I’m having one of those when-it-rains-it-pours moments in terms of my social calendar this week – 3 nights, 3 parties, which means 3 nights out of my kitchen and I’m running on a bit less sleep than I’d like at 2 days and 2 parties in. On Wednesday night my friend Corinna (who is also one of my teachers at Scuola Italiana, one of my favorite places to be in NYC these days) hosted a fundraiser event to raise money for the charity she and her husband are planning to run for in the New York City Marathon. Corinna is Roman and invited us for a Serata Italiana with food and wine. Let me just tell you that the menu she and her friend Maria cooked made one of my dinner party menus look like an overture. The food was incredible. (thanks Corinna and Martin!)

Last night I took Mrs. Daughterfish as my wingwoman to the launch of the Crave NYC book, which I’m excited to be featured in. Crave promotes female “entreprenesses” and is a great network of cool and inspiring women. Hosted in the knock-your-socks-off Upper East Side home of Philanthropy is Beautiful designer Joan Hornig, the evening was more about the great views (from a stunning veranda) and great company than food, although the passed hors d’oeuvres where quite tasty!

Tonight I’ll be going as my mom’s date to a wedding of an old family friend. I was just invited last week when it turned out my dad will be otherwise engaged celebrating his retirement (congrats Dad!), and I’m really looking forward to partying with the 3 King sisters and their mom Janie, who I love.

So… all this activity has kept me out of my kitchen, but I’ve been busy surfing the interwebs and Twitter for inspiration. Tomorrow is greenmarket day, so if you’ll be heading out to stock up on some beautiful local produce, here are a few highlights I’m hoping to try myself:

• Green Pea Soup from 101 Cookbooks: Love the idea of the curry-like ginger-garlic paste. Although I’ll of course make this with fresh peas and I think I’ll serve it chilled with a dollop of yogurt
• Creamy Mussel Stew With Peas, Fennel and Lemon: Brad spotted this one in the NY Times and I absolutely cannot wait to try it! Crossing my fingers that our fish vendor will have plenty of mussels at tomorrow’s market.
• Rhubarb Fennel Fizz: Swoon! And not to mention the photo… The Year in Food might be my new favorite food blog. But if a liquid diet isn’t your style, you could try my Rhubarb, Goat Cheese and Arugula Tart

Happy Eating!

Rhubarb, Goat Cheese and Arugula Tart

I spotted this recipe for Savory Rhubarb and Chipotle Goat Cheese Pizza early in the week and made a simple rhubarb compote (rhubarb, ginger, sugar, water), which I stuck in the fridge figuring we’d eat it over ice cream if I never got around to the pizza. The next night, around 9pm, I pulled out the compote and improvised. Pizza dough became puff pastry, I used plain goat cheese and a generous grinding of black pepper, topped the whole thing right out of the oven with a pile of baby arugula I had on hand, and hit it with a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.

Try the pizza or try the tart, and let me know if you love it too.

*If you want a more specific recipe for the compote and tart, hit me up in the comments.