Certain people have a thing for salt & vinegar potato chips. Ok, let me be more specific. Certain people in this household have a thing for salt & vinegar potato chips. I"m not one of them. Tangy, salty, crisp potatoes - I get it. On paper it all sounds good. I don"t know what my problem is. But I have a really hard time with these chips. I find the vinegar flavor blindingly strong, and despite my best efforts to resist, they make my lips pucker and my face scrunch up. But Wayne loves them, so when I came across a recipe last year for potatoes boiled in vinegar, then grilled to a crisp, I set it aside for grilling season. It sounded hardcore.

Here"s what I"ll say about them. If you love the whole salt n" vinegar thing, you"ve got to make these. Surprise to me - I actually liked them quite a bit. And although the vinegar flavor is booming here, it seems to have less of an edge than the chip version. Just before trying them, I sprinkled the tops with a bit of fennel salt (recipe below), but was imagining dunking each potato slab in some garlicky aioli would hit the spot as well.

One of the other things that caught my attention about this recipe (which originally ran in Martha Stewart Magazine), was the idea that you could flavor potatoes by boiling them in a strongly-flavored liquid, before finishing them off on the grill. It got me thinking of all sorts of other ideas - like a really strong herb-flecked broth, or a strong garlic broth, or would a strong beer work?

It has been one of those afternoons...I finished writing up this recipe, then realized I made a similar soup this time last year. Yikes. I"m officially starting to repeat myself. My apologies. Although, it was bound to happen at some point, I suppose. The soups - they"re not exactly the same. I"m noticing a few significant differences as I look a little more closely. So I hope you don"t mind if I still share this version.

This is what to expect. Compared to the original, this recipe makes a larger pot of soup - which should be helpful to those of you neck-deep in summer squash right now. It is a soft, pastel shade of yellow, and aside from a hint of tang from the buttermilk, is quite mild in flavor. Now, here"s where the magic comes in. I finish the soup with a cumin brown butter drizzle that punches right through the creaminess. I can"t get enough of the brown butter on its own. And just a drop of it swirling across the surface of each spoonful of soup makes all the difference here - so, don"t be tempted to skip it.

The soup - I enjoyed it hot, but it is good thinned out a bit and served cold too. It"s an efficient way to put a dent in any squash supply, and leftovers freeze quite well. If you have a large enough pot and a whole lot of squash to use up - double the recipe. And if cumin isn"t your thing, or if you prefer rosemary or toasted almonds, have a look at this one. I"ll try to avoid another repeat next year ;) -h

For those of you with summer blackberries on hand, you must must must try this recipe. It doesn"t lake long, and you are left with enough sweet & spicy, chile-infused blackberry syrup to keep your taste buds tingling right into August. I clipped the recipe out of an issue of Gourmet Magazine years ago. Actually, here we go, it was September 2007. I switched up the chiles, made a few other tweaks, and have been using the syrup to spritz up sparkling water all week. It"s also great swirled into yogurt, oatmeal, and crème fraîche. Other good ideas: use it to slather on buttered toast, drizzle over goat cheese, and I imagine it"d be a flashy, unexpected offering at any pancake, crepe, or waffle brunch.

Gourmet highlighted their original version of the syrup alongside a bourbon-based cocktail (Briar Patch recipe here), and a version of a Desert Sunrise (can"t find a version of it online). If you think of it as a homemade spicy grenadine, I suspect you can imagine all sorts of cocktail applications. But don"t limit it to cocktails, quite frankly, it seems like its uses are boundless. I keep thinking about working it into a cheesecake. You know how Humboldt Fog goat cheese has a thin layer of vegetable ash running through it? What if, using that as inspiration, you had a thin vein of the chile blackberry syrup run through the cream cheese filling - where you"d only see it after slicing into the cake? So the flash is a bit understated and unexpected. Or you could use it in a simple vinaigrette, or as part of a fruit salad. On the savory front, I"m tempted to make a chile blackberry yogurt, and use it to top some lentil soup.

Anyhow, I"m sure there are a thousand things you could think of here. Let me know if you try anything particular interesting, or find a pairing that works particularly well.

I hope those of you in the U.S. enjoy the long summer weekend and get plenty of sunshine, spritzy drinks, and sparklers.

This cake came out of the oven and I immediately thought to myself, "this cake is so unattractive, no one is going to want to eat it." It was as if the cake could read my mind, and at that point gave up entirely. Over the next ten minutes it exhaled, deflating into what I can only describe as a compact, sway-backed, brick of chocolate-fudge. Or what I"ll forever think of as chocolate ugly cake. I set it aside, went out for the night, came back the next morning, and cut off a thin slice. The cake, while still hard on the eyes, was perfect in so many other ways I can"t not share it with you - deep chocolate flavor, barely set center, indiscernible crumb, with a thin brown sugar crust.

The cake was inspired by a recipe in Nigella Lawson"s How to be a Domestic Goddess, her Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake. As many of you who have been readers for a while know, I love a loaf cake, and she describes her chocolate version as "the plainest of plain loaf cakes." She goes on to celebrate the fact that its "dark intensity isn"t toyed with, nor upstaged by any culinary elaboration." I tried to keep the spirit of her cake in mind, while making a few tweaks to make it my own. I think I may have crossed into the land of culinary elaborations, and for that I apologize, but whatever happened it was well worth it.

