Feeding Frankie

Scroll down for recipes for Eggplant Agrodolce, Thai Melon Salad and Blueberry Cornmeal Cake. Originally published in the Times Union on August 15, 2024. See that version here.

It’s been awhile since I wrote anything about our dear granddaughter Frankie, who turns eight whole months old next week. We spend a lot of time with her, and of course that includes a lot of time eating. Babies eat. A lot. My last update here was in May, when she was still a sleepy baby, just starting to look around and take in her world. Now, she’s a different animal, one who has found a voice, eats with vigor and whose personality is bright and kind of fierce. I use the descriptor “animal” in the most literal sense because to spend time with Frankie while she eats is to watch, and I’m not exaggerating, animal behavior: shrieking, stuffing, grabbing, arms waving, food going in and out and then back in. Dinners that used to include conversation about work and friends and upcoming events are now wild affairs filled with flinging bits of chicken and vegetables, noodles and berries. Between mouthfuls, Frankie makes a sound that’s a little bit like yelling and a lot like howling. All we can do is watch, gasp, duck, laugh and keep her tray filled, otherwise her discontent is great and any peace we had and chance to eat our own dinner, gone. 
Zoe believes in letting Frankie feed herself – there is no spoon feeding. My daughter is a calm and capable mother and the way she feeds her daughter is to give her servings of whatever we’re eating and let her have at it. With gusto, Frankie piles in handfuls of food, and we’ve yet to see her dislike anything, though she puts beans in last and loves, with passion, anything pickled. (Once, I gave her a dill pickle spear, then turned my back for a second. When I looked back, the pickle was gone. For a moment, we eyed each other, suspicious. Then I realized she had folded and stuffed it — all of it — into her mouth. She roared when I made her give it up.)

Frankie love noodles

The process of feeding a baby is a lot of work and a lot of energy. Mostly, though, we are having a blast. I have always loved to feed babies, and appreciate it for the privilege it is: finding and making fresh food to put into little (even if they’re loud) mouths. I think Zoe is enjoying the process, too. There’s so much joy in it. Here’s a few seasonal recipes, things we’re eating and savoring and sharing with Frankie. 

I decided to brave the heat and give up on my nearly month-long oven strike, because cravings for sweets called. With the exception of the blueberry corn cake I made this week, it’s been strictly raw or grilled meals. It’s OK, though, because the best food of summer is either grilled or eaten raw, right? So I’ve included here a cake recipe, and two colorful, flavorful side dishes, excellent for hot summer nights and cool eating. 

Eggplant Agrodolce

Agrodolce is an Italian sauce, hailing from Sicily, that means sour (“agro”) and sweet (“dolce”). It’s made by simmering a handful of aromatics with sugar and vinegar. Traditionally, red wine vinegar is used in the sauce but you can use any vinegar you have on hand. The vinegar cooks down a bit, leaving a slightly sweet, syrupy sauce that’s also got pucker. I like the balance of the sauce alongside anything grilled, as a good char complements the complexities of the sauce. I added salty olives and toasted pine nuts, which is how this sauce might be served alongside fruits, cheeses, bread and a glass of Sangiovese in Sicily. Eggplant, salted, scored and grilled, soaks up the sauce and its sponginess is a perfect bed to lay the blanket of salty, crunchy, sweet, herby toppings on. This side dish would also be a good partner to grilled sausage, chicken, pork or a simple piece of fish. Frankie especially liked the puckery sauce. 

Thai Melon Salad

Summer is high melon season, and I’m always dragging back to my car at the farmers market, weighed down by overzealous melon purchases. There is nothing, not one thing, wrong with sweet, juicy, ripe melon on its own. It’s one of the great pleasures of summer, and this summer, melon is prolific and especially delicious. We feed it to Frankie, who gums it and the juices pour down her chin. We eat melon after melon for breakfast and snacks. Occasionally, I put melon in a salad or combine it with salty cheese. I give the rinds to our dogs. Everyone gets melon, and everyone is happy. But with an overload of sweet melons, I was forced to think of creative ways to use them up. Inspired by a salad made by chef Ric Orlando, I started dreaming about marrying melon with spice. His recipe combined sweet melons with Thai flavors and so I copied what he did by marrying up slices of the pretty orange fruit with fish sauce, bright red chile, peanuts and herbs. This is a beautiful salad that is only good in summer, when melon is local and at its best. There are other melons out there, and any of them – honeydew, watermelon or a combination of all – would work well. We pulled out the chiles and added this salad to Frankie’s bowl, and she gobbled it up. 

