Bastille Day

Bastille Day seemed like a fun occasion to celebrate with French-related cuisine, wine and national colors. Our Bakers of Paris baguette was topped with a walnut-parsley pesto, a great side for the farfalle pasta with summer squash and mushrooms. No specific recipe was used in the creation of this dish, but knowing my ingredients were the finest from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, as well as Barilla Multi-Grain pasta, I forged ahead. While the wine wasn’t French, the name is: Folie a’ Deux. This wonderful Zinfandel is from a Napa Valley vintner with grapes from Amador County. Dreyer’s French Vanilla ice cream, accompanied by sweet red cherries, concluded our tribute to France and the storming of the Bastille!

Summer Fun

Stone fruit, berries, grilling and company all add up to summer fun. My sister and niece were leaving and my mom arrived later that day. With bounty from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco and the Fruit Basket in Sonoma, we feasted on grilled chicken sandwiches with red onions and a whole grain mustard and creme fraiche dressing, tomatoes in garlic oil and grilled fingerling potatoes in vinegar and salt, all recipes from Martha Stewart Living’s June issue. A word of caution about those potatoes, the vinegar was somewhat overwhelming. Now for the dessert – a delectable Almond cake with berries from Jacque Pepin’s “fast food my way.” Along with almond paste, the ingredients called for a syrup made of either whiskey, rum or cognac. Given that my 15 year old niece was going to be eating this, I had to make a substitution. Happily, my concoction of pomegranate syrup and vanilla was a success! During the dinner with my mother we enjoyed a luscious chardonnay from Pine Ridge Winery as we watched “In Wine Country” and “60 Minutes” featuring a segment on Alice Waters. We felt like we were in the wine country and that Alice Waters would have enjoyed our meal!

Dinner before Phoenix

With my husband’s impending departure for a business trip to Phoenix, this was the perfect opportunity to have a special farewell dinner. Artichoke risotto and grilled halibut were the featured dishes this evening. The purchase of a huge jar of artichoke hearts from Costco propelled my search for a recipe which I found online through a surprising source – the Junior League of Tulsa, Oklahoma! Wild halibut (which I actually ended up broiling) was dressed in lemon juice, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, capers and basil, a great recipe presented on Epicurious.com. A delightful Edna Valley Chardonnay accompanied this meal. Thanks to the current issue of Martha Stewart Living, we enjoyed a blueberry crisp for dessert. Delicious!  P.S. I heeded the advice in the recipe about making extra topping and freezing it so that it would be ready for quick assembly when we next have fresh fruit on hand.

Grilled Steak Salad with Roses and Calla Lilies!

 

Surrounded by beautiful roses from my husband’s co-worker Carole and calla lilies from my BFF Joan, we enjoyed a Gourmet Every Day Quick Kitchen recipe of grilled london broil salad with worcestershire vinaigrette, roasted yams and bites of black bean and cheese tamales. Grass-fed london broil from Marin Sun Farms was purchased at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, as well as the organic yams and Primavera Tamales. This dinner morphed the london broil we first ate a couple of days before (perhaps the best I have ever had)  into a delicious salad with arugula from Trader Joe’s and grilled red and white onions. The vinaigrette used thyme just picked from our garden. We couldn’t quite finish the tamales at another dinner so this was a great opportunity to eat these delicious bites. Medjool dates (filled with potassium) capped off our colorful, healthy meal.

Dinner for Andrew

Our honored guest this evening was our dear friend and neighbor Andrew, who happens to be the owner of Blue Turtle Spa. He is an unparalleled aesthetician! According to his wife Nanci (who was back home in South Africa), rotisserie chicken is one of Andrew’s favorites so that was our featured entree. Purchased at Costco, after my wait for the freshest chickens to come out of the oven, it was simply delicious! As an accompaniment, we had a mesclun salad with dates and goat cheese and a great dressing made with balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and Sciabica extra virgin olive oil. Organic Ancient Harvest quinoa completed this course. (This is the best tasting quinoa I have ever had.) A smooth, buttery Acacia chardonnay paired perfectly with this meal. Thanks to a profusion of Meyer lemons from another neighbor’s garden, these were transformed into lemon squares, a recipe from Neiman Marcus, for our delectable dessert.

Abby turns 55!

