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25/08/2008 Preserving Of all the things that were passed down to me by my parents, grandparents, and aunts one of my favorite things is the art of preserving. It's just so useful! But even more than being useful, when I'm in the middle of making jam or pickles or applesauce I feel a sense of connection to all who have come before me. Whether they preserved foods to capture the bounty from their gardens or from a sense of thrift or as a way to survive the winter months, the art of preservation continues to run strong. I know that while I'm in my kitchen working with some fruit or vegetable there's a good chance that at the exact same time my Dad or my sister is in their kitchen doing something similar.
 I don't do as much of it as I once did - mainly because I can't always eat it all before the next year's crop arrives. But this weekend I spent a day making peach jam and a nice batch of applesauce. Canning is like riding a bike for me. Each year as I start my movements are a little slow but within a few minutes I'm back into the rhythm of whatever needs to be done for the job at hand. Blanching, peeling, slicing, smashing, cooking, mixing and finally filling the jars are all part of the zen. And I really do enter a very meditative state. My movements flow and although I concentrate on the task at hand it's with a flowing ease, with one step leading to the next. The repetitive motion is addictive and soothing. It's a dance that can be performed by one or a group.
 And the best part is that when you are finished you have something beautiful, delicious, good for you, and that will bring back a little taste of summer in the middle of a cold winter day.
 04/04/2007 Moustarde Violette When I travel I generally try to bring some foodstuff back that is a specialty of the area or reminds me of my visit in some way. Since there are so many rules and regulations about what can be brought back across borders (and also looking at what is most convenient to pack and carry) these items are often a sauce or condiment of some sort.
A few years ago while strolling Rue Mouffetard in Paris I came across a shop selling all kind of interesting things - jams, jellies, sauces and mustards. Lots of mustards. I was in my own little heaven while perusing the shelves there. While I don't remember the name of the shop at this moment (I'm sure I have it in a file) I would be able to walk right back to it.
Eventually a little jar caught my eye. It contained a deep, dark purple mustard and the label said it was Moustarde Violette. I don't speak French but I can understand a few words and what I gathered from the label was that it was somehow a grape and mustard concoction. Between the idea I had in my mind of what it might taste like and the cute shape of the jar I was sold.
I returned a bit later that week to buy a smaller jar when it turned out that I was going to cook dinner for some friends living in Paris. (In fact, the whole dinner came from the markets on Rue Mouffetard!) I decided it would be fun to taste it before I left Paris to see if the bottle was worth schlepping home!
At my friends' house we got the kids fed and then settled in to prepare dinner for the adults. We started the meal with a course of fresh country bread, ash-covered Chevre, the Moustarde Violette and, of course, a couple bottles of wine. The tangy-slightly sweet mustard added just the right complementary note to the cheese and went beautifully with the wine - something you can't say for all mustards!
I was so happy to find I'd made a great purchase. I brought my Moustarde Violette home and happily served it along with cheeses and meats for various occasions and events. My bottle was starting to get low and I was feeling a little sad - but luck was coming my way!
I happened to bring some of the mustard along on a afternoon excursion on my friend EE's boat. Also on that afternoon trip were MG and DW, two people who have since become some of my best friends. Well, everyone loved the mustard and it turned out that MG and DW were planning a Paris trip a couple months later! Being the sweet and thoughtful people they are, soon after they returned I found myself with a brand new jar of Moustarde Violette!
Some time later, while browsing the aisles of Urban Fare in Yaletown (Vancouver, BC) I was thrilled to find my Moustarde Violette amongst the mustards! Since that time I've purchased a couple of jars to keep my addiction fed. But the last few times I've been to Vancouver I haven't been able to find it. I am so sad.
So yesterday, I scraped the final remains of my last jar of Moustarde Violette onto a plate, along with some cheese, salami and a bit of bread. (In the photo there is also a bit of Framboise mustard - that's the yellow one.) I took a photo and then settled in to enjoy that little condiment that brings back memories of that trip to Paris and many other good times with friends.
I'm heading back to France this fall and will have a few days in Paris at both the beginning and end of my trip. Guess where you will find me?
26/11/2006 Disastrous Divinity In the spirit of full disclosure I offer this post as evidence that I have many culinary events that don't quite turn out as planned.
About this time of year, as I start in on holiday baking in a big way I often become nostalgic about things from my childhood. One of the things that has been coming to mind for a year or so it the candy that one of my Aunt's made every year. She made several different varieties but two that keep pushing their way into my mind are Divinity and Penuche.
