Hot Dog!

In America, we have a holiday for everything and today is National Hot Dog Day. I'll take it. It was a wonderful excuse to buy a dirty-water dog on my way home to walk Grace today and finish off half-a-can of baked beans from Sunday night's Cowboy Chili & Baked Bean Pot. (Of course, the real canine got to share; she was beside herself with joy!) (With apologies to Julio Iglesias and Willy Nelson) To all the 'dogs I've loved before: pølse in Reykjavik, that unbelievably delicious sausage on Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park, "monkey food" (hot-dog-and-bean casserole) at my Massachusetts cousins', beer-braised brats beside the river in Milwaukee...I've had a few memorable ones in my day.

Celebrating Bastille Day

Too hot today to do the can-can, so I pulled together a big pot of ratatouille from SIMPLE FRENCH COOKING. The eggplant prep was far easier than in other recipes: slice, brush with olive oil, broil on both sides 'til brown, chop in 1" pieces. These herbes de Provence Leigh gave me a couple of Christmases ago are still fragrant and put the Provençal sunshine in the stew. Bonne fête!