This is what's good: or, What I cook on my day off

Onions (red) and mustard seed (black), a handful of each. Cumin seeds, a lesser handful. Fried in olive oil until the mustard seed starts to commit pop-kari and hop all over the stove. Then, add a bag of baby spinach that's been rinsed and shaken out. Let the spinach wilt.

Serve with basmati rice. Bitter, sweet, spicy, crunchy, chewy, all at once.

Zucchini: tiny baby zucchini, the size of your thumb. Cut 'em in half or thirds. Saute in REAL thank you butter, just a bit, until they're vaguely golden brown on the cut side. Eat. Spring in a frypan.

Asparagus: roasted dry so all the sugars carmelize, then drizzled with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt and lots of fresh black pepper.

Broccoli is good any way you make it. If anybody has any idea how to make a garlic-and-broccoli aspic (solid uniform light green, not clear) like I had at L'Express in Montreal, please do tell. Mmmmmm. Not at all what I expected, not edible-looking, delicious.

Eeeen-tee-ninesy strawberries from the pick-yer-own patch, sliced and served with really, really good balsamic vinegar and a dash of fresh ground black pepper. Trust me on this.

Right now I'm hunting for a blackberry patch. My secret old half-acre tangle of blackberries got bulldozed, dammit, for overpriced McMansions, so I'm scouting the fields and back roads. When the blackberries ripen, I will pick them and eat them immediately, then turn the rest into jam. Recipe to come then.

Ooooooh. And blackberries with cream. And blackberry shortcake. Mmmm.