Here"s what I did...I used dark Muscovado sugar instead of white sugar. I"d argue, this was the most significant change I made. I also zested the pan with fresh lemon rind before filling with batter. Spelt flour in place of all-purpose. And a generous sprinkling of Muscovado sprinkled across the top was finished under the broiler. I was regretting this as I was doing it, it was only adding to the cake"s aesthetic issues, but I loved every bite that had a bit of Muscovado crust. Here"s the thing. You MUST let this cake age overnight. It makes all the difference in the world.

If you brave the ugly cake, let me know if you like it as much as I did.

I was browsing the shelves at Omnivore Books the other day when Celia, the owner, pointed out a medium-sized hardback with a texty cover and orange spine - Teaching Dad to Cook Flapjack. I flipped through the first few pages, bought it, and brought it home with me (thank you Celia!). Written by Miranda Gardiner, the book started as a how-to cooking manual written for her father not long after her mother passed away. He was on his own, in his sixties, and learning to fend for himself in the kitchen for the first time. The first recipe she showed him was a chewy flapjack - hence the title.

Miranda lives in a beach house in South Devon with her husband and three children. Her dad lives on the north coast of Cornwall, a two hour drive from Miranda. The book may have started as a binder for her father, but the collection of recipes grew to include a blend of family recipes - (primarily Cornish), recipes related to extended family (Finnish), and those inspired by friends, travels, and restaurant experiences. The recipes are interlaced with stories and snippets of family history. Little vignettes that made me nostalgic for just about everything - picnics, real summers, the smell of salt water...

There"s a chapter inspired by Miranda"s annual pilgrimage to the family summer house in Finland. Daily activities include collecting berries and cooking sweet waffles on a 50-year old lakeside griddle. Her tone is casual and unassuming, and it fits just right with the type of food she includes here. The chapters leak and meld into each other around themes like travel, beach-front living, and in-season cooking resulting in a charming, eclectic mix - equal parts food memoir, travel diary, and how-to manual for dad.

Most of the recipes are no-fuss, and few require special equipment. Many feel like off-the-cuff weeknight plates tossed together with whatever is on hand and in season - in a good way. The book has a number of veg-friendly recipes, a number that are easily adaptable, and plenty of baking inspiration. Today"s recipe was inspired by Miranda"s bean salad made with green beans, chickpeas, borlotti and pintos. As I mention in the head notes, green beans aren"t quite in season here, so I chopped up a head of Romaine lettuce instead, and added extra crunch and nuttiness with toasted almonds. The simple-yet-assertive honey-balsamic dressing and fresh thyme bring everything together. An easy summer salad. As far as other recipes go - in one article, Miranda mentions her favorite recipe from the book is the Polenta Cake, so I"d like to try that. I also made a note to try a veg-version of her Rocket & Buttermilk Soup.

If you come across Teaching Dad to Cook Flapjack, take a few minutes to flip through it, I suspect many of you will like it. Worth noting: this is a U.K. edition, most of the recipes are in weights rather than volume. No big deal if you have a kitchen scale.

I"ll include a few related links below, and for those of you who have been longtime readers, I couldn"t help but think of this: A Letter from an Unwilling Cook. I haven"t heard from Barry in a few years, but my hope is that he is still at it. Barry, if you"re still reading, please email and let me know how you"re doing.

Related links:

- Website: Teaching Dad to Cook Flapjack Website

- Book excerpt and recipes in The Guardian: How I taught my father to cook

- Miranda on Twitter: @mirandagardiner

As promised, a few more camping photos, as well as the recipe for the grilled tofu and soba noodles I made the second night out. As I mention down in the recipe head notes, aside from grilling the tofu, I prepped everything before we left for Salt Point State Park. The pre-cooked soba noodles hung out in the cooler in a plastic bag next to the garlic-cilantro dressing, which stayed bright green, ready to go in a little jar. It worked out great, dinner came together in no time, and for the most part I could sit around and read, or wander about with my camera.

This (above) wasn"t far from our campsite. Just a walk down the hill. You can"t see them here, but there were seals lounging around on rocks just off-shore, and seagulls cherry-picking stranded critters out of the tide pools. A walk in the opposite direction led to Gestle Cove, a protected area, where we sat with the sun setting behind us, looking at all the different seaweed, driftwood, and rock shapes washed up on the beach.

If you find yourself in that neighborhood (Sonoma/Mendocino coasts), but aren"t necessarily the camping type, I also love the Mar Vista Cottages. We stayed there last year for a couple nights. Each cottage has a kitchen, and you can pick fresh produce from the organic garden to cook with. Fresh eggs from the hens on the property are delivered by basket each day. It"s a great base to explore that part of the coast.

A number of you were asking about past camping trips. This adventure to Whiskeytown Lake in Shasta County was particularly painful memorable. Aside from that, I posted a few cooking/camping links a few years back. And for those of you who missed the last write-up, here"s the Soup au Pistou on the dinner menu the second night we were there. I have to say, as much as I enjoy camping on occasion, I do feel the need to balance them out with slightly posher get-aways ;)...

So, now it"s my turn to throw things back in your direction. What"s your all-time favorite camping memory, best meal, or absolute favorite campground?? If you had to pick just one to share. Looking forward to hearing some of your stories. -h

Have you ever tried to pitch a tent in 50 knot winds? I can now say, with some authority, it"s challenging. On somewhat of a whim, we tossed our gear in the car two days ago, pointed the car north, and set up camp along California"s Sonoma coast. There are few places more stunning - golden meadows, craggy coastlines, rambling coastal trails for days. On some trips to this area we are met with dense fog, this time we were welcomed with blue skies, lingering sunsets, and wind that peeled your eyelids back. So, before I finish unpacking the car, I thought I"d share some photos and the recipe for the soup I made for our first night camping - lots of beans, vegetables, and stellette pasta. Tiny stars under the stars, with a good dollop of pistou for each bowl.

