Autumn Picnic Food

Autumn Picnic Food

September in Petaluma means chilly mornings, followed by sweltering afternoon sun. The leaves are starting to yellow, the grass is a pale gold, and it's apple time. I suddenly feel the desire to make heartier fall food, but it's so hot by dinnertime I can't stand to be in the kitchen.  Yesterday I took advantage of the cool morning and made some things ahead of time, a few Asian takes on picnic food, using sweet and bitter vegetables, and some stuffed eggs with a little wasabi kick. Good served cold as lunch food, the salad can also be warmed up and served with pork or chicken at dinner, or with a poached egg over top like everything I seem to make...

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Campfire Oats

Campfire Oats

Oh mason jar. If you weren't so darn useful I'd be sick of you by now. This summer we spent an incredible amount of time at home, tearing things down, building them up. One week we did decide to get away and disappeared into the woods for some camping by the Russian River. It was a test to see if we are all ready to rough it together in a tent with nothing but fire to cook our food. 

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Savory Scone

Savory Scone

We have a funny little tradition of naming our vehicles in this family.  It started with Adam's old Chevy S-10 "The Green Machine", then my silver Toyota Corolla "Platinum Bomb". Since then we've also named our bike collection: Adam's long suffering "Midnight Blue" beach cruiser, Jasper's brand new "Sergio" orange and black trick bike and my cream colored townie "Cupcake". Wylie rides a little blue strider that he named "Blue Jay", but recently he announced that he'd embellished the name a bit.  It's now called "Lightening-Savory Scone-Blue Jay". You got that right. I'm telling you this little story because we did another remix of the biscuit recipe for Wylie's turn to bring school snacks this week.  This time we used the last of our chard, some over-ripe cherry tomatoes and a smokey cheddar, adding a little whole wheat flour to make a savory version of a scone or a biscuit, really what's the difference? You'd think he would have been so excited that we made actual savory scones in his honor, but I couldn't even get him to take one bite for a picture (and they were delicious). I heard back and most of the kids, including our kid, loved them. So there you have it, and here's the recipe.

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The Leftovers

The Leftovers

First off, thank you to everyone who reached out to me about Monday's post.  I received so many supportive comments, here and on Facebook, some about standing up for ourselves in difficult social situations, some about being a better person to the people in our lives that truly matter, and worrying a little less about the feelings and perceptions of total strangers.  It's that part that I'm really thinking about right now.  In that spirit, here's a little post about spending time with the people that matter, and making something sweet together. 

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Pancakes + Fireworks

Pancakes + Fireworks

We'll be on vacation during fourth of July, staying at a cabin on the Russian River.  Boy howdy am I excited! I have a little surprise in store for the boys for the morning of Independence Day...red, white, and blue pancakes. A little food coloring goes a long way, just add a few drops of red and blue to a half a cup of batter. Scroll down for my favorite (dairy-free)recipe!

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