Warm nights in early June really call for something like a Pimm’s Cup.

It’s a nice thing to sip while you’re prepping tiny matchstick potatoes, and getting a fire ready to grill some burgers made from great local beef.

This night, our beef came from Aquidneck Farm.

Oh, and about those matchstick potatoes?

Be VERY sure you dry them well. Even better than you think you have. (Several rounds of towel drying, after much time in a colander draining. Rub rub rub, dry dry dry.) A pass with a blow-dryer might even be in order. Because they can. not. be. too. dry. before they go into a high-sided pot of very hot oil filled not even 1/3 of the way up. Trust me. I damn near burned the house down.

That said, these might have been worth the new patch of grey hair I sprouted overnight.

With Jen in New York for the Food52 launch party, I’m taking the reins for one day.

First up, a Kali update. She took a pretty dramatic turn yesterday, and I’m pleased to tell you it’s for the better. Her appetite, over the weekend and into late Tuesday, was still very minimal. All day Tuesday, she refused food, and that was where she was when I left for a bartender competition Tuesday evening. Jen came home and got her to at least sniff food and even lap up the aromatic gelatin from a can of Friskies, but Kali still wouldn’t take solid food. She did, however, accept the transdermal dosing of Pred I started giving her Tuesday afternoon.

Yesterday morning, things began to change. As Jen was getting ready for her trip to New York, she paused long enough to put down some dry food for the cats. As the kibbles pinged into their bowls, Jen saw Kali and her big blue eyes staring up at her next to her food dish. She ate with gusto, took a long drink of water, and ate again. She’s eaten well, consistently, since then. Now that she’s regained much of her energy and personality, though, she’s fighting the transdermal Pred a little. Not nearly so much as she battled against taking the oral dosing, though, so it’s manageable, at least for now.

As for last night’s dinner, I had some chicken leg quarters in the fridge. Jen had made chicken saltimbocca over the weekend, using the breast meat of a bird from Pat’s Pastured. She took the wings and made meat and broth for Kali, and left the legs for my bachelor supper. So I roasted the legs in the oven, in my beloved iron skillet, at 450ºF for about 20 minutes, I think. When they reached about 165º, I removed them to a platter and tented them with foil to rest.

Then I took the leftover skin (and the fat clinging to it) from the breast portion, and crisped that up in the pan drippings in the iron skillet. I removed that, let it cool, and chopped it up. I added a bit of olive oil, sliced shallot and a pinch of salt and sweated those down over medium-low heat. I added thinly sliced potatoes and fried them in the oil and chicken fat.

Meanwhile, in another pan, I put oil and more shallot, heated that up, and added chopped kale to sauté. When the potatoes were nicely browned, I added the chicken skin back to the pan and let everything crisp up a bit. And there you have a rich, probably too fatty, meal fit for a bachelor weeknight. I won’t even talk about the hookers and blow that followed.

You’ll note by the color imbalance and the schmutz on the plate that this definitely isn’t Jen’s photography. Sorry for the mess.

I arrived home last night with no game plan as far as dinner was concerned. I’m still in a bit of a rut, and the fact that darkness falls shortly after I get home in the evening isn’t helping. Summer’s over, and another long, cold New England winter isn’t far away. It’s soup season again.

We had potatoes on the counter and leeks in the crisper, so a potato-leek soup was my first thought. Our default is usually Julia’s Potage Parmentier, but I wanted to switch things up a bit. We had a batch of freshly made chicken stock in the fridge, plus a couple of hunks of Cheddar and the last of a bunch of fresh dill, so all of those made their way into the pot. I added a couple of blobs of Dijon mustard for tang, pureed the soup with a stick blender once the potatoes were tender, and served it up with crusty bread on the side and a little more fresh dill on top. This soup was quick, comforting, and bowl-licking good – a definite keeper. I’ve posted my recipe here.

It has looked a lot like the Smitten Kitchen here over the last couple of days, with two dinners in a row inspired by Deb’s dishes.

I started on Monday with a potato tortilla, the first I’ve ever attempted at home. I used this recipe as a guide, but I did go the more traditional route of frying my potato slices – creamy beauties from Ledge Ends Produce, sliced thin on a mandoline slicer – low and slow in a good amount of olive oil. I used raw artichokes rather than marinated, since I had picked up some beauties from Wishing Stone Farm over the weekend, and included some of my own marinated grilled red peppers plus a little smoky pimenton.

Mine didn’t come out nearly as pretty as Deb’s did, which I attribute to my choice to use our iron skillet rather than the recommended non-stick, but it still tasted delicious. The last of it made a great breakfast today, too.

Which brings us to the pizza.