However spontaneous a trip might be, a bit of preparation (even last minute) always pays dividends. I threw a few things together, late, the night before we left. Anytime you camp on the Northern California coast, it can get chilly, so I made a hearty soup (with whatever needed to be used up), froze it, and counted on it to do double-duty as ice blocks in the cooler the first day. I figured serving it with some bright green basily pistou would be just the thing. All we"d need to do is heat it up.

The best part of camping in this part of California is the coastal walks. The most challenging part is sharing the campground. One chuckle-inducing, abalone-diving neighbor told me he set his alarm for 4:20 a.m. No joke. I can confirm his 4x4 blazed out of the campground well before 5 a.m. He returned hours later, three abalones in tote. They were heavy in my hands, the shells beautiful.

In addition to the abalone, I also saw: the tiniest yellow wildflowers, no bigger than a pencil eraser; plenty of opportunistic blue jays; a group of teens celebrating their junior high graduation with a camping trip; seals lolling around on rocks; chubby yellow birds that lived in the cliffs and flew like bumble bees; an old Russian fort (!); patches of California poppies; a million stars against a black moonless sky.

We pitched the tent so it would face this lovely meadow (below). This was at sunset on the first night we were there.

As a side note, I should mention, for the second night I pre-cooked a bunch of soba noodles, then made a cilantro-serrano dressing with the mortar and pestle. We grilled tofu at the campsite, and tossed it all together. This worked out nicely - let me know if you"re interested, I can post that recipe (and more pics) if you want. It would make a nice mid-week lunch as well.

If you try the soup, I hope you enjoy it. It has a bit of an ingredient list, but you can tweak it based on what you have on hand. For example, if I had carrots, I probably would have used them. Later in the summer, I might use fresh tomatoes in place of canned. I based the pistou on Paula Wolfert"s recipe. Well, her recipe and what I had on hand at the time. Her pistou calls for grated tomatoes, and grated Mimolette or aged Gouda, I riffed on it with canned tomatoes and aged Gouda. Either way, delicious. We"ve been enjoying the leftover spread on thick slabs of grilled bread.

I had a good amount of mozzarella in my refrigerator this week. We grilled pizzas on Memorial Day, and didn"t end up using it all. So, I thought I"d share a farro recipe I threw together later in the week. It"s made with farro, bocconcini, a bit of homemade creme fraiche, and herbs from last weeks farmers" market - the ones that nearly escaped by hiding behind a row of condiments in the refrigerator. Do you use farro much? I can"t get enough of it. I love it"s chewy nuttiness and the way it goes with just about everything...I also thought I"d share a couple photos I took on a walk in Golden Gate Park - the last of the plum and cherry blossoms.

As far as today"s recipe goes, this is the sort of thing you can make in no time if you have cooked grains (in this case farro) on hand. I"ve mentioned it before, but I usually keep some sort of rice, farro, etc. cooked, then frozen, so I can just pop it in a skillet or saucepan whenever I want something like this. But now that I"m looking at the recipe again, you could even crack open a couple of cans of chickpeas and use those in place of the farro here. Either way, it can be a side dish, or you can think of it as more of a main dish - for the latter, I might cook up an egg to top things off.

I just used what I had at hand here, but I can imagine some peppery arugula, or blanched asparagus, or broccolini being great additions. Or, some oven-roasted tomatoes and red pepper flakes thrown in once we get into tomato season.

On a separate note, I picked up a few new cookbooks yesterday at Omnivore Books. If you live in the Bay Area and love to cook, it is one of those places you should visit. Celia stocks lots of International titles - British, Australian, Spanish - the good ones that are hard to find unless you"re traveling abroad. So, I"m excited to try some recipes from those, and hopefully I"ll have some recipes to highlight soon. -h

I finally had a chance to sit down this morning and sort through the pile of notes, menus, books, and magazines I brought back from my trip to Portland. There is a loaf of six-seed soda bread baking in the oven, a slab of butter on the counter waiting for it. I was thinking I"d share some highlights (and a couple photos) from the trip to Oregon, write up the soda bread recipe for you, then give the pot of left-over soup waiting on the back burner the signal that it"s time for lunch.

If you find yourself planning a trip to Portland, you can have a look at some of the places I visited the last time I was there. I revisited a few of those on this trip, and made it to a handful of new places as well. There are also lots of great suggestions from you all in the comments section.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting outside Portland a bit. The area surrounding the city is beautiful, and we spent an entire day driving along two-lane back roads, pulling over to see waterfalls, gorges, bridges, small towns, and off-beat houses for sale. Here"s a shot where Wayne surprised me while I was taking the previous picture.

On the food front, I continue to love lunch at Clyde Common, and would go back there everyday if proximity permitted. They had a buttermilk-dressed wheat berry salad on the menu that stole my heart, and an Upright Brewing Co. Farmhouse Rye Ale on tap that stole my craving for any other beer that week.

We popped over to the Little Red Bike Cafe early one morning - had fantastic coffee, a hearty breakfast, and a nice chat with Evan before heading out in the rain, and then went to stock up on an unreasonable amount of salt at The Meadow, again. Moxie Rx wasn"t open during our stay, but Nancye (the owner) is an old friend of ours, and we were able to meet up with her for brunch the next day at Tasty & Sons. Also loved Navarre - their pearled farro, red celery, and parsley salad in particular. Another night we walked from the hotel downtown to Indish, and had one of the best, and most thoughtfully prepared Indian meals I"ve had in some time - bright, fresh, flavorful - really great.

