s doughnut post — holy cow. I cannot believe what this girl does with .gifs. If I tried, my brain would melt and my eyes would fall out of my head. Also, THOSE DOUGHNUTS.

2. I am so fascinated by this cake. I just can’t get over it.

3. Kankana made these amazing muffins, and I do not understand how I have yet to eat a savory muffin in my lifetime. That needs to change asap.

4. Alanna made this awesome soda that I am dying to try. And then she made a strawberry caprese salad that might have changed my life. (Tomato chunks, not totally my thing. But strawberries in a salad, plus balsamic — YES.)

5. These pictures from Eva’s trip to VT made me so happy. The greenhouses, the wood fire oven and that pizza, those piggies EATING BAGUETTES!!

6. I am so psyched that Linda bought some ramps, and her ramp pesto looks awesome!

7. Sue has been making some killer frozen treats that actually have me craving hot summer weather. These Thai iced tea pops sound so good, and this amaretto poppy seed ice cream kinda blew my mind.

8. Shelly’s blog is my newest love. I freaked out over these savory waffles, and then I nearly swooned to death over her baklava ice cream.

9. Chris Hadfield, you rule.

Up until a few weeks ago, I had never made anything with buckwheat flour. Nor could I even recall enjoying anything made of buckwheat (other than the occasional soba noodle dish). Kind of crazy, right?

I realized this when Alanna posted a recipe for Chocolate Buckwheat Banana Muffins, and I thought to myself, “I wonder what that tastes like with buckwheat flour?” I could kind of imagine it, thinking back to my teenage days of slinging pancakes on the weekends. I remember watching the strange cement-colored buckwheat batter being poured onto the griddle, and then carrying the plate of rich browny-grey pancakes over to their table, noting their nutty smell in the dozen or so steps it would take me to reach my destination. I was curious, but apparently not curious enough to actually try them.

When I mentioned this to Alanna, she also directed me towards another recipe on her blog for Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies. I decided to give those a try, since I am a horribly impatient person, and I need to be in exactly the right mindset at exactly the right time in exactly the right place to stop and look at a bunch of bananas and think, “hmmm, I should buy these and maybe bake something with them in a few days.”

So, I made myself some buckwheat cookies, and they were awesome. I don’t even really know how to describe the flavor, exactly. The buckwheat was nutty and earthy, with an intriguing almost bitter taste to it. But the strangest thing to me was the combination of the buckwheat with the cacao nibs. Together, they evoked the flavor of banana, despite the fact that there were none present in the recipe. I didn’t understand it, but it pretty much convinced me that buckwheat + banana + cacao nibs was a winning combination. And I knew I needed to suck it up and force myself to remember to buy a bunch of perfect yellow bananas, then wait.

Turns out, waiting isn’t that hard when you’re really delusional and you convince yourself that you’ll be toootally up for whipping up a batch of muffins in the evening after a 10-hour day filled with inbox avalanches and discovering random manuscripts on your work shelf that you didn’t even KNOW WERE THERE, that call for proofs due the next day. Oh man, were these bananas READY by the time Saturday rolled around.

I had intended on making Alanna’s recipe, but as I was taking stock of my ingredients, I realized I had none of the other gluten-free flours I needed. (Or maybe I do and they’re in one of those unlabeled jars that I’m so sure I’ll remember the contents of when I put stuff in there. Welcome to my mystery kitchen, where we smell and taste everything, lest we make the mistake of putting cornstarch instead of powdered sugar into a big batch of homemade nutella……again.) So instead, I wound up adapting this banana bread recipe, which I’ve used in the past for banana muffins with excellent results.

End result: Subbing out half of the AP flour for buckwheat yielded some dang delish muffins. I love the buckwheat with the banana, and the cacao nibs bring their awesome texture and bitter chocolatey goodness to the party. I told E to help himself to them if he wanted any, and his response was, “ehh, I don’t really like banana baked goods.” Then he tried one later anyway. At least one has disappeared per day since.

Buckwheat Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chunks & Cacao Nibs
(inspired by The Bojon Gourmet, adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

yield: 12 muffins

• 9–12 oz. of high-quality, extra dark chocolate (80% cocoa), roughly chopped
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup of butter, melted
• 1 cup of light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• a splash of milk
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• pinch of cloves
• 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of buckwheat flour
• 3 tablespoons of cacao nibs, plus extra for the top (note: I LOVE cacao nibs. If you don’t feel the same, you might want to dial it back to 2)

Preheat oven to 350°. Mash bananas in a large bowl, then add butter and stir to combine. Mix in sugar, egg, milk, and spices. Add baking soda and flour, and beat until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chunks.