I had decided to make them both this year and have been looking at recipes trying to find something that seems like it was what my Aunt made each year. Unfortunately, I can't just ask her as she passed away several years ago. It turns out that most divinity recipes are very similar and so I decided to use the one in my old Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, figuring that would be very likely to be the one she used.
Now, making divinity comes with all kinds of warnings about humidity and weather. You can't make it if it is "too" humid or if it's raining. The moisture in the air will keep the candy from setting and drying properly. However, I couldn't find anywhere what "too" humid actually translated to. But I grew up in Oregon and my aunt lived across the street from me and she managed to somehow successfully make this candy in the Northwest winters so I figured I could, too!
Yesterday, we had our second dry day in a row - at least at my house, although there was rain in the area. I checked the humidity - under 60% outdoor and about 45% in my house (it's winter and I'm running the heat for gosh sakes!) and thought that might be safe.
So I measured all my ingredients, starting heating the sugar, corn syrup and water and was generally really looking forward to the final product!
I should have known that whole thing might not turn out as planned when about 5 minutes into the process I had my first little setback. The sugar mixture had just started boiling and I was attaching the candy thermometer to the pan when the thermometer suddenly snapped out of the clip (that would hold it to the pan) sending hot sugar all over the stove top, down the oven doors, all over the floor and onto some cookies sheets I had sitting nearby waiting for another batch of cookies! Now it wasn't that much that splashed out but, as you know or can imagine, even a little bit of liquid sugar is a sticky, sticky mess.
So, while trying to watch and whip the egg whites for the next step and watch the thermometer (I was now using a quick read that I had to dip in every now and then) for hardball stage - 260F, pretty dang hot - I was also trying to clean up the sugar mess before it had a chance to spread over the entire kitchen and from there take over the house!
So it is possible that I messed up somewhere in there but I really think I was juggling it all pretty well.
Anyway, after the whites were whipped and the sugar mixture incorporated and letting it beat until the batter was super stiff I started dropping the candy by teaspoonful onto the prepared cooking sheets. I was very proud as I was even getting the little twirl on the top (kind of like a Hershey's Kiss top but fallen over) that I remembered from my Aunt's candies. However, as I finished spooning out the candy the first pieces were slowly slipping into pools of white glue.
My first thought was that I just hadn't beat the egg whites or the egg whites mixed with sugar long enough, which could be the case. But after waiting several hours and then trying to peel the candy "disks" from the wax paper to no avail - they weren't letting go, it was clear that the candy just wasn't dry enough - was this a problem with the hated humidity???? I'm not sure. There's a third possible point of failure and that's with the temperature, as using the thermometer the way I was is not really the most accurate way of measuring temperature.
So yesterday afternoon I took all the white polk-a-dotted wax paper from the cooking trays and tossed them into the garbage. I was bummed. But it looks like we have a streak of dry (and colder!) days coming later in the week. So I think I'll have a chance to try again soon!
I also looked at an older version of the same cookbook that was my Mom's. It was printed in 1951 and I noticed that there are slight differences in the recipe. I may try that version next time.
In the meantime, Penuche is not as temperamental so I'll give it a try and see if I can duplicate the taste I remember from those Christmas past. 02/09/2006 What Was I Thinking? I was at Costco a couple weeks ago and they were handing out samples as they often do. I passed a table handing out samples of animal crackers and they were pretty good! And what a bargain at, I think, $5 for a large container of them.
Well, it didn't really hit me just how large it was until I got it back to my house! I have no idea what I was thinking! If you look you can see that some of the cookies have been eaten - that's the dent I've made in this behemoth over the last two weeks...
They are pretty good. And they are a nice little low-cal, low-fat snack with my mid-morning tea but still....