I packed my suitcase with a number of books and publications to bring home. I bought the new issue of MIX, a smartly-done magazine focusing on Portland"s food and drink culture (here"s a link to their subscribe page in case you"re interested). I snagged a copy of Edible Portland, a copy of Reza Mahammad"s Rice, Spice, and all Things Nice, and a copy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall"s River Cottage everyday.

The soda bread recipe in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall"s book jumped out at me the first time I flipped through the pages. I make soda bread quite often (my favorite is actually a rye version) - it comes together in no time, with a small handful of ingredients, and you can have a loaf in the oven in under ten minutes. With a few minor tweaks to his recipe, I"ve also been enjoying Hugh"s seeded, whole-grain flour version over the past couple of weeks. This soda bread is made with a blend of spelt flour and all-purpose flour, the dough is littered with seeds - sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds, and fennel seeds. It takes on a nice crunchy crust, finished with more seeds on top. I like it in the morning slathered with bit of farmers cheese drizzled with honey, for lunch (like today) along with a bowl of soup, and leftovers make good croutons. If you"re convinced you can"t bake bread, I"d like to encourage you to give this a shot - at the very least you"ll be out a bit of flour, some buttermilk, baking soda and some seeds. The upshot is you"ll be able to make fresh bread any time you like.

I thought I might loop you all back into the realm of Super Natural Every Day, to share a bit more of the play-by-play that goes into the making of a cookbook like this one. In case you missed previous (related) entries, I wrote this to kick off the series, then this one about how I approach the manuscript. Today I thought I"d share a bit about choosing a cover. It looks like we have a cover design that (fingers-crossed!) I hope you like as much as I do, and I"m excited to share some of the thoughts that went into it. Here it is:

I should start by saying, the path from having an idea for a book to holding the book in your hands is (in many cases) long and surprisingly non-linear. For example, I"m deep into the manuscript and photography for Super Natural Every Day, but not finished. At the same time, we"re deciding on a cover. The cover seems to be one of the first things that needs to be nailed down. It appears in all sorts of places long before the book goes to the printer - for example, the publisher"s catalog, on the pages of online book stores (for pre-orders), etc. It"s the face of the book, and if done well, should set the tone for what you"ll find inside.

I"m sure I"ve mentioned this before, but I feel very fortunate to be working with Toni Tajima at Ten Speed Press on the book design for Super Natural Every Day. Toni was my designer on Super Natural Cooking, and having her on that project was a stroke of good fortune I"ll forever be grateful for. Being able to work on the follow-up with her? I"ve been out-of-my-mind excited about it. Toni heads up the design on the entire book - cover, interior, fonts, spreads - the whole nine.

So, let"s talk about the function of a cover. They"re quite complicated. Practically speaking, they have jobs to do. They need to communicate the premise of the book. They can set the aesthetic tone for the pages to follow. They need to look good life-sized, and as thumbnail icons. In my case, this cover had to differentiate itself from the last book at a glance, yet look related. As far as working with your publisher goes, you want to have buy-in from the people in the departments who support your book as well - the list is long (and important), and includes sales people, marketing people, as well as editorial. It"s a collaboration, and the trick is creating and choosing something you love that doesn"t fall into the design-by-committee trap.

Toni did a bunch of different mock-ups for this cover, and I fell for the one up above the minute she display it on her screen. All the other stuff aside, it felt right to me, hit the right tone. It"s pretty, feminine, quiet with a couple understated flourishes. I liked the restrained color palette, and the font treatments. It has the dahlias I love to visit in Golden Gate Park in late summer, and one of my favorite recipes from the book pictured (a special potato salad). It"s the kind of book I would pick up at a glance. This was one of the last comps she shared with us after sending other versions in the previous weeks. There were six or seven of us huddled around her desk when she showed it, and everyone seemed to light up.

Here are a couple earlier versions (above) - two alternate favorites of mine. I like the softness of both, and again, the limited color palette. I"m not much of a shouter, part of the reason I think these quieter covers resonate with me.

As I mentioned up above, we talked a lot about how Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Every Day should look different, yet related. One thing that will help, in addition to the actual cover design, is the trim size of the actual book. The new book will be the same as SNC, but with more pages. It"ll be thicker. But if all goes well, you"ll be able to tell they"re sister titles.

And here we have a couple more me-centric (and, I"d argue, more commercial) covers. I think everyone agreed they"re too close to the SNC cover. Also, while I might be on the covers here, they didn"t really feel like me, if that makes any sense. Let"s just say, I"m happy to make my exit from the cover to relax on a few of the inside pages ;)....

So, that"s where things stand on the book front. I"m sure it won"t be long before I"m able to share some spreads with you, or a glimpse at the recipe pages, or any other aspect of the creative process you might be interested in. We"re working toward sending it to the printer this November(!)...which seems so far off, but really isn"t. And lastly, I know some of you feel short-changed when I don"t have a recipe to share, so I went back into the archives and cherry-picked two favorites to remind you of - I hope that will hold you over for a few days. xo -h

This Carrot, Dill & White Bean Salad is one of my favorites: Warm, coin-shaped slices of pan-fried carrots, white alubia beans, and chopped dill tossed with a tangy-sweet lemon shallot dressing. And it has been some time since I posted a sandwich, maybe because none are as good as this TLT, if cherry tomatoes have started turning up in your markets, give it a go.