Line a muffin tin with wrappers. Evenly distribute batter into wrappers, then sprinkle some extra cacao nibs on top. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Of all the things to experience crazy synchronicity over, celery seems one of the more unusual. And celery drinks, at that — stranger still. I mean, the universe could point me in any number of directions, like towards giving up my possessions and traveling the world, or quitting my job and devoting my life to helping the less fortunate. But apparently, at this moment, it really just wants me to put celery in my booze. Who am I to argue with that?

It began with the newest issue of Imbibe and a little piece called Put a Stalk in It, which discussed celery as a versatile ingredient in cocktails, along with three recipes. As I read it, I thought about that one time many years ago when I bought a can of celery soda purely out of curiosity, and took barely two sips before declaring it mega-nasty. My palate has come quite a long way since those days (that was also the time when I couldn’t stand gin — can you even imagine?!), so it occurred to me that it might be time for me to give celery-flavored drinks another go. Then a couple hours later, Alanna sent me an email discussing, amongst other things, celery soda. “Ooo! Weird!” I thought, and I told her all about the celery cocktails. Then the next day, as I was perusing Liqurious, two more cocktails caught my eye, both of which also happened to contain celery. And to top it all off, one of them was photographed by another one of my favorite food gals, Linda. I mean, can we all agree that this is some totally weird celery mojo?

I picked up a bunch of celery on Saturday morning, just in case inspiration struck during the weekend. By that afternoon, curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I decided 3:00pm was as fine a time as any to throw together a couple of cocktails. Besides, we’re talking celery juice cocktails, people. Practically a health drink! In addition, all I’d been wanting to do since I got my Mark II on Wednesday was to have an epic photo sesh, and photo editing while sipping on a fine glass of something always proves to be most excellent.

And switching gears for a second, can I just say that I LOVE my new camera!! (I don’t want to talk about how I dropped it on Sunday after a strap malfunction that was totally my fault *repeated double facepalm*. Thank god both it and my 28mm wide angle seem to still be working fine. Otherwise, I’d probably still be frozen in my hallway, having a nervous breakdown.) I’ll talk a bit more about the camera once I actually learn more about it (so far I’ve learned that there were a lot of things about full frame sensors that I didn’t quite understand), but I’m really curious if there seems to be any clear difference in photo quality to you, the reader? For me, the most obvious difference lies in the amount of tweaking I do in Lightroom (far less with the MKII). Photos seems crisper and clearer with a lot more subtle detail, and I don’t find myself messing with clarity and the adjustment brush the way I used to with the 60D.

Anyway, moving on. It seems I can’t do a post these days without attempting at least one hands-on photo. I think I really liked the way this one turned out, despite the fact that it showcases the fine shade of translucent my skin happens to be after a VT winter, as well as my secret velociraptor knife grip method (I really should take a class or something). And if you look closely, you can see the scar on my left thumb from my bread knife incident the other week. Um, yeah, moving on from this too……

Back to the booze: This cocktail is simple and awesome. The celery works super well with the gin, bringing a fresh, vegetal taste to the drink. The juniper, citrus, and unique sweetness of agave follow the initial celery flavor, and the whole things finishes on a savory note. It’s delicious, refreshing, and goes down almost dangerously easy.

If you don’t have a juicer (which I do not), you can make celery juice quite easily by pureeing chopped celery in a food processor or blender, then squeezing the juice out through a cheesecloth. I was able to get 1 cup of juice from five large stalks of celery. And making the agave syrup is super simple since agave is already liquid, and all you need to do is whisk together equal parts agave and water. If you’re at all curious about this drink, even just a teeny bit, I highly recommend giving it a try. (Also, grab the current issue of Imbibe if you happen upon it at some point, because there are two other great celery cocktails to be found inside. Along with several recipes for homemade soda that I can’t wait to try, amongst other things!)

A Walk in the Weeds
(from Imbibe, May/June 2013)

makes: 1 drink

• 2 oz. Hendricks gin
• 3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
• 3/4 oz. agave syrup (1 part agave : 1 part water)
• 1 oz. fresh celery juice

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass and garnish with a sprinkle of salt.