Let me start by saying, Rachel is no slouch. She's involved in a wide range of things, but I'd say the over-arching thread that seems to run through much of what she does is planning events that bring people to the table to reconnect with food, themselves, and each other. She's the program director of 18 Reasons, Bi-Rite Market's not-for-profit community center focused on engaging San Francisco residents through art and food. She created Edible San Francisco Magazine's Edible Pursuit (which was a total blast, btw). And (way back) formed a community potluck series, called Grub, which inspired people of all ages to get back into the kitchen and break bread with their neighbors.

Thanks for taking the time to share this list Rachel, I'm looking forward to attending a good number of your events this year :)

RACHEL'S COOKING STYLE (in her own words):

My cooking style is simple, intuitive, and seasonal. I was raised in a family that loved two things above all else: cooking & books. We had shelves full of cookbooks and my parents would give my sister and me a new cookbook each holiday season, signed not from Santa Claus, but "From: Julia Child". And yet while I love cookbooks and find them tremendous sources of inspiration, I honestly can't remember the last time I followed a recipe.

I have a bent towards whole foods, but I'm no purist, and above all I believe in cooking whatever it is I am craving. The ingredients we have here in the Bay Area are so wonderful they don't require much fuss (but yes, we do more than put figs on a plate). I eat meat, but not much, and I rarely cook it myself. Cooking and eating vegetarian just suits me. It doesn't take much more than a warm bowl of dal, Massa rice, and caramelized vegetables to make me happy.

Like many people I have limited time to cook. When I was in grad school, most of my classes were at night, and so I mastered the brown-bag meal. I'm just as busy these days, and I've had to perfect the art of "home from work/low-blood sugar/feed me now" cooking. I live on my own and while I'd like to say I spend as much time and care cooking food for myself as I do when feeding friends, it's not so. When it's just me, I choose simple fare made with great ingredients and minimal steps...and leftovers are my best friend.

I find I am happiest when I get to cook for and with others. This past Thanksgiving was a perfect example; I was invited to a friend's house for the dinner and only asked to bring one dish...I showed up with five: an arugula, persimmon, walnut salad, blue cornmeal sage muffins, orange sugar-cube buttermilk biscuits, a citrus, red onion, olive salad, and a blood-orange marmalade tart. Note to self: feed others more often.

RACHEL'S FAVORITE COOKBOOKS:

I moved into my current apartment in November of 2008; life got busy and I didn't unpack the last boxes until late January. Those boxes contained my cookbooks and unpacking them was like being reunited with some of my closest friends. Here are a few of my favorites:

- The Joy of Cooking: This is the first stop -- often referred to as the Bible and rightly so. I think it should be mandatory reading in schools. I've read it cover to cover several times and am always amazed to learn something new. It includes everything from directions for table setting to a butcher's anatomy of a pig. Oh, and it has one of my favorite words to say, "Cockaigne," which appears in the name of recipes that were favorites of the Rombauer and Becker families. Of course this book is as far from food porn as you can get, and maybe that's part of why I like it. It's full of simple, time-tested recipes that don't need to be in a glossy centerfold to be good.

- Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone: This book gives The Joy of Cooking a run for its money when it comes to being a go-to resource. It was popular in my house growing up and the sticky-fingerprinted margins of my own copy are evidence of its treasured place in my kitchen. I love recipes that are written for people who don't use recipes. Deborah Madison's guides to improvising a good vegetable broth, salad, or sandwich are reason enough for every cook to own this gem of a book.

- Fanny at Chez Panisse: My sister and I were encouraged to cook from a very young age and this was one of my first cookbooks. I have vivid memories of making cucumber raita, pasta with parsley and garlic, and "vanilla snow" all on my own. I remember sitting at the kitchen table for long periods, staring at the beautiful Ann Arnold illustrations. It seems as if Alice has always been in my life. My sister, now a chef, had a Chez Panisse poster on her bedroom wall, although we were 3,000 miles from the landmark restaurant. Almost 15 years after I first started to cook from this book, I moved to Berkeley and ended up working at Café Fanny, occasionally serving food to Alice and the real Fanny. The list of great children's cookbooks is short, and this one is head and shoulders above everything else I've seen. I wish every young cook could have a copy.

- The Gourmet Cookbook: The back cover of this cookbook quotes Ruth Reichl saying "Our goal was to give you every recipe you would ever need." I can't say that this book has every recipe I'd ever need -- that's a pretty ambitious goal -- but I would call it a valuable and much-loved resource. Plus, I am enamored with Ruth. She is the one person I would most want to dine with, meet, and interview. Having her cookbook in my kitchen is a little like having her watching over me at my stove.

- Full Moon Feast: In a world often beaten down by the anti-fat, anti-meat mob, Jessica made it safe, and sensible to begin to incorporate some of these foods into our diet without guilt (and unlike Mr. Atkins she's a big proponent of carbohydrates too). In this book, Jessica reminds us the importance of reconnecting with natural rhythms of our world through the kitchen. Many of the books I am drawn to allow a window into someone else's personal journey to nourishment, and that is true of this book. Having just received a Harsch fermentation crock for Christmas this year, I'm eager to finally give her Slow Kraut recipe a go.

