This Weekend!

Nick and I have been busy driving around the desert and eating crackers and cheese.  Of course we broke our camera but there will be food pictures soon!  In the mean time join us for yet another Shop Party!  We will have baked mac n' cheese and roast carrot and citrus salad to fill your happy bellies!

Something Is Fishy

It seems to me almost every dinner in the winter is kale and potatoes.  I never get tired of it.  It comforts me in a profound way and I feel okay about it because of the piles of kale I'm consuming.  It makes posting meals boring though.  Oh well!

Dinner tonight: braised kale and mashed potatoes!
I treated us with glazed salmon and crispy caramelized onions to go with our kale and potatoes.  I love salmon with only salt and pepper, but I was craving intense flavor and this glaze is amazing.
 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger (we were out of ginger because Nick had just made an incredible ginger beet syrup so I just used a tablespoon of that)

Melt the syrup, honey and butter in a small saute pan over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and ginger. Let cool.

Heat the oven to 400 F

Drizzle and brush your salmon with the glaze (you could probably even marinate  the fish if you wanted to).  Roast until the salmon is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, 8 to 10 minutes.

 

Enjoy!

Teleme

I love Teleme cheese.  I love it.  Soft, creamy, slightly tangy.  It's unpretentious and approachable it's really a cheese for everyone (only if the price tag reflected as much).  I treat myself with it.

I couldn't decide what to do for dinner, and the sky was gray, and I was under the weather and I wanted a treat.  Grilled cheese!  Grilled cheese!  I couldn't resist.

Gussied up Grilled Cheese

Preheat oven to 400
Start with your favorite crusty bread, I used a ciabatta style.  Make a spread of chopped garlic, a few table spoons of olive oil, a spoon of honey, a spoon of good mustard.  Dress the bread.

I dry sauteed onions and added some spinach at the last minuet, just to wilt.  Pile on to the bread.

Quickly saute asparagus (first of the season!) until they are tender and bright green, but still crunchy.
Slice Teleme cheese and add it to your bread, asparagus goes on top of that, then into the over for 20 minuets or until cheese is gooey and bread is toasted.

Yum!
If you have a salad too you wont feel so guilty.

Vegan Treats

After I started eating meat two and a half years ago, I felt a sense of food liberation- I could eat anything! It made me a snob and I turned my nose up at vegetarians and especially vegans. Those poor limited saps, I thought while nibbling on sausages.
The truth is there is a lot of food I choose not to eat, for health reasons as well as ethical reasons. We try to avoid meat from CAFOs (we always buy local and responsibly raised while at the market, and try to avoid meat in restaurants unless we know where it comes from). We try to buy local and organic produce. We never eat fast food, though we frequent our neighborhood taqueria. We eat very few processed foods, many of which we process ourselves... and so on.
These days I have nothing against my vegetarian and vegan brothers and sisters, in fact we try to cater to them at food events. Cooking that way is pretty easy, and (aside from loving to add butter and cheese to everything) we cook that way most of the time.

Baking is another can of worms altogether.

Homemade applesauce!

Vegan baking is so scary! No eggs? No butter? It's not natural! In fact my biggest complaint/ concern when it comes to vegan baking is the use of highly processed substitutes. I wanted to bring some muffins to my sweet vegan friend Ash, so I did some searching, I found a recipe that looked pretty good, and I adapted it to fit my needs (no way was I going to buy margarine).

As it turned out these were some of the best muffins I've ever made! So moist and delicious.

Vegan Blueberry Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour, (1 C whole wheat)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup soy buttermilk, (soy milk combined with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups blueberries (fresh if they are in season, I used frozen not thawed)

Crumble Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used hazel nuts)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Heat oven to 350.
Mix crumble topping ingredients and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix applesauce, soy buttermilk, sugar, melted coconut oil and vanilla.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the berries. Don't over mix.
Pour the batter into muffin tin, sprinkle with the crumble topping and bake for about 17-20 minutes. Let cool before serving. Yum!

Commitment

It's been two months sense we've posted anything here.  I'm so embarrassed.  I have so many excuses... Shop Party kept us busy, and it was a great success!

