Too Many Cooks: Behind the Scenes

You'll be hearing from the staff at FOOD52 every week in Too Many Cooks, our group column in which we pool our weekly experiences with food, cooking, life, and more.

From strawberries to cherry trees, you can tell it's springtime here at FOOD52. Here's what we've been up to -- don't miss the tiny baby chicks in Peter's photos, or the big baby in Merrill's!

"Julia Child makes the inspiration wall at General Assembly."
- Amanda

"Here's Clara on our way to my first Mother's Day brunch!"
- Merrill

"In digging in (pun intended) on getting my roof garden ready for the summer, I was happy to see that my cherry tree is yielding fruit for the first time (a Cherry Tree Grows in Brooklyn I suppose) and much to my surprise -- and much to the consternation of the mama bird -- some adorable (hungry!) chicks are being raised among the rose and clematis vines on my chimney trellis."
- Peter

"Still-so-hot-they're-falling-apart cookies for breakfast, and milk."
- Brette

"Kristen's genius roast chicken is nice, but for me nothing beats the Zuni Cafe method. As part of a big Mother's Day dinner for my boyfriend's parents, I stuffed the breasts and cavity of this 3.5-pounder with lavender (!) and butter, lay it on a bed of tiny potatoes, and roasted it at 450 degress for under an hour. The cake is a whole wheat and cornmeal variation on Edna Lewis's Everyday Cake, with a roasted (!) rose water (!) variation of Merrill's Rhubarb Strawberry Compote. Lots of exclamation points around here lately."
- Nozlee

"Taking two pieces of advice from Kristy: Avocado on toast is one of the best things of all time, and don't be swayed by better-than-usual-looking tomatoes. It's still much too early. And this amazing homemade hard cider was made by a friend, labels and all."
- Kenzi

"City strawberry, which gave its life to a delicious muddled strawberry-mint spritzer (thank you Sodastream)."
- Christina

"This week, I spent a morning visiting the Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn. The fifth graders made a colorful spring salad full of the vegetables and herbs they have been grown in the school's garden. And, here, the third graders learned about companion planting by planting tomato plants next to marigolds."
- Laura