- The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics: My first thought when I saw this book on the shelf at a used bookstore was that some teen fashion magazine probably published it. But there's a reason they say "don't judge a book by it's cover" because it turned out to be a wonderful introduction to macrobiotic eating and cooking, a topic that had always mystified me. Jessica's writing is vibrant, funny and she communicates this approach to eating (and life) in an accessible, straightforward way. Books like hers represent my eclectic approach to eating. I love brown rice as much as I love brownies. There is room for it all and this book is a great resource for finding balance.

- How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: I hope Mr. Bittman won't be offended when I say that I expected not to like this cookbook. I just felt like there wasn't much left to say on the subject. Did we really need another book to help us make beans and rice? Well, apparently we did. This book is a success in large part because it goes way beyond beans and rice, and because it's designed in an uncommonly user-friendly way. The recipes are written so that beginner cooks and advanced cooks can both utilize them. They provide solid guidance, but also lots of options and variations for making a dish yours while reminding you that a recipe is just a starting place. One of hidden gems of this compendium is the recipe for Tofu Croutons, which, if you live in the Bay Area, are terrific when made with Hodo Soy Beanery's tofu.

- Super Natural Cooking: You had to know that Super Natural Cooking would be on my list, right? I'm including it not because this is Heidi's site, or because I completed one of my graduate internships in her kitchen, but because this is an exceptional book, like no other I've seen. For those of us who like nothing more than to surround ourselves with cookbooks, to stack them high on our nightstand and curl up in bed to read them cover-to-cover, Heidi's book is tops. It is infused with beauty, cover to cover, because Heidi has impeccable style and chose to raise the bar on cookbook design. It is full of whimsical (Animal Crackers), inspired (Savory Amaranth Soufflé), and delicious (Otsu) recipes. Her food is sexy and unapologetically good for you.

- The Big Sur Bakery: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant - This is my newest cookbook, purchased on my first visit to Big Sur. I admit that it's rare that I buy cookbooks anymore. A book has to say something new, bring fresh energy to my kitchen, and have recipes that are both practical and inspiring if it wants to keep company with me. This book does all that and more. I love it because it has recipes like Hazelnut Flan with Roasted Cherries (who wouldn't want to make and eat that?!). I love how the chapters are organized by season, the way I cook. I love that it gives a glimpse into a restaurant's BOH (back of the house) world that so rarely gets its due. And I love it because the incomparable Sara Remington took the photographs -- I find it hard to resist any book that has been brought to life by Sara's camera.

Photos of Rachel and Rachel's apartment by Bart Nagel.

I have to admit that I'm always checking the Kasa blog with the hope that Anamika will post some of her recipes. So when she mentioned she was going to be teaching palak daal - spinach and lentils, and then offered to email me her recipe, I was pretty excited. I'd take a cooking class with Anamika any day, and in the meantime, this was the next best thing.

So, I'm excited to share my attempt at Anamika's daal - it's rich, filling, and nutritious. The fragrant spices filling the house were welcome (on yet another) rainy day. Thank you for sharing the recipe Anamika, big congratulations on your new location, and if you ever teach another class I hope to be first in line!

Spinach can be particularly muddy this time of year it seems. I fill the large bowl from my salad spinner with cold water, place the spinach in the basket the place it into the bowl of water. Swish the leaves around a bit to loosen any dirt. Drain and repeat. This usually does the trick. I use the same approach with kale and leeks as well. As far as peppers go, I used serrano chile peppers here, and used a pure red chile powder made from a mildly spicy red pepper, not cayenne in this case, I suspect that would be a bit on the too spicy side...but if that is all you have, adjust to what tastes good to you. I skipped the asafetida, but if you have it on hand, start with a pinch. Leftevers were delicious reheated with a generous splash of coconut milk. And lastly, if you are having trouble tracking down white urid daal / ivory lentils, feel free to experiment with other types of lentils.

1 cup / 6.5 oz / 185 g white urid or urad daal, picked over and rinsed

6 cups / 1.5 liters water, plus more if necessary
1/2 pound spinach, washed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 medium green chile peppers, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon pure red chile powder
a pinch of asafetida, optional
more salt to taste
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the daal and water. Bring to a boil, then add the spinach, ginger, turmeric, 3/4 of the green chiles, and all of the tomatoes. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the lentils are extremely soft. You may need to add a bit more water during the cooking process to keep the lentils soupy. After an hour and a half, stir in the salt.

In a separate pan, heat the butter and cumin and fry until the cumin seeds start to pop. Now add the red chile powder (and asafetida if you're using it) and fry for another 30 seconds. Taste and add more asafetida if you like. Add this butter mixture to the lentils and allow to cook for another five minutes. Taste, and season with more salt if needed. I also enjoyed a touch of lemon juice added at this point. Serve topped with the cilantro and the remaining green chiles.

