Smoky blackberry pizza for one.

It's so indulgent, kind of Norma Desmond fabulous-eccentric, to bake and eat a pizza by oneself.

But before we talk pizza OR Sunset Boulevard, let's talk blackberries. This time of year, blackberries are in season. Abundant. Trying to take over the world. I handpicked the above-photo'd Himalayans with my parents, who live in the sticks and are surrounded by what my mom calls "berried treasure." (She is so cool.)

Like most normal humans, I typically jam or pickle my blackberries, or add them to salad, cereal, or yogurt. But this year I figured I'd try something new: pizza. Liberté/yolo.

This little stunner is sexy: smoky chipotle, sweet blackberries, earthy balsamic vinegar, rich fresh mozzarella. It pairs well with a round, fruity white with a touch of acid, like a Vouvray. Plus it's pretty!

And when you use a pre-made dough like I do, it's extra easy, too — in about 30 minutes, you're on the couch, watching Jessica Fletcher snoop around a crime scene while you chow down on your very own homemade pizza. It'll be hard to set some aside for tomorrow's lunch. 

yours,
aa

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Smoky Blackberry Pizza for One

Prep time: ~20 minutes
Cook time: 14 to 16 minutes
Seves 1 (or 2, if you're nice)
Recommended pairing: Get to the Vouvray. Ruuuuuuuunnn

What you’ll need
1 16 oz. pre-made whole wheat pizza dough
½ tbsp olive oil
4 oz. fresh whole milk mozzarella
½ to ¾ c. fresh blackberries
⅛ tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1 tsp chipotle powder
½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and black pepper to taste
Flour or cornmeal for dusting

How to make it
Take your pizza dough out of the refrigerator and let warm on the counter for 10 to 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450, and place a 10-inch cast iron skillet on the middle rack. Lightly dust a cutting board with flour or cornmeal and stretch out your dough into an 8- to 9-inch circle. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt. Tear or roughly chop mozzarella and place on pizza. Cover with blackberries. Grate nutmeg o'er top, and sprinkle chipotle evenly. Drizzle with balsamic. Grind black pepper to taste.

Once the oven is preheated, remove cast iron skillet. Using two wide, flat spatulas, transfer pizza to skillet. Bake 14 to 16 minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and crust is golden brown.

ps. Tang it up by replacing the mozz with 3 oz. of chevre, and the chipotle with ½ tsp ground ginger. Add 1 tsp of pink peppercorns for punch. 

Oh no, you have leftover biscuits = blueberry tarragon jam.

>> Scene << 
You wake up far too early on Sunday morning, your hair is on point even though you slept kinda weird on it, you’re pouring coffee + cream into a 70s boho-chic stoneware mug, and you’re ready to dive into a) the next episode of Murder, She Wrote while you b) browse the IKEA catalog for all the cubbies and gadgets that will revolutionize your life, and you think, “Oh, right, breakfast.”

You open the refrigerator and spot the leftover Bestcuits next to the Costco-sized clamshell of blueberries and that bunch of fresh tarragon. Jackpot. 

As you pull the delicacies from the fridge, you say
Come with me if you want to live because come on, that’s hilarious.
>> Fin <<

While buttermilk biscuits can get tough and chewy if refrigerated overnight, Bestcuits don't. Sure, they aren’t as airy and light on day 2, but they are still fluffy, crumbly, and packed with buttery flavor even though they contain ZERO BUTTER. In short, they are the Platonic ideal of the biscuit.  

And what’s better with leftover Bestcuits on a lazy Sunday morning than jam? In just 30 minutes, you too can make jam. You can do it! I love this blueberry tarragon rough jam — because it uses honey to break down the berries instead of granulated sugar, it’s not overly sweet, and the tarragon adds an herbal, almost licorice-y note. It’s a killer counterpoint to the buttery shorbreadiness of the biscuits.

Plus, it’s kind of a Renaissance Jam. If you have leftovers, stir them into plain yogurt or cottage cheese, or add them to a cheese plate — this jam pairs well with chevre and other tangy, ripe fromages, like brie.

yours, 
aa

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Blueberry Tarragon Rough Jam + Leftover Bestcuits

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Makes approx. 6 oz.
Recommended pairing: At breakfast, coffee with mild acidity. If serving the jam with your pre-prandial cheese plate: an herbal amaro, like Zucca, would be intriguing. Post-prandial: a round fortified wine, like Madeira.