Shop Party.  Photo by Zohn Mandel

Photo by Zohn Mandel

Holiday festivities made us dizzy, what with all the fancy cocktail parties, Cioppino feeds, our open house, NYE candlelit dinner, and our annual New Years Day brunch.  Unfortunately this out of focus picture is the only thing to show of it.

This year I went against tradition and made some new year resolutions, one of which is to take more pictures.

Then we made hundreds of cookies a dozen cakes for a dreamy Descry event in San Francisco. 

We Dream in the Daytime Too event at Photobooth.  Photo By Photobooth

Devoured dreamy cakes and cookies.  Photo by Photobooth

All of a sudden I came to- and it was February!

Nick and I celebrated Valentines day early and went to Sea View for the weekend.  I prepared a dream lovers menu for us.

Day 1

Mimosa

New Mexican Pinon coffee

Real Belgian Waffles with maple syrup, strawberries, and pancetta

Oeufs en Cocotte

Cheese plate

Roasted fennel & pancetta salad

(this is where the camera battery died)

Roasted balsamic cinnamon pears with vanilla ice cream

Day 2

Broiled grapefruit

Coffee
Toast

Valentines Day has me thinking about commitment... I'm prepared to re-commit myself to this blog.  I'm prepared to share what I'm eating and cooking with greater success.  I hope we haven't lost you for good.  

LOVE

b&r

Gearing Up

So much to do, so little time!
It's time for Shop Party again, and we will be there with tamales, preserves, zines, and art!

 

Come out and support your local artisans!  

Crumbs From Our Weekend

 

Green and red tomato chutney

Pickled green tomatoes for an amazing Bloody Mary

Back to the grind!

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. I love getting together with so much of my family, I love the warmth, I love the food. The whole family loves the food, and we don't skimp or pace ourselves. It is not uncommon to be stuffed with all the delicious hors d'oeurves before dinner is even ready. I am bringing an easy cheese plate with crackers, caramelized onions, crusted squash, nasturtium greens, and homemade jam. There will be multiple other starting dishes, wine, and cocktails- last year my cousin, the hostess, made incredible cranberry martinis.

When diner is ready in the late afternoon I take a deep breath and dig in. Oof! After dinner I give thanks for the tradition of serving Akvavit, a digestive, because dessert is not far behind.

I was inspired to bring a dessert this year too, but I wanted to bring something to brighten us up after all the rich food. I decided to make cranberry sorbet.

This sorbet is tart and bright and the color makes me so happy. I can't wait to share with my family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Taco Tuesday

We love tacos. I was excited to receive some fresh fish from my dad and prepare a taco spread for Nick's homecoming.

Nick likes his fish breaded and fried for a fish taco, I prefer grilled fish. I compromised by lightly seasoning and flouring this fish and flash frying it.

Now a good fish taco needs not much more than fresh fish, maybe some cabbage and lime, but I made a whole mess of food for snacking and lunch the following day. Black beans, Spanish rice, fresh salsas!

It has been so damn cold in the mornings and evenings it wouldn't be a leap to suggest I was trying to remind us of warmer days, or perhaps a trip to Mexico!

Transition

The time between summer and autumn is magical. The first rains come as if to clean the slate, and the rain is warm. There are still tomatoes in the garden and summer squash to be consumed. The leaves are just beginning to turn and drop.

I love to get tomatoes from the garden, cut in half drizzle with a little olive oil, and roast for a quick and delicious roasted tomato soup.

It is so easy and satisfying. I will roast some garlic (do not peel) and herbs on top of the tomatoes, cut side up, at 400f for 45 minutes until soft and browning.

Then I run everything through the food mill, and voila! soup! I would eat it just like that, so full of tomato flavor! It is nice cut with chicken or veg stock too.

We are busy cleaning gutters, preparing the garden, putting up the season (jam!)... warm soup makes it all worth it.

