The earrings were simple drop pearls from the jewelry designer, Ted Muehling. Even though there is so little to them: a delicate earwire made of 14k gold, from which dangles a pretty straightforward pearl–no big deal–still, there is something so special about them. I have a pair and am amazed by how many compliments such a simple thing can elicit. But what made them remarkable in the movie is that Meryl Streep’s character owned a food store a la Joan’s on Third, and in real life, food people are obsessed with Ted Muehling.

Maybe the reason for this obsession is because, like people who are into food, the earrings are inspired by things in nature–many of which are actual foods. Among the shapes, there are “berries,” “rice,” “melons,” “snails,” “fish,” and “acorns.” Not that anyone is going to eat an acorn, or a “pine cone,” another Ted Muehling option. But we can certainly appreciate their organically beautiful shapes, especially when they’re turned out in pink gold. And just like a good chef can coax so much magic out of a carrot, Ted Muehling’s creations allow us to see the beauty in objects we might otherwise overlook, such as “fly wings” “gnats,” “eye bugs,” “moth wings,” and “moths”.  I hope to have the whole natural habitat of earrings one day. And I’d have a hard time not forgiving anyone who extended this particular olive branch to me.  Not that I can be bought…

Note: These photos were “borrowed” from the Ted Meuhling website. (Aren’t they lovely?)

In Los Angeles, you can buy Ted Muehling at the gallery-like jewelry store, arp. In New York, at theTed Muehling store. The rest of you will find a way! How could you not?

The dinners I made during my stay on the farm were some of the best that I can remember, redefining for this city girl just exactly what it means to ‘eat local’. I still dream of those warm eggs with their bright orange centers.

Since returning to Chicago, I’ve made this tart a dozen times using a variety of squashes and finishing cheeses. And with each satisfying bite I’m transported to that magical place.

Ricotta Tart with Maple Glazed Winter Squash

Inspired by Susan Spungen’s recipe for Savory Ricotta-Squash Tart in Food and Wine Magazine.
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Hazelnut Crust:
1/2 cup hazelnuts
3/4 cups whole wheat pastry
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons cold water

Filling:
1 medium butternut (the neck only) or acorn squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup shallots, thinly sliced
12 ounces fresh ricotta
2 eggs
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
salt
2 ounces chèvre, crumbled
2 tablespoons dried cranberries

Preparation

Hazelnut Crust: 
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a baking pan toast hazelnuts in one layer until skins are dark brown, about 10 minutes. Finely chop the nuts once they have completely cooled.
3. Place the pastry flour, chopped hazelnuts, and salt in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse to combine.
4. Sprinkle the butter over the flour mixture. Pulse again until coarse crumbs form.
5. Add the water and blend dough until it begins to come together but is still crumbly.
6. Press dough in bottom and up the sides of a 14×5-inch tart pan (or a 9” round) with a removable bottom. Chill crust 30 minutes.
7. Increase oven temperature to 400°F.
8. Bake crust in middle of oven until golden, about 25 minutes, and transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Filling: 
1. Peel the butternut squash neck and cut into ½-inch slices. (If using acorn squash, leave the skins on.) Arrange the slices on a baking sheet. Combine one tablespoon each of olive oil and maple syrup and brush on the squash slices. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the squash is tender. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.
2. Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and stir to coat with the oil. Add a pinch of salt. Allow the shallots to cook slowly, stirring occasionally until golden. Add the remaining maple syrup and remove from heat.
3. Combine the ricotta, eggs, cream, nutmeg, and a ½ teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.
4. Spread the ricotta filling in the cooled pastry shell. Sprinkle the caramelized shallots on top. Arrange the squash slices over the shallots. If using butternut squash, scoop out a 1-inch diameter circle in the center of each slice to create a nook for the remaining ingredients to nestle in. Sprinkle the crumbled chèvre and dried cranberries over the top of the tart.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, until the ricotta filling is puffed and firm to the touch. Enjoy!

Homemade tarts can be enjoyed all year round using what’s in season.
Give these a try in the summer: 

Green Tomato Tart
Roasted Beet and Chèvre Tart with Polenta Crust
Cherry Tomato and Fennel Tart with Balsamic Crust

I met Susan 15 years ago in Bridgehampton, when she worked as the food editor for the just-launched Martha Stewart Living. I was the 10 years younger, unemployed and adrift girlfriend of a chef friend of hers.  When I met Susan, I could not believe that someone could get paid working with food–and not being a cook. Se was my idol and then became my friend.

Several years later, I read an article in some obscure (to me anyway) design journal that said that Susan’s work at Martha Stewart Living had forever changed the look of food on the page. With its soft, pinprick focus, natural light, it had an organic look so delicious you want to take the bite of pecan pie dangling on the end of a fork right off the page and eat it. And for all intents and purposes, you could.

