I cannot keep silent any longer.

Listen, restaurants. I really, really need you to recognize the city of Brussels. It’s the capital of Belgium. It’s got a capital B, because it’s a name. It ends with an “s”. It’s famous for, among other things, the humble Brussels sprout. Yes, the sprout and the city have the same name.

I can’t emphasize this enough: there is no such thing as a “brussel sprout.”

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about, from the menu of Cacao Lane:

Cacao Lane needs an 's'

Look, it’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen this mistake. I’ll forgive an error here or there from food bloggers. They’re just home cooks. They can’t be expected to do research into how things are spelled. But you, you’re professionals. Food is your career. You should at least spell food-related words correctly.

Even Bryan Voltaggio, celebrated chef on TV, couldn’t get it right on his menu at Family Meal:

Family Meal needs an 's'

Oh, Bryan. Your menu features far more complicated words, like sorghum, bolognese, bearnaise. You don’t capitalize anything else, so I’ll forgive you for the lowercase “b.” But just do me a favor: stick an “s” at the end of your brussel.

(By the way, I was wowed by everything we ate at Family Meal except for the Brussels sprouts, which is weird because I’m generally a huge Brussels sprout fan. It might just be me, though; others at the table loved them. I’m just not a big fan of nasal pungency (I don’t like wasabi or horseradish either), and the mustard or whatever it was in the sauce coating the sprouts was a bit strong for me. It’s okay. Everthing else was fantastic — incredibly moist fried chicken, really flavorful rockfish, and oh, absolutely extraordinary chicken pot pie fritters, crunchy outside with molten pot pie filling in the middle (how does that even happen?). They were tiny and cost $1 apiece, but they were totally worth it. Just be careful not to burn your mouth.)

Family Meal's brilliant chicken pot pie fritters

And while I’m at it, let me pick the scab off another pet peeve. After a great dinner with the in-laws at Family Meal, we went to Kloby’s for carryout the next day. They made me wait half an hour, even though they told me the wait would only be 15 minutes, but it’s okay, I forgive them for that. Their barbecue is totally worth the wait.

This is what I couldn’t forgive (and was stuck staring at for an extra 15 minutes):

Kloby's does y'all a disservice

It’s a contraction of “you all,” right? The letters that are elided are the “o” and “u”; since those letters are taken out, the apostrophe is inserted in their place. The proper rendition is therefore “y’all.”

(My college roommate, from North Carolina, informed me that when addressing larger groups, one may even use the delightful phrase “all y’all.” But that’s for advanced users only. Me, I’ll be happy if you just stick the apostrophe where it’s supposed to be.)

I know it’s a minor nitpick. But I have to stand up for what’s right.

summer CSA weeks 1 and 2; also, ice cream

You know what I love about fresh salad greens in the summer? It means you don’t have to turn on the oven on a 90-degree day, or even heat up a saucepan on the stove. Nope, you just rinse, chop, and eat. No heat required. We’ve been eating a lot of salad.

The summer CSA began last week and I’m already a week behind. My excuse: ice cream. More on that later.

Week 1 pickup: chard, green leaf lettuce, strawberries, zucchini, white mushrooms, spring onions, mixed greens, spinach, eggs, and bread (Great Harvest sourdough).

summer CSA, week 1

I did have to turn on the stove for the chard, spinach, and mushrooms. I sauteed the chard in butter (stems first, leaves after they’ve cooked a bit) with some spring onion, and served it as a side. I also wilted down the spinach and combined it with mushrooms to make vegetable-y, cheesy scrambled eggs for the kid.

Since week 1 was the week of my birthday, and I was planning to throw a milkshake party, I also splurged on some pints of Trickling Springs Creamery ice cream (available right at the Breezy Willow pickup! It’s a dangerous place).

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I still have remnants of pistachio and strawberry cheesecake ice creams in the freezer, but the black forest ice cream disappeared. Just vanished. Apparently chocolate-cherry is a favored combination among my guests. I did manage to get a little into my own milkshake, too, so I’m content. (My milkshake, for the record: black forest ice cream, chocolate ice cream, raspberries, whipped cream, maraschino cherries.)

Week 2 pickup: beets, Boston Bibb lettuce, green leaf lettuce, spinach (in bags), double spring onions (I swapped kohlrabi for more spring onions), blueberries, garlic scapes (yay!), yellow and pattypan squash, eggs, and bread (parmesan sourdough).

summer CSA, week 2

I made the mistake of giving the kid a blueberry and he promptly sat on the floor and demanded more, eating blueberry after blueberry with great enjoyment. I finally discreetly dumped the remaining blueberries into another container and showed him the empty carton. He was a little upset, but I managed to buy him off with a stick of cheese. Kid’s got good taste.

I made a zucchini pie (suggested in Breezy Willow’s weekly recipe mailer) with some spring onions and last week’s zucchini. It was kind of underwhelming. The base flavor was pretty good, but it was a little drier and tougher than I wanted, and also insufficiently cheesy. I’ll tweak the recipe and try it again; if it works out, I’ll let you know.

Oh, and I wasn’t going to get any more ice cream, but they were running a special on salted dark chocolate ice cream. Featuring local Salazon Chocolate, even.

So I, uh, went home with an extra half gallon of ice cream.

salted dark chocolate ice cream

Salted dark chocolate. I have no willpower.