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind. I spent a good chunk of it in Monterey at the Monterey Bay Aquarium"s Sustainable Foods Institute (part of their annual Cooking for Solutions event) listening to speakers and panelists. It was intensive and eye-opening, and I"ll try to compile a list of some of the individuals I met, as well as a few of the inspired companies we heard from for a future post. I drove back into San Francisco just in time to get a cake in the oven for a potluck and meet-up with Kim Boyce at 18 Reasons. I was excited - everyone attending the potluck was to make something from Good to the Grain, I was finally going to meet Kim in person, and I had all the ingredients on hand to make what would turn out to be a beautiful Rosemary Olive Oil Cake.

Just look at it. Incredibly moist, golden-crumbed, flecked with rosemary, and dotted with big and small chocolate chunks, I"d make this again in a heartbeat. It"s one of those cakes that is distinctive and memorable in an understated way. You can see the wheels turning in people"s minds as they are taking their first bite. The rosemary is the wild card factor here, and it permeates the cake in a subtle but steady way, not at all overpowering. Also, it couldn"t be easier to make. It took me less than ten minutes to get it in the oven.

I made a few minor tweaks to Kim"s original recipe, and you can see them integrated into the recipe below - most are stylistic more than anything. And I converted the recipe to weights for some of you. I wanted to bake it in a vintage batton cake pan I brought back from Portland a few weeks back (my $1 pan!), and aside from a slightly longer baking time, that was no problem. I also decided I wanted more chocolate visible on top, and a bit of a sugary top crust.

The potluck was fun. I"m not sure I"ve ever tasted more baked goods in a single sitting. Twenty+ people turned out, all with something to share. The walk home needed to be 5x as far. The surprise of the night for me? The Honey Hazelnut Cookies (thank you Rosie!). They"re brown, and flat, and wafer-like - not particularly interesting at a glance. Easy to look over. But the flavor they pack into each bite is unbelievable - toasted hazelnuts, amaranth flour, honey, butter. For those of you already with the book, they jumped to the top of my "next" list.

I hope you all had a nice weekend, give the cake a go the next time you need a sweet treat for a group of friends, they"ll enjoy it. And on a separate note, I think we may have settled on a cover design for my new book, so I"ll try to share that with you soon as well :). -h

Related Links: Luisa"s (The Wednesday Chef) post on the Olive Oil Cake - Luisa was Kim"s editor on Good to the Grain. And, in case you missed it, Sam Fromartz"s Washington Post article - Bakers are taking grains in new directions Also, for those of you who are local, Kim will be selling/signing books at Omnivore Books on Monday, May 24, as well as the Castro Farmers Market on Wednesday, May 26 (more info/links here).

I made a series of portraits on Sunday, sort of on a whim. Allow me set the stage. Each year the Bay to Breakers weaves it"s way through San Francisco. It"s a running race, and by that I mean, some people actually run the course. It"s also a parade, and San Francisco dearly loves a parade. Elaborate costumes and floats are involved, and not even frosty temperatures prevent (at least some) participants from getting naked. People get drunk. Obliterated drunk. I saw a panda bear curled up under one of the trees in our park (minus his shoes and socks and jeans), and a watermelon slice passed out on the sidewalk outside a coffee shop...at 7p.m. So, even though the course brings the race with a few blocks of my house, I usually I stay clear of the mayhem. But this year, Wayne got a call on Saturday from a friend, and they decided at the last minute to run the race.

The alarm clock went off at 6:30, they headed downtown, and I eventually made my way to the coffee shop and then up the hill to do some people watching. I took my Polaroid and a pack of film (10 shots), and started thinking about what sort of photos I might like to take. Sometimes in visually chaotic/busy situations I get overwhelmed, and my camera never comes out of its bag. When I"m crowded by people it"s hard to find the little details or moments I find inspiring. But I"ve been wanting to shoot more portraits lately, so on my way up to Alamo Square I decided I"d focus on that one thing - individual portraits.

I stood in one place for a long time, just outside of the main flow of people, on a corner, and proceed to have a great time. I typically shoot in quiet spaces, with all the time in the world. This was entirely different. Total chaos. Total strangers. I had to be quick - frame, focus, shoot. If I was going to go out of my way to ask a complete stranger if I might take their portrait, I wanted it to be worth it. So, the learning curve was steep, and the little things added up. For example, I learned from the first shot that I needed to step a touch closer to the subject to get the framing I was after, and I learned from the second shot that too much head space cuts off nice costume details. That sort of thing. Anyhow, I thought I"d share my four favorite portraits from the day.

I didn"t find Wayne and Mirah until later - we walked around a bit more, had lunch, and then I spent the better part of the afternoon paging through Yotam Ottolenghi"s new cookbook, Plenty. I"ve long been a reader of his new vegetarian column in the guardian.co.uk, and most of you know what a fan I am of many of the Ebury books. It was nice of them to send me a copy. I decided to do a riff on Yotam"s Saffron Tagliatelle with Spiced Butter for dinner. It"s a pasta dish tossed with vibrant Moroccan-inspired spice butter made from a blend of eight spices - ginger, paprika, cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, etc....so good. I used a dried pappardelle egg pasta, and tossed some asparagus into the mix to work a vegetable onto the plate. It made for a nice spring supper.

So, that was my Sunday. I"m off to Monterey for a few days. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week (and this pasta if you make it)... -h

It"s spring here. I know because I"m standing in my kitchen, looking out onto the porch, watching a robin gather bundles of dried grass (from a neglected planter) to use as bedding in her nest. I was feeling bad about the state of my patio garden, but this makes me feel a bit better. I"m watching the robin, the sun is out, and I have a batch of cloud-shaped cookies in the oven. Even better, I"m excited to finally put my hand-crafted cookie cutter from Herriott Grace to use.

