thai melon salad

last week, larry and i had a really

lovely day. it was the day after my

birthday and we both took off from

work. i drank coffee in bed and, later,

we ate lunch outside, very close

to the ocean. we bought fig vinegar

from an olive oil shop and sat on the

boardwalk with our legs dangling over

the sand. we went to see the help,

which i've been hoping to see in the theatre,

since finishing the book last november.

in between the beach and the movies,

we stopped at the book store, where i was

given a really great gift: unlimited time

to look through as many cookbooks as i

wanted. and, truthfully, that's quite a gift.

as much as i love cookbooks, i rarely buy

them. and when, i do, it's a specific book

that i've had my eye on for a while. rarely,

do i just plant myself in front

of the shelves and read.

ultimately, i left with three - two baking

books that, it turns out, i actually had wanted,

but had forgotten about,

and a third, cooking in the moment

by andrea reusing.

to be honest, i keep picking up and putting down

the last one. i would decide that i was not

going to keep it and then i'd turn one last page

and see a recipe, like the one for

black sesame sauce.

in that case, i read the recipe twice

and thought, ok, i know

how to make this. as i shut the book,

i noticed a page reading

garlic and crab fried rice.

this happened several times.

ultimately, it was the kale panini and

salt preserved chilies that cinched

my decision.

that night, i got back in bed and read

cooking in the moment from cover to cover.

and, in spite of my curiosity about the

recipes above, i knew that the first dish i

would be making was the

spicy melon salad with peanuts and mint.

it uses fish sauce. and a lot of it.

need i say more?

and, then, you should have seen me the next

day, standing at the grocery store, staring at

the melons, trying to channel my melon

knowledge. is it the santa claus melon that's

really sweet or is it the canary? are any melons

really dark orange? or yellow? what will happen

if i add watermelon? will the color run?

ultimately, i was lucky.

a melon expert - or at least he seemed

that way to me - helped me pick three

small, sweet flavorful globes. he was spot

on. (except when the next day i realized

that i somehow had two green-fleshed melons,

but i'm very over it.)

after a search for my melon baller -

a tool i'm pretty sure i haven't used since

culinary school - i cracked open the melons

on sunday, prepared to make a cooling

summer salad for a hot summer night.

except it was sunday.

when there was lightening.

and thunder.

and rainstorms that made me fear

for our basement.

so, i scooped melons for a cool evening.

and, that's ok, too.

the melons were incredibly sweet,

floral and juicy. i pulled small

and large balls from

all three:

the honeydew,

the crenshaw and

the galia.

(as for the remaining melon in

each half, i used a spoon to separate

them from their skins, put all three

into the same container and have

been adding the pieces and sweet

juice to my smoothies in the morning.

it's been a nice change.)

i whisked together the juice of two limes,

a few glugs from a new bottle of fish sauce -

i forgot how powerful a brand new bottle

could be - a squeeze of agave and an

unfortunately, mild, chopped

red fresno chile pepper.

the dressing was powerful.

slightly spicy, slightly sweet,

tangy and salty. i tossed it over

the melons, took a premature bite

and knew that i would love this dish.

simplified, it reminded me of a

sweet green papaya salad.

the recipe said to let it the mixture

sit for at least 45 minutes or up to

several hours. we went for three.

before serving, i topped it with

shreds of mint and salted peanuts

and we dug in.

the marinating liquid is

unbelievably bold.

but, the melons, when picked up with

a fork, instead of scooped,

gave a significantly more subtle delivery.

i don't know how many fruit salads are eaten

with a spoon,

but it would be a shame to leave all that

limey-fish sauciness on the bottom

of the bowl.

team spoon. all the way.

regardless.

this salad slash side dish slash

potential dessert is everything i look

for in a recipe.

it's different, so it won't see itself

coming and going. but, more importantly,

it's sweet and salty and soft and crunchy.

it's slightly spicy and kind of tangy

and would be perfect on

a hot night spent outside.

it was a recipe that gave me

reassurance. it made me feel justified

about buying the cookbook. and, about

making larry amuse himself in the bookstore

while i dealt with my indecisiveness.

and, it made me find my melon baller.

worth it all around.

thai melon salad

adapted from cooking in the moment

i followed this recipe pretty closely. the only real changes were using agave instead of sugar and using a serrano chile pepper and a red fresno chile pepper, because neither were very spicy. with a spicy pepper, i would have stuck to one. i also chose not to measure the peanuts - just grabbed a handful and chopped.

i agree that this salad should only sit for a couple hours. by the next day, the melons had expelled a lot of their own liquid and mellowed the flavor of the dish significantly.

2-3 assorted melons

2 large, juicy limes, juiced

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 tablespoon agave

1 spicy chile pepper, chopped

10 mint leaves

1 small handful roasted and salted peanuts

halve melons. using melon baller, scoop melon into balls, transferring to a measuring cup as you scoop. measure 4 cups melon. transfer melons to mixing bowl.

in liquid measuring cup, measure 1/4 cup lime juice. whisk in fish sauce, agave and chile pepper. pour lime juice mixture over melons; toss to combine. cover; chill 45 minutes, or up to several hours.

when ready to serve, rip mint leaves into smaller pieces. chop peanuts.

using a slotted spoon, transfer melon to serving platter or bowls. top with spoonfuls of marinade. garnish with mint and chopped peanuts.

content. and then some.

this fourth of july,

i received the best present

i've ever been given for the holiday.