Ritual

Simple mornings are very important to me.
I have a ritual.
During the week, I pour the hot water over the Ecco coffee in the french press.  Nick will press the coffee and have a cup before rushing off to work.  I will pour a cup for myself while I make breakfast.  My favorite breakfast is a poached egg salad.

Recently however, Nick has taken a job in San Francisco and a few day a week I am on my own.  I make my own coffee, and with the mornings as dark and cold as they have been I'm hooked on oatmeal.

I like mine with dried blueberries and raisins, milk, and (a tiny bit) of maple syrup.

Squash n' Cheese

My comfort food is typical American comfort foods; potatoes, cheese, bread, sausage...  where I may differ is my deep love for braised greens, such as kale or chard.  Macaroni and cheese is just about as "comfort food" as a food can get.

I made a simple bechamel sauce; 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon brown rice flour, 1 cup milk, a grate or two of nutmeg, and salt to taste.
For the macaroni I used squash sliced thin.
I mixed the squash and bechamel together, then poured it into a buttered baking dish.

Grated sharp cheddar on top and into the oven for 30 minutes at 350.
Let it rest for five or ten minutes before you dig in.  Pile some braised kale next to your squash n' cheese.  Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

Facebook

We are gearing up to get back in the kitchen.  We are cooking up schemes and incredible food!
Like us on facebook in the mean time.

SOON!

b&r

Summer Lovin'

Summer is winding down.  The heat in no indication, but the plants can tell.  The trees are turning.  The summer fruit is attracting flies, because no matter how we try we can't seem to eat it all.  The Naked Ladies are even starting to drop their petals. 

 

I'm a summer babe through and through, yet I am ready for the change.  I'm looking forward to (indoor) fires, and root vegetables.  I'm not rushing though.  I'm going to enjoy summer until the very last drop.  We are canning and making ice cream and making giant figs our main course for dinner.

  

Slice a ripe fig in half, stuff with soft cheese, such as fresh goat cheese, wrap with bacon, fry... EAT!  This is improved upon fig is a favorite summer snack, but we made some polenta and a salad and it became dinner. Voila!

Odd Bird

Our dear friends Odd Bird are (finally!!) having their album release party! We are so excited they invited us to be a part of the celebration.

We will have waffles and ice cream AND vegan waffle and sorbet available!

This event is not to be missed. You can buy advance tickets at The Last Record Store, or just show up Saturday. The North Bay Bohemian put it this way:

Odd Bird: Indigo children birth crystalline thought-poems and utopian hymns to godself.
Most high rock and rollers John Courage & the Great Plains, brilliant recluse Painted Animals and organ-jamming expatriates You Are Plural open minds; Born & Raised opens mouths.
Sep 3 at 7. $8-$10. 99 Sixth St, Santa Rosa. 707.528.3009.

See you Saturday!

Futures

We have four plum trees on our property and another neighboring tree which drops on our yard.  They are all small wild plums, or cherry plums.  Pink flesh, yellow flesh, juicy, ripe, ripe, going, going, gone... one (silly) summer anxiety is letting these little guys go to waste.  We can't possibly eat them all straight from the tree!  They have little to no shelf life.  I'm more than happy to share with friends, neighbors, birds, and bees.  Still they fall to the ground.  I know I should be canning them- wild plum jam is one of my favorites!  But time hasn't been on my side.   So in an act of love, and desperation, I turned to booze.

I sterilized a variety of canning jars and lids.  I picked a basket of little plums from two different trees, washed in cool water, then pricked their skins with a fork before dropping them in the jars.  When I couldn't fit another plum I added sugar to the jars (I filled the jars about 1/4 to 1/3 the way up), then BRANDY to the top!  Lid, shake, store in a cool dark place, and patiently wait at least two months.  Yum, I will be eating brandied plums while I carve my pumpkins and cozy up by the fire. 

That is all the preserving I can muster for now, but I do have my calender circled for Monday, I've given myself the whole day.  I certainly won't be lacking plums.

Inspiration

We have very talented friends.  Vanessa Davis is a wonderful comic, a sweet and beautiful woman, great dancer, and a foodie!   She made this great recipe comic for Saveur.  Enjoy!