The inspiration for these cookies came from a quinoa shortbread recipe in a new cookbook focused exclusively on cooking with quinoa - Quinoa 365. Whitecap sent me a copy, rightly thinking I"d enjoy the ideas and recipes in it (the photography is quite nice as well). The quinoa shortbread recipe caught my attention, many people use rice flour in their shortbread to achieve a more crunchy shortbread texture, so making a shortbread with quinoa flour made sense to me. Both are gluten-free flours that crisp up nicely in certain preparations. So, although I made some pretty significant changes to my version of the cookies (mainly in relation to technique, measurements, ingredients I had on hand), they were certainly inspired by Patricia and Carolyn"s version.

One of the things that makes these cookies great is toasting the flours ahead of time. It"s one of those steps that takes a bit of time, but is well worth it. The resulting cookies are buttery, nutty, and rich. They are good after cooling and settling a bit, but best the next day (after sitting on the counter uncovered over-night). The flavor and texture seem to come together after spending the night together.

I think it may be obvious, but because of the shade of the quinoa flour and the flecks of chocolate shavings, these clouds are of the stormy variety. And, I know not many of you have cloud-shaped cookie cutters - you can certainly cut these into whatever shapes you like.

Well, it"s Sunday. I returned from Portland, Oregon on Wednesday, and here I am looking at my suitcase and my carry-on bag. They are exactly where I dropped them, ten steps from the front door, still fully packed. Can we unpack together? I thought it would provide me some incentive, and at the same time I can give you a glimpse of some of the treats that hitched a ride back to San Francisco in my luggage.

I found all sorts of neat things while exploring Portland. For starters, I bought an unreasonable amount of salt at The Meadow - some old favorites, and a few new ones - Halen Mon Gold, Murray Darling, Lemon Flake, and then there are the pretty, edible dried peony flowers.

I don"t always have the best luck at thrift stores, but rummaging around one shop on Mississippi I picked up an old plate patterned with pink dahlias and green leaves. It set me back $3. I found an unusually long, thin vintage cake tin at the same place ($1), and one silver fork and matching spoon with flower details.

A couple trips to Powell"s Books added weight to my suitcase, but I couldn"t pass up Jane Grigson"s Fruit Book, River Cottage Every Day, Rice, Spice and all Things Nice, and a few vintage art exhibit catalogs. I also picked up a copy of Edible Portland, and a copy of MIX Magazine (hi Martha!) - Books Inc. has been stocking MIX here in San Francisco, and I"ve been loving it, but it was nice to be able to pick up a copy on its home turf.

My breakfasts are going to be tasty as ever. Bundled in socks, two jars of preserves made it here intact. Marmalade from my friend Nancye at Moxie Rx (her meyer lemon meltaway cookies were gone long before touchdown), and a rare jar of Little Red Bike Cafe Oregon Strawberry Pinot Noir Jam from Ali and Evan. Note to self, order a loaf of Tartine sesame bread to go with.

Here"s a stack of menus from meals/treats at: Clyde Common, Indish, Random Order Coffee House, Moxie Rx, and Navarre. Then there"s three Polaroids, an ivory-toned beaded bracelet from Porch Light, and a blue & white striped bag I bought for my sister"s birthday, from from kara-line at tumbleweed.

There were a whole host of places I wanted to get to and didn"t - Ned Ludd, Pine State Biscuits, Coffee & Heart. All places I look forward to visiting the next time around.

Give me a bit of time to scan my photos. I was able to get out of the city this time around, and I"m looking forward to sharing some of the sights with you and a recipe or two inspired by my visit.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this tart. I made it just before leaving, inspired by a bag of chervil, turnip greens, and beautiful heirloom red celery handed to me by June Taylor after a lunch near the Still-Room. The tart is made with a buttery cornmeal crust, and a mustard-kissed, garlicky, turnip green filling. For a lot of the tarts I make, I use broth or pureed soup in place of much of the heavy cream traditionally called for - it turns out great. It"s the kind of thing that goes nicely with a simple side salad, and a seasonal treat. We had it with the Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. The leftovers make a tasty, portable airport lunch or snack. (And for those of you who are curious, with the rest of the ingredients I made a celery leaf pesto, part of the chervil went on savory crepes, and celery stalks went into a chopped salad I"ve been working on)...

We are in the middle of a cold snap here in San Francisco. A mild one, as far as cold snaps are concerned, but reason enough to reaffirm my friendship with my oven. It has been working overtime - granola, batches of cookies, gratins, and yesterday this seeded flatbread. The flatbread is made from white whole wheat flour along with pepitas, sunflower, poppy, and mustard seeds. You can pull the dough out paper thin or leave it a bit thicker, serve it straight or bake it with toppings. Whatever you like, really.

I actually stumbled on some flatbread notes while tidying up my desk. I tried to do a version a while back using whole, uncooked millet and quinoa. The notes in the margin cautioned me to use less crunchy ingredients the next time around, ones less likely to crack a tooth ;). This time I went the seed route, and my one mistake was not crushing the mustard seeds before adding them to the rest of the ingredients - but I"ve adjusted the recipe to take this into account.

When I pull the flatbread dough extra thin, I sometimes add a thin later of toppings. The version in the photo below was baked with paper thin slices of sauteed potatoes, a bit of cheese, a pinch of fresh thyme. When I leave the flatbread a bit thicker, like you see in the first photo, I usually skip the toppings, preferring it right out of the oven with a bit of salted butter - and preferably alongside a big bowl of soup.

