Warm Chanterelle Salad with Onions, Berries and White Cheddar Toast

It’s the Berries!
Lately, the weather has been kinda, well… weird. It’s Summer. It should be warm–or at least warmer. Yes, we had a few days of super hot temps, but those came and went.

The good news is that the cooler weather is making my blackberry bramble come to life. If this keeps up, I’m gonna be knee-deep in berries. I know. There are worse problems to have.

I will use ‘em for our annual jam, and I am looking for other ideas for my excess of berries. There are the obvious cobblers, crumbles, scones, etc.…but I am longing for something less bad for you and more on the savory side. It ain’t easy. However, I am discovering promising possibilities.

I’ll start with a Warm Chanterelle Salad with Onions, Berries, and White Cheddar Toast. The recipe below is from one of my absolute favorite cookbooks, Wildwood: Cooking from the Source in the Pacific Northwest by Cory Schreiber. This is the kind of book that makes a certain individual want to drop everything and move to the country to start raising goats to make cheese regardless of whether she knows what she’s doing. Sigh, someday…

If you can’t find chanterelle mushrooms you can use cremini, but I recommend the chanterelles when you can get ‘em. Read more…

Southern Fried Chicken and Ranch Potato Salad

Fiddlin’ Around
Every year for the last nine years we have spent Father’s Day in Grass Valley. Why, you may ask? Well, if it’s Father’s Day in Grass Valley it means that the Bluegrass Festival is being held at the Fairgrounds. Both my daughter and husband are bluegrass musicians (or at least they are working real hard at it). We will go this weekend so that they can be with their own kind and jam.

The festival is three days of non-stop pickin’ and fiddlin’ and I do mean non-stop. Most of the attendees spend the weekend camping at the Fairgrounds in their tents and/or RVs. But if you thought you would be able to get sleep at night you would be wrong. Once the “main” concert shuts down for the night the ”real” concert begins in the campgrounds, and it goes into the wee hours of the morning if it stops at all.

While there are headaches (literally) involved with going up there, the music is great and we generally have a good time. There are some great vendors there, which for the non-picking members of the audience is awesome. There is a lovely lady who sells hand-made jams, preserves, and vintage aprons in her booth. I make certain to get an apron each year to add to my collection. If I had one complaint (okay, so there might be more than one), it would be the food.

It is unreasonable to expect Thomas Keller five star dining at a music festival, but I would settle for something a little bit north of edible. Maybe I’m being harsh. Maybe. I love burgers and burritos as much as the next guy, but one can live on burgers for only so long. (Wait. Was that my outside voice?)

Each year we have the conversation about how we would improve or add to the food. The possibilities have ranged from healthy bento-type boxes for the kids, to giant fresh salads, to some serious BBQ Ribs. The best idea might be the Picnic Basket Booth. It would offer the kind fare to take on a country picnic: fried chicken, fresh potato and macaroni salads, corn bread and biscuits, fruit hand pies, and a big jug of iced tea. Of course, you could just go wacky and add on a three bean salad and some homemade dill pickles….grilled corn? The possibilities are endless, and they are the perfect accompaniment to the music. (Bluegrass and fried chicken? We got ourselves a hootenanny boys!)

Who knows? We may get there Friday night and be pleasantly surprised but I’m not holding my breath. In the meantime, try my favorite recipe for Southern Fried Chicken and Ranch Potato Salad for Dad this weekend, and let me know if it’s got booth potential… Read more…

Mesclun and Cherry Salad with Warm Goat Cheese

The stone fruit season is here!
Can I get an Amen?

Last week, our first shipment of Fitzgerald Farms nectarines and peaches arrived. If you don’t know why that is such a big deal, then you’ve never tasted one of Fitz’s Carmen Miranda Nectarines…so get in the car now and come on down.

This is my favorite time of year for fruit, and lately I have been knee deep in it. Last weekend, I relieved my brother-in-law of 30 pounds of gorgeous apricots from his backyard, which were immediately made into 8 pints of jam. The remaining ‘cots were packed in school lunches or put in my dehydrator for snacking later. Yes. I have a dehydrator. Doesn’t everyone?

On Sunday, I went to the farmer’s market, and not only did I load up on even more nectarines, I went crazy for the cherries. We love cherries in my house. If I can get them to last more than a day it’s an accomplishment. My kids eat them like candy to the point we have to put them on cherry rations so they don’t make themselves sick.

More often than not we eat the cherries as is, and they are gone before I can make anything with them. But one of my favorite ways to eat cherries is tossed in a salad with some nuts and goat cheese. It’s a perfect lunch or light dinner for when the weather gets hot. If you add some nectarines and/or apricots, so much the better. Go crazy. Toss this with a walnut oil or white balsamic vinaigrette and you’re good to go. Or, if you like, go fancier with this recipe from Bon Appetit. Read more…

Mexican Christmas Eve

Mexican Christmas Eve After we bought our house four years ago, we finally had room enough to host a large number of people. I officially took over Christmas Eve Feast & Merriment duties. The first year was traditional (for our family at least) with the usual ham, my grandmother’s scary jello thing, and lots of booze. The following year we were at the end of a major remodel, but the house wasn’t quite ready yet. We were in a panic as to what to do. Do we cancel and risk disappointing the kids with no lead-up to the man in the red suit? Can we really live without the scary jello thing? (The answer is a resounding YES! by the way.)

Rather than cancel our Christmas Eve Revels, the party was moved to my sister’s house. We ordered big pans of Enchiladas and Tamales from one of my favorite Mexican restaurants and made margaritas. It was great. I love Mexican food. I could eat it every day, and the rest of my family is no different. The night was a big hit. So much so that last year, when I had my kitchen back, we decided that we should start a new tradition of Mexican Christmas Eve. I must say it was indeed a very good idea.

As I put the finishing touches on this year’s Carta, I have listed last year’s menu for those who want to add a little fiesta to your usual Holiday Fare. Be sure to try the corn pudding, even if it’s not for the holidays. It’s an excellent side dish for any time of the year.

Feliz Navidad A Todos! Read more…