Nibbles from the Test Kitchen

In a training meeting I had today for one of my upcoming jobs this summer, I met someone who had been for several decades a recipe developer at a major food magazine. Won't mention her name here since I'll have to work with her later this summer and I want to become BFFs with her before namechecking her on my blog, but she was fabulous. Had a sort of pale, thin-skinned, New England WASPish Joan Didion look about her, and told me about testing the same coconut lemon cream cake three times because she is so painstakingly devoted to her craft. Love her--and can't wait to taste the things she tests this summer when we work together. (Meanwhile, let me take this moment to plug my friend Ian Knauer's new cookbook, The Farm, which is absolutely gorgeous and inspiring. Ian, you sexy mo-fo, thanks for all those wonderful nibbles from the test kitchen when I was working a floor above you, pregnant, and constantly hungry.