Greetings from Cape Ann, Massachusetts, where I’m now sitting, on a veranda looking out across the Annisquam River over Wingaersheek Beach, around the corner from Lobster Cove and down the road from Gloucester. Have you ever read Kipling’s Captains Courageous? (This book should be required reading for every teenager in America.) It’s Gloucester fishermen who rescue young Harvey Cheyne and help turn him from a spoiled kid to a capable young man. Here one lives by the sea and all that accompanies it: the tides which determine if you can jump off the deck into 6 feet of sea water, or walk out for hundreds of yards of mud flats, the squalls that seem to appear without warning and drench you thoroughly if you can’t find cover. Cape Ann is the home of Anadama bread, magical violet skies, and some of best seafood in the country. I’m here on vacation visiting my friends Ann and Nick in Annisquam. I’m not doing much cooking at the moment, but I thought I would share with you some photographs of the local scenery.

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Have you ever had Anadama bread? It’s a traditional dark yeast bread from New England. Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares the recipe for this delicious loaf he made for us the other day. ~Elise

My mum was never much of a baker, but she used to tell us about a bread she loved back at home on the North Shore of Massachusetts called, oddly, anadama bread. Apparently the old tale is that Anna was a fisherman’s wife who fed her beau little more than cornmeal porridge sweetened with molasses. One day, so the story goes, the fisherman came home, added some flour and yeast to the mush and tossed it in the oven to make bread – all the while muttering, “Anna, damn her!”

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When Garrett McCord told me he had the best mussels recipe in the world I was skeptical, that is until I tried it. Yikes this is good! ~Elise

When I need a good party food or want to impress some friends I usually turn to mussels cooked in coconut milk and curry. It’s affordable, easy to prepare, and has a definite wow factor. I mean, who can’t resist the look of these obsidian peaks jutting out from a plate from canary-colored broth? These mussels take on the flavors of the broth which is spiked with lemongrass, pungent red chilies, and kaffir lime leaves leaving them with a distinct Thai flavor. The mussels themselves imbue the broth with a slight, ocean brine that cuts through the richness of the coconut milk. This recipe will feed four people happily or make an excellent appetizer for a group. This is a dish best served with beer and crusty bread.

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Have you noticed the beautiful peaches and nectarines in the market lately? I find them so hard to resist, and often buy more than I can eat. Here’s a quick and easy salsa, made with fresh peaches, jalapeños, lemon, ginger and mint, that goes beautifully with the grilled meats of summer. Try serving this with grilled pork, chicken, or fish. Perfect. Also makes a great dip for chips.

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Yes my friends, it’s time for blackberries. The season is here, the berries are ripe and ready for picking. Blackberries grow wild here along the American River, and pretty much around all of the creeks and streams in California. Heck, they even grow wild in empty lots and neglected back yards in San Francisco. Hank, I, and our friend and fellow food blogger Amber went berry picking at the river this week and brought home a couple pounds of fresh, ripe, juicy berries, perfect for a pie. And a perfect pie it is, or was. It didn’t last long. Honestly I think it was one of the best pies I’ve ever made, and that’s saying something, because I like to make pie. The filling held together (instant tapioca is a great thickener), the additions of lemon, cinnamon, and almond extract just intensified and enhanced the blackberry flavor. And the crust? Well, in my opinion, homemade pie is just an excuse to eat homemade butter crust.

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My friend Peg recently gave me some sweet pickled jalapeño chili peppers that she made using my bread and butter pickle recipe and oh my gosh, I couldn’t stop eating them. So of course I had to make my own batch the very next day. Ay caramba they are good, and oddly not as spicy as you would expect. Certainly not as hot as my regular jalapeño pickles. Just a little bit hot. Perky hot. And sweet and crunchy the way a bread and butter pickle should be.

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Oh the joys of summer! On the top of the list is fresh, ripe tomatoes, garden cucumbers, and basil that the more you cut, the more it grows. (Ever notice that basil is like a hydra? Cut one stem and two grow in its place.) And the tomatoes. Beefsteak tomatoes, early girls, heirlooms, plum tomatoes, not to mention the little ones like sun golds. Anyway, the heat has come, the garden has finally started to act like summer, and this classic Tuscan bread salad is a perfect thing to make with the bounty. According to Hank who made this salad for us the other day, panzanella at its core is really a way to use up crusty bread that has gotten hard and to celebrate perfect summer tomatoes. It is a cooling summertime salad that relies on the bread as the “filler” to soak up the juices of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as the olive oil you pour over everything.

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My young friend Audrey and I have many things in common. We both like to dress up with pretty aprons. We are both excruciatingly accurate with water guns in a swimming pool. We would both rather read a book than do anything too physically strenuous (water fights excepted). And we both have a serious love for rich chocolate desserts and pretty much any homemade ice cream. So when Audrey (age almost 15) suggested that we make chocolate ice cream, I was all over it. The credit for this recipe goes to Audrey, who has been making it for her family with great results. My own meager contributions were to include some salt and instant coffee (both intensify the chocolate taste), and vanilla to help deepen the overall flavor of the ice cream. The ice cream is rich, creamy, smooth, and super chocolate-y.

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Why is it that so much great food comes out of Louisiana? Case in point, this “dirty” rice. It’s a Cajun classic, and so good that the first time you eat it you’ll wonder where it’s been all your life. It’s basically a rice pilaf that is called “dirty” because it’s cooked with minced chicken livers or gizzards, which infuse it with crispy, tasty browned bits. If you aren’t a liver lover, don’t worry, the rice doesn’t taste like liver, the addition just deepens the overall flavor of the rice, and the bits are so small you can’t really distinguish them.

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You know the cool thing about tarragon? You only have to plant it once. (Assuming you don’t pull it up thinking it’s a weed when it surprises you by coming up the second year. Yes, that would be me.) I planted a young tarragon plant in a corner of our garden several years ago, and although it dies back every winter, each spring it reemerges even more robust than the year before. Tarragon is a lovely herb to pair with chicken or fish, and is terrific in omelettes. It also tastes great with hard boiled eggs, either deviled or in an egg salad such as this one. My nephew Austin took one bite of this the other day and wide-eyed exclaimed “Wow, what is in this?!” as he gobbled it up. The tarragon, along with similarly flavored fennel, adds an unexpected punch to an otherwise rather basic egg salad.

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