By the way, the wine bottle is in the photo just to give you some idea of scale. I have not been serving the animal crackers with a glass of wine. Although... 20/08/2006 Jelly Roll Growing up I learned to make pie from my Mom. It seems like there was always pie around the house - apple, all sorts of berry, rhubarb, cherry, lemon meringue - you name it and we probably had it at some point. Each time we made pie there would be trimmings left from the crust. Never one to waste a thing, my Mom would then take these trimmings, carefully re-roll them (not too much or the crust would get tough...) and then we'd make some sort of little jelly roll or a crispy piece of cinnamon and sugar crust. Each time I make pie I follow this same little ritual. It's the thing that tides me over until the real pie can be sliced, as pie right out of the oven needs to cool a bit to let the juices gel, but little jelly rolls can be eaten almost immediately! When I made my apple pie on Friday, I guess because it had been some time since I'd made one, this memory came flooding back to me. And as I made my little peach jelly roll, I thought of my Mom and hoped she was enjoying watching me make it and was happy that I remembered this little treat she always made. 30/04/2006 Lavender Cornmeal Pound Cake I brought home this little treat from the West Seattle Farmers' Market this morning. Good thing I took a picture because it is now long gone... Moist, a bit crunchy from the cornmeal, and a little sweet it was the prefect late morning snack. It wasn't quite as lavender-y as I would have liked, but it was still tasty. 22/04/2006 Leftovers
A couple months ago a traditional journalist from one of the more popular food magazines wrote an article expressing his opinion of blogs. Although he called out a couple of blogs that he enjoyed, I think that was more to appear to be balanced because most of the rest of the article was disdainful of food bloggers. I think that is too bad, as it seems that some traditional journalists feel the need to discredit what they think might threaten them.
While blogs are blogs, they are neither inherently good or bad and, as with so many things in life, some people will find one blog amazingly interesting while others may not find anything of redeeming value in it. In general, blogs don't hurt anyone, although I think bloggers have a responsibility to be ethical and double check information when reporting things as fact. And I think most bloggers, although there are exceptions, should not call their write-ups of restaurants "reviews" because what most of us do is eat at a place once, then tell you about that experience. A real reviewer will visit a place several times, under varying conditions before writing a "review". And we should be careful not to put our summaries into that same category.
Having said all that, though, the thing that got me thinking (and much of the food blogging world up in arms) was the reporter's remark about (and I'm not quoting) how he never wanted to see another grilled cheese sandwich again - or something like that. Basically saying he wasn't interested in what anyone had for lunch on any day. Well, many food bloggers then did just that, posted their grilled cheese sandwich photos. I didn't participate because, while the guy has a right to his opinion and food bloggers have a right to theirs, I didn't think the whole thing was worth responding to. But it made me think about some of the things I post and why I post them.
I've posted grilled sandwiches before and in fact there's one in this post. Why do I do it? Mostly because something has turned out so well or for some reason made me happy when I ate it or maybe I was just proud of it. The other thing, though, is that I hope that sometimes what I do encourages other people to try things - either the things I'm showing them or just gives them ideas of their own. And it seems a least a few of you find something redeeming in this blog as my numbers of visitors continues to grow and I actually have subscribers to the RSS feed, too. That is so cool! (And thanks so much!!)
And that was a very long way of getting to the point of this post!
All of the food/photos you see here were made from "leftovers". I was hungry, found some bits and pieces of things, put them together and ended up with an immensely satisfying meal. I just love that even more than when I plan a meal and it turns out well. Something about the MacGyver method of cooking appeals to me. :-)
The photo at the top of the page, is of mini-grilled sandwiches. I had been kind of hankering for a grilled cheese sandwich when I realized that the only bread in the house was a baguette and a very small baguette, at that! At first I was discouraged but then decided to use that bread - an experiment to see how these would work as an appetizer! They were good! Just two or three bites each, they could be the perfect savory bite at cocktail time. For these particular sandwiches I used thinly sliced Gruyère cheese, a slice of soprasotta salami, a slice of tomato and one more slice of cheese so there would be "glue" on both sides. While grilling I placed a sheet of parchment and a heavy pan on top of them to really get the cheese-glue working. The second photo, was actually based on that same loaf of bread! :-) But this time, I simply did a quick sauté of beautiful Mexican shrimp in olive oil and garlic. I toasted slices of the baguette;mashed a little ripe avocado on top of the bread; sprinkled some nice chunky salt on the avocado; added a peeled shrimp to the top of the stack and then drizzled a little fresh lime juice over the whole thing. The tomatoes you see in the photo were just a little side dish. In the final photo, you'll see how I used some of the leftover wild rice waffles from a recent brunch. After the brunch I had frozen a bunch of the waffles. On this day I defrosted a couple squares, toasted them in my oven until the were a bit crispy on the outside but still soft inside. I cut them into quarters and then topped them with a dollop of creme fraiche, some chopped green onion, a slice of tomato and then I drizzled the whole thing with a reduced balsamic vinegar that I'd made for another dish a few days prior. Bite-sized and perfect with a glass of wine.
