Category Archives: Fruit

FigCello is Fig-A-Licious

A new brandy made from black Mission figs. It's heaven in a glass.

Fig fans are sure to go wild for FigCello di Sonoma.

I know I sure did.

FigCello is one smooth liqueur made from black Mission figs blended with a hint of citrus, various botanicals, and distilled Wine Country grapes.

It’s the newest product from Sonoma’s HelloCello, a small artisanal distilled spirits maker. You may know its debut product, Limoncello di Sonoma.

The fig brandy, with 30 percent alcohol by volume, came about when Sondra Bernstein, owner of the Girl & the Fig in Sonoma was on the hunt for a fig liqueur for her restaurant. She approached Fred and Amy Groth of HelloCello, who were eager to take on the challenge.

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Melissa Clark’s One Dish Wonder

With only five ingredients, this dish delivers big-time in flavor.

On time-pressed weeknights, I like nothing better than a one-pot dinner that cooks up in mere minutes and leaves you soulfully satisfied far, far longer.

Melissa Clark’s “Sauteed Scallops with Tomatoes and Preserved Lemon” is such a dish.

It’s from her new cookbook, “Cook This Now” (Hyperion), of which I recently received a review copy. Its 120 recipes are arranged by season and month to take advantage of your local farmers market offerings. I’ve already got half the pages bookmarked, as these are wonderfully straightforward recipes that not only entice with their flavors but with their ease of preparation.

This particular recipe by the famed New York Times food writer has only five ingredients (not including salt and pepper), but tastes like so much more.

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Tipsy Figs


Don't give these figs a sobriety test.

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.

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Two Pals and One Pan

A taste of friendship.

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.

Thank you, Lisa H.!

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.

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Carneros Inn Offers Produce Baskets to Guests, Dessert Time in San Francisco & More

Fresh fruit, veggies and flowers to take home from the Carneros Inn. (Photo courtesy of the resort)

Guests of Carneros Inn Get Gift of Organic Produce

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.

Culinary Gardener Peter Stonebraker tends to the fruits of his labor. (Photo courtesy of Carneros Inn)

Dessert First? You Bet!

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.

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