Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen

It's April here in the home of the bean and the cod, only you'd never know it because the weather is just complete crap. Today hail and snow, tomorrow sun and locusts, unless it's hail and snow. The only reasonable and civilized way to cope with this rotten weather is lots of wine and things you have to cook in the oven, preferably on high. Roast chicken goes perfectly with wine. The recipe in this lovely cookbook is so easy (you can find it here ), and the only exra step I make is to pop the roasting pan (a cast iron skillet) into the oven to pre-heat. Oh and I borrow a step from the beloved Laurie Colwin and rub the birdy all over with paprika and a sprinkling of coarse salt. Reader, I ate it. Reader, it was delicious. Reader, this weather can just go to suck an egg.

This was an impulse order at the Dumpling Cafe on Washington Street in Boston. (True story: when I was telling my Mom where it was, I used the Naked i as a point of reference.) I'd actually gone for the xiao long bao (broth filled dumplings) also known as "Juicy Buns", which they are famous for apparently. Hey, better late to the party than to not party at all, right? Because I did my homework, I knew to load one on to the spoon and then to nibble a little hole and suck out the piping hot broth. That is a tip that you will thank me for later, I promise you. There is no time that biting down enthusiastically into a bun filled with scalding hot filling and broth will reward you in any way. Also I knew from my homework that the key was to order everything at once while the waitstaff was near you. So in a panic I ordered the braised chicken meatballs. What a treat! They come with baby bok choy and a plate of rice. I totally think you should go eat them righ...

This weekend I made the roast chicken from Simon Hopkinson's book Roast Chicken and Other Recipes. I picked this book up during my annual schlep to the New England Mobile Book Fair and while at first I liked it mostly for the lovely pages (ooh shiny paper! ooh pretty illustrations!) I have to confess that I cooked NOTHING out of it until now. Whoops. The roast chicken was fantastic. And not just because it came from Diemand Farm. Slathering the birdy with lots of butter, a squeeze of lemon, and a smashed garlic clove is so simple that it almost seems TOO simple to be so delicious, but it really was the best roast chicken I've had in a very long time. Now I am thinking to try my hand at the chicken cooked in vinegar recipe. It's interesting to me how I just have to cook one recipe from a book to know whether or not I will ever use it again. Photos later. Maybe.

My friend the Spruce Goose is one of the finest cooks I know. We met because he was a neighbor of my parents and one birthday of mine he showed up with a massive pink cake studded all over with imported crystallized violets. Love at first sight. So then last night I went over for what he calls a simple Sunday night supper. Let me just say that my idea of a simple Sunday night supper involves Saltines, beer, pate, butter and cornichons. Which is why Spruce is Spruce and I still eat stuff out of the can, sometimes . Also, let me just say that he lives in my dream house. I need to do something about that. Here is his kitchen: Ok, well that's just a part of the kitchen. But really it's the important part! He made us chicken with white wine and mushrooms. And salsify with parsnips and dried cranberries. The other side dish was dried Amish corn pudding with prosciutto and Parmesan. Then for dessert he made a sort of Tarte Tatine with Winesap apples: First he cooked the apples with a...