It’s the Berries!

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Raspberries…blackberries…blueberries…strawberries. Summer is berry season. Have you had your fill yet?

Nothing to pit or peel, naturally formed in perfect bite-size pieces, berries are the ultimate convenience fruit. Use berries as a topping for breakfast cereals or pancakes, in salads, and over ice cream or puddings.

For a simple dessert, mix berries with sugar to taste and let set for about half an hour, until they give up their juices to create their own sauce. Serve the sweetened berries with whipped cream, heavy cream, or yogurt.

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A Honey of a Cookbook

Marie Simmons, photo by Luca Trovato

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

As soon as I got off the phone with Marie Simmons, I headed to the kitchen, made a slice of toast, slathered it with butter and drizzled it with honey. The rich and creamy butter melted and merged with the mellow sweetness of the honey…and rekindled a childhood taste memory.

I confess I’m not much of a honey user. There’s no particular reason; I just don’t think of it. We always buy lavender honey when vacationing in Provence and Lehua honey when in Hawaii. And the rest of the time, we always have some kind of honey at home, but it often sits on the shelf until a recipe I’m making actually calls for this natural sweetener.

My interest in honey was triggered when I was invited to an education panel in San Francisco recently, hosted by the National Honey Board, at which Marie, an award-winning food writer and the author of Taste of Honey, c. 2013, (Andrews McMeel Publishing), was speaking. Delighted to be seeing an old friend again, I called Marie for a preview.

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Let the Salad Season Begin!

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

For any food lover, this is the best time of the year, when farmers’ markets and produce counters are burgeoning with seasonal fruits and vegetables. At the Alemany Farmers’ Market in San Francisco yesterday, stalls were bustling as shoppers filled market baskets and grocery carts, eager for a taste of summer.

From now through fall is peak salad time. Quick to fix and healthy (if you don’t overdo the dressing), salads are a boon to people too busy to cook. Toss in some protein – drained canned tuna, leftover shreds of rotisserie chicken, rinsed and drained canned beans, hard-cooked eggs – and you can make it an easy, no-cook, one-dish dinner.

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Breakfast for Mom that Kids can Make

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Until the day she died, my mother worried and fretted about me, even if the tables had been turned and I was her caregiver. Mothers are like that.

I tend to be the same way with my boys, even if they’re grown men. But I try not to show it too much. A sneeze? I’m thinking, are you coming down with a cold? But I restrain myself from asking; I don’t want to be hovering.

Mother’s Day is on Sunday and mothers across the U.S. will be feted, usually with breakfast in bed. That seems to be the typical treat for moms, while dad is usually honored with a barbecue. It may be that sleeping in is the most luxurious treat for mom, who is usually the first one up in the household, making breakfast.

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In Love with Lentils

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Lentils have so much going for them. They cook fairly quickly, they store well and they’re good for you. But I never think of making anything with this versatile legume.

The last lentil recipe I cooked was Mejadra, a traditional Arab comfort food of rice, lentils and spices from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's Jerusalem: A Cookbook. Part of the deliciousness in that recipe comes from frying sliced onions until they turn into aromatic, caramelized strings that are stirred into the dish and also sprinkled on top. It’s not a difficult recipe, but not one that I’d whip up on the spur of the moment, when I’m hungry for dinner.

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