Come to the table

Slow Food Come to the Table

Slow Food hosted thousands of farmers, fishers, ranchers and producers in San Francisco last week – one of them being a local – Breadfarm located in cool and quaint Edison. Their poster story was on the wall in the Bread Hall. Check it out -

Slow Food San Francisco

Just returned from the Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco, where we shared a lovely weekend with like minded people, food with wine is the purpose for living.
Hopping on BART from the airport to Civic Center, and climbing the stairs out the dark to find a with a huge garden planted in front of City Hall with the best snacks from all over the country – Salumi from Armandino Batali in Seattle, hand made tamales wrapped in banana leaves from Central Valley, fresh biscuits with cured ham from Virginia – That was just the first hour of our adventure – more to come.
Rather than fill up your email boxes, I will continue stories and pictures and from the Fabulous Food Weekend on my blog, so check it out.
By the way – Happy Birthday Terry!

Summertime

I usually have a wonderful recipe for each of the seasons, but this time of the year I think grazing is the way to go.
Opening my refrigerator I nibble on blueberries, strawberries and watermelon. I am thinking of BLT for dinner with the brandywine tomato that I purchased at the market from Nooksack Nine. Maybe replacing the L with arugula from Galatic Farm.
This is the way I plan on spending August!

Summer Treats

Only this time of the year can you enjoy these fab combos of fruit - picture a big spoon of Mallard's Ice Cream on top!
Apricot and Cherry Crisp

Topping
1 cup flour
1cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ pound cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Fruit
1 ½ pound apricots, quartered
½ pound Bing cherries, pitted
Zest of 1 lemon
1 generous teaspoon grated ginger
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To make the topping: Mix flour, sugar in a small bowl., quickly mix in butter until it is like coarse cornmeal.
Mix the fruit, zest, ginger, sugar, and flour in a 9 inch baking dish. Spread the fruit level, sprinkle with the topping.
Bake 35-45 minutes until golden and the juices bubble around the edges.

Japanese pickles

I have a book on traditional Japanese pickling. I thought the sweet and sour shallots sounded like something I might do, so reading the directions I found - "Be sure to get unwashed bulbs, prewashed ones tend to have a hard surface. I make it a habit to sit and peel the shallots in front of the TV and mumble that I need a pet monkey to help at this time of the year. "

Wild West

Okay So…
Driving home from Colorado took us through wide open spaces, beautiful scenery and a look at the history of the Wild West. I am always looking for the culinary bent to towns; we passed through Chugwater Wyoming where they have a chili cook-off in June. We are thinking of entering.
Further along the road a billboard advertising the annual Testicle Festival.
Now those of you know me well - my tendency to exaggerate for the sake of the story, knows even I cannot come up with this stuff.
The “Testy Festy” happens at the end of August in the town of Clinton Montana, the billboard ended with “Have a ball” ! What can I say?

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

While imbibing the illegal beverage with brave friends - thoughts of the artists and poets of the nineteenth century contributed to the mystique of the famous beverage. Did Van Gogh really cut off his ear under the influence?
The most dramatic thing that happened is the ceremony involved with the pouring of the smuggled spirit. A shot of absinthe is poured into beautifully etched glass - an ornate slotted spoon is placed across the rim of the glass and 2 cubes of sugar is placed on top. Cold water is poured through the top that turns the spirit milky. It is a licorice flavor similar to Ouzo.
Conviviality reigned!