So I hope that looking at these photos and reading my little story encourages you to go see what you have laying around the house and put something together. And by the way - there are lots of things I try that don't make it to the blog. Maybe the taste was okay but nothing special, maybe it wasn't even really okay... maybe it tasted great but didn't look all that appetizing. The point is you have some successes and some, umm, experiments but when you have one that really works it is so great! 03/04/2006 Darjeeling Makes Me Happy05/03/2006 Today's Breakfast The avocados have been really beautiful lately. Which means I've been buying tons of them. I can think of a million ways to use them but mostly the simplest ways are the best. This is a little idea that is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner or anytime in between - it can be a great cocktail snack, too!
This is simply slices of a good bread, ripe avocado mashed on top and then slices of tomato. Now, the tomato at this time of year is not so good, but I've found one on-vine variety that is pretty decent. And I find by adding some good chunky salt or a couple of twists of black pepper I get the essence of tomato if not the perfect sun-ripened version. Right now, on a blustery March morning, that's enough to hold me until summer! 29/01/2006 Another Night at Via Tribunali Friday night found M, R and me sitting at the bar at Via Tribunali, talking to our favorite bartender Kevin (formerly of Queen City Grill), sharing a couple of pizzas and a bottle of wine, and just generally basking in the warm glow of the place. It was a good night. 15/01/2006 First Tulips of 2006 We finally had a little break in the weather today - oh not that we didn't have measurable rainfall just in that it was dry for a good part of the day. I spent part of the time down at Pike Place Market and was so happy to see that my tulip people, Jonkheer Greenhouses, have set up shop for the season! Woo Hoo! Tulips are probably my favorite flowers and now I'm assured of batches of them for the next several months. These are greenhouse grown but I'm not complaining. In time they will be replaced with field grown flowers. In the meantime, they are a little breath of spring in the middle of gray, gray days. 23/12/2005 Cheese Crackers from E
I met my friend E for coffee this morning. Well, actually I had tea and he had coffee but that's beside the point. Besides that fact that it's always fun to spend time with E, I was lured with the promise of a gift - a food gift! I was so excited! I arrived at the appointed spot a few minutes early and E showed up a minute or two later - carrying the treasure. We got our beverages and took up residence at a window table overlooking the hustle and bustle of Pike Place Market. As soon as we sat down E presented me with not one, but two, lovely gifts! The first was the promised cheese crackers, one type made with blue cheese and the other with cheddar. The other box was full of pepper cookies, which go by various names in various countries but E's version was Norwegian which makes them Pepperkaker. He had decided to make his own version when he found that the bakery he normally buys them from had already sold out for the season. We immediately opened the cheese crackers and the Mango Cream Cheese he'd made to accompany them. I had a crispy, flaky, lovely bite of a blue cheese star and fell in love. The only thing that kept me from gobbling them all down at that moment was a thought about how great they would be with a glass of wine or perhaps a nice martini! Although they are so great on their own, they may not last until "happy hour" this evening! When I got home I nibbled a little Pepperkaker, too. Crispy and fragrant with winter spices and pepper, E has another winner on his hands! Thank you, E! I love my gift!
 04/12/2005 The Season of GivingI had been planning on writing a post this weekend reminding everyone to think about organizations in their communities who help the less fortunate. Especially at this time of year it's nice to help put food on the table of someone who might not have enough for daily sustenance, let alone a special holiday meal.
I had been thinking about this whole "giving" idea quite a lot lately as I'd been hearing a lot about donor "fatigue". You may have heard about it in your community, too. It's what they are calling the drop in donations to local causes and organizations. They believe it's because there have been so many catastrophes this year and many people have been donating right and left to tsunami victims, earthquake victims, hurricane victims and all this on top of rising prices, especially anything impacted by fuel costs. Donors are just worn out financially and, probably emotionally, from caring about so much, so often. Yet the daily need in each community doesn't go away just because catastrophes strike.
