Shiro-basil jam is divine, so is chicken salad

I grew up eating this chicken salad and still feel it's pretty close to perfection; so simple yet every bite bursts with flavor. I also like that while the base recipe is good year round, it's also quite adaptable to better suit each season. During the heat of the summer, red grapes and celery are infinitely refreshing and pair winningly with lightly toasted pecans. For cooler nights or earlier/later summer, you could sub fresh cherries for the grapes and toasted, slivered almonds for the pecans, perhaps even going with fennel instead of celery. It's important to use really good chicken and poach it gently until it's just done. You'll let the meat cool and then chop it into small cubes, dress it with a mayo-cinnamon-lemon-salt concoction and let it chill for a while, absorbing all the flavors. Reseason and serve chilled with some summer tomatoes and good bread, and you've got a hell of a meal: hearty, satisfying, humble and just plain good.

While I was preparing that, I made a small batch of jam. I wanted to use up the rest of my gorgeous Shiro plums (a small, yellow variety) but take them in a more savory direction. Basil! This is really a scrumptious and gorgeous (just look at the color) treat, I am thrilled with the outcome and really hope to find some more of these plums at the market this coming weekend. Both recipes (chicken under Nanny's Chicken Salad) will be posted shortly.

Happening now...

Fresh ricotta, Shiro plum-basil jam, Nanny's chicken salad, rhubarb scones... In the works: pickled pattypan squash.

The advent of fig season

People, growing up I thought figs were nasty. My mother inhaled jars of my family's fig preserves, and really, I could hardly watch. On occasion, I tolerated a fig newton, but by and large, figs were about on par with liver and beets. Since childhood, I have grown to adore(!) beets though I still refuse to touch liver for so many reasons: offal is a yukky word, liver is (as offal suggests) an organ which strains yukky stuff, and it looks gross. Aware that this might discount me from hardcore foodie arenas, I've decided that's just too bad. I'm not interested; in fact, I'm less than that.

I have, as with beets, really found my way to figs, and for the past few years, I've anticipated the fruit's seemingly ephemeral season with eagerness. Fresh figs are really something. They can be pretty in a vaguely sexual way or ugly as get out, along the lines of dates' roach-like appearance. They are delightfully versatile though terribly perishable. So this summer (read: right now and in the near future), give figs a second chance if you've not already. At present, I'm poaching some in a spiced coriander sugar liquid. These are incredibly decadent, especially served cold atop fresh ricotta: a breakfast of champions in every way.

They are magnificent atop a pizza, cooked quickly over a high heat with some good cheese and arugula. Mozzarella and blue pair nicely despite their many differences.

If you come across or make fig spread, try these delightful sandwiches or this tart.

Uncooked but sliced so manageable, they add something special to a salad. Try this one!

So ignore anything you've heard about whether or not figs are small graves for fig-wasps (sometimes this is true; other times not). As my dad would say, "It's protein!"