Serves 4-6 with rice or roti.

So I wanted to give this general idea a go, and it's not exactly green bean season, but I made them anyway. And they were so insanely good, even though, admittedly, the green beans I used were sad, sad, sad. My advice? Make this recipe, like this, the next time you see good green beans in your market. In the meantime, make the exact same recipe substituting something that is in season in your corner of the world. I'm going to make it with cauliflower. Like tomorrow. Or the brussels sprouts I bought the other day? Those would be good too. And asparagus season isn't far off. I'm confident there are any number of substitutions you could make here that wouldn't disappoint.

I made a few tweaks to the recipe in Anna's book, reflected below. I like slicing green beans into little o-shapes, so I did that here. I also wanted to make this more of a one-pan meal, so I cut back significantly on the raisins and introduced tiny tofu cubes. I suspect little pan-fried paneer cubes or tempeh would also work. The version in her book is named John Pepper's exotic green beans, I renamed them here in case someone is looking for the original version - so there wouldn't be any confusion. Thanks for the inspiration Anna, your book turned out beautifully, I've enjoyed spending time with it.

*I'm sure a few of you have noticed, as of this posting, Anna's book hasn't shipped (yet!). I provided a quote for the back of the book and received an early copy. I checked with Chronicle Books this morning, and it looks like pre-orders will ship the first week in March.

Use a white wine that you'd want to drink after opening. And for those of you looking to speed things up, you don't need to slice the green beans, but it was a good call, the sauce gets into all the nooks and crevices.

1 pound green beans, thinly sliced (see photo)
1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 70g golden raisins
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
3 bay leaves
1/3 cup / 80 ml white wine
1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
scant 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
6 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup / 120 ml crème fraîche or sour cream
1/4 cup / 3/4 oz / 20g sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 cup / one handful of finely chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the green beans in a pot of well-salted boiling water for about a minute, just long enough that they lose their raw edge. Drain and dunk in ice-cold water to stop the cooking. Drain again and set aside.

In a small bowl cover the raisins with scalding hot water for five minutes, drain and set aside.

Heat your largest skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the oil, garlic, onion, and bay leaves. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions and garlic start to brown just a bit. Add the wine and cook until it has mostly evaporated. Carefully remove the bay leaves. Stir in the paprika, cumin, coriander, curry powder, salt, crushed red pepper flakes. Stir in the tofu and raisins and cook until heated through, a minute or so. Add the butter and green beans and stir until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and stir in the crème fraiche, then most of the almonds and most of the cilantro. Taste and add more salt and some pepper if you like. Serve topped with any remaining almonds and cilantro.

Serves 4 to 6.

Inspired by a recipe in Anna Getty's Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic, to be published by Chronicle Books, 2010.

I'm sitting here looking at an document dated December 18, 2005, it is my author agreement with Ten Speed Press for Super Natural Cooking. I don't know how four years passed so quickly, but it has. I delivered the manuscript and photography in August 2006, the book was published the following spring. I loved working on that book. And now, looking back on it, I'm realizing I sort of never stopped.

Not long after submitting the manuscript for Super Natural Cooking, I started setting aside photos I loved, and continued to keep notebooks of my favorite recipes, ideas, and inspirations. I wasn't sure what I would do with them, or what would emerge over time, but I had a hunch something might. Or not. Either way, I don't like the idea of rushing these sorts of things. I've come to believe you can't really rush inspiration, it comes on its own schedule, emerging and intersecting my life when it sees fit. I just try to keep my eyes open.

Keeping it local: Aaron Wehner, now publisher of Ten Speed Press, also happens to be a friend and neighbor. It's nice to be able to casually throw ideas around with him at the playground in the park across from my house, or over coffee up the block. I suspected (and hoped) that if I was going to work on another book, it would be with Ten Speed. They're located in Berkeley, and there's nothing quite like being able to share font inspirations with your designer face to face, or hang out with your editor over lunch or drinks. I've been very fortunate in that regard.

Now, there's a big difference between thinking about a book, and turning an idea into an actual book. I'm not sure if it is like this for everyone, but speaking for myself, committing to a book project is both exciting and terrifying. There was a point last year when my excitement about the prospect of making a new book tipped the balance away from terrified, and I started attempting to wrangle things into something real and cohesive. Something I was excited to share.

A new cookbook: I'm working on one :) I'll submit the manuscript and photography to Ten Speed this summer, and it will be published in spring 2011. It will be a follow up to Super Natural Cooking, and the working title is Everyday Super Natural. In short, it's a glimpse into my everyday cooking and everyday life. All new recipes, all new photography. In equation form: Me + Northern California + cooking with natural foods + my kitchen in San Francisco = Everyday Super Natural.

The recipes: The recipes are rooted in whole and natural foods. They typically feature a handful of seasonal ingredients, some inkling of nutritional balance, and most come together with minimal effort. At times it's tough, but I've resisted the urge to include any over-the-top, special-occasion creations. I also skipped any that had lots of components, or required elaborate time commitments. Instead, I went back to my notebooks and have anchored the book in my favorite everyday creations. The recipes I revisit over and over.

