pancetta – The Kitchen Illiterate

Tarte Flambee

Several months ago, as I probably too often do, I bookmarked a recipe. Most of the time these bookmarked recipes slip quickly from my thoughts, only to reappear when I occasionally actually look at my recipe page in Delicious. But this recipe stayed with me: It was (surprise!) a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, for a bacon, onion, and cream pizza. Shortly after taking note of Deb’s recipe, I had dinner at Brasserie Four in Walla Walla, where I noticed a very similar dish on the menu, called a Tarte Flambee. I ate it, it was spectacular, and I became a little obsessed.
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Fiddlehead Ferns, at last

Here it is, my last two weeks in Boston. And I have to say, it has been a pretty lame spring so far. I know that June can often be gloomy and disappointing, but I had hoped that New England would give me a break and throw me some sunshine, just so I could leave with fond memories, rather than the reassurance I already feel that moving back to the west coast was the right idea.

The hardest part of a late and crappy spring? I’m still waiting for all those lovely spring vegetables Bon Appetit has been bragging about for the last two months. Our farmer’s markets are still pretty darned paltry, where they are even open at all. And I thought that I had missed the narrow window for Fiddlehead ferns, a treat I’m not so sure will be available in Walla Walla, Washington. But once again, it was Mr. X to the rescue: He found these at the market last week and bought them up for me, because he’s pretty swell like that.
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