(truth be told, it's probably

the only present i've ever

gotten for the fourth.)

nevertheless, this was the best:

we bought bookcases

and unpacked my cookbooks.

you see, they've been caged up

in boxes, waiting for the office

to be painted a pale turquoise - or

what turned out to be an aqua

or slightly bright light blue, still

almost the color of a gemstone -

and for our bookcase to be

reassembled. but, after the office

was painted, i could not bring myself

to place our dark brown bookcase

in the whatever-color-it-is and white

room. and, i really wanted the

cookbooks in our office.

but, in the meantime,

i struggled. i didn't realize how

much i like just knowing that my

cookbooks are an arms length away,

just waiting to be used. and, i was tired

of forgetting they were boxed up -

more than once i came home with

ingredients, like monkfish and

an eggplant two thursdays ago,

only to realize that

i wasn't going to be able to flip

through the new spanish table

to find the recipe any time soon.

but, then on friday, we took

advantage of leaving work early

and found a great deal on white

bookcases. i practically bounced

up and down in my seat the

whole drive home, knowing

what this meant. we sacrificed our

friday night to put them together,

together - a true test, i thought,

in case larry ever gets his way

and we audition for the amazing race

(note: never. gonna. happen.).

and the moment they were assembled,

i looked at larry and he knew his fate:

one solid hour of unpacking, organizing

and arranging books. but, he was a very

good sport about it and by 10pm,

the bookcases looked like this.

i cannot lie.

i wanted to sleep downstairs,

in the office that night,

just because i was so proud

to finally have space to store

them. (there were several that

had never actually made their

way onto a shelf before, instead

relegated to stacks on the floor

of the closet.

but, now they all had their own space.

hello,

blue eggs and yellow tomatoes,

modmex and

the texas cowboy kitchen.

hello,

too many more to count.)

but, i came to my senses.

i slept upstairs.

instead, the next day, we went

and bought a pair of very

unbrooke-like chairs

that for some reason, i've had my eye on.

and now,

for the past couple days,

even though we don't have a rug,

or a lamp, any accessories,

or even a chair for the desk we're

soon to replace, i've been sitting

in these flowery chairs,

so happy to be surrounded

by my cookbooks.

when i look at them,

i'm home.

*it's very important for me to note

that while i've always loved cookbooks,

my true obsession started while working

for the magazine. we were often fortunate,

receiving five copies of the same book and

getting first dibs when it was time for

a cookbook clean out. i think larry regularly

lived in fear of what i would come home with

from the office. and while i've purchased some,

many have also come from friends who have

noticed that i have a bit of a collection and

help it grow come birthday or chanukah time.

unlike an accidental, oh-i-see-you-like-peacocks-

so-here's-another-and-another collection, this

is one i truly love, take pride in and am grateful for

all the time.

thank you and a giveaway

i've told you before that i have

a love affair with cookbooks.

very little makes me happier

than getting a new one,

sitting on the couch,

reading it cover to cover,

mentally bookmarking the

must-makes.

as you can imagine,

such a habit is big and bulky

and despite buying a large

bookshelf to house them all,

the collection has expanded

slightly out of control.

yes, they're on shelves.

but the books are also on the floor

of larry's closet.

and they're on the bed in our second bedroom.

not to mention that i'm pretty

sure there's a few in the kitchen,

our bedroom and probably

in places i cannot even imagine.

yes, i love cookbooks.

and that's why it meant so much

to me this morning when i

found out that my cranberry sauce

will be featured in food52's.

thank you for voting and

supporting me, the blog,

and of course, the cranberry sauce.

so in honor of today's news

(ok, that's not true,

we were going

to do this anyway),

i have a giveaway.

and no, it's not a cookbook.

or exactly food related.

you may have noticed the

very cool new logo

not lazy. rustic. has

been wearing since sunday.

well, here's the story

behind it. well, ok, wait -

one other story first.

i've talked about lauren

several times before -

how we met in camp,

have stayed friend's since

and have super bowl get togethers.

but, here's the real beginning.

we had already had the towel experience.

but then, a couple weeks later

we were out playing kickball.

i was put in the outfield. sadly, i was always

put in the outfield. nothing ever went out

there. ever. so i sat on the ground and

used a broken twig to dig in the dirt.

lauren - who i think was supposed to

be covering second base - came over to

me and said,

if i were you, i'd stop digging.

otherwise, you'll dig too far and

some old man from china is

going to start pulling on the other side

and you're going to end up in china

with no way of getting back home.

we were 10. but, i listened to her.

and since then, she's been there

to support me, snap me out of funks

deeper than outfield-relegated isues,

pack me up for college when i

could not handle the thought of

leaving my family and friends,

cleaned my room (looking at it

like a challenge, not a nightmare),

helped larry put our bed together

when we moved into this

apartment 3 1/2 years ago

and encouraged me to start this blog.

and finally, i have a small

opportunity to support her.

earlier this year,

lauren and her sister, stephanie,

started AnaStella (look, i even capped

for them) - invitations and stationary

with style & spark!

everything is beautiful, from their

wedding and shower invitations to

moving announcements to save the dates

and stationary. and now, logos!

i contacted lauren last week with a

very vague...does stephanie do logos...

i want something...not sure what...

is this even a possibility? type of of e-mail.

a minute later i got back an e-mail:

she already designed one for you,

she didn't send it?

i really had no idea what i was looking for,

i knew i wanted something that represented

not lazy. rustic. but that's about it.

when i saw the design - one that stephanie

made for the fun of it weeks before - i knew it was perfect.

stephanie conveyed more about the blog

through her logo, than i could have with words.

and, so, to celebrate the new logo,

lauren and stephanie are offering one

custom stationary set to a winner

chosen at random. check out their

website and their page on esty.com.

then e-mail me

(notlazyrusticATgmailDOTcom)

by wednesday, november 26.

please include your name,

complete mailing address,

which style you would like and how

you would like them personalized

(they can print initials or names).

the winner will be notified by the

end of next week.

exciting day, right?