Queenie's Treasury

Happy Memorial Day weekend, my doves! Summer has announced itself in New York with an appropriately warm, overly-humid day, and so I'm spending the afternoon inside with an iced coffee. (And a pot of strawberry-rhubarb compote bubbling on the stove.) While I mop the humidity from my brow, let's take a look at this week's Treasury, shall we?

I was thisclose to ending my subsrciption to Bon Appétit a year or so ago. I was riding out the tail end of the subscription Condé Nast had given me to fill up the issues remaining on my Gourmet tab, and I had been consistently underwhelmed. But then, in late 2011, they hired Adam Rapoport and went through their redesign, and I've been much happier with the magazine ever since. The recipes rarely rise to the level of Gourmet's, but the features have gotten much better - and are beautifully photographed. Case in point: this month's piece on interior designer John Derian, featuring his home in Provincetown. My brother and sister-in-law are in P-Town right now, and I hope they're eating as well as Derian's guests.

I've always been more of an individual cocktail maker than a punch preparer, but this bourbon, strawberry and lime punch from the folks at Prime Meats might just push me along the path to transformation. I'm thinking it's definitely going to need to make an appearance at my brother's 30th birthday festivities in Maine this July, when strawberries will be at their peak in northern New England. Yes, indeed. Fellow guests: prepare yourselves.

Now that Greenmarket season is back in full swing here in New York, I thought it was time to remind you all of the truly awesome blog Lucy's Greenmarket Report. Lucy visits the Union Square Greenmarket pretty much every day it's open, then posts a digest of what's available and what's on the way later in the week. If you're wondering if snap peas will be on hand yet, or if rhubarb is completely played out, Lucy's is the blog to check before heading out to shop for that dinner party.