What you’ll need
1 c. fresh blueberries
Zest from 1 small lemon
Juice from ½ small lemon (about ½ tbsp)
1 ½ tbsp honey (I prefer floral honey for this jam, e.g., clover or orange blossom)
1 heaping tbsp tarragon, minced
Some leftover Bestcuits

How to make it
Combine blueberries and honey in a small saucepan. Let sit at room temp for 10 minutes. Zest lemon and add tarragon. Add lemon juice and give it a good stir to combine. Stirring often, simmer over med-lo heat until thickened, about 20 minutes. (You can help things along by crushing the blueberries with your spoon as you stir.)

Once jam has thickened and most berries have popped, remove from heat. Stir in pinch of salt. Let cool 5 minutes. Serve warm on cold or room temp Bestcuits. Refrigerate leftovers up to 2 weeks.

ps. Sprinkle with big salt for added savoriness. Grind fresh black pepper or add a few pink peppercorns for extra spice. Top with a slice of crispy bacon to impress someone.

The new cobb salad with apricot dijon vinaigrette.

I wrote a poem about nectarines:

Nectarines
I will eat them all
and leave none for the crows.

(I never promised it would be a good poem.) 

This time of year, I want to put nectarines in everything, even my eyeballs! Ha ha, just kidding. But I do want to put them on every plate I can, while I can. 

This tart, sweet, juicy fruit is perfect in pies, tarts, jams, etc. But it's equally at home in savory dishes. Nectarines pair well with peppery foods, like arugula, radish, and of course pepper, and they are EPIC with smokiness. (I'm imagining a nectarine bbq glaze right now aaauuuggghhhhh stay tuned.)

Naturally, nectarines work well in salad situations, like my fresh take on the Cobb. Lettuce-free, this salad is still all about texture: crunchy radish, juicy nectarine, chewy mozz & day-old bacon, soft and creamy avocado and egg, tender tomato. All topped with an apricot dijon vinaigrette. If you're vegetarian, simply skip the bacon. It's still delicious.

yours,
aa

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The New Cobb Salad with Apricot Dijon Vinaigrette

Prep time: 10 minutes
Salad serves 1 (if an entree) or 2 (if you're sharing with your honey-buns)
Dressing yields approx. 4 oz.
Recommended pairing: Vinho verde, or something effervescent, like club soda with lime. 

What you’ll need
For the salad:
1 small nectarine, sliced
Half large Hass avocado, sliced
4 or 5 cherry tomatoes, halved (Sungolds are yum!)
⅓ c. watermelon or other radish, sliced into matchsticks
2 oz. fresh mozzarella
3 slices day-old bacon, chopped
1 soft-boiled egg
Salt & pepper to taste

For the vinaigrette:
¼ c. apricot preserves, warmed to room temp
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 ½ tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp champagne vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste

How to make it
Assemble the salad ingredients in sections on a plate. (I know you want to mix them up, but don't -- this is part of the whole Cobb salad thing.) Halve the soft-boiled egg and place in the center. 

In a small bowl, combine dressing ingredients and whisk until combined. Drizzle half of dressing over salad (reserve the rest for tomorrow!). Serve immediately. 

Bacon guacamole + watermelon radish chips.

Snacktime! Partytime! Or, tonight, dinnertime, because what the heck. I've got one life; I'm gonna live it! 

This bacon guac is s-u-l-t-r-y, like Eartha Kitt and a Hass avocado had a little green love-child and then served it to you for dinner (whoa, that got dark). The Hass avocado lends some earthy smoke, the shallot some heat, the day-old bacon some body 'n' salt. And the texture is great: creamy, chewy, crunchy. 

>> Aside <<
I know what you're thinking. You're all Girl, day-old bacon and I'm all Trust me, I'm a wizard and and you're all Back fell beast and I'm all Snap out of it, Ricky, you're a mess! But seriously, trust me. Fresh, hot, oily bacon is selfish. It has too much flavor for this cool, creamy dip. Plan ahead, make some bacon, save a couple pieces for tomorrow's guac. It's easy. Perhaps too easy. 
>> Fin <<

In combo with delicate slices of watermelon radish, this is the business. Don't get me wrong -- I love a salty, crispy tortilla chip as much as the next girl. But when sliced super-thin on a mandoline, radishes transmogrify into the dipping alpha and omega. They are both satisfyingly crunchy and devilishly pliable, which makes them ideal for scooping up this chunky guac. Sass on sass, I'm telling you.

TL;DR: BACON GUACAMOLE.

yours,
aa

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Bacon Guacamole + Watermelon Radish Chips

Prep time: 5 minutes
Serves 1 to 2
Recommended pairing: A rich-fruit white -- think apricot, pear, plum -- with some body, but a little acidity. Mexican lager. 