There is so much more I'd like to tell you about it, so much I'm excited to share. I was thinking I might write a series of posts focused on the creative process of making this book if you're interested? I was thinking: photography; the manuscript; the design process; inspiration; the recipes....? Let me know what you think.

And most importantly, this post wouldn't be complete without a heartfelt thank you to all of you who embraced Super Natural Cooking. Simply stated, without your support, I wouldn't be working on another book.

Technically a bouillon cube is a dehydrated cube or powder used to create an instant vegetable stock. Pam calls her version "souper mix"....but you use it in a way similar to bouillon cubes. To make quick, flavorful broth, for example when cooking soups, risottos, curries, whatever really. Just keep in mind it is quite salty and concentrated - I mention in the recipe I've been using 1 teaspoon per 1 cup of water/liquid to start. This first batch was made primarily with ingredients from my refrigerator, but I'm really excited to try other versions using different herbs and ratios of the base ingredients. In fact, if you have any suggestions or ideas give a shout in the comments - I'd love to hear them :).

That's it for now. Last week our friends Hadley and Philip visited from New Zealand with their two kids, so I found myself on a perfect January day ferry-bound to Alcatraz. I brought my camera, so I'll post a few shots to my Flickr stream for those of you who are interested.

*The U.S. edition of the River Cottage Preserves Handbook will be available this summer.

This recipe requires a food processor. I have a 8-cup / 2 liter / 2 quart model, and needed every cubic inch of it. I found the best approach if you are tight for space in your food processor is to add a few of the ingredients, then pulse a few times. The ingredients collapse and free up more space for the next few ingredients. If you don't find yourself using much bouillon, I will suggest making a half batch of this. And for those of you wanting to do a version with no salt, freeze the pureed vegetables in small amounts - say, ice cube trays, just after pureeing them. Introduce salt in whatever amount you like later in the cooking process.

5 ounces / 150 g leeks, sliced and well-washed
7 ounces / 200g fennel bulb, chopped
7 ounces / 200g carrot, well scrubbed and chopped
3.5 ounces / 100 g celery
3.5 ounces / 100g celery root (celeriac), peeled and chopped
1 ounce / 30g sun-dried tomatoes
3.5 ounces / 100g shallots, peeled
3 medium garlic cloves
9 ounces / 250g fine grain sea salt
1.5 ounces / 40 g flat-leaf parsley, loosely chopped
2 ounces / 60g cilantro (coriander), loosely chopped

Place the first four ingredients in your food processor and pulse about twenty times. Add the next four ingredients, and pulse again. Add the salt, pulse some more. Then add the parsley and cilantro. You may need to scoop some of the chopped vegetables on top of the herbs, so they get chopped. Mine tended to want to stay on top of everything else, initially escaping the blades.

You should end up with a moist, loose paste of sorts. Keep 1/4th of it in a jar in the refrigerator for easy access in the coming days, and freeze the remaining 3/4 for use in the next month. Because of all the salt it barely solidifies making it easy to spoon directly from the freezer into the pot before boiling.

Start by using 1 teaspoon of bouillon per 1 cup (250 ml), and adjust from there based on your personal preference.

Makes roughly 3 1/2 cups.

Inspired by The River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin. The U.S. edition of the River Cottage Preserves Handbook will be available this summer.

For those of you who are curious, I made note of everything in my freezer: five types of chili powder; three serrano chile peppers; kaffir lime leaves; white popcorn kernels; cooked chickpeas, mung beans, flageolets, and marrow beans; lots of Massa brown rice; pasta sheets; unidentified cookie dough #1; unidentified cookie dough #2; cooked posole in one bag, red sauce in another (for this); 2 pounds wild huckleberries; 1 sweet whole wheat pastry tart shell, round; 1 sweet whole wheat pastry tart shell, rectangle; 6 small spelt-semolina tart shells; small bag of ginger juice; 2 pounds Straus European-style butter; plenty of this green soup - I puree it and make a tart filling; one pack of three-grain tempeh; a stack of frozen rye crepes; cooked farro, pound of green beans; pack of expired acai juice; 8 Parmesan rinds, and roughly five pounds of cherries from my sister's tree.

Phew. So after deciding to put some of those beans to use, I made this ribollita. I should mention, it's one of those things where there are as many ways to make it as there are cooks. I normally use whole canned tomatoes this time of year - torn up. But had crushed tomatoes onhand, and they worked out nicely. As far as guidelines go? Your ribollita should be thick - eventually. The photo up above is a little deceptive. It was shot just after I made the ribollita, five minutes after I turned off the heat. Things hadn't finished thickening up entirely. You can see it is quite brothy around the edges. This changed substantially in the hours to follow, and this morning a glance at the leftovers told me I might be able to stand a fork up in it. I add abit of lemon zest at the end for a bit of brightness, and because I can't help myself. And I like the saltiness of the olives alongside the kale, so that's a little bonus as well.

