Summer cooking and cinnamon toast

It's Sunday, June 26.  In two days, I begin my mid-summer teaching break -- almost five weeks during which all my students are on break, and piano lessons are put on the back burner.  And that means I'm ready to do a lot of cooking.  

First, though, is this week's menu:  chocolate mousse, and almond cakes with blueberries and cream.  Next week, you will have a chance to order eggnog and also something that is appearing on the weekly menu for the first time:  vanilla poppy seed muffins with lemon streusel.  

During July, I will be cooking lots and lots, so I hope the weather is not too hot because cooking in a hot kitchen during a hot summer day just makes it all seem even hotter.  But no matter whether it's a hot July or a cool July, I have a lots of things I am looking forward to working on in the kitchen.  That means I'll be sampling lots of different things, so my meals will consist of little bits of things rather than full courses during many days of the month.

In the middle of all this cooking and baking, there will be some simple pleasures as well.  One of my favorite simple pleasures is a slice of brioche toasted just right, spread with a liberal amount of Plugra butter, sprinkled with a light dusting of sugar and topped off with an aromatic cinnamon.  Cinnamon toast is such a simple little thing but so enjoyable.  And I often indulge in it while also working on much more complex foods.   

I like to keep a lot of simple foods around: fresh cut fruit, boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, bowls of berries, sliced cheese, and bowls of my favorite corn flakes or cinnamon spice oatmeal.  I love having these simple things around because they are perfect for filling a moment in a busy schedule that needs filling due to a little bit of hunger or the simple need to have something delicious to munch on.

And when I cook, I do a lot of munching on things like these simple foods as well as samples of everything I'm making in the kitchen on that particular day.

OK, enough rambling.  Today's post is not very substantive or memorable, perhaps, but I enjoy sometimes just rambling on about simple things just as I love eating my simple foods.