Burning Man

After Burn

From Black Rock City, Nevada to ChezHelvetica at Land’s End, a Burner returned to Welcome Back feasts and Tide. (Lots of Tide/three loads). The day’s first repast, a collaboration, featured an Organic Arugula Salad with homemade Apricot Salad Dressing, Marin Gourmet‘s delicious Aubergine Dip with Lemon Crackers and Black Bean-Vidalia Onion-Cheddar Cheese Wraps punctuated with stories of incredible art, desert challenges and dust. Dinner included Oven-Roasted BBQ Chicken Breasts smothered with Cremini Mushrooms, Onion, Garlic and TJ’s Organic Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce, accompanied by Veggie Sauté. Farmers Market Zucchini, Early Girl Tomatoes, Garlic and Onion sizzled in Stonehouse Extra Virgin Olive Oil, then accented with fresh Basil. Husked Sweet Corn wrapped in damp paper towels, microwaved for just five minutes, then dipped in butter and salt. Mouthwatering delight! This year on Saturday the Burning Man, surrounded by a kaleidoscope of colorful mutant vehicles and fireworks, incinerated in a huge flash and fell over almost as quickly as the corn cooked – about seven minutes. Yet there are more beautiful Temples to burn, with Sorrow and with Joy! 🧨🔥

And Now a Volcano!

With earthquakes and tsunamis on my mind, the flowing Garlic Volcano Bread at Boudin Bakery certainly caught my attention. Happily, this delicious bread proved the perfect accompaniment to Spaghetti And Meatballs Allamatriciana. This recipe from Bon Appétit Everyday Meals provided a new twist on the traditional dish with the use of mouthwatering applewood smoked bacon as the charcuterie of choice in combination with ground beef, panko breadcrumbs aromatics and the spices. Let the truth be known that instead of using the tomato sauce ingredients from the recipe, I used Prego tomato sauce left over from Burning Man. The organic Trader Joe’s whole wheat spaghetti couldn’t have been happier. The Wall Street Journal’s “Off Duty” section inspired our salad. The ChezHelvetica version used horizontally sliced Tory Farms navel oranges, arugula, goat cheese and toasted walnuts with a balsamic vinaigrette enhanced by Italian parsley and fresh oregano from our garden. And ZAP, a tantalizing bottle of Zynthesis Zinfandel quaffed our thirst!

Mind Shaft Society Expedition Gathering

My husband Freddy and his Burning Man theme camp, the “Mind Shaft Society” went on an expedition to the deYoung Museum to begin their brainstorming for 2008. It was a cold, wet day so when they returned to our house from their expedition, I was prepared with sun-dried tomato soup, a recipe from Food & Wine. Everyone really enjoyed that! To accompany the soup, I also served a variety of cheeses and crackers and carrots and olives. Also, thanks to Freddy’s sister Barbara we had an array of great nuts from Christmas plus some chocolates, grapes and cherries. Refueled, the Mind Shaft Society actually starting talking about fuel for their camp in ’08. Stay tuned!