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Continue reading Vanilla Bean Butternut Squash Soup with Puff Pastry
This week I was inspired by California’s Bublas real mozzarella cheese paired with the golden elixir of McEvoy Ranch Olive Oil. Now with these kind of fresh ingredients, one can’t just have any old “pizza dough” recipe. Alice Water’s Chez Panisse Pizza Dough will do just the trick. Continue reading Chez Panisse Fresh Mozzarella and Basil Pizza Pie
Doing my best to be a responsible locavore, I decided to hit up the Saturday’s Farmers Market at Santa Rosa’s Veteran’s Hall. Looking for the most vibrant colors to cook with, I honed in on a beautiful bunch of carrots and parsnips that met my fancy. Excited to be participating as a guest blogger on Bay Area Cook Local, I thought it would be fitting that not only my ingredients, but the recipe be local as well. Enter: Annie Sommerville’s Everyday Greens Cookbook. Annie is the executive chef for Greens Restaurant in San Francisco a favorite stop of mine when visiting the City. When possible, I will try to showcase Sonoma and Napa County artisans so you can get a flavor for the tremendous bounty found in the wine country. Continue reading Carrot-Parsnip Soup With Orange Creme Fraiche  once you have played with pate a choux a few times, it will present itself as a delivery system for all kinds of tasty fillings Today’s post is actually a two-fer. I have played with pate a choux several times since receiving my copy of Ratio (by Michael Ruhlman) from Amazon, last spring. It is dead easy once one knows what to expect while constructing it. So are citrus curds. My chickens were productive this week, so I had some extra eggs in the fridge. And Trader Joe’s had sacks of blood oranges when I went shopping yesterday. I thought these would be a nice item for afternoon tea tomorrow. Continue reading Pate a choux puffs with blood orange curd  Add your al dente pasta to the pan of sauce, and toss with extra splashes of virgin olive oil. When looking into the cupboard Thursday night, it occurred to me that because the year was to end within a few hours, I may as well cook something that embodied seasonal food. Food which we get to enjoy especially when the weather is just making that turn from warm to cool in the autumn. A ‘thank you for these ingredients’ type of meal. What better way to do this than with pasta, eh. To me, tomatoes and peppers are the end of the warm season, and this was a way to bring sunshine into the kitchen on a cold winter’s night. I tend to not follow pasta recipes, although I do employ some simple tips I’ve picked up when watching cooking shows. Lidia has been quite helpful in her Italian Kitchen, on Saturday mornings on PBS. Basic things to keep in mind: start your pot of water when you start prepping for the sauce, never crowd the pasta in the pot, do not overcook the pasta. Also, a recipe is merely a suggestion. If you don’t have scallions, but have a shallot, try a bit of that instead, for example. Continue reading Quick New Year’s Eve Pasta Hello Bay Area locavores! As you’ve probably noticed, Cook Local – Bay Area has fallen a bit silent as of late. Our wonderful friend Jennifer got a new job and while we’re absolutely thrilled for her (because really… a job in this economy is truly something to celebrate), it has meant a lack of cooking and blogging time for her. So, in order to keep the site running, we’re looking for a few good writers to help us out. Here’s the deal. Guest Writer for Cook Local – Bay Area
In return for this work, we at Cook Local HQ would provide you the following.
Ideally we’d like to find two guest writers that would help us out for January and February. Towards the middle of February, we’ll advertise for two new guest writers. If you decide that you kind of like this gig and want to make a longer term commitment, let us know and we can certainly talk about that. If you’re interested, email us!
Don’t put away those recipes for pumpkin pies, breads, and cookies just yet, bay area people. You don’t have an excuse. Why? Because the pumpkin capital of the world (Half Moon Bay) is within driving distance, that’s why, which means area farmers markets have plenty of pie pumpkins. And making your own pumpkin puree is so dead easy that there’s no reason to drop dollars on a hard to find can of the stuff. Continue reading Pumpkin Puree
Market Notes 11.21 Last week for a lot of things this morning at the San Mateo farmers market. Pomegranates, Asian pears, sweet potatoes. What’s left is going cheap- one dollar a pound and under. Onions, Reds and Yukon gold potatoes were seen for 50 cents a pound- load up for Thanksgiving! Continue reading Market Notes – 11/21  Apologies for picture. I'm convinced there is no flattering way to shoot risotto. Risotto is one of the dishes I often go for in Italian restaurants. Unlike pasta, which I’m reasonably sure I can make at home, risotto has always remained a mystery.  A Buddha's Hand Citron, AKA CthulhuFruit. First of all, I’d like to note that this is my first ever post from my new Motorola Droid. I waited a long time to get in on the smartphone game (mostly because I can’t stand att ) but I’m glad to finally have made the plunge! Mostly because I can finally blog and post pictures while out and about, which should be fun. At the San Mateo market this morning, the change of season was felt for me, and not only because it was gray and chilly. The seasons change here, but it feels like the produce just doesn’t stop. Oranges are swinging into view, including those fantastic mandarins that herald the holiday season. I spotted many exotic citrus as well, including sweet limes and Buddha’s hand citron (also known as, and what I shall call them henceforth, cthulhufruit.)  |
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You may have heard a bit in the news about a canned pumpkin shortage, causing thanksgiving pie-makers all across the country to cry into their flowery aprons, boohoo.
ed note – sorry for strange title and pic – still working out the kinks in posting via phone.