A few of my favorite finds and reads for August:

~ Food pic wars. Does this remind you of anyone you know?

~ 31 ways to use lemon peel, and I’ll add my own #32: roasted lemon zest powder.

~ Paris for kids: where to take them, what to feed them.

~ Singing in support of artisan milk producers.

~ Born again in a second language: about writing in a language not your own.

~ A fascinating look at how bento boxes are made.

~ I am coveting this coconut-shaped lamp.

~ Frederick Kaufman on the commoditization of food.

~ Is this the future of coffee shops? Reserved seats for non-laptop-using customers.

~ A good-looking loaf of bread baked 2000 years ago.

~ What do 200 calories look like?

~ Why we should all keep a spark file.

~ Using active verbs in recipes: what’s your preferred style?

Few nuts are as notably improved by roasting as the hazelnut.

Most raw hazelnuts you find at the store are, in truth, a little chewy and a little bland, like a draft version of themselves. But a healthy roasting fixes that, boosting the flavor and allowing the excess water to evaporate, thereby leaving you with wonderfully crisp nuggets of pure nuttiness.

The bonus advantage when you roast hazelnuts is that it gives you the opportunity to skin them while you’re at it, rubbing them in a kitchen towel as the bitter husk easily detaches into a million little flakes you do not want to accidentally spill on your kitchen floor, trust me.

How to roast hazelnuts, and what to do with them?

I confess that most of the hazelnuts I roast and skin in this fashion, I end up snacking on with dried fruit such as prunes, figs, pears, or dates, as mentioned in this post about food gifts. But I also love to eat them on Roasted Cauliflower à la Mary Celeste, use them for a Hazelnut and Nectarine Gratin, or grind them to make Dukkah, this fantastic spice mix from Egypt. (More hazelnut recipes?)

Join the conversation!

Do you usually roast and skin the nuts you cook and bake with? And what’s your favorite way to enjoy hazelnuts?

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Matthew and Iris outside Kawajiro, an eel-skewer restaurant in Tokyo.

Note: I am delighted that this column was recently featured on Food52: On Green Pancakes and Cooking With Kids.

Please welcome Matthew Amster-Burton, the newest guest in my Parents Who Cook interview series!

Matthew has a nine-year-old daughter, and as you’ll see, his approach to feeding her is playful, relaxed, and full of inventive tricks. I hope you enjoy his answers as much as I do.

Can you tell us a few words about your daughter? Age, name, temperament?

Iris is nine and a very easy kid. She likes to go to school and we get along well. I’m enjoying this while it lasts.

Did having a child change the way you cook?

Yes, for better and for worse. I got a lot more reliable about cooking dinner at home and serving it at a reasonable hour. I’m much less likely to cook a complicated all-day dish than before Iris was born: I was too exhausted to do it for years, and then once I had the energy back, I found I didn’t miss it, so I’ve gone on cooking mostly simple food. A lot of parents seem to make this transition.

On the downside, I’m probably a little too accommodating of Iris’s tastes. There are certain dishes I would enjoy serving as a main course that I know Iris would hate, though these are fewer and fewer as she gets older. Recently, for example, she decided she likes spicy foods again after abandoning them at age two. Thai curry is back on the dinner roster. Finally!

Do you remember what it was like to cook with a newborn? Any tips or saving grace for new parents going through that phase?

Nearly everything about having a newborn was awful. My advice: if people offer to bring you food, take them up on it. Nobody should ever feel guilty for any shortcuts they take to survive the first three months of parenthood.

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Beehive honey squares by Lucy Kuhn.

A few of my favorite finds and reads for July:

~ Intrigued by this zucchini hummus and this lentil granola.

~ “If we lived in 1913” is a series broadcast daily (in French) on France Inter radio, in which historian Antoine Prost talks about daily life in France one hundred years ago. I was particularly interested in this one: “If we lived in 1913, we would eat mostly bread.”

~ Finally all is revealed, and I am tickled to know that long-time fellow blogger Josh Friedland was behind Ruth Bourdain all this time.

~ Fun to play with: 60 Years of French First Names.

~ Who could resist buying these honey squares?

~ An incredible edible Rubik’s Cube by Cédric Grolet, the new pastry chef at Le Meurice.

~ New online addiction: The Geoguessr.

~ Want to know the truth behind the friendly-faced producers displayed on French supermarket products (in French)?

~ The BBC’s Food Programme, one of my favorite food podcasts (see full list here), had this fascinating episode on tree-to-bar chocolatier Mott Green (who died tragically a few weeks ago).

~ In the mood for some ice cream?

~ Depressing: a new EU regulation bans the sale of heritage seeds.

~ How French chefs are glamorizing tofu (in French).

~ Fool Magazine asks chefs and food writers, Who’s the world’s most underrated chef?

~ 35 beautiful recipe book designs.