three best bites: happily ever after eggplant

I hope this email finds everyone relaxing in the middle of a long weekend or at least partially disregarding work on this one day of business between weekend and holiday.

I’m planning to grill tomorrow but keep it simple: hot dogs, brats, herby potato salad, probably some fresh fruit, definitely a few cans of Budweiser. If you’re the commenting type, leave your favorite Fourth of July food tradition at the bottom of this post. If you’re not, proceed to best bites, and have a great Fourth.

fairytale eggplant stole the show in this recent farmers market haul

peach-almond pound cake: Mid-week, I started craving something sweet, fruity and almond-y. What I really wanted was an almond croissant slathered in jam, but I didn’t have much interest in laminating dough, so I compromised and started fiddling with a recipe for peach-almond pound cake. My first pass got the flavors all right but the shape and distribution of fruit at least a little bit wrong, and I’m determined to nail down a recipe this week to share with you all. Let this serve as a preview — and yet another potentially mouthwatering vehicle for getting rid of excess fruit.

stay tuned for the evolution of this cake, shown here in batter form