And just a reminder, you need to make the dough the night before, it takes about 10-15 minutes to prepare the dough, and then you pull it out and bake it the next day.

Today I"m participating in the 12 Days of Cookies on one of the sites I love to visit most, Lottie + Doof. It"s exciting (and a bit intimidating) to be following Dorie, and Avery Wittkamp from Marlow & Sons - each day L+D will feature a new cookie recipe (through December 12). My contribution is these Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies. They are tiny, bite-sized holiday cookies made with two kinds of ginger and lots of shaved chocolate. The turbinado sugar crust gives them a bit of crunch which is a nice contrast to the ooey-goey chocolate (when they"re still warm). For the people who have been visiting my site for a while, think of them as the love child of the itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookies and the triple ginger cookies. That"s what I had in mind as I set out to make them.

They are a breeze to mix up by hand, meaning there"s no reason to dirty up your electric mixer. Said another way, you don"t need to cream the butter into the sugar, which is where most of the effort is usually required. Instead you mix the sweeteners into barely-melted butter, add the egg, and pour that over the flour mixture. No sore arm muscles ;)

And while we"re on the topic of holiday cookies, I thought I should point two favorites from last year. I loved these elegant, powder-kissed Swedish Rye Cookies, and my pal Sante"s Hermit Cookies were great as well - they"re full of nuts and spices and currants, topped with a snow-cap of icing.

Thanks again to Tim at Lottie & Doof for inviting me to participate. Can"t wait to see who is up next.

Sidenote: My apologies to everyone who is having trouble searching the site (using the search box in the top navigation bar)....It"s broken right now, and we"re working on a fix. Hopefully soon!

A few weeks back Wayne and I spent three days visiting Palm Springs. The weather was hot (in a good way), and the weekend was set against the backdrop of a piercingly clear blue sky. We visited date farms, browsed vintage furniture shops, brunched outdoors under giant umbrellas, lounged around near the hotel pool, and went to a beautiful evening wedding at the Corona Yacht Club. We arrived home late Sunday night, neither of us felt like going out again, and it became one of those nights where dinner comes together as I pick and pull from every shelf, drawer, and pocket in the refrigerator/freezer. We ended up having this heirloom bean and broccoli bowl with shallots and seitan. It"s filling and hearty, and the roasted broccoli works nicely with the beans and the dusting of cheese I add at the end. I"ve cooked this three or four times since that night, and thought it might be the kind of thing you"d like to make too.

I suspect some of you might not be familiar with seitan. You can buy it at many natural food stores, and the Whole Foods Markets here in San Francisco stock it as well. But let me back up a bit and say, I"ve only recently become enamored with seitan. In fact, it has always been one of those ingredients I would skip over at the store. I suspect this was because I"ve never been interested in making meals with faux meat. In addition to that, I think we can agree, seitan is not an attractive ingredient. To my eye it looks like dense, wet, papier-mâché. Nicknames? Some people call it wheat meat....again, not very charming. All that aside, I"ve come to enjoy seitan. Here"s how.

Wayne came home with some "cutlets" one day (this one). He chopped them into small chunks which he then pan-fried. The little pieces got nice and brown, and crispy. I had to admit it was quite good. Ever since, and despite its status as the least photogenic ingredient in my refrigerator, I"ve been making an effort to been cooking with more and more of it - mostly in stir-frys, or as a protein-packed topping on chunky soups, or in a range of throw-it-all-in-the-skillet type meals like this one.

For the other components in this particular recipe? I almost always have bags of leftover cooked heirloom beans in my freezer, so I used those. And then tossed a few handfuls of broccoli in olive oil and roasted it for just a few minutes. That"s pretty much it.

I"ll leave you with a couple snapshots from Palm Springs. Here"s a picture of Wayne enjoying a morning espresso. And a photo of one of the date farms we visited. I made date cookies when I got home using little date chunks and a recipe I found on the side of a bag of the date pieces. Unfortunately, they were quite bad, which is why they never made it onto the site :/

Wow. Has it been almost a year since my last favorites list? Yikes, I think it has. I"m in the mood to write one. I just finished doing my portion of the prep for dinner tomorrow night, dishes are done, counter tops clean. The house is quiet, and I"m sitting on the couch with my favorite blanket draped over me. So, favorites it is, some of the things that have caught my attention recently. Here goes.

Nikole Herriott and her father Lance carve beautiful objects from 100% salvaged wood and have a shop named Herriott Grace. I love their wispy stemmed spoons, and hand-turned, one-of-a-kind mortar & pestle sets. I had my heart set on one of the sweet little salt bowls, but someone beat me to it (next time!). I encourage you to read about them here, or meet them here. It"s such an inspiring story.

The last two books I"ve read (and really enjoyed!): Kafka on the Shore & Drop City. Now I"m on to A Passage to India and Barbara Kingsolver"s new book.

Bryan Nash Gil"s relief prints are stunning. I noticed as I was browsing the other day, in addition to the Hemlock 82 print, Bryan has created a new print, Locust. Also very beautiful, yet substantially less expensive.

For Bay Area folks, June Taylor"s classes at The Still Room are great - fun, hands-on, and you learn a lot. I just noticed she has her new class schedule posted on her site.

The cookbooks on my nightstand right now: Nigel Slater"s Tender, Julie Sanhi"s Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, and Canal House Cooking Volume 2. There are just not enough meals in the day....

After falling down the Etsy rabbit hole: I missed out on this cake plate, and this buttercup yellow watering can, but I did bring home a six-legged lamb.