I had a number of beans in my freezer and used a few of them here. Yes, you can even see some flageolets in there. But when starting from scratch, I usually opt for cannellini. On the bread front, I used a loaf of two-day-old whole wheat bread, but have at times opted for ciabatta. Canned beans can be used here, the equivalent is roughly two 15-ounce cans. Look for cavolo nero - a craggy evergreen-hued kale that might also be labeled lacinato or Tuscan kale.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium carrots or equiv. winter squash, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 14-ounce / 400 ml can crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 pound / 16 ounces / 450g cavolo nero (lacinato kale, Tuscan kale), stems trimmed off and leaves well chopped

4 cups / 22 oz / 620g cooked white beans
1/2 pound / 8 oz / 225g crustless loaf of bread
1 1/2+ teaspoons fine grain sea salt
zest of one lemon
lots of well-chopped oily black olives

In your largest thick-bottomed pot over medium heat combine the olive oil, celery, garlic, carrot, and red onion. Cook for 10 -15 minutes sweating the vegetables, but avoid any browning. Stir in the tomatoes and red pepper flakes, and simmer for another 10 minutes or so, long enough for the tomatoes to thicken up a bit. Stir in the cavolo nero, 3 cups of the beans, and 8 cups / 2 liters water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the greens are tender, about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mash or puree the remaining beans with a generous splash of water - until smooth. Tear the bread into bite-sized chunks. Stir both the beans and bread into the soup. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the bread breaks down and the soup thickens, 20 - 30 minutes. Stir in the salt, taste and add more if needed. Stir in the lemon zest.

Serve immediately, or cool and refrigerate overnight. Serve reheated, or "ribollita" meaning reboiled, the next day ladled into bowls. Finish each serving with a drizzle of olive oil and some chopped olives.

Makes a large pot of soup - enough for 10 servings.

I actually went back through my archives today and picked out a handful of recipes to revisit this month - recipes that are light and bright, brimming with vegetables (for the most part), and flavorful. I made the list for myself, but I thought you might get some use out of it as well.

I hope you all are looking forward to 2010 as much as I am. I have a few things I'm anxious to share with you, but more importantly, I wanted to start the year off thanking you for all you share with me - your suggestions, comments, ideas, the photos you post - I feel very fortunate for all of it.

Last year I ushered in the new year with a stomach flu, so we are already off to a better start ;)......The list of recipes:

Miso Soup - A simple, everyday approach to miso soup - this recipe yields me a bowl of soup in five or ten minutes. You can keep it simple if you like, but in this version I add soba noodles and tofu, and a few garnishes.

Double Broccoli Quinoa - I cook up lots of broccoli here, then puree half of it into a pesto. The other half is cut into little florets. Toss the broccoli with some quinoa, sliced avocado and a drizzle of feisty chile pepper oil, and you've got a nice meal on your hands.

Red Lentil Soup - A single-pot lentil soup with brown rice. It is made by browning some onions, adding the rest of the ingredients, and simmering until the whole lot is done.

Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh - The best tempeh recipe I've highlighted to date, it features a simple ginger and garlic-spiked orange glaze that plays off the nutty earthiness of the pan-fried tempeh beautifully.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts & Apples - Shredded brussels sprout ribbons, apples, garlic, pine nuts, and tofu in a skillet with a hint of maple syrup.

A Tasty Frittata - I make frittatas all the time, and this version with potatoes, onions, and eggs, drizzled with a cilantro chile sauce is a favorite.

Rustic Cabbage Soup - Hearty, healthy, and satistfying - this cabbage soup recipe is super simple to make. Slice a cabbage into thin ribbons and cook it down in a simple pot of sauteed potatoes, onions, beans, garlic and flavorful broth. Finish each bowl with a generous drizzle of great olive oil and a dusting of shredded cheese.

Broccoli Crunch - Tiny green broccoli florets, crisp apples, crunchy shallots, candied nuts and slivered red onions are tossed in a barely sweet, creamy almond vinaigrette. Add baked tofu or pan-fried tempeh and you can easily turn this side into a main course.

Caramelized Tofu - One of my favorite tofu recipes, caramelized strips of tofu served over sauteed shredded brussels sprouts. It comes together quickly and uses just one pan.

Richard Olney's Garlic Soup - I can't get enough of this soup. From Richard Olney's The French Menu Cookbook, it is made by simmering a dozen or so cloves of garlic in water with a few herbs, then thickening it with a mixture of egg and a bit of shredded cheese. It's hard to beat a ladleful poured over some crusty day-old chunks of walnut baguette.

