Sticky Sushi Rice

Thanks everyone for all the support!  It helps tremendously!  I will be posting more regularly now. The last 10 days or so I have been hiding out at my boyfriend's restaurant and so I haven't been home much. Good stuff to come..

Went to Ichiban Kan (my favorite japanese dollar store) and bought these plastic molds for making rice balls and sushi. I made the girls avocado sushi for diner and they had cucumber rice flowers and hearts for lunch the next day. I had so much fun making them. I even have a little bird shape to try also. 

Kiwi with a Hint of Mint

Made kiwifruit jam with a hint of mint. It turned out beautifully! I had reservations about making a tropical fruit preserve, but the tangy sweetness of this chunky preserve is delicious!  I also made a batch of buttermilk biscuits to complement although its wonderful on buttered toast...

Winter

Rose hips, brightly colored, crimson red in a cobalt blue mexican cup for spicy hot chocolate... two perfect wintertime treats.

Thanksgiving Feast

Yesterday was spent preparing an Indian Feast. My boyfriend, Aaron, and I elected to spend the holiday together...just the two of us...and it was perfect!  We made samosas with several chutneys (including a cranberry chutney), chana daal patties, curried pumpkin soup and plantain curry with basmati rice. We drank homemade Chai throughout the day and finished our evening with ginger creme brulee. I think we'll do this every year. Its nice to have a day to ourselves before the rush of the Holiday Season. 

les macarons

Les macarons de LaDuree! Aaron's boss brought these back for me from Paris. I haven't had one since I was last there almost 5 years ago. These are my favorite cookies and this is actually how Aaron and I first met... over a conversation about les macarons. It was such a treat to have these with tea. Now I just need to plan a trip back to Paris!

Pumpkining

YEA!!!! Its October and I could hardly wait for the month to start so that I could go "pumpkining" (my favorite Fall time activity). We went to a Stanly Lane Marketplace in Napa which was beautiful! They have a pyramid and a maze built from hay, as well as pigs and cows.
Although the pumpkins are not grown there, the setting is picturesque and the variety is pretty good! I can't wait to carve some of these and make pumpkin soup!

Celebrated my 1 year with Aaron by spending the day in the Marin area. We went to this elk preserve near Tomales Bay and then went to the beach just below. It was beautiful, and we had a lot of fun...although we didn't pay so much attention to the elk. I took this photo of one of the abandoned structures on the property. I loved the star cutouts!

Made raspberry clafoutis tonight after browsing the inspiring photos and recipes of La Tartine Gourmande. After perusing a few recipes on the internet, I wound up creating my own with pretty good results. I made too much batter, and wound up with two raspberry clafoutis and an apple raspberry clafoutis. I also made my tried and true leek and goat cheese tarts. Maybe I'll make jam tomorrow!

A Summertime Treat

watermelon radish... delicious with a sprinkling of salt.

Sunday morning breakfast at La Note.

What's for dinner?

I bought these beautiful beets to watercolor, but wound up cooking them instead. There was a recipe for goat cheese and beet tart from Martha (good luck finding it on her website, because I couldn't). The pate brisee recipe she has is wonderful and works for both savory and sweet pies and tarts. This dish turned our beautifully, and tastes pretty good too. The only odd thing is the purple beets are so shockingly magenta that when they hit the melting goat cheese, the dish turns hot pink. Slicing this up looks like left over birthday cake...not so appetizing.

Gotta love those Martha pics... I was seduced by these honey drizzled golden fritters in the current issue, little fried rosettes, honey and walnuts nestled in delicate folds. Mine don't look as dainty, but they are pretty delicious. They remind me of the loukoumades I would get from the Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church in the Oakland hills.

Santa Rosa Plum Preserves

I am definitely on a jamming streak. I love the process of canning fruit and making jam! Today was Santa Rosa plums purchased from Monterey Market instead of picked like the apricots. The plums themselves were delicious, and their flavor didn't change terribly once made into jam. I used the recipe from the apricot preserves and just swapped the fruit.
I used about 10 0r 11 lbs plums (skinned and pitted), 3 cups sugar, 5 tbs lemon juice and lemon zest.
The plums shed their skin in the boiling water much quicker than the apricots did. Once skinned and pitted, the plums were tossed in a pot to boil with the sugar and lemon juice. A mass of plum pulp, not so appetizing at this stage.


This batch yielded 8- 8oz. jars of plum preserves!

Had the morning to myself (boyfriend and girls were at preSchool) so thought I'd make good use of my time. It was nice to have a focus for a couple of hours. The canning process wasn't so bad, although I could have used another set of hands, but removing the skin from the apricots was a very laborious process! The jam turned out beautifully and I had to make biscuits because what else am I going to do with all of this jam? In the end, I wound up taking warm biscuits and jam to my boy and the girls at preschool. Eat your heart out Martha!