What you’ll need
1 large Hass avocado
2 slices cooked bacon, preferably day-old
1 small shallot, diced (about ¼ c.)
Juice from half of 1 small lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large watermelon radish

How to make it
Pit avocado and squish meat into small bowl. Pull your day-old bacon out of the refrigerator and chop it. (Trust me: the temperature and texture of day-old bacon can't be beat in this application.) Add bacon, shallot, lemon juice, and s&p to the bowl. Smash together with a garden-variety fork. Set aside. 

Using a mandoline, slice the watermelon radish. (Alternatively, you can slice it by hand, but you won't get as much give when you're dipping. It's your prerogative.) Serve immediately. 

ps. So you don't have day-old bacon. Okay. Cook your bacon, but let it cool to room temp before incorporating. And back off on the salt just a little. 

pps. If you don't have watermelon radish, use daikon; French Breakfast (elongated red ones w/white tips) sliced on the diagonal; or even a spring turnip!

The best biscuit is the Bestcuit.

And again I ask you: who doesn't love biscuits? (The answer is no one. No one doesn't love biscuits.)

Thus I’ve been on the lookout for the best biscuit recipe -- the Bestcuit, if you will. Assisting in the taste-testing is my boyfriend John, who doesn’t just love biscuits. He lurvs them.

John grew up along America’s Biscuit Belt: Texas and North Carolina, but mostly Kentucky, which, tbh, I always assumed was 1000% rural because I’m ignorant.

So when I talk about homemade head cheese and baling hay and the hog pen out back of my high school and he looks at me like I’m wearing an ugly wig, I have to check myself before I wreck myself, so to speak. John is from Lexington, Kentucky, which is a big city. It has sidewalks on the streets (which is more than I can say for my hometown); it has Thai restaurants (again, more than I can say for my hometown); and Google Maps goes there (DS al fine).

All this is to say that John has probably eaten as many biscuits as I have, and therefore passes the biscuit-testing bar. So when we tried Baking Illustrated's Cream Biscuits recipe, we were pleased. But then when I modified it by using brown sugar instead of white, and substituting half the all-purpose flour with cake flour, we went over the moon and came back again for more delicious biscuits.

We had found the Bestcuit.

This recipe makes a fluffy, buttery biscuit that’s ever-so darkly sweet (brown sugar, baby). Not as tangy or chewy as its popular cousin, the buttermilk biscuit, this li’l biscuie keeps well and is soooo versatile. Fresh from the oven with butter and jam, it’s melt-in-your-mouth perfection. Second day, it is a bit denser, but still soft, crumbly, and flavor-rich — it reminds me of a cakier shortbread cookie.

Just-baked and left to cool just slightly is my favorite. Give it some country cachet with white or redeye gravy, or slice and stuff to create a yummy biscuit sandwich. Blueberry compote, fresh nectarine, and smoky bacon? Yes ma’am. Or what about pepper jelly on one side, apricot preserves on the other, with scrambled eggs and blueberry pork sausage in between? Holy cow. It’s a little sweet, a little heat, some salty savoriness and big butter flavor.

Welcome to Valhalla.

yours,
aa

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Bestcuits, alias Cream Biscuits, adapted from Baking Illustrated

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Makes approx. 9 Bestcuits
Recommended pairing: Coffeeeeeeeee

What you’ll need
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 c. cake flour
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ c. heavy cream

How to make it
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and adjust rack to upper middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, stir together flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour most of the cream (about 1 ¼ c.) into the bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon until a sticky dough ball forms. Scoop onto a floured cutting board, leaving behind dry bits. One tablespoon at a time, add the cream to the dry bits left in the bowl. Mix until they are the consistency of your dough ball. Turn out onto cutting board. (If your dough still isn’t coming together, add cream to the ball a little at a time. Your board will get kinda sticky, but go with it -- just add a touch more flour to cover the tacky bits.)

Once your dough is sticking together, roll it into a circle, about ½” tall. Using a biscuit cutter or a 3” diameter glass with a floured rim,* cut out biscuits and put them on the parchment-lined sheet, about 1” apart. Bake until biscuits have risen and tops are golden, about 15 minutes. Serve warm. Can be stored in a sealed container up to 3 days.

ps. You can add cool things like ¾ c. shredded cheddar or chopped bacon to your flour mixture before you incorporate the cream. This will make your Bestcuits pretty much invincible. Turn up the volume on this Bestcuit party with some fresh or dried herbs (a heaping tbsp. should do ya). 

*I learned this trick from my mom! To flour your glass rim, wet the edge, then roll in the flour.