Wishing each of you a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year. -Heidi

A few notes related to the tart. Be sure to read the head notes as well as the entire recipe before you get started. Tart recipes involving pastry can look scarier than they actually are, but you do have to plan ahead a bit. Once you're in the thick of it, this pastry dough is quite forgiving, you can patch up holes, pinch together fissures, and even re-roll if you have to. The only tricky thing with this particular tart dough is that it is thin in the pan size I call for - don't try to roll it out to a 10-inch pan. If you're worried, instead of making two tart shells, use all of the dough for one, and use any leftover dough for a few smaller tarts or a bunch of little cookies. :)

This dough recipe will make two, thin 9-inch tart shells. I usually make use one shell, and freeze one, unbaked, for future use. The recipe makes enough filling for one tart. If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour, you can use unbleached all purpose flour, that is fine. If all you have is white sugar, that is fine as well. I was thinking an alternative crust might be 1 cup APF + 3/4 cup spelt flour, but I haven't tried it yet. Be sure to sift your sugar for this tart shell, any big clumps of sugar turn into sugar puddles in your crust - no good. Roll out any extra dough and stamp into 1/8-inch thick cookies - they're great for ice cream sandwiches, or dunked in melted chocolate.

Tart Shell:
1/2 cup + 1 T / 4.5 oz / 130g unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup / 2.5 oz / 75g natural cane sugar, muscovado, or brown sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 large egg, room temperature
1 3/4 cup / 8 oz / 225g whole wheat pastry flour

Filling:
scant cup / 225 ml heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons milk
7 ounces / 200g 70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 large egg, beaten
flaky sea salt, cocoa powder

equipment: two 9-inch tart pans (or equivalent).

Start by making the tart dough. Use an electric mixer with the paddle attachment to cream the butter, sugar and salt until well combined. Alternately, you can do this by hand. Add the egg and mix until smooth. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple times along the way. Add the flour and pulse the mixer on and off, low speed, until the dough comes together and has a moist appearance. Divide the dough into two equal pieces, shape each into a ball, press into 1/2-inch thick disks, and wrap in plastic, or place in baggies. Chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C. Place a rack in the middle of the oven.

When you are ready to line the tart pans with dough, place one of the dough disks on a lightly floured surface and roll out until the dough is large enough to line your tart pan. I usually eyeball it - you can see in the photo the dough is about 1/6 - 1/8 inch thick. Dust underneath with flour to discourage sticking throughout the rolling process. Carefully transfer the dough to the pan. Don't worry too much if you get a tear or hole, you can patch those up later with scraps. Work quickly to ease the dough into place, taking care not to stretch the dough. Press it along the bottom of the pan, out to the walls, and against the sides. Trim any excess dough - I use the palm of my hand against the edge of the tart pan to cut off any extra dough, alternately you can roll a rolling pin across the rim of the pan for a clean edge. It should look like the second photo up above. Chill in the refrigerator for ten minutes or so while you roll out your extra tart shell. Double wrap that one in plastic and freeze it for future use.

You're going to partially bake the tart shell before filling it, so pull the shell out of the refrigerator, dock it with a fork, making small holes along the bottom of the shell - see photo. Line the shell with parchment paper and fill to the rim with pie weights or dried beans, bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the pie weights and finish baking for another 6 - 8 minutes, or until the crust is dry and just barely starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Make the chocolate filling by bringing the cream and milk to a gentle simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, add the chocolate, and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture smooth. Let cool five minutes, add the egg, and whisk until completely blended. If the chocolate is too hot, you're going to scramble the egg, be cautious.

Pour the filling into the cooled tart shell and bake for about 15 minutes, give or take a couple minutes. The filling should be set around the edges a bit darker than the center in color. The center will be a touch jiggly, that's o.k. I baked this tart in a slightly smaller/deeper tart pan and it took longer than its wider, shallower 9-inch counterpart. Just keep an eye on things.

Let the tart cool completely, preferably in the pan on a cooling rack. Dust with a bit of cocoa powder, and sprinkle with touch of flakey sea salt. You can serve at room temperature or chilled - it's easier to slice when it's chilled.

Serves 8 - 10.

I've had posole on my mind for weeks now. And this is just one of a series of posole-centric pots I've cooked up since my friend Gwen brought a huge pot of posole verde and all the fixings to a big family-syle dinner we had at Lori's house in Napa - you might remember Lori from the posts I've done about her cabin. Hi Lori, hi Lisa, hi Gwen :) The posole that night? It really hit the spot.

Gwen mentioned using the posole verde recipe on the Rancho Gordo site, but tomatillos are scarce right now, so for this pot I went the red route. I started with Deborah Madison's posole recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which essentially gives you a base recipe for cooking posole/hominy. You then add her chile colorado style red sauce (to taste), which takes the posole into the red realm. I've adapted the recipe to combine the two components, and incorporated a few personal tweaks as well. You'll find posole is quite adaptable, so really, just season and make changes based on what tastes good to you.

It is worth mentioning, you'll end up with plenty of extra red sauce. Not a bad thing because it actually freezes well, as does drained pozole/hominy. So, while I don't normally think of pozole as an on-the-fly weeknight meal, if you have two of the components in the freezer, you can thaw them earlier in the day, and be ready to go, relatively quickly, later in the evening.

