This recipe is largely in service of my favorite new technique for peeling tomatoes: with a blowtorch. The tip comes from a book I bought at Maker Faire called Chef’s Secrets, and Chef J. Bryce Whittlesey (who once worked at Keswick Hall near Charlottesville) instructs the reader that the blowtorch option prevents the tomato from [...]

Last year about this time, Dana and I picked apples at Carter Mountain (more from that adventure at the bottom of this post), and so it’s applesauce I’m craving right now in Miami, where the leaves don’t change. Spiked with cinnamon, and topped with macerated pluots, the kthread version can be taken further (toast some [...]