Foraging

So . . . what do all of these dishes have in common?

crab apple blossom drops with Meyer lemon sour mix
warmed olives with fava beans and rosemary
nasturtium pesto
watercress, nasturtium, and miners’ lettuce salad with pine nuts and fresh flowers
and braised dandelion and nettle with wild mushrooms

Yep - they are all made from ingredients foraged [...]

Guess the Connection

Here, dear reader, a little game while the next post brews — can you guess what all of these dishes have in common?

crab apple blossom drops with meyer’s lemon sour mix
warmed olives with fava beans and rosemary
nasturtium pesto
watercress, nasturtium, and miners’ lettuce salad with pine nuts and fresh flowers
and braised dandelion and nettle with wild [...]

Two Thanksgiving Menus

It’s dark, now, as I leave the office in the evenings, and I’m finding it harder to motivate for anything but curling up in a big chair with a book and a cup of tea. But the “to do” list seems to double in length daily, and somehow it seems like time is being trimmed [...]

Local Quinces In Season

 
I would like to remind everyone that Fall is officially here in California and the quince fruit is now in season and available at your local farmer’s markets. Early in July I wrote about my first attempt at making jam. It was quince jam, and it turned out to be delicious! You [...]

Traditional Pesto Sauce, and a little Food for Thought

Many people may not realize it, but the word pesto literally means: to pound or to crush, in Italian. It seems obvious when you think of similar sounding words like mortar and PESTLE, but for some reason, until recently, I never made the connection.
Homemade pesto sauce was almost a weekly tradition for me and [...]