Fresh figs

Growing up in Ohio, I associated figs with Fig Newtons. Never had a fresh one until I was almost 30. Sometimes I wonder how many other times I'm being ripped off in life and just don't know any better.

These figs came from Italian friends on Long Island, wrapped in their own leaves. We ate them without washing or debugging. Sweet as strawberries. Pure heaven.

I highly recommend friendship with Italians.

Summer salad and the happy corn song

Yesterday, as I made my way through the cafeteria line and piled two, three, four ears of corn on my tray, I found myself singing, "Corn is great. Corn makes me happy. Happy happy happy hap-peeee."

Unfortunately, I was flanked by Koreans, who don't get as excited about corn on the cob as a Midwesterner does. And I was singing out loud.

One of my favorite things to do with hap-peeee corn is to slice off the extra into a salad, into which I also dump beets, blue cheese, sometimes sunflower seeds, fresh herbs, raisins, mozzarella or bits of chicken. Then I spend the next thirty minutes chewing.

Happy happy happpeeee.

Tomato love

Aren't ugly tomatoes beautiful? Ugliness - a sure sign they came out of the ground, not some hydroponics lab. Chubby, bumpy, dimpled, misshapen and retaining water - looks bad on you, looks great on them.


In this great city, you can get organic pizza delivered to you in Central Park. But you cannot get a decent tomato. Farmer's Markets don't cut it. They weigh out tomatoes like gold bullion.

Tomatoes should be purchased from the side of the road in a paper sack and cost no more than $3 for the whole bag. Or they should come from your elderly friend Ruby in Long Island, as these were.

How to make the easiest vanilla ice cream ever

Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that one thing it is not is a food blog. (It's more of a frugal home design/budget travel/Brooklyn neighborhood/squirrel stalking/oh look at the pretty (a. flower b. weed c. miscellaneous weird thing) I just noticed blog.)

However, this recipe is so easy even I can do it. In fact I make a batch of ice cream two or three times a week. It takes five minutes to mix and about 15 minutes to freeze.

Ingredients

1 egg
1/2 to 2/3 cups sugar
3 cups milk
Dash of vanilla extract



Whiz the egg in a blender until fluffy. Add the sugar and whiz again. Add the milk and vanilla and whiz for about a minute.

Pour the mix into an ice cream maker. We have a basic one with a cannister that stays in the freezer and an easy hand crank. (Found it at thrift store for $8 last year. Have made approximately $2,000 worth of ice cream in it already.) You turn the crank once every few minutes, and the ice cream is done in about 15 minutes.

For variety, you can add fresh mint during the blending phase and chocolate chips after the ice cream is almost frozen.