I am guilty of contributing to the delinquency of fruit.
Yes, the other night, I got fresh figs tipsy, even bordering on wasted.
But boy, did they taste good that way.
These black Mission beauties got a luxurious overnight spa soak in a tub of Port.
It was all in the name of making “Chicken Fricassee with Figs and Port Sauce,” which was published in Bon Appetit magazine, way back in 2007. The recipe is from the now-shuttered Cremant restaurant in Seattle.
Friends come in all shapes and sizes.
Sometimes, they even come bearing sleek rectangular tart pans with a grin.
That would be Lisa H.
It’s often said that making friends is harder to do later in life. We have no time, we have less patience, we have too many other friends already, and we get too set in our ways to accommodate newcomers of any sort.
I never expected blogging to throw open wide the doorway to new friendships in this phase of my life. But it certainly has. As a consequence of posting about food and family for these past three years, I’ve made quite a few new friends who have grown fond and dear. Ones who have opened their home to me for dinner. Ones who have hiked with me on lazy afternoons. Ones who have lent untold moral support in my new endeavors. And ones who have opened their vast pantry to me, knowing my predilection for baking.
The latter would be Lisa H.
A regular reader of my blog, Lisa H. would often send fun comments about my posts. She’d also thoughtfully send story tips and job listings my way.
Yet, we had never met. Not until late last year.
She was moving out of the Bay Area. As a result, she was cleaning out her house, and specifically, her kitchen that held a trove of specialty baking pans from classes she had taken long ago. Would I want any of them, she asked in an email, since she planned to donate them before relocating.
Guests who depart the Carneros Inn in Napa on Sundays can now receive a free brimming bag of fresh-picked fruit and veggies from the resort’s 1/2-acre biodynamic, organic garden to take home.
Those goodies might include heirloom tomatoes, kale, Swiss chard, watermelon, cucumber, carrots, peas, strawberries and raspberries, as well as a bevy of herbs and flowers. The good-for-you goody bag is available for the asking at check-out and even comes with a recipe, too.
Peter Stonebraker, the property’s culinary gardener, grows an abundance of produce for the resort’s private dining restaurant, Hilltop Dining Room, as well as for its FARM restaurant and Boon Fly Cafe. And he’s more than happy to share the wealth.
Life is short, so why not go for the sweet stuff first?
Project Open Hand invites you to do just that at its 11th annual Dessert First extravaganza at the InterContinental San Francisco, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 14.
This year, 16 pastry chefs will dazzle with their decadent creations. Among those participating are: Patti Dellamonica-Bauler of One Market Restaurant, Sara Spearin of Dynamo Donut, Francis Ang of the Fifth Floor, Elizabeth Faulkner of Citizen Cake and Orson, and Jake Godby of Humphry Slocombe.
If you’ve ever eaten a tomato, “Tomatoland” (Andrews McMeel), is an absolute must-read.
What Eric Schlosser’s book, “Fast Food Nation” (Harper Perennial), did to unveil the dark side of the cheap, drive-through burgers Americans can’t get enough of, James Beard Award-winning writer Barry Estabrook does the same to modern industrial agribusiness that has reaped the profits from creating tomatoes that are tasteless, less nutritious, 14 times higher in sodium, and inexplicably available year-round in supermarkets nationwide.
You’ll learn that Florida may grow one-third of all tomatoes in the United States, yet its climate is highly unsuitable for that crop. Its sandy soil possesses little nutrients, requiring the need for chemical fertilizers. Its humid, torrid temperatures foster fungal diseases and insects, necessitating hundreds of herbicides and pesticides. And the largely Hispanic migrants who pick the tomatoes work in dangerous conditions, and in some cases, treated little better than modern-day slaves.
Estabrook first popped the lid on the horrendous conditions some tomato pickers face in an investigative piece he wrote two years ago when he was a former contributing editor to Gourmet magazine.
It’s not every day that you find giant canisters of liquid nitrogen and elaborate sous vide cooking equipment on a bucolic fruit farm.
But when “Top Chef All-Stars” Champ Richard Blais visits to cook an elaborate fund-raising dinner for 175 folks, that’s just what you need to make it all happen.
The occasion was Saturday’s “Peaches & Tango: A Dinner in the Orchard” at Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood, an evening of gourmet eats, live music and tango dancing performances by Trio Garufa. Proceeds benefited the Chez Panisse Foundation.
Yours truly served as emcee for the fun event, which marked my first time visiting this incredible farm.