Over the last couple of weeks I've also been talking to some folks about a work party at one of our local agencies, Northwest Harvest. I try to organize work groups for them now and then but I haven't organized a group for quite some time and was starting to float the idea with people. Last Wednesday, at my friend T's birthday gathering, I started talking about it in earnest with a few people I met that night and decided I'd better get on it as, in the past, it's always taken me two to three months to get a weekend spot at the Northwest Harvest warehouse. Especially around holiday time. When I called the volunteer coordinator on Thursday and asked for a Saturday slot after the first of the year I was fully expecting that the earliest available dates would be late February or early March. I was amazed to be offered January 7th or 14th! And I could have had the Sundays, too. And I had my choice of either the morning or afternoon spots!
Has donor fatigue drifted into the volunteering efforts, too? I don't know, but I can see how it might happen. And maybe this is just some little fluke but it made me incredibly sad to think that such a good agency might be suffering in many ways due to people just running out of funds and energy or at least feeling like they have.
Then I had something sort of odd happen. My furnace has been in need of a little repair and on Saturday when the repairman came to fix it he discovered it was much more serious than we first thought. My heat exchanger is cracked which means I can't run my furnace at all since that can cause carbon monoxide problems. Tomorrow they will place an order for the part and (hopefully) it will be here later this week but by the time it's all repaired and I have heat again it will be a week or more since I've been able to use my furnace. I had one space heater and bought another so I can keep a couple of rooms warm but the rest of the house is very cold!
So for the last two days I've been in this really weird mood. I know that in a week or so I'll have heat again but it kind of feels like I'll never be totally warm again. And in reality it's not all that bad but I want to lock myself in one room and curl up and conserve my energy. And it's causing me to feel a little depressed - I mean it's the holidays and I can't really do the things I want to do because most of the house is cold. And then I started thinking about all the people who everyday must choose between food and heat because they don't have funds for both.
If I feel this way knowing that it will be fixed soon and that I have tons of other alternatives - friends I can stay with, the ability to buy a space heater at a moment's notice; a warm car I can drive around in; I can work from anywhere with wireless access; I have two fireplaces and lot of wood - how must those people feel who don't know when their situation will end and who don't have other alternatives? We sometimes wonder why people don't do more to pull themselves up and out of bad situations. But it's those very situations that can have such a deep impact that many people feel powerless to do anything except work on surviving. And that can take a lot of energy.
So I encourage you to dig just a little deeper with either your time or your dollars to help a local cause in your area. Many companies sponsor food drives this time of year - take a look in your pantry and I'll bet you'll find a few things to donate. Some have giving trees - select a name and buy a little gift for that person. Check with your church or a local food bank to see if they can use some help serving or distributing meals. Talk to your friends to get a group together to contribute in some way. If each of us does some little bit it will really add up.
It's the season of giving. Let's all do our part. 20/11/2005 What I Had for Breakfast Andrew at Spittoon decided he wanted to check out what we all had to eat this morning and so he created a one time meme.
My breakfast was a bit odd this morning. I'd decided that I needed something rather substantial as I had a busy day ahead of me and probably wouldn't eat again until about 4:00 pm. Part of my day's activities included a wine bottling and tasting and I didn't want to hit that with an empty stomach! However, I also didn't have a ton of time this morning. So I decided to throw a couple things together.
First up, a couple of scones made from Fisher Fair Scones mix. I love these scones and the best part is you can go from thinking about scones to eating them in about 15 minutes! They are a quick and easy pastry fix! While they were baking I pulled a few leftover Sausage Balls out and reheated them. I made these for the Dinner Club meeting on Friday night (post coming soon...). I'll tell you more about them when I write up our dinner. And finally, I made a fried egg over easy. The entire breakfast was done in about 15 minutes, maybe less. Top it all off with a cup of Monk's Blend tea and you have a great start for a busy day!
If you want to see how others started their Sunday, you can check out the summary on Andrew's page. 05/10/2005 Tagged! The "23rd Post" MemeKate over at Accidental Hedonist, has tagged me for the latest meme making it's way around the blogging world. This meme is a look back at the "past". For some that's more distant than for others - in my case it's about 10 months ago...
