April 2019 “In My Kitchen”

I often quote my favorite poet, T.S. Eliot, during this time of year:

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

(Eliot can always be a bit dire and urgent.)

To bring a more hopeful and sunny outlook, perhaps I should just quote the old spring adage:

April showers bring May flowers.

It remains to be seen what April will bring for “In My Kitchen,” but here’s what showed up and happened last month.

First, there is orgeat syrup.

This stuff is fantastic in coffee (and hot chocolate) but I want to experiment with it a bit in baking.

Oh, and by the way, throw in some gin, pineapple juice, and lemon and it ain’t bad either. (Check out the Royal Hawaiian cocktail.)

During February and March, I made a couple of work related trips—one to San Antonio and one to Chicago. We ate at a lot of great places on both trips. (Some had better views and atmosphere than food, but it all works out.) If you want to read the reviews, skip to the bottom. I was reacquainted with Sikil Pak at Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill. I am so going to remake this dish. (At Frontera, Sikil Pak is served half-and-half with guacamole. I could have eaten the entire appetizer by myself…along with the queso fundido.)

Menu cover from Frontera Grill in Chicago.

As far as things that I hope get to my kitchen….here’s a garden update. There was a surprise, a volunteer tomato that I recently found growing in a pot in the green house.

The tomato is more valuable to me, so I roughly dug out the succulent that it had infringed upon and am now carefully awaiting the days I can move it outside.

Hopefully, I will have some cherry tomatoes in the kitchen sooner than later! (I think it’s a black cherry variety.)

Besides wishing for fresh tomatoes from the garden in my kitchen (SOON), I was recently introduced to a new basil variety—Newton.I got a free package of seeds at a gardening lecture. (I hope to post more about that later.) It’s a fast growing large leaf basil with crinkled leaves.