Waiting for the next cold-snap: I bought this bell-shaped wool hat a couple weeks back at Anthropologie, and I smile absolutely every time I see it.

Worth mentioning, I cancelled our cable and bought an Apple TV. Only wish I had done it sooner.

Custom stationery is the best. I love these Postal Press Custom Initial Note Cards. Thank you cards also come in handy after the holidays, and I like these Thank You Cards with the blind impression, really nice.

It"s sold out, but isn"t this illustrated calendar neat? (via {frolic!}

One of my neighbors brought a completely unfamiliar-to-me style of cornbread to a neighborhood party the other night. It was sort of custard topped, browned a bit, moist as all get out. She told me a friend shared the recipe with her. The trick? Pour a cup of cream over the cornbread batter before baking. She was nice enough to send me the recipe - turns out it was a Marion Cunningham recipe, and I also (finally) made the connection that it was the cornbread recipe Molly reprinted in A Homemade Life. I"m going to give it a shot tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Oh, and while we are on the topic of people I like name Molly, I was lucky to have dinner at this Molly"s house last week. She made this Almond Tart, and now I want to make it too.

Oh boy, this is getting long, and now it is getting late. I"d better wrap it up. One last thing - I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday weekend. I feel thankful everyday that I have a place like this site where I can share ideas, recipes, and general ramblings. Thank you all for inviting so many of the recipes you see on this site into your own homes - you have no idea how great (and appreciative) that makes me feel. Safe travels to all of you not at home this weekend.

p.s. Our 101 Cookbooks Kiva Team is still going strong - we"re alllllmost at $60,000 in loans, 2071 loans to date. I love it. Makes me so proud. Have a glance at your Kiva account to see if you have any repaid loans to reinvest.

I"m writing this as I"m eating dinner, which is not something I normally do. But I think this is one of those recipes that a lot of you are going to like, and I"m feeling the need to share it with you now rather than later. It came together as I was riffing off one of Lora Zarubin"s recipes from I Am Almost Always Hungry - her Potatoes with Tomato Curry. I love an all-in-one-pot meal, and was cobbling together a hearty, vegetarian version of her recipe with tempeh. It wasn"t at all complicated, just an onion sauteed with a short list of spices, diced tomatoes, a splash of cream, and eventually potatoes and tempeh. It all came together in a vibrant red-orange pot of curry. Finished with a bit of cilantro, it"s fragrant, filling, and tastes so much more indulgent than it actually is.

A bit of an aside, I picked up Lora"s book while browsing the cooking section at the library down the street from me the other day. I had a bit of a mini-celebration right there on the spot. I had this book years ago, and must have lost it or loaned it to someone. Anyhow, it was like running into an old friend, and I was happy to be reacquainted.

I should also mention, before we move on to the recipe, Lora"s tomato and potato curry recipe is part of one of the most interesting Thanksgiving menus I"ve come across. Each time I read through it I promise myself I"m going to lobby my family to tackle it one year. There"s plenty for a mixed crowd - vegetarians, vegans, the whole lot. The only dish inherently meat-centric is the turkey. Here"s the menu: Roasted Turkey with Tandori Spices, Roasted Hubbard Squash Wedges with Garam Masala, Basmati Rice with Saffron and Cloves, Red Lentils with Tamarind and Dates, Potatoes with Tomato Curry, Creamed Spinach with Cardamom and Shiitake Duxelle, Steamed Brussels Sprouts with Ghee and Sea Salt, Cranberry and Ginger Chutney, Mint and Chile Raita, Clover Rolls with Rosemary, Pumpkin and Arborio Rice Pudding, and Shrikand (a creamy yogurt dessert) with Fresh Pomegranate Seeds.

For those of you who are interested, you can keep up with Lora through her Los Angeles Times Magazine blog, I"m Still Hungry, or at her personal site, A Hungry Girl, where she is just starting to document her new life as a baker.

I hope you give the recipe a try, particularly those of you who aren"t so sure about tempeh. I swear, it"s just the thing to go along with the sun that has been setting early, and the colder nights as well. Have a glance at the head notes before you jump in though, there are a few things to consider before you start. I should also add, if you"re in a pinch time-wise, cauliflower might be a perfect, quick-to-cook alternative to potatoes.

I spent most of the week under my favorite blanket on the couch - sniff, cough, cough, sniff, sneeze, repeat. The good news is I"m on the mend, and after a short walk today something tells me I wasn"t alone in my misery. It seems as if half the city is coughing into their elbows. So yeah, last week was all about the small victories for me - going downstairs to get the mail, finishing a load of laundry (as in one), writing letters, and eventually, as I was starting to feel better, making a batch of orange and oat scones from the My Nepenthe cookbook. If only you could have been there when they came out of the oven, yum.

They were good later too though. I nibbled at a golden corner of one of the scones a couple hours after they came out of the oven, then four hours later, then six - they seemed to be improving with age.

In fact I wish I had one right now. In hindsight, I should have frozen some of the dough, then baked them off a few at a time.

I"m so looking forward to trying more from Romney"s new book, she includes an eclectic mix of recipes including the full range of mains, soups, side salads. But it"s the sweets and breakfast recipes that I suspect will make an appearance in my kitchen in the near future - the wheat germ buttermilk hotcakes, persimmon pudding cake, and the triple berry pie.

If you haven"t seen the book yet, look around for it. I think it"s just starting to show up in stores. It"s just the sort of cookbook that takes you to another place and time - beautifully designed and photographed, and the story she tells of her life and legacy at Nepenthe in Big Sur is very special. For those of you who love the Tessa Kiros cookbooks, aesthetically this book is similar in spirit.