Here's how it works:
Here goes! I started this blog in December of last year. My first post is dated December 2 but I wanted a few entries before I went live so I first published publicly on the 9th. I was anxious to have a small body of work as early as possible so that people coming to the site would find at least a little depth. My 23rd post was actually on December 23rd! It was my "Holiday Party Post Mortem". Every time I have a party or people over for dinner or brunch or whatever, I document what I did, what worked, what didn't work, if I had too much or not enough of something, etc. For me it's been both a way to look back at the party and enjoy it again and also to get better at entertaining over the years. For this specific post the 5th line is mostly just a recounting to give the reader some perspective but it's also about the challenges that sometimes face a host, "I had a total of 24 guests, 8 people cancelled in the last 24 hours (always a little frustrating since by then I'm well into the prep and can't really adjust amounts) and 2 no-shows, however, 3 who were "maybes" were able to make it, which was nice. " I don't know that I can find a lot of insight about this except to say that that the shifting number of RSVPs is something I find personally challenging and I strive to have a more relaxed attitude about. :-) I will say that over the years I've really enjoyed looking back at my entertaining diaries. When I look at the menus, lists of guests and my notes, the parties come back to life for me. It's as if I get to experience them again! Although I now document these things in this blog, I still keep a paper version. I tape in the invitation or menu or a sample placard, maybe some pictures - whatever little things I have around that will capture the essence of the party. And now, I print off my blog entry (instead of hand-writing as in the past) and attach it to a page. If you entertain at all I highly encourage you to start this type of reference! Okay, now for the tags! Hmmm... I wonder who has yet to be tagged? Okay, let's try:
02/10/2005 A Cooking Kind of Day...
Earlier today I finally made the risotto I had planned to make for last week's brunch. (You're right - that is not a picture of risotto at the top of the page!) I used a recipe in Mario Batali's new cookbook, "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home" , Risotto con Zucca or Risotto with Squash, in this case Acorn Squash. As you probably know risotto takes a bit of time and while it's cooking it needs to be stirred constantly. As I was sitting there stirring and adding broth little by little, I was thinking how nice it was to be inside cooking on such a day. It was raining and had been for hours; the dishwasher was humming; and, although I couldn't really hear it, I was also doing wash so the washer and dryer were somewhere in the background noise. I had a new CD, Children of the Revolution's, "Liberation" playing - they had been the opening act for Pink Martini at one of the Ste. Michelle concerts I'd been to this summer and I really like them. The windows were a little steamy from the risotto and the house smelled great! The whole thing was just so comforting and cozy.
The risotto was really good but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't actually taste the squash, although it did seem to add an underlying taste or fullness to the taste. Mario's recipe calls for cubed squash, as opposed to cooking it, mashing it and then adding it to the risotto as many other recipes do. By the time you are done cooking the risotto, though, the squash as been completely incorporated - you can't really see it. I still managed to eat a giant bowl of it and the best part is that there are enough leftovers for two or three more meals!
Once I get in that cooking mood sometimes I just keep on going. Right now, I'm making up a batch of marinara, mostly from the San Marzano tomatoes from my yard. I threw in a few cherry tomatoes, too, to add more sweetness and there are lots of herbs simmering away in the pot. At about 7:15 pm I went out to pick the herbs and was amazed at how dark it was! I had to turn all the yard lights on to see what I was doing.
The marinara is not for tonight - I'm still full from the risotto! It needs to simmer for a while and reduce a bit. I'll use it over the next few days and it will be even yummier as the flavors have a chance to really meld together.
I guess it's getting to be that time of year though - time to stay at home, cook up a little love and then settle in to enjoy it. Maybe read a book by the fire. And I'm sure there's a glass of wine or two in there somewhere, too! :-) 21/09/2005 Cooking in New OrleansIn today's edition of the NY Times (free registration required) there is an interesting article about how many cooks are getting back to work - in one way or another.
18/09/2005 Another Night at Ste Michelle Last night was another night at Ste Michelle Winery for a concert. My what a difference a month makes! Even though the sky was mostly clear and the day had a fair amount of sunshine, once the sun dropped and the dew started falling it was a bit chilly and very damp! This time I avoided the camera question and took just a couple shots.
 As you can see from the first photo there was a full moon - we had one last time, too! It's so cool to watch it come up over the Eastern horizon while enjoying the show. It was M's turn to bring food. We started with a beautiful plate of figs and cheese. An earlier trip to the tasting room yielded a lovely Syrah to accompany our luscious snack.
 For our main course there was a beautifully grilled chicken, an oh-so-comforting dish of mixed grains and a fresh-from-the-garden salad. The grains were so satisfying that I actually just wanted to dive in and curl up on a hearty bed of them. Perfect "summer's almost over but it's not quite full on fall" food!
As the show started we settled in with a final glass of wine and pulled our little blankets up around us to keep us warm and dry. It was a nice way to end the summer concert season. |
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