Butternut Squash Polenta Squares with Sage Walnut Pesto

I served these at my New Year’s Eve party.  They were one of those, rare “please please please let this idea in my head work” hail marys that actually turned out exactly as I had imagined.  A Festivus Miracle indeed. I don’t have a recipe, but I can tell you they were easier than they [...]

Read Full Post »

Dark Days – Week 1: Pumpkin and Chestnut Cream Soup

I’m alive and I’m back.  I have had a really busy few weeks and just haven’t had time to post anything.  But, I signed up to do the Dark Days challenge again this year, which should keep me on a more regular posting schedule. The Dark Days Challenge is hosted by (not so) Urban Hennery, [...]

Read Full Post »

Pasta with Tomatoes, Anchovies, and Almonds

  Just like last year, I’ve been buying up my beloved dry farmed early girl tomatoes like crazy.  They are the best tomato ever, and if you are lucky enough to find them at your farmers market, buy them.  You won’t regret it. With those tomatoes on my mind, I was quite excited to stumble [...]

Read Full Post »

Roasted Elephant Garlic Pesto

I’ve been buying up elephant garlic from Happy Boy Farm at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market.  Elephant garlic is about the size of a normal head of garlic, except it’s just one giant clove.  Apparently, it’s not really garlic, but closer to a leek or onion.  It tastes like garlic, except a little more mild.  And [...]

Read Full Post »

Winter Pizza

Last week, it was freakishly cold, wet, and rainy here for a few days.  These ingredients made it all better.  I piled them on pizza dough topped with fontal cheese and the result was amazing.   Fontal cheese is a type of Fontina, only nuttier and earthier.  If you can’t find it, I’d go for regular Fontina if you prefer mild cheeses or [...]

Read Full Post »

Sweet Potato Gnocchi Part Deux

When I made sweet potato gnocchi a couple weeks ago, I froze half the batch.  I wanted to try something new with the second half, so I opted for this recipe from the great blog Not Eating Out in New York.  Since the gnocchi were already made, it took me no time at all to [...]

Read Full Post »

30 Minute Dessert

When I got a huge bunch of rosemary in my recent farm share box, I started looking around for fun things to do with it.  Because I have an undying devotion to putting herbs in desserts, I went searching for something sweet.  This recipe from the New Orleans Times-Picayune came up, and I couldn’t resist. [...]

Read Full Post »

Almond Clementine Cupcakes

I first found this recipe on the food blog Smitten Kitten and was so intrigued, I had to try it. It uses the entire clementine – rind, pith, and flesh – and it uses no butter or flour. So, you can make this for your gluten-free friends. The original recipe is by Nigella Lawson of [...]

Read Full Post »

Collard Greens with Walnuts and Pickled Apples

This is a belated post on a dish I made a couple weeks ago, when my CSA box contained collard greens and apples. I had never tried collard greens before, and found this recipe on Epicurious and thought I would give it a try. The recipe was essentially a salad, and the collard greens were [...]

Read Full Post »

Party Foods

We had a few friends over last week and I prepared a few quick little munchies for the event. These two dishes were quick and elegant and incredibly tasty. Both come from old issues of Food and Wine. Cashews with Crispy Sage and Garlic Ingredients 2 garlic cloves, slicedOlive oil12 sage leaves plus 1 tablespoon [...]

Read Full Post »