Too Many Cooks: a Baby and a Cucumber

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

It was a week of surprises -- from babies to errant cucumbers -- and gorgeous food here at FOOD52. You know, just like normal.

"This weekend we visited a friend in Sagaponack. She's a talented cook and has a wonderful and real kitchen that she uses every single day. I've always loved its details, like this knife rack. Do you have knife envy? I do! And her open shelving, which is both orderly and handsomely disorderly."
- Amanda

"Kirby on Willow Street -- leaving Amanda's this week after our Tuesday photo shoot, there was a lone cucumber right there on the sidewalk!"
- Jennifer

"My pickle prep station (and feeling very clean and organized and chef-y) and said pickles, pre-pickling. (Trying saying that 3 times fast.)"
- Brette

"My mom (AKA cookingProf) mailed me two tiny jars of her rose petal jam, made with roses from our front yard! The labels are adorable: she wrote "moraba-ye gol sorkh" on them ("rose petal jam" in Farsi) and taped a tiny dried rose to each jar."
- Nozlee

"This week two of my great passions merge -- my almost 4-month-old son Charlie decided he should start feeding himself! (His mom had to miss the moment -- had she been there, he wouldn't be drinking breast milk from a bottle. Obviously.) As you can see from the last photo, Charlie doesn't understand what all the fuss is about."
- Peter

"Asparagus and garlic scape soup."
- Kristy

"Before and after foraging booty: these Wild Red Bud Tree Flowers became a wild violet-radish spring salad, thanks to a first-time foraging tour through Prospect Park with locavore expert Leda Meredith. Who knew eating for free was so easy?!"
- Christina

"I bought buttercups and lilies of the valley at the Union Square Greenmarket. Lilies of the valley have the loveliest perfume!"
- Laura