I'm just noticing that there aren't many popped kernels in the lead photo. There were plenty, but I must have spooned them all into my bowl! Merry Christmas & happy holidays everyone.

Look for ready-to-cook hominy - the kind you soak overnight, and then cook. A lot like you would beans. I used Rancho Gordo white corn posole, but there is also a thread on Chowhound on how to source ready-to-cook posole As far as the choice of chile peppers goes, I used dried red New Mexican chiles, they have mild heat and aren't overly intense. You might also try guajillo chiles, or if you don't mind a bit more heat, Aji Amarillo chiles with their fruity overtones might be nice. Or maybe try a blend of mild-ish chiles. For the sauce, be sure to buy ground red chile, not chili powder - which has other ingredients mixed in. Also, for the vegans out there, this can easily be made vegan by using something like avocado as a topping in place of the cheese.

1 pound / 16 oz / 453g dried ready-to-cook posole / hominy (see head notes)

1 small white onion, diced
3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

3 dried red New Mexican chile peppers, stems removed (see head notes)
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

Red Sauce:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons finely diced white onion
2 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup / 2 oz / 50g ground red chile (see head notes)
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
a quarter of one lime

garnishes: tortilla strips, crumbled queso fresco or feta, toasted dried Mexican oregano

Soak the dried posole overnight in a large bowl of water. The next day drain the posole and place it in your largest thick-bottomed pot along with 3 1/2 quarts/liters of water, the onion, garlic, chile peppers, and oregano. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the posole is tender, and many of the kernels have flowered into popcorn shapes. This can take anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours. Season with a couple teaspoons of salt roughly halfway through the cooking process. Season again once the posole is fully cooked.

In the meantime, make the red sauce by combining the olive oil, onion, garlic, and oregano in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir continuously until the onion takes on a bit of color, a few minutes. Add the flour and cumin, and stir for a minute or two or until the flour browns a bit. Whisk the chile into 2 1/2 cups / 600ml water and pour it into the saucepan, whisking all the while. Stir until the sauce thickens a bit, dial down the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for fifteen minutes or so. Stir in a squeeze of fresh lime juice, and season with the salt, adding more to taste if necessary. Set aside until the posole has finished cooking.

Stir 1/2 cup / 120ml of the red sauce into the pot of posole. You can add more red sauce, a bit at a time, until it is to your liking. Spoon the posole into bowls and top with tortilla strips, cheese, and oregano.

Serves 8.

This recipe was adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.

For those of you who haven't seen Coco, the premise is simple - ten culinary masters highlight one hundred contemporary chefs. The culinary masters are Gordon Ramsay, Ferran Adria, Alain Ducasse, Alice Waters, Rene Redzepi, Jacky Yu, Yoshihiro Murata, Fergus Henderson, Shannon Bennett, and Mario Batali. They, in turn, have selected one hundred of the best contemporary chefs working today. So, as you can imagine, there is a fascinating range of individuals highlighted here. There are chefs cooking not far from where I live, and others as far-fetched as Copenhagen, New York, Paris, Oslo, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Siena, and Singapore. You get a peek in each of their kitchens, and a selection of their recipes. It's fun to see all the different platings, and cooking styles ranging from simple and traditional to experimental.

Mona Talbott is the chef (and director) of the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome, and the pasta I'm highlighting today is hers. You make a pounded walnut pesto with marjoram and parsley, and toss it with farro pasta and Pecorino cheese. It's rustic, simple to make, and perfect this time of year. Each time I would flip to this recipe, I'd also notice her dried fava bean and chicory soup, and the chestnut flour cake with raisins and pine nuts. Both on the list of recipes to try from this book.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I've been delighted with this not-so-little holiday present to myself. I so appreciate each of these chefs giving us a glimpse into their kitchens, and even if my cooking style isn't in line with many of them, I found something inspiring in each profile.

Use a short pasta here, I happened to have a farro strozzapreti, which was great, the sauce got caught up in its little curls. In the book Mona uses a ruffled edge farro pizzichi.

3/4 cup / 3.5 oz / 100g walnuts
1 clove garlic, peeled, germ removed if garlic sprouted
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

2/3 cup / 5oz / 150ml extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons marjoram, chopped
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1/2 cup / 1 oz / 30 g pecorino Romano, grated
salt & pepper
1 pound / 16 oz / 460g short farro pasta

Start by heating a large pot of water, it will take a while for it to come to a boil.

In the meantime, toast the walnuts in a 350F / 175C degree oven until they are golden, 8-10 minutes. While still warm, wrap them in a clean dish towel and rub off the skins.

Place the garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle, and pound to a fine paste. Add the walnuts to the mortar and pestle and pound into a paste. Alternately, you can do this in a food processor.

Transfer the nut mixture to a bowl. Stir in the olive oil, then add most of the herbs. Stir in the pecorino, taste, and adjust the seasoning.

Salt the pasta water generously, and cook the pasta al dente. Drain and reserve a big cup of the pasta water. Toss the walnut pesto with the pasta, and thin out the sauce with the reserved water. Serve topped with a sprinkling of the remaining herbs.

