8:45am | february 6

T E N N E S S E E   V A L L E Y

marin county, california

Feeling that I am escaping winter while the rest of the country is experiencing bizzaro weather is a recurring thought for me lately.  We are thinking about a possible move to Seattle where the winter is real and dark and long and rainy so I am finding myself lapping up every sun ray, long shadow, and green mountainside I can find. I feel like Leo Lionni's character in 'Frederick The Mouse' gathering up images to sustain and inspire during the long winter months.

One of my favorite sunny day hikes is in the Tennessee Valley in Marin County which is across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. You quickly climb above the Pacific Ocean and look up and down the sunny (albeit sometimes foggy) California coast.

nuns' farts

P E T S   D E   N O N N E S

My 7 year old and I were looking through one of my favorite cookbooks last Saturday morning trying to decide what to make for an impromptu lunch with our friend Pogey. We wanted to eat in the garden because we are having the most incredible weather this February - 68 degrees and sunny!! Our simple menu was coming together nicely but then we stepped it up a notch with dessert. I don't normally make dessert for lunch but Claude giggled so hard at this recipe that we just had to make them. Nuns' farts. How fabulous. And they were! Easy, too.

By the way, I am completely enthralled with THE CANAL HOUSE COOKING cookbooks. All of them. I love Christopher & Melissa's philosophy and their elegant ease to cooking. They inspire me to slow down and make me want to call my best girlfriends to come over to cook together. This recipe comes from Volume No 5, page 118. 

our winter garden lunch menu:   

leeks with a mustard vinaigrette, pan fried chicken thighs with thyme, a baguette with BARIANI early harvest extra virgin olive oil + sea salt for dipping, and sunglasses.

grace cathedral

C A R N I V A L E

2 0 1 3

Once a year, GRACE CATHEDRAL moves it pews out of the nave and the majestic space is transformed into a place for the community to celebrate CARNIVALE. As always, it was a wonderful evening! Distinguished guest speaker, Linda Ronstadt and performer, Suzanne Mentzer inspired us with word and song as we celebrated 100 years of the Cathedral's Men and Boy's Choir. Bravo!

All proceeds raised support the Cathedral's outreach programs.

kitchen gadgets

P O M M E S   C O N F I T E S
( i n  t h e  m a k i n g )

I love a project and I love to cook. So, naturally when I came across Dorie Greenspan's project, French Friday's With Dorie I quickly figured out how to participate. The concept is that the group cooks their way through her book, 'AROUND MY FRENCH TABLE' by cooking the assigned recipe every Friday. It is an ongoing project so I am late to the party, as they say. This is my first week and my first recipe is 'Long and Slow Apples' (pg 390) or classically known in France as Pommes Confites. What a perfect entree to this project. I'm going to like this!!!!!

The recipe calls for thinly sliced apples - preferably sliced on a mandoline but since I don't have one I used a very sharp pairing knife, which worked great. (I got kind of obsessed with how thin I could slice an apple). I should probably have one of these very sharp and very scary looking pieces of equipment in my cooking ensemble but on the whole, I try not to have too many gadgets in the kitchen. My rule is if I need something 20 times then I will purchase. Completely random I know but it does keep me from splurging at TYLER FLORENCE'S kitchen store down the street every time I walk in!!!!

The recipe is quite easy and was quite fun to fan the layers of apples in the ramekins (another obsession here). The ramekins cook at a low temp for a long period of time and then rest for about half that time. It was a perfect all day project for me as I multitasked in the kitchen and at my desk. So, now I sit and patiently wait for the cool down part of the recipe. I am not sure my will power to wait to try these apples is as strong as it is to wait for kitchen gadgets... yum!

remembering december

D E C E M B E R   2 0 1 2

The holidays ooze with tradition and my children love this time of year because of it. It is expected they will remember the advent calendar with chocolate hiding behind the windows and that they will anticipate our annual gingerbread house architecture contest but I am amazed they remember the nuances from year to year, too. Reminiscing about the ornaments, requesting to listen to Chris Isaak's christmas album, correctly hanging the stockings in birth order on the mantle, imaginary play with the Creche, eating off of our christmas plates... Children love routine and I think December is a perfect ending to the year to remind us about who we are as a family. My husband and I are both from the south (Georgia and Alabama respectively) so our traditions are a combination of both the south and the San Francisco Bay area. Here are a few of them... 

food

• dungenous crab + butter (our christmas eve lunch - crab is a sf bay area tradition)
• buche du noel (i normally make mine from the TARTINE cookbook but have been tempted on occasion to stop by the bakery and buy one of theirs)
• beef tenderloin + horseradish + asparagus and leeks + parkerhouse rolls. english christmas crackers at each place setting - (they must be opened before dinner and all guests must wear the paper crown at the table on Christmas Eve.)
• egg + bread + sausage + cheese casserole - (my mother made this every christmas morning. she still does)
• gingerbread cookies with icing - (made with springerle cookie molds)
• egg nog + bourbon
• champagne - and lots of it!!!!!!!!
• russian tea - (this takes me back to my childhood. Tang and instant iced tea)

activities

• making gingerbread 'structures' out of graham crackers and decorating with the best candy that MIETTE sells
• delighting in the naughty elves
• lighting the advent wreath
• going to the SF BALLET nutcracker
• listening to CHRIS ISAAK'S christmas music
• hearing handal's messiah at GRACE CATHEDRAL
• driving to tahoe after christmas eve lunch and church
• soaking black eyed peas on the 31st for new year's day lunch

happy new year

H A P P Y  2 0 1 3 ! !

the light in the grand palais

'LEVIATHAN'

I have always been intrigued by a ceiling that allows natural light to filter though. I am not talking about a the light that comes through a prefab box installed in a 1970's home. I am thinking more along the lines of the glass pyramid at The Louvre or the barrel-vaulted glass ceiling in the Grand Palais in Paris. I love the quality of the light in these spaces and the juxtaposition of feeling you are outside all the while being indoors among some of the greatest works of art. I'm sure the light on the olive green kitchen counters is beautiful, too. Maybe.

There was an exhibit at The Grand Palais in May 2011 called 'Monumenta'. One of my favorite artists, Anish Kapoor had a sculpture called 'LEVIATHAN' that filled the space and exaggerated the contrast between contemporary and classical art. This mix of contemporary work of art in this Beaux-Arts masterpiece makes such a statement. The natural light from the glass ceilings creates a translucent blanket over the space and not only casts textural shadows on the aubergine hued sculpture but also allows the art nouveau ironwork to stand out like jewelry. 

The color palette is sublime!