Sausage and Goat Cheese Pizza, with Balsamic Onions and Fresh Figs

Right now, I am back visiting my family in Ohio.  As I am writing this, it's nighttime so it is quiet, but I can still hear crickets chirping outside and other night critters making their evening noises.  Back where I live in San Diego, there isn't enough grass or trees or forests to even house these insects, so I miss out on their soothing chorus.  Here, the cool air is floating in through the window, and there are no fast cars or loud freeways or other disturbances.  The calm is wonderful.

When the sun comes up tomorrow morning, the light will touch each blade of green grass, each leaf on every tree, and the noise from the nighttime crickets might be replaced with morning bird songs or buzzing cicadas.  But fall is here and rain is always a possibility (unlike San Diego, there is actually weather here in Ohio), so the cool breeze might linger, and if I am lucky, we might even get a thunderstorm.  If we do, I am sure my mom and I will sit on the porch and listen to the rain pouring down while the wet air mists around us.  These are some of the best feelings of home. 

Sliced black mission figs.

I am sure it comes as no surprise when I say that one of my favorite things to do when I am at home is to cook for my family.  My dad is a budding chef himself, so he always likes to get in on the action, and we usually have grand plans.  This time, I went to the Westside Market with some friends, and picked up all the fixings for a fantastic fall-inspired pizza.  I found black mission figs, earthy sage leaves, local meats, and I got a great deal on a log of fresh chevre. 

Cut the goat cheese into medallions easily using a thin piece of thread or wire.

Herb Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

I don't really care that it is summer and it is hot, because these days I have been wanting to roast everything.  My abundance of summer squash goes into the oven, I have been making Spice Roasted Carrots like crazy, and I just made another batch of Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Dip this weekend.  Call me crazy, but doesn't roasting make everything taste better?

Isn't this bag of little potatoes just the cutest?

Roasting also saves me time - which I don't need to remind you, is in short supply these days.  So naturally, when I picked up some beautiful fingerling potatoes from Weiser Farms at the Little Italy Farmers Market, I made big plans to toss them into the oven with some olive oil, and little salt, and some fresh herbs. 

Beautiful different colors of fingerling potatoes.

I love roasting sliced potatoes with some onions, red peppers, and rosemary, but for these whole fingerling potatoes I wanted something a little more rustic, so I turned to sage.  I adore the soft texture of fresh sage, it just draws me in like a delicate feather.  The earthy and sweet fragrance is so different from other herbs, and it pairs perfectly with fresh-from-the-ground fingerling potatoes. 

Bacon Meatball Subs

When I was younger, it was my dad's job to do the grocery shopping, and he always went on Saturdays.  Sometimes I would tag along with him, and as I followed up and down the aisles, we would make sure to try all the free samples they were offering that weekend.  Back then, the grocery stores must have been rolling in dough or otherwise feeling generous, because they were giving away so much food that little girls like me often went home with full tummies, feeling spoiled by free treats and indulgent dads.  

Other weekends, I would stay at home with my mom while my dad did the grocery shopping, and those times he would usually make a stop at Subway on the way home to pick up lunch for us.  I remember I used to try out all different sorts of subs (I eventually decided I like the veggie sub on white bread best, boring I know), but my dad would predictably come home with the same thing each week: A meatball sub.    

When I was younger, I never really understood the appeal of the meatball sub.  I can blame that on childhood naiveté, or just plain picky eating, but now I know that my dad was a smart man.  Meatball subs are amazing.  Since I am all grown up (or so I pretend to be), I have changed my ways and fallen head over heels in love with meatballs.  Initially I slowly warmed up to them, but last year I chased after them with lust when I tried the Meatball Sammy from MIHO Gastrotruck here in San Diego.  (Seriously, check out the post, you can see me eating the meatball sub with gusto.)      

When this Meatball Sammy was on MIHO's menu, I tried it on Thursday, I went back and ordered it again on Friday, and I ate it again the following week.  I was obsessed.  Four of my co-workers tried it as well, and they agreed - MIHO's meatball sub was the best they had ever had.  Any hand-crafted meatball sub is pretty great, but I think their sub really knocked my socks off because the meatballs themselves were so intensely flavorful and juicy.  Of course, I had to have the recipe, and I found out their secrets: lots of fresh herbs and spices, shitake mushrooms, grass-fed beef... and bacon.  BACON.  Ah...it seems at the heart of every truly indulgent dish lies a core made out of bacon.    

Lacquered Peach with Honey Sage Ice Cream

I am not even going to try being humble here.  Not today.  

Because this dessert is the kind of thing where you want to shout from the rooftops that you have stumbled upon something of greatness.  It has a sort of ethereal beauty that seems to radiate from within.  And the taste... Oh lord, imagine a luscious, ripe summer peach, but softer... and sweeter... and warm.  Ladies and gentlemen, this dessert was phenomenal.   

Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the inception of this dessert; that belongs exclusively to Jean-Georges or Mark Bittman, whichever one of their masterminds dreamt up this simple stunner of a dessert.  Personally, I have been daydreaming about this dessert ever since earlier this year when I checked out Jean-Geoges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef from my local library.  You see, this book doesn't have photos for every recipe listed, but it does have insets with large glossy images of a few select dishes that occupy the upper echelons of Jean-Georges repertoire.  And this dessert was one of them.  Immediately when I saw that bright, shiny peach posting like a magazine model, I knew that I had to make this.       

Since then, I kid you not, I have been counting down the months until peaches were in season so I could make this.  I know, I know... I could have made it anytime, and just gone to the grocery store and picked up everything I needed.  But since this seemed like the type of recipe where having in-season, high quality ingredients (like perfectly sun-ripened peaches and apricots) would make a big difference, I waited patiently.  Or maybe not so patiently, but I still waited.  

Honey Sage Ice Cream

Ahhh, ice cream.  On a hot summer day, there truly is nothing like it.  The feel of cool ice cream, sweet on your tongue, is incomparable.  Ice cream is enjoyed by children and adults of all ages, and can be made with a multitude of flavor combinations that is only limited by the imagination of the creator.  We have seen ample evidence of that in recent years, with the advent of exciting new flavors like Candied Bacon Ice Cream, Foie Gras Ice Cream, and even Fish and Octopus Ice Cream from the Japanese.  Yum.  

Not to fear, I won't be sharing any ice cream recipes anytime soon that have seafood or animal parts in the ingredient list.  No, the imagination of The Cilantropist came up with the lovely, light combination of honey-flavored ice cream perfumed with delicate sage.

I originally got the courage to dream up ice cream recipes at all when I stumbled across methods for making ice cream without an ice cream maker.  Because it is sad but true, The Cilantropist does not own an ice cream maker.  I know, they are not that expensive; truth be told, it scares me a little bit to think about owning a machine whose sole purpose is to churn up sugar and cream into something that is fattening yet delicious and irresistible.  Plus I don't think I have room in my kitchen.  

But who needs an ice cream maker anyway, when all I need to make ice cream is my freezer and my own two hands!  Because really folks, this is all it takes to whip up your own creamy ice cream at home.  There are no special tricks, no fancy gadgets, and no guarantee that you will maintain your current weight.  Because once you get started making ice cream, you might not be able to stop.