Window Salad

There is something irresistible about growing plants from seed. They never seem to turn out as rigorous or prolific as plants started from nursery-borne seedlings, but the joy of watching one sprig of parsley emerge from dirt that I scooped into a pot

and later cleaned from under my fingernails, is what keeps me browsing through seed catalogs year after year. One of my favorites is the Cook's Garden.

On the left is a crop of mesclun, grown from a packet of seeds I obtained from the restaurant Broadway East, where they give away seeds (instead of matches) encased in a matchbook. To the right is a Thai Hot Pepper plant, which took two years to produce the teeny, tiny peppers just beginning to emerge.

Would You Like Some Cherry Pie?

I finally got around to it!

I made the cover shot of June 2008 Bon Apetite, Classic Sour Cherry Pie with Lattice Crust.

In case you were confused, mine is the image below (or to the right, depending on your browser.)

I made my pie with a store-bought crust, but the lattice is home-made. Note the uneven strips with cherry goodness oozing through! If you just make the lattice, save half the dough in the freezer for another pie. I used "regular" cherries, and added about 1 tsp. ground cardamon to the lemon juice mixture. Have someone help you with the pitting, it was the pits! When I was a kid and decal t-shirts with unicorns and corny sayings were all the rage, I had one that said "Life is like a Bowl of Cherries, But watch out for the pits!" I took it to heart.

Here's the recipe.

Crust:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Filling
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon (about) milk
Vanilla ice cream

For crust:
Whisk flour, sugar, and salt in large bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until small pea-size clumps form. Add 5 tablespoons ice water; mix lightly with fork until dough holds together when small pieces are pressed between fingertips, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough together; divide into 2 pieces. Form each piece into ball, then flatten into disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Do ahead Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly before rolling out.

For filling:
Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 425°F. Whisk 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Stir in cherries, lemon juice, and vanilla; set aside.

Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch glass pie dish. Trim dough overhang to 1/2 inch. Roll out second dough disk on floured surface to 12-inch round. Using large knife or pastry wheel with fluted edge, cut ten 3/4-inch-wide strips from dough round. Transfer filling to dough-lined dish, mounding slightly in center. Dot with butter. Arrange dough strips atop filling, forming lattice; trim dough strip overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold bottom crust up over ends of strips and crimp edges to seal. Brush lattice crust (not edges) with milk. Sprinkle lattice with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Place pie on rimmed baking sheet and bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Bake pie until filling is bubbling and crust is golden brown, covering edges with foil collar if browning too quickly, about 1 hour longer. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. Cut into wedges and serve with vanilla ice cream.

In Praise of James Ensor

James Ensor (1860 - 1949) lived most of his life in Ostend, Belgium, at the edge of the sea. He grew up tinkering around his mother's curio shop, surrounded by unusual items, masks, and oddities. Perhaps people wandered into the store on a lazy summer day, finding themselves the new owner of an antique surgical map of the human body, or a floral vase with a hidden chip, a casual purchase by a passerby on a seaside holiday. His father was English, his mother was Flemish, and he traveled not much, just a few brief trips to Paris, London, and Holland. He dropped out of school at the age of 15 to study painting with two masters, going on to art school at the Royal Academy of Art in Brussels. James Ensor was an Expressionistic Superstar. This painting is Flemish Flats Seen From the Dunes (1876), he was 16 when he painted it. 16!

His imagery captured the grotesque and the macabre, the masquerade of society, as he saw it, from the point of view of an outsider/artist. Like in this painting, for example. Masks Confronting Death (1888). The sky groans an oncoming scourge of rain, soon to besiege Ostend. The parade, however, goes on. The townsfold bedecked in Sunday bestness, the finery of their wealth on display, in full regalia. Their faces are concealed, yet unabashed. We see pigs, and other loathsome creatures, with death leading the pack, in a piquant red sun hat. The masks he first encountered in his mother's shop proved to be an enduring presence during Ensor's life, and played a leading role in many of his paintings.

The image to the right is called Laziness, from his Seven Deadly Sins series (1911). It's the sin I am probably most comfortable with committing. This pair snoozes in bed, with a devil perched on the pillow, while workers toil, plowing the land. All seven of Ensor's sins reside at the Ostend Museum in Belgium. Wake Forest University has a nice collection of prints.

The Somber Lady (1881) and The Lamp Boy ( 1880) are earlier works in a more traditional, academic style. The soot and ochre tones are just exquisite. They capture the subtle gestures of the sitters through silhouette and suggestion, with just a hint of color here and there - the somber lady's umbrella, the glint of the lamp from lamp boy.

You can explore more about James Ensor here