"eric diesel" news and stories

Meet the white-chocolate brownie, a delightful home-baked treat that combines the rarefied taste and texture of white chocolate with just the right touch of sweet cranberries, under a snowy blanket of old-fashioned cream frosting. Go ahead, bake two batches: They're so easy to make and so good to eat that you're going to want to take them to your office holiday event, present-wrapping party or cookie swap.

Get the recipe after the jump.

Gazpacho. Photo: Emily Farris, Fifty Bucks a Week.

Each week, we round up the top food articles we've spied Web-wide. This week, a special edition of our own bloggers' primo pieces from elsewhere on the Web.

Pervaiz Shallwani boards a bus with a stripper pole alongside a bunch of bartenders to harvest rye in upstate New York ... for Gourmet ... really.

"Mad Men" fiend Eric Diesel reveals his recipe for perfectly "clean" martinis -- a 2-to-1 gin-to-vermouth concoction at his Urban Home blog.

Mike Pomranz on the phenomenon of a cat opening a jar of food at Comedy Central.

Bruce Watson reports at sister site DailyFinance that the United States may "run out of sugar" in the next year!

Cook and film buff Monika Bartyzel notes that Michael Moore might be done with the documentary style that made him famous, for Cinematical.

Gretchen Roberts, our savvy sommelier-in-training, offers freebie gourmet treats at her wine blog Vinobite.

CoffeeMeister Erin Meister makes peace with the five-second-rule over at her culinary blog, the Nervous Cook.

Joshua M. Bernstein visits Scores, a Manhattan strip club, to eat steak (again, really!) for the New York Press.

Emily Farris tries to toe the budget line with a basic, beautiful gazpacho at Fifty Bucks a Week.

Peach jam. Photo: FL4Y, Flickr

As you've read here, home canning, once an expected part of a homemaker's vocabulary of skills, is experiencing a resurgence. The revival is partly due to economics: According to Martin Franklin, chairman of the Jarden Corporation (home of the Ball jar), home preserving experiences a spike in popularity during lean times.

It's also got something to do with the pleasures of canning your own food. Selecting and preparing the ingredients, gathering supplies and getting them ready and mustering the necessary focus is rewarded with several jars of something gorgeous, nutritious and tasty that will amplify a meal in the cold months.

What treat is nicer on an icy morning than fresh jam? Upon opening it, the eater is greeted with the sunny fragrance of fruit that once hung heavy on its limb or vine. Upon tasting it, memories come alive of the orchard, woodland and garden.

After the jump, an original recipe for a spicy peach jam to slather on autumnal scones, dribble on winter waffles or spread on humble anytime toast. Once you get the hang of canning, it's really simple, so go ahead: Grab a bushel of peaches while they're plentiful, and seal some summer into a jar.

Heirloom tomato salad. Photo: Eric Diesel

If you're lucky enough to live near a farmers market, don't forget to thank your local farmer and gardener for that sparkling-fresh produce, especially those who grow heirloom vegetables and fruits. In addition to growing delicious produce, they're cultivating history, right on the vine.

Though there are some differences of opinion about its exact definition, an heirloom variety of fruit or vegetable is generally agreed to be one that has been cultivated for at least 50 years. Beans are an heirloom veggie ever-growing in popularity, but the food that truly sings of summer is the tomato.

Heirloom tomatoes are beginning to appear in gardens, at roadside stands and lining produce aisles. In honor of the unique flavors and colors of these beauties, beyond the jump is an original recipe for a summer tomato salad: history you can eat. But remember to save some seeds -- preserving them is the least we can do for these species that give so much to us.

French vegetable tian. Photo: Eric Diesel.

Bastille Day occurs at the height of summer, when summer vegetables are clamoring for attention from rows and stakes in the garden and tumbling out of bushel baskets in the marketplace. The shiny, waxen skins of eggplant and zucchini beckon the home cook to the pleasures of vegetables fresh from the embrace of sunshine and soil. Fat, juicy tomatoes are plentiful, as are fragrant bundles of leeks and fresh herbs.

Provençal cooking celebrates the earthy traditions of the French countryside and southern France in general, with food as simple and good as bread, wine, cheese. A tian -- a layered, baked vegetable dish that originated in Provence but is also common to city kitchens -- is the perfect complement to this French holiday. Unlike a gratin, a tian does not include bread crumbs or cheese, which allows the juices in the vegetables to evaporate in the oven's dry heat, concentrating their flavors.

Beyond the jump is an original recipe for tian of summer vegetables, which has been streamlined for the home cook while retaining fidelity to the original French dish. Serve this with your Bastille Day poulet, boeuf or pouisson, and watch as wine glasses around the table clink and diners agree: "Vive la France!"