Now that Mike has mastered his grilled pizza recipe and technique, it was time to change things up a bit, so for last night’s version we went with the grilled eggplant and olive pie posted here.

Mike made me promise I’d include the phrase “Deb’s a genius” in this post, and how could I not? What a great combination of flavors this was. The grilled eggplant slices were tender and smoky, the olives provided deliciously briny bursts of flavor, and the melty provolone cheese was a winning counterpart to both.

Thanks for the inspiration, Deb!

I received an email a couple of weeks ago offering me a copy of Terry Walters’ new book, Clean Food. Now, I can count on one hand the times I’ve actually accepted the offers of free stuff that land in my inbox, but the premise of this book – cooking with fresh, seasonal, sustainably grown foods – is so obviously in line with the way I like to cook and eat that I gladly agreed to a copy.

What’s not so obvious about this book is that the recipes are vegan, yet they are so simple and enticing they should appeal to anyone who wants to eat better. I’ve really enjoyed leafing through the pages for inspiration, and I’m sure I’ll turn to Clean Food often as the seasons change and I’m in search of new ways to serve fresh local produce.

My only complaint – and it’s a small one – is that there are no photos, but hopefully my photos of Terry’s delicious green bean and fingerling potato dish with a lemon and dill dressing will give you an idea of what this book is all about.

As you can see, we didn’t eat this bean and potato dish as part of a vegan meal (instead serving it alongside wedges of heirloom tomato from Kimball’s Fruit Farm and crackly-skinned Poulet Rouge from Pat’s Pastured), but the book aims to reach a broad audience and inspire people, meat-eaters or not, to include whole, fresh foods, simply prepared and with clean flavors, into their diets.

This is an idea I can get behind.

I have been battling a dreadful summer cold for nearly a week now, and the comedy of errors that was my Monday didn’t help matters at all. Rhode Island still celebrates V-J day, and because of the holiday the buses were running on a holiday schedule. There was another bus line that could get me to my train on time, but I reached the bottom of the very steep hill we live on just in time to see it whizzing by.

A sticky mile and a half later, I was at the train station, too late for my usual train but just in the nick of time to board the next commuter rail train. I arrived in Boston, trudged through the thick air to my building, and was greeted at my desk by stacks and stacks of files, all demanding my attention. I kept my head down, focused, and made a sizable dent in my backlog by the end of the day, then headed back to South Station, dreaming of home.

I’ll spare you details of the chaotic mess that my evening commute turned into, but suffice it to say that by the time I walked into the kitchen, only comfort food would do – comfort food, and the bottle of Domaine Tempier Bandol rose that had been chilling for days, awaiting the day that my sense of smell and my taste buds returned to normal.

So despite the heat, I turned on the oven and got to work on this summer vegetable gratin. I built many layers of colorful vegetables – thin coins of zucchini and blue potato, ripe red tomato, shaved fennel and sliced eggplant. I spread a garlicky opal basil pesto between each layer, covered the top of my baking dish (I used a loaf pan) loosely with foil, and slid it onto a baking sheet.

After about 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven, I removed the foil and added a mixture of fresh breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, and provencal herbs to the top. It went back into the oven until the topping was golden brown, then I pulled it out of the oven and let it rest briefly before slicing it up to serve. With a little arugula salad and that stunning rose, this meal was just what the doctor ordered.

I think Mother Nature missed the memo. I mean, according to the calendar, Spring has sprung. The flowers know it – the trees, too. I just don’t get why it’s still so darned COLD outside. She’s a stubborn old broad, that Mother Nature.

The persistent chill in the air has made it a bit difficult for me to move beyond hearty wintertime dishes when planning meals for the week, so I come to you today with another gratin. I suppose I could use the excuse that, since we now have a wonderful source of delicious local cream at our farmers’ market, I was duty-bound to show them some love, but honestly? My belly demanded creamy, crusty comfort.

Though the cream is really, really good.

As with most gratins, this was a breeze to throw together: I made a few layers of thinly sliced fennel and a few small red-skinned potatoes (also thinly sliced) in a buttered baking dish, seasoned them with salt, and bathed them in some of that luscious cream. I had whisked a good amount of sharp dijon into the cream before pouring it over the vegetables – a quarter cup or so – which added a nice tang.

I wrapped the dish tightly with foil and baked it in a 400 degree oven for just about half an hour, then removed the foil, grated on some Parmigiano Reggiano, and added some fresh soft breadcrumbs to the top. I dotted on a little butter before returning it to the oven for a final bake – another 15 minutes or so.

We ate this with delicious pork chops from Stoney Hill Cattle, but I think it would be great on its own, too.

