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I think about Brad Bernhart every day.

Every time I stir a simmering pot, scrape caramelized bits of roasted vegetables off a baking sheet, scoop granola into a cup, spread almond butter on my toast, cut up a piece of fruit, or ladle a chunky soup into bowls. I hold in my hand the beautiful, functional, durable utensils he has created, and feel lucky that I get to use them daily.

It’s not every kitchen tool that brings you joy, yet joy is precisely what’s at play here.

I told you about Earlywood a little while ago, and have kept in touch with Brad since, so when he told me about the new products he had designed — a set of mini cutting boards, slender tasting spoons, a tapered bread board — I was excited to try them out. Like all Earlywood products they are beautifully crafted, and I was especially taken with the miniature cutting boards and their one-of-a-kind wood pattern. Aren’t they striking?

Tapered bread board, set of mini cutting boards, and slender tasting spoons from Earlywood.

I have long been curious to hear more about Brad’s process, and he has agreed to participate in a little Q&A for our collective enjoyment.

Gift-giving season is around the corner and you’ll want to explore the Earlywood range, because any of Brad’s products will make an affordable yet truly special gift for the cooks you love. And as a gift to you, C&Z readers, Brad has offered a generous prize that you can enter to win at the bottom of this post. Happy reading and good luck!

Tell us a bit about your life path, and how you got to where you are.

In a nutshell, this is my life path: Kid, ski bum, student, engineer, husband, father, Earlywood!

Walk us through “a day in the life of Brad.”

My days are not consistent by any means. My wife is a nurse and works night shifts, so she is often in some state of preparing for work or recovering from work, but if I had to describe a “typical” day this would be it: If I have it in me, I try to get up before my kids do so I can knock a few things off my plate, like take a shower or drink some coffee in silence! Then, in come the kids. My little ones are two and three years old, and it takes them about ten seconds to go from 100% asleep to 100% fired up and rowdy. We cook some breakfast, get some clothes on and get ready for their day. That’s when I usually pass the torch to my wife and go to work.

I might spend a few hours in the office e-mailing and working on business stuff, then if everything lines up… I’m off to the shop to make some sawdust. I work as hard as I can for as long as I can, then it’s back into the hurricane of my children. We usually eat dinner as a family, do some kind of activity, then go through their bedtime routine. At that point, I finally have some nice quiet time to take care of myself, but as many parents can probably relate with… I just fall asleep!

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Herbed butter is my secret weapon for apéritif nibbles.

It’s just about as chic as it is easy to make: you get the best artisan butter you can find and afford, allow it to soften slightly, and add flaky salt along with finely chopped fresh herbs. Chives, flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, chervil, basil, dill… If you can mix and match, so much the butter, uh, better.

Once ready, this green-flecked butter is the ideal binder to bring together the base and topping for ultra simple but very attractive canapés. This is assembly cooking at its best: slices from a fresh, slim baguette and halved pink radishes; crunchy cucumber rounds topped with a small roll of cooked ham; or squares of pumpernickel bread and sliced scallops.

The lightly nubby pumpernickel bread, the creamy herbed butter, and the slippery, silky scallops come together for a fresh and delicate two-bite savory treat.

Coquilles Saint-Jacques are no doubt my favorite kind of shellfish, and I particularly enjoy their sweet and subtly briny flavor when they’re raw — perhaps you’ve encountered them as hotate sushi before. In France, fishmongers sell live scallops that they’ll shuck to order, so you’re assured of their freshness; if that’s not an option, make sure you get sushi-grade scallops*.

And since scallops don’t come cheap, I save them for special occasions — holiday meals in particular — and I make sure the recipe I feature them in will allow their looks and taste to shine brightly.

Here, I’ve chosen to pair them with clean flavors and complementary textures: the lightly nubby pumpernickel bread, the creamy herbed butter, and the slippery, silky scallops come together for a fresh and delicate two-bite savory treat that I like to serve with a chilled Muskadig.

Tell me everything !

What are some of your favorite pairings for simple crostini that you can serve with a pre-dinner drink or as part of a chic buffet? And have you started thinking about your holiday menus, or is it way too soon for you, in which case please don’t let me freak you out?