 

My sister Abby reached the  auspicious “double-nickel” age of 55 this year. Family and friends celebrated the occasion with a three-cheese and eggplant lasagne, panzanella and artichoke hearts – a menu designed to satisfy vegetarians and kids. The lasagne recipe from Better Homes & Gardens emerged from an old file I had been saving  of interesting-looking recipes and the panzanella (now a house favorite) is one of Giada’s from her Everyday Italian cookbook. The lemon custard birthday cake, decorated with Abby’s favorite butterfly designs, was purchased from Sweet Things Bakery. Blueberries accompanied the cake as a great complement to the color as well as an effort to serve something healthy along with the decadent confection.
Everyone took home the two nickels on their plates as party favors!

Christmas on the 5th Day of Chanukah

 

The inspiration for our main dish on this covalence of holidays was Mark Bittman’s potato latkes (pancakes), presented on NBC’s Today Show December 22. You can see the painstaking process of their creation by clicking on the YouTube video below! My husband was the catalyst and co-chef in the peeling and cooking, as well as the producer of the iMovie. The latkes were served with the traditional applesauce and sour cream, purchased at Safeway. Wild Cohoe Smoked Salmon from Trader Joe’s  and deep purple radicchio from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market topped with lovely green artichoke hearts from Costco completed the meal. Rose’ wine from Lioco paired perfectly with this food. Our table setting was graced by a beautiful poinsettia (a gift from our friend Janey), a Christmas card from PeeWee Herman and the same menorah I have been using since childhood. Happy Holidays indeed!

[https://youtu.be/oYRQsdkC9Q0]

Cold Weather Comfort Food

Panzanella, an age-old Italian recipe for using stale bread, is still very much in the 21st century as it appears in my new “Everyday Italian” cookbook by Giada de Laurentiis. This delicious recipe was the perfect solution for some of the Mediterranean pita bread left over from the recent Rex Foundation 25th Anniversary Benefit (what a wonderful evening of great music!). Organic tomatoes ( purchased from both the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and Safeway) olives, capers, garlic, basil, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil are also key ingredients in this recipe. In addition, I used some sun-dried tomatoes (since I didn’t have the peppers called for) which gave the dish some extra flavor. Fragrant cream of cauliflower soup with saffron paired wonderfully with this salad. Baby cauliflower from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market was transformed by this recipe from Epicurious. I use an immersion blender when I make soup. I love this but learned to put the pot with the soup and blender into the sink so it doesn’t splatter all over the kitchen! Our wine this evening was a gift from a visiting daughter of a college roommate –  a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from the R Collection. We were truly warmed and comforted by this meal!

Birthday Celebrations

On my birthday, November 5, the San Francisco Chronicle had a full page photo of our new President with the headline: “OBAMA, Change Has Come to America”. I could not have received a happier birthday present than this! My lucky day continued as my BFF Joan took me to Cavallo Point for lunch where we enjoyed a decadent tasting menu with a bottle of Rose’ from a Napa Valley vintner.  Dinner, artistically prepared by my husband Freddy, was the grand finale of the day. Food Network star Giada de Laurentiis provided the inspiration for my birthday gift, her new cookbook “Everyday Italian”, and our menu. I was sous chef and table setter as Freddy prepared a delicious grilled eggplant salad with pine nuts and goat cheese and sweet potato fries with basil salt and a garlic mayonnaise dip. This was served with with chicken-apple Aidell’s sausage. Our accompanying wine was a Pinot Grigio from Italy, a delightful surprise. Creamy vanilla gelato, topped with chocolate chips and hazelnuts, was the crowning dessert – birthday candle and all! Wishes of hope for everyone!!!

Jump Start on Crab Season

The intent of my 8AM dash to Safeway for some household staples yielded a lovely surprise for dinner – Dungeness Crab, from Canada! As I cruised by the fish counter, these beautiful red crabs stopped me in my tracks. Fishmonger Jim asked me if I wanted to taste some. I did – delicious! This led to the purchase of one of our favorite Chardonnays, Rodney Strong Chalk Hill. With one artichoke left from our recent visit to Pezzini’s in Castroville (wonderful market) and the best radishes I have ever tasted plucked that morning from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, we were set for our Saturday Night Live dinner. Happily, I had some brown rice left over from a recent visit to a Chinese restaurant which worked as the perfect accompaniment to this meal. Luscious red grapes from Tory Farms (also purchased at the Farmer’s Market that morning) were served with Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers topped with Aged Gouda and toasted walnuts drizzled with honey for a simple, sweet dessert.