The cake recipe here is the kind of cake I like and make most often: simple, easy, not too sweet (which reads as acceptable to eat at any time of day). It’s not that I don’t like a big, fluffy cake with big, fluffy frosting (because I do), but I don’t like the effort it takes to make that kind of cake and the stomachache that goes along with eating it at eight in the morning. Blueberry cornmeal cake, you can make with little effort and eat at eight in the morning, no problem. This cake has fruit, a sugar-dusting and something unexpected: flour split 50-50 with cornmeal. The cornmeal lends not only an earthy flavor, but gives the cake crumb hearty texture. I think it makes it all a bit more interesting. With the blueberries that turn jammy and sweet in the baking and the sugary crunch of the topping, there’s enough sweetness that the cake is a good after-dinner dessert, a friend to a cup of strong coffee, or taken on the go as a snack. Frankie took fistfuls of this cake and ate it up, never once noticing the texture of the crumb or the balance of blueberry and cornmeal. Still, she enjoyed it immensely. 

Blueberry Cornmeal Cake

All the talk and effort feeding Frankie real, grown up people food has got me thinking about my role as a grandmother. Grandmothers are supposed to cook up good things for children to eat, right? It’s all about love, really, and it’s not just the grandmother in our house. We all love her so much, more than we ever knew we would-or could-love a little person. So we’ll keep feeding her eggplant and cake and melon, using food to let Frankie know just how much we love her. 

Grilled Eggplant Agrodolce
Serves 4

4 Japanese eggplants, sliced horizontally
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ small red onion, peeled and chopped fine
Pinch crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon (not packed) brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
½ cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted, torn
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
Kosher salt, to taste, and fresh ground pepper

Use a small sharp knife to score the eggplants on the cut side, making 4-6 cuts on each piece, about ¼-inch deep. Sprinkle salt over each and let rest for 15 minutes. 

Light a grill to grill to medium heat. Use a clean kitchen towel to blot the eggplants, absorbing all the moisture. Brush them generously with olive oil, coating all sides, using about 2 tablespoons. Reserve the remaining oil. 

Place the eggplants on the grill, cut-side down, and grill for 3 minutes. Rotate 90 degrees and grill for another 3 minutes (for good grill marks). Use tongs to flip the eggplants and grill the skin side for another minute or so. Use a fork to be sure the flesh is tender, then remove and set, skin-side down, on a serving plate. 

Place a skillet over medium low heat and add the remaining olive oil. Cook the onion, stirring, until soft. Add the sugar and crushed red pepper. When the sugar has melted, add the vinegar and cook for a minute or two, until the sauce has thickened. Add the water and stir well. 

Scrape the onion sauce onto the eggplants. Top with the pine nuts, olives and oregano and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. 

Thai-Style Melon Salad
Serves 4-6

1 large shallot, trimmed, peeled and sliced into thin strips
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
Juice of 2 limes
1 large orange-fleshed melon, peeled, deseeded, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 long red fresh chile pepper, sliced thinly (see note)
1 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts, chopped
1 cup fresh herbs (mint, cilantro, basil)

Place the shallot in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside for 10 minutes. In another non-reactive bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Mix well.

Spread the melon out on a serving plate. Drizzle the fish sauce dressing over all, then top with the chiles and peanuts. Drain the shallot and add to the plate. Top with the herbs and serve. 

Note: Remove the ribs and the seeds of the chile if you want less of a kick in your salad. Also, you can substitute a teaspoon of sambal oelek or sriracha for the chile. 

Blueberry Cornmeal Cake
Makes one 9-inch cake

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
⅔ cup buttermilk (see note)
2 cups blueberries, divided
Raw sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and set aside. 

Mix together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking soda and sugar. In a separate bowl, stir together the eggs, butter and buttermilk. Combine the two bowls and stir well (a few lumps are OK). Save ⅓ cup blueberries and fold the other 1 ⅔ cups into the batter. 

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and then top with the remaining berries, pressing them gently into the top of the batter. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over all and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven when the cake is just spongy on top, being careful to not overbake. 

Note: If you don’t have buttermilk (or don’t want to buy a container just for this recipe), you can substitute ⅔ cup milk stirred together with two teaspoons mild white vinegar.