May's Letter 2025
A Frenchman, the kitchen at dusk, and a night away
Monday - As a spring wind blows through the picket fence, I pull the pale stalks and stems of last year’s garden. I tidy and clean and find, to my surprise, when I peek beneath a blanket of leaves, two overwintered parsley and four sprouting stalks of chard.
Tuesday - “Have you ever thought of planting bulbs in a rock?” I ask. He looks over toward the windowsill, at the muscari sprouting from where they’re planted in that old hollow stone he brought home for me that day. “I never have,” he replies, then looks back at me, “See what I would have missed without you in my life?”
Wednesday - A thrashing of a storm, rain clattering like a thousand tacks. The grass greens, dirt becomes mud, and across the linen coverlet on the bed are the perfect prints of kitty paws.
Thursday - He thought he wanted an office, a room of his own with a desk and chair and a door to close on the outside world. But what he realized, quite unexpectedly, was that he simply wants an antique roll-top desk tucked into a corner of the living room where he can do his work with the murmur of the house around him.
Friday - “His face was the color and texture of a hastily cooked steak, with a wedge of nose jutting out above a ragged, nicotine-stained mustache. Pale blue eyes peered through a sprouting tangle of ginger eyebrows, and his decayed smile would have brought despair to the most optimistic dentist. Nevertheless, there was a certain mad amiability about him.” - Peter Mayle, A Year In Provence. (I’m rereading this favorite. Oh, how I love well-written words!)
Moments Lately
Reading Lately
Seed to Dust: Life, Nature and a Country Garden by Marc Hamer. When the world feels like it’s churning with uncertainty, I want to tuck away with a book that is quiet, peaceful, and nurturing. This is one of those. As the book begins, the author has been the sole gardener of a 12 acre Welsh estate for two decades. Miss Cashmere, its elderly owner, comes and goes, saying a few pleasantries to him as she passes through the garden with her newspaper and pack of cigarettes, but mostly, he’s alone, tending, caring, an artist of nature. The book isn’t so much about gardening instruction, but more about seeing, about nature, nurture, and life. Living it, deeply, slowly, fully. The author’s poetic way of writing draws you into a beautiful experience with every turn of the page. One of my favorite things is the loving way he writes about his wife.
Eating Lately
Focaccia
As originally published in the 1990’s Breads book for the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library, this was a recipe for French baguettes, but, for forever, it’s also been my go-to pizza dough recipe. And my recipe for breadsticks, and French bread, and sandwich bread, and for the first time just the other day, for focaccia. My gracious, why had I not thought to make focaccia with it before? Eating it fresh, with that handful of parmesan melted over the top, was absolutely divine!
5-5 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (110°F)
1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan
Extra virgin olive oil
In a 4 cup measuring bowl, add warm water and sprinkle the active dry yeast over the top and stir gently together with a fork. Set aside to activate. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix the flour and salt together. When the yeast is foamy on top of the water in the measuring bowl, pour it all into the mixer bowl with the flour and salt and mix until the dough is smooth, adding more flour if needed. The dough should pull cleanly away from the sides and bottom of the bowl and follow the hook as it moves around the bowl. Stop the mixer and remove the dough hook. Drizzle olive oil over the surface of the dough, then with your hands, lift and turn the dough so all sides are oiled. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave on the counter to rise until doubled.
Preheat your oven to 450°F and place a rack in the center of the oven. Oil a 9 1/2 x 13 inch baking dish with olive oil. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough into a rectangle. Lift dough with your hands and place in the oiled baking dish. Drizzle the top with more oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled in height. With oiled hands press your fingertips of both hands into the risen dough to give it the classic focaccia dimples. Scatter the shredded Parmesan over top. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven. Let rest in the baking dish for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack, or slice and serve warm.
Favorites Lately
Let’s go. Let’s just go, all of us. Let’s eat in that dining room, then stay overnight.
But if we can’t go there, let’s go outside, in our own backyards, spread out our dinners, and cover the food with these.
And we should wear this on our lips (I was surprised to like this local drug store purchase as much as I do).
And this (or this) on our bodies.
And these (or these, or these) on our feet.
And around us in the flowerbeds these and these will be in bloom.