Susan doesn’t use glue or shelack or shoe polish to make her food look pretty. She just uses pretty food, and cooks it nice. I had the privilege of working with her as an unskilled assistant on a couple of occasions when she was at Martha, and the food was so real, in fact, we often sat down feasted on it when we were done shooting. “I cook for the camera,” she used to say when asked about the tricks of her trade. Meaning she made sure to get a nice brown sear on a roast, or grill marks on a slice of fennel. But otherwise, the food was food. Nothing more and nothing less.

This is not just clever beyond belief, but also, I think, important to the way we think about food. Just like yesterday’s Times article said that using real, delicious food in a scene made the actors act differently (better!), I think that stressing how beautiful food can be organically is important, too. We don’t need food layered in ring molds or decorated with sugar spires, and certainly we don’t need an orange wedge and a sprig of parsley on the side of our fried eggs. But like so many things, keeping it simple is sometimes the hardest thing of all.

Over the years, Susan whenever I went to entertain, she was my entertaining 911 hot-line. A dozen housemates for a fall dinner in the Hamptons? She pointed me to a pork dish with fennel and apricots she’d published in Martha. Forty people, Christmas open house, expecting to be fed. Not seated “Give them something they can eat with the plate on their lap, that doesn’t require a knife.” We decided on a beef Daube from Saveur and it was so good it’s the only time I’ve ever almost run out of food.

Susan is the only person I know who is pickier about what she serves than I am, and the first time I asked if I could bring something to one of her parties–her annual Fourth of July bash on the lawn of her Sagaponack cottage–her response was: Like what? I loved that. No shame to admit that it mattered. The party was an Americana theme: bbq ribs, corn, a chocolate layer cake, hand-churned ice cream. So I decided to stick with what I know, suggested a platter of chocolate chip cookies and she agreed. I have made tons of cookies over time, but never so painstakingly rolled into equal-size drops and never with such meticulous attention paid to the baking. The mountain of cookies I presented was, I admit, an all-American site to behold. And I passed. Susan liked them so much she included the recipe in her book, Recipes, which is sort of cult classic among those who own it. (If you don’t own it and you like to cook delicious food from recipes that work, you should buy it. It’s out of print, but Amazon has them in stock.)

By the time her birthday rolled around that September, I’d gained her trust. She was serving lobster chowder and corn on the cob to about 30 friends crowded around the Sagaponack cottage fireplace on the first chilly days of the impending fall. I suggested prosciutto with melon, which I’d been seeing piled at the farm stand up the road. But naturally, Susan had an even better idea. Prosciutto with figs. I assembled them at her house so she could show me how to wrap a thin slice of prosciutto around a halved fig and still make it look good. Of course she had the ideal long, narrow, white platter for me to put them on. We then drizzled them with some ancient, million dollar balsamic. And then she got the brilliant genius idea of finishing the figs with a few turns of black pepper. My appetizer tasted delicious. But what’s more, they looked so elegant.  I was proud for a moment and almost forgot that, like all of us who take our cues from the magazines that Susan has influenced, I could not have created such a dish without her guidance. None of us could.

A collection of small dishes from the realm where paper meets palate.

• With all of the hullabaloo right now about salmonella tainted tomatoes the good folks at Domino Magazine comes to the rescue in their August ’08 issue with an article for uses of heirloom tomatoes. For those who do not know, heirlooms are what tomatoes were like before scientists decided that they should round, red orbs. After consulting with “culinary guru” Susan Spungen they dished up five very innovative dishes using locally sourced heirlooms including a Warm Caprese Salad where the tomatoes are grilled and the amazing Gazpacho Bloody Marys. More importantly they tell you how to find local produce by offering the link localharvest.org.  Or you could just get an Aerogarden.
• Russ Parsons, the renowned food and wine columnist for the LA Times is also an award winning author having snagged multiple James Beard awards. He appears to have hit another homerun with his book How To Pick A Peach which he describes as a cook’s look at agriculture. As he explained to Daniel Boulud on his MOJO series After Hours with Daniel, it is about, “. . . how we got to the point we are today with the kind of the split between super market produce sections and the farmer’s market and how the farmer’s markets are influencing super market produce sections and vice versa.” Adding that, “The chefs influence the farmers and the farmers influence the chefs.”
• Weber Grill “professor” Steven Raichlen is celebrating the ten year anniversary of the release of his James Beard Award winning The Barbecue! Bible by revising the grilling guide which has sold more than 4 million copies and has been translated into 14 languages. Raichlen says that so much of Americans’ understanding of how to cook over an open flame has changed over the past decade that it was time to update his mammoth opus.  In a recent interview with David Holloway of the Mobile Press Register he explains his motivation for the makeover, “People now have a much greater understanding of barbecuing and grilling. When I first wrote the book, I had to go into great detail to explain indirect cooking: now it’s pretty much common knowledge.” Holloway sums up the book by saying, “If you could only buy one book on how to grill, smoke, or barbecue, this would be it.”  Perfect for those of you who are part of the bbq sauce of the month club.