Category Archives: Great Finds

California-Made Holiday Treats

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The treasure trove of Bay Area-made products in the large holiday box designed by Farm Box. (Basket not included.)
The treasure trove of Bay Area-made products in the large holiday box designed by Farm Box. (Basket not included.)

Farm Box Holiday Gift Box

Imagine a goodie box stuffed with 15 delightfuly pampering products all made by Bay Area artisans. Who wouldn’t want to get spoiled with that?

Farm Box, a local company started during this ever-challenging year to help promote products from small family farms, has created the perfect holiday gift box — for your family, friends or even yourself — that can be delivered anywhere in the United States. Best yet, it helps support small local producers at a time when they could use a hand.

Farm Box co-founder Andreas Winsberg, whose father founded East Palo Alto’s Happy Quail Farms, sent me a sample box gratis to check out. Each box includes an extra special touch: a pretty painted card designed by his grandmother. Mine depicted the Golden Gate Bridge.

The filled-to-the-brim box in the large size ($129.99) includes: Nana Joes granola, Maison Verbena rose soap bar, Yerba Buena Tea Co.’s lemon-ginger-mint herbal tea, a Cache Creek Lavender sachet, Winters Fruit Tree’s applewood smoked almonds, Marshall Farms’ cute little baby honey bear, Eatwell Farm’s massage balm, Maison Verbena grapefruit soy candle with a cute little glass jar of matches, G.L. Alfieri dark chocolate and sea salt almond brittle, Charlotte Truffles’ fun Gourmet Hot Cocoa Stick, O’Live Healthy’s extra virgin olive oil, Kuhlmann’s Kitchen’s gourmet pepper jam, Llano Seco’s Chinese five spice salami, Dirty Girl Produce strawberry jam, and Cache Creek Lavender’s shea body butter.

The holiday box includes a sweet card painted by co-founder Andreas Winsberg's grandmother.
The holiday box includes a sweet card painted by co-founder Andreas Winsberg’s grandmother.

For less expensive options, a medium-sized holiday gift box is available for $79.99, and a small-sized one for $49.99.

Mad Crisp

How mad am I for Mad Crisp? These cocktail crisps are so addictive, you practically have to pry them from my fingers to make me share them.

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For Your Reading Pleasure

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“An Onion In My Pocket”

You might think a memoir by the founding chef of San Francisco’s pioneering vegetarian restaurant, Greens, might be too didactic or preachy to take if you’re an avowed meat eater.

The surprise is that it’s not in the least. “An Onion in My Pocket: My Life with Vegetables” (Alfred A. Knopf) by Deborah Madison is a delightful read with evocative prose that envelopes all the senses.

When it comes to what you eat and cook, Madison is far from rigid. In fact, she has eaten meat — and still does — occasionally. It’s just that she most often finds vegetables more interesting.

She came to develop a vegetable-centric palate after becoming enthralled listening to a radio program on Buddhism while growing up. It led to her fascinating journey in becoming an ordained Buddhist priest, and to forming the foundation for arguably the first significant vegetarian restaurant in the country. She set the bar early, eschewing the drab and flavorless vegetarian cooking of the time such as lentil loaves in favor of bold and beautiful dishes of her own creation. In the process, she introduced the world to what vegetarian cooking could and ought to be.

“The French Laundry, Per Se”

Let me just state from the get-go: It’s good bet that I’ll never cook anything from the new “The French Laundry, Per Se” (Artisan). Not when the forward in this book even states that the recipes are even more challenging and complex than those in “The French Laundry Cookbook,” which came out in 1999.

But just because you won’t necessarily be tempted to recreate one of the more than 70 recipes doesn’t mean you won’t find this latest book by chef-proprietor Thomas Keller deeply fascinating.

As the name implies, this lavish coffee-table-sized book showcases the synergy between his two Michelin three-starred restaurants, The French Laundry in Yountville, and Per Se in Manhattan.

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Quac ‘N Cheese with Tillamook Maker’s Reserve Aged White Cheddar

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Move over mac and cheese; make way for "Quac 'N Cheese.''
Move over mac and cheese; make way for “Quac ‘N Cheese.”

Picture a tantalizingly golden crusted, ooey-gooey mac and cheese.

Now, swap out that elbow pasta for rainbow quinoa instead.

Stay with me, stay with me.

Right about now, you’re thinking what an awful idea that is. Why in the world would you switch the classic tried-and-true pasta for something so healthful, and which frankly, always looks to me like a wool sweater that’s been put through a meat grinder?

Because my friends, it’s actually really, really good. And with the amount of cheese that goes into this dish, believe you me, it’s as far from health food as it gets. So there.

Tillamook's just-released Maker's Reserve Sharp Cheddar in 2015, 2016, and 2017 vintages.
Tillamook’s just-released Maker’s Reserve Sharp Cheddar in 2015, 2016, and 2017 vintages.

“Quac ‘N Cheese” is worth your while. If made with Tillamook Maker’s Reserve White Cheddar, it’s guaranteed to boast an impeccable cheesiness, too. I had a chance to try samples of the reserve cheeses, which are now available in stores, and are worth seeking out.

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Roasted Pecan Blondies

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Toasted pecans plus roasted pecan oil make these blondies extra delicious.
Toasted pecans plus roasted pecan oil make these blondies extra delicious.

Let the holiday cookie baking begin.

On the nuttiest note, of course.

Because these “Roasted Pecan Blondies” not only sport a heap of toasted pecans, but roasted pecan oil, as well.

The result is a golden blondie with that coveted papery top of a brownie, a wonderful chewy texture, plenty of dark chocolate, and a robust rich nuttiness.

This recipe was created by San Francisco’s The Bojon Gourmet. It was originally made with hazelnuts and roasted hazelnut oil for the artisan oil company, La Tourangelle, a family-tun company that started in France but now also has offices and a production facility in Northern California.

La Tourangelle Roasted Pecan Oil, made from pecans roasted in cast-iron kettles before being pressed and lightly filtered.
La Tourangelle Roasted Pecan Oil, made from pecans roasted in cast-iron kettles before being pressed and lightly filtered.

Best yet, the blondies can be made gluten-free, if you’re so inclined. I took the option for using all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour instead. I also added a few more pecans because I love nuts in bar cookies, so the more, the merrier.

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Where I’ve Been Getting Takeout of Late, Part 13

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Duck leg confit with braised greens, and garlicky beans from Michelin-starred Protege.
Duck leg confit with braised greens, and garlicky beans from Michelin-starred Protege.

Protege, Palo Alto

Apologies to Chef Anthony Secviar for my plating skills — or lack thereof — on his sublime takeout food from his Protege restaurant in Palo Alto.

Because, yes, it’s possible to enjoy Michelin-starred food to-go in the comfort of your own home.

And getting takeout does offer an alluring plus: the chance to enjoy one of the restaurant’s “family meal of the week” options. I’ve had the pleasure of dining several times pre-pandemic in the lounge of the restaurant, where an a la carte menu is offered. But before, the only way to indulge in a multi-course progressive meal was to book a table in the intimate dining room for the tasting menu.

The “family meal of the week,” however, is a much less expensive variation with typically about four courses or dishes, including dessert. For instance, the one offered last week, which I got, was $75 per person.

A perfect winter salad -- all tied up with a pretty blue ribbon.
A perfect winter salad — all tied up with a pretty blue ribbon.

It began with shaved Brussels sprouts salad, the crisp julienned leaves tossed with an almost equal amount of grated cheese, as well as pomegranate seeds, walnuts, and crunchy, salty, porky bits of pancetta for a dish that hit every taste bud.

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