Odd & Ends: New Cookbooks We Love and Culinary Cool Kid Evan Strusinski

By Annemarie Ahearn

Here are a couple of our favorite new cookbooks.              

Ripe:  A Cook in the Orchard, by Nigel Slater:  So far, we’ve made the Cinnamon Rhubarb Polenta Cake and the Fig Orange and Polenta Cake with Greek Yogurt and Mint Tea.  Both divine.  We’ve also been making all kinds of ice creams with our incredibly efficient ice cream maker that whips up 2 quarts in 25 minutes.  It was $70 on Amazon and is great for making ice cream at home.

The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz:  This is a lovely book on Ice Creams, Sorbets and Granitas.  So far, we’ve made a Cardamom & Cinnamon Ice Cream and a Wolly Apple Mint for our May Full Moon Supper.

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When I first met forager Evan Strusinski, he taught me how to catch mackerel in Rockport Harbor and find chantarelles on the islands of the Penobscot Bay.  That was only three years ago, and I felt as if Maine was our secret.  Now, I flip through the pages of Outside Magazine to see his handsome face, and today I found him styled for a shot in Paper Magazine, which ran a feature on “Culinary Cool Kids.”  I hope he remembers us when . . .