One of the reasons I’m so happy that Mike is as big a fan of seafood as I am is because it’s so darned quick and easy to prepare, and this week, quick and easy is about all I’ve had in me. I’ve been anxious to get back to the cutest fish market ever, and on Tuesday, the weather was finally (sorta) warm enough for me to make the walk up to the North End and pick up a few provisions.

I came home with two beautiful filets, one cod and one wild striped bass. I cooked the bass on Tuesday, portioning out a couple of pieces for our dinner and packaging the remainder to freeze. I stewed half of a fennel bulb, thinly sliced, along with some sliced onion, canned San Marzano tomatoes, a glug each of white wine and olive oil, and some Herbes de Provence, and when the mixture had cooked down, I sauteed the striper in a little olive oil until the skin was crisp and the flesh just cooked through. I spooned the fennel and tomato mixture into shallow bowls, placed a filet on top of each portion, and finished with a few fennel fronds, sprigs of flat leaf parsley, and lemon zest.

Wednesday night’s cod was even easier: I used this recipe as a jumping off point, but added my own spin by tossing the potatoes with a bit of smoked Spanish paprika before putting them in the oven to roast. After about 40 minutes, I added the cod (again, I portioned out two pieces and froze the rest), turning it on the baking sheet to coat it with paprika oil and sprinkling a little salt over it, and placed it back in the oven until the cod was just cooked through, about 15-20 minutes or so. I served the cod and potatoes on a bed of picked flat leaf parsley leaves, and sprinkled a little Sherry vinegar, snipped chives, and Basque herbed salt over each serving.

Both of these seafood suppers were incredibly simple and incredibly good, allowing the flavors of the super-fresh fish to shine through. We’re lucky to have access to such great seafood around here, and as the weather warms up and we crave lighter fare, you can bet we’ll be taking full advantage of it.

I’m still struggling to find a favorite preparation for Bomster scallops – nearly every preparation I’ve tried since we moved up here has been less than satisfactory, and a real disservice to these super-fresh beauties. What I did last night hit closest to the mark, though it still needs some tweaking. The chowder-like base was a hit and the texture of the scallops was perfect, but I would have liked the scallops themselves to have a bit more oomph in the flavor department.

This is one of those rare occasions when I actually measured and took notes while I prepped and cooked. Here’s what I did – maybe one of you has a suggestion about how to tweak this?

Caramelized Bomster scallops with corn and potato chowder

1/2 lb. Scallops
2 T butter
1 fat leek, white + pale to medium green parts only, finely chopped
2 strips bacon, cut into julienne
1 medium stalk celery, finely chopped, leaves reserved
1 medium waxy potato, peeled and diced
salt + marjoram + pepper
½ cup dry white wine
1 T AP flour
1 cup whole milk
1 cup corn kernels, thawed if frozen (ours were stripped and frozen last summer)

Place the bacon in a small, dry saute pan. Cook over medium heat until crisp, set the bits on a paper towel to drain and set aside. Remove most of the fat from the pan, but leave a film in the pan to sear the scallops.

Melt butter in a wide saucepan. Add the leeks and celery, season with salt, and cook until softened. Add the potato, a pinch more salt, freshly ground pepper, and marjoram, and stir until the vegetables are coated with the butter and seasonings. Sprinkle the flour over and stir until vegetables are coated; allow to cook for a few minutes until you no longer have a raw flour smell. Add the white wine and stir well, cooking until reduced and thickened. Add the milk and stir through. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender and the liquid is thick and creamy. Add the corn a few minutes before serving, just to warm it through.

When the chowder is almost finished, sear the scallops in batches in the reserved bacon fat, a couple of minutes per side, until they get lightly caramelized and they are just cooked through.

To plate, ladle the chowder mixture into wide, shallow bowls, top with a few cooked scallops, and garnish with crispy bacon and finely chopped celery leaves.

I think I’ve spoken before of my fondness for Rhode Island-style calamari, but did you know that most of the squid served in restaurants in this country is actually from the waters off little Rhody? I didn’t until I read an article about it in the Spring 2008 issue of Edible Rhody magazine, and since then I’ve happily indulged in this local treat whenever possible.

I’ve lamented the fact that, to my surprise, fresh local seafood can be difficult to find in stores around here, but our nearby Whole Foods often has plenty of Point Judith squid available. It’s inexpensive and plentiful, and I picked up a pound of it recently hoping to make it the focus of a meal.

I had originally planned to go in a slightly different direction here, but I settled on a salad infused with Spanish flavors, mixing up a smoked Spanish paprika and sherry vinaigrette to dress the smoky grilled squid and warm potatoes. Chopped shallot and celery added some crunch, and plenty of fresh celery leaves and parsley provided an herbal bite. The finishing touch was a few slivers of fresh red chile pepper, which imparted a gentle heat and pop of color.