* And if still you’re not comfortable eating your scallops raw, just sear them for a minute on one side in a lightly oiled skillet.

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The sweet potato is an incredibly versatile tuber, but I tend to prepare them in the same two or three quick and easy ways most of the time, so I decided to seek new ideas. I wasn’t disappointed: there seems to be no end to the inspired recipes one can dream up to use sweet potatoes and enjoy their irresistibly sweet taste and superfood status (more details here), and I collected my forty favorites to share with you below, organized by cooking method.

My sweet potato of choice is the orange one, which is vibrantly flavorful and loaded with nutrients (especially beta-carotene and vitamin A). It’s not easy to find Europe-grown ones at this point, but you can find imported ones in an increasing number of supermarkets, organic or not. Sweet potatoes grown in the United States tend to keep longer (at cool room temperature, never in the fridge!) and their flesh is moister.

You’ll find all the recipes I linked to below gathered on this Pinterest board for easy browsing.

Winning pairings

~ Sweet potato + Bacon
~ Sweet potato + Leafy greens, especially kale and spinach, and salad greens, especially arugula and mâche
~ Sweet potato + Beans, especially black beans
~ Sweet potato + Chickpeas
~ Sweet potato + Lentils
~ Sweet potato + Maple syrup
~ Sweet potato + Chicken
~ Sweet potato + Pork
~ Sweet potato + Miso
~ Sweet potato + Butter
~ Sweet potato + Tahini
~ Sweet potato + Nuts, especially walnuts and almonds
~ Sweet potato + Potato
~ Sweet potato + Sage
~ Sweet potato + Olives
~ Sweet potato + Anchovies
~ Sweet potato + Herbs, especially cilantro and chives
~ Sweet potato + Citrus, especially lemon and lime
~ Sweet potato + Avocado
~ Sweet potato + Carrot
~ Sweet potato + Quinoa
~ Sweet potato + Feta cheese
~ Sweet potato + Broccoli and cauliflower

Steaming and boiling

Steaming is the best way to retain all the nutritional benefits of sweet potatoes. Cut into 2- to 3-cm (1-inch) cubes, they will need about 10 minutes of steaming. Sweet potatoes also do well boiled and puréed in the cooking liquid for a soup.

~ Make patties with the steamed and mashed sweet potatoes and an egg as the binder, possibly mixing them half and half with regular potatoes, and cook in the skillet or the oven. Add feta cheese to the mix.

~ Pair with lentils for this Thai-inspired sweet potato soup.

~ Pair with chickpeas to make sweet potato falafel.

~ Use it in an easy vegetable curry.

~ Turn it into a sweet potato hummus.

~ Use it to make a gluten-free pizza crust.

~ Make sweet potato and kale balls.

~ Add to your burritos, quesadillas and tacos.

~ Roll into sweet potato tots.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Black Olives and Almonds

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A few reads and finds from this past month! Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

~ Cabin porn: who knew it was a thing?

~ Five useful lessons Cambria Bold has learned from five years of meal planning. Here are my own menu planning tips and tricks!

~ I am beyond honored that my French Market Cookbook features in the Blue Hill gift selection.

~ How do you get people to eat more seaweed? Easy: you make it taste like bacon.

~ The gorgeous rue Crémieux in Paris’ 12th arrondissement, photographed by the ever inspiring Audrey F.

~ Loved these two episodes of the Food Blogger Pro podcast featuring Dianne Jacob on finding your voice, and my friend Elise Bauer on building a food blog empire.

~ Have you ever come across those little books from Short Stack Editions ? They’re hand-stitched and bound with baker’s twine, and I can’t think of a better trio to start a collection with.

~ A lovely interview with my talented friend Marie C. on her web series My Life in Sourdough.

~ The Challenges of Updating a Vintage Recipe, in light of my recent work on Ginette Mathiot’s Preserving book, now published in the English language by Phaidon.

~ Interesting insight from Alton Brown about choosing a passion-driven career: Love is the gasoline, not the car.

~ A treat of a video for bread lovers: an artisan boulanger in the wee hours of the morning.

~ Are you a fan of tarte au citron? Here are Paris’ 10 best lemon tarts according to L’Express magazine.

For more links and articles throughout the month, follow me on Twitter or follow me on Facebook!