You Say Tomato, I Say Farewell My Beloved Fresh Cherries

The heirloom tomatoes at the farmer’s market are in peak season, their lush skins turning from green to varying shades of orange and yellow, serving as an example for the leaves that will soon follow. I love the fall, but I really don't like it when cherry season ends.

Another indication that fall is arriving will occur this weekend, when the NYU students converge upon the neighborhood to begin a new school year. This also changes the landscape.

From past experience, I know watching the onslaught of cars that will soon be clotting the streets (packed so that whoever's driving can't even see out the back window), will be all I need to make me wish I were enrolled this semester too. I keep threatening myself with law school, but don't most lawyers become writers, and not the other way around?

Lingerie and Sugar Cookies and Cottage Cheese Thighs

Yes, this is a blog about food, and the way it flavors my writing, but I am taking a moment here to tell you about how I was tricked today.

I love to take long walks. Not only does walking prevent writer's block, it also helps me shape the existing pages I've already set in motion. Wearing a pair of rather large headphones (the urban equivalent of a pith helmet), I work out my characters' pitfalls as I navigate potholes, always with the objective of keeping my footing sure, and my pacing even.

Sometimes, it's so much easier written then done.

This afternoon, as I crossed Seventh Ave. and continued west on 19th St., I spotted a large sign mounted to some scaffolding. Sugar Cookies, the makeshift billboard read in large pink letters. I must admit my attention was aroused. There are few things I enjoy more than a good sugar cookie, when it comes to desserts, that is.

Did a new bakery open in this neighborhood? I wondered excitedly. Did they also open a sister store somewhere nearby called Chocolate Cookies?

Imagine my disappointment when I got closer and finally noticed the words Women's Lingerie printed beneath, much smaller. Damn. What a way to pull the bait and switch.

Food inspires me, but honestly, lingerie inspires me too. It inspires me not to eat.

Bathing suit season may be hell, but luckily, like flu season, it only comes once a year. Lingerie season (when you have a boyfriend, at least) lasts all year round. It's really just as well I didn't get my sugar cookie this afternoon, or a new nightie, come to think of it. Last time I tried on something lacey and yellow, all I could think about was Swiss cheese.

Passionate About Pork

This morning, as I was walking through the Union Square Greenmarket, I spotted this sign. I'm sure you can guess what the farmer was marketing.

How nice would it be to get a love letter that was this fervent, this heartfelt? Seriously.

Although bacon is not among my favorite foods (which are defined solely by what I find myself reaching into the fridge for during a time of crisis), I do like it in small amounts. Especially when it is crispy crumbly over a spinach salad. I don't even eat it for breakfast, preferring something lighter, like the meal I made from samples of peaches and berries as I wandered through the market this morning.

By the way, the back of the board offers a possible clue as to how bacon uses its wiles to inspire such ardor in the first place.