Serves 6.

This recipe was adapted from Coco: 10 World-Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs by Editors of Phaidon Press. Published by Phaidon Press (November 16, 2009).

I've experimented with a range of sugars here, and some work better than others. In the beginning, I wanted to make them with a maple sugar coating - but the cranberries looked like they had been dropped in dust. The same goes for raw cane sugar, and Rapadura. So I gave up trying to do a less refined version. And extra-fine grain sugar didn't work well either - clumpy. Essentially, the best way to get a good sparkling sugar crust on your cranberries is to first roll them in an slightly-chunky organic sugar (something like this), and later toss them in regular granulated sugar. The small grains of the granulated sugar cling to any spots that are still sticky from the simple syrup.

They are simple to make, but you need to start them the night before.

For the simple syrup, raw cane sugar or real brown sugar lends a nice molasses flavor to the cranberries, but regular granulated sugar (or a blend of brown/white) will work.

2 cups cranberries, picked over
2 cups water
2 cups sugar (see head notes)

More sugar for coating: I do a mix of medium-grained organic sugar for the first coating, and then a second toss with regular granulated white sugar. You don't want a huge grain for that first toss, just something larger than standard sugar, smaller than most turbinado sugars. You can sort of see the different grain sizes in the third photo in the main write-up.

Place the cranberries in a medium glass bowl and set aside.

Make a simple syrup by bringing the water and sugar just to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Let the syrup cool for a couple minutes and then pour it over the cranberries. If the syrup is too hot the cranberries will burst, so be careful. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, drain the cranberries and toss them with larger grained sugar until they are well coated. I only use a scoop of sugar at a time, and small batches of cranberries, so the sugar doesn't get too damp. Place the coated cranberries on a baking sheet to dry for a few hours.

Do a second toss with the regular granulated sugar, this typically takes care of any sticky spots on the cranberries. Let dry another hour.

Makes 2 cups of sparkling cranberries.

I actually stumbled on some flatbread notes while tidying up my desk. I tried to do a version a while back using whole, uncooked millet and quinoa. The notes in the margin cautioned me to use less crunchy ingredients the next time around, ones less likely to crack a tooth ;). This time I went the seed route, and my one mistake was not crushing the mustard seeds before adding them to the rest of the ingredients - but I've adjusted the recipe to take this into account.

When I pull the flatbread dough extra thin, I sometimes add a thin later of toppings. The version in the photo below was baked with paper thin slices of sauteed potatoes, a bit of cheese, a pinch of fresh thyme. When I leave the flatbread a bit thicker, like you see in the first photo, I usually skip the toppings, preferring it right out of the oven with a bit of salted butter - and preferably alongside a big bowl of soup.

And just a reminder, you need to make the dough the night before, it takes about 10-15 minutes to prepare the dough, and then you pull it out and bake it the next day.

This recipe makes a hearty, dense flatbread. If you tend to like your breads slightly lighter, I'd recommend starting with 1/2 unbleached all-purposed flour & 1/2 white whole wheat flour to see how you like it. You can play with the ratio in future batches based on that. If you have trouble finding white whole wheat flour, using all unbleached all-purpose flour will work. I have a note to myself to try a spelt flour version as well, and to add some wheat or oat germ that has been pulsed into a flour in a food processor. For those of you who are curious, I have been using King Arthur brand White Whole Wheat Flour. And once last thing, if your whole grain flour starts to smell soapy and generally off, it has probably gone rancid, and needs to be replaced.

4 1/2 cups / 1 lb. 6.5 oz / 640 g White Whole Wheat Flour


1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon instant yeast / active dry yeast

1 cup / 5 oz / 140g seeds (I use equal parts chopped pepitas, sunflower & poppy seeds)

1 1/2 tablespoons mustard seeds, toasted and crushed

1/4 cup / 60ml extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups / 475 ml water, ice cold
semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting baking sheet

Stir together the flour, salt, yeast, and seeds in the bowl of an electric mixer. By hand stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is absorbed. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 7 minutes or so, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. As you are mixing, the dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl (to me it looks a bit like a tornado). Add a touch of water or flour to reach the desired effect. The finished dough will be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky.

Transfer the dough to a floured counter top. Cut it into 6 equal pieces and mold each into a ball. Rub each ball with olive oil and slip into plastic sandwich bags. Refrigerator overnight.



When you are ready to make flatbread (anytime in the next few days), remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before making the bread. Keep them in a warm place, covered, so they don't dry out. 



At the same time place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you don't have a baking stone, you can use a sheet pan, but do not preheat the pan.

 Generously dust a peel or a sheet pan with a bit of semolina flour or cornmeal and get ready to shape your dough. Uncover or unwrap the dough balls and dust them with flour. Working one at a time, gently press a dough round into a disk wide enough that you can bring it up onto your knuckles to thin it out. You can pull it as much or as little as you like. The dough in the lead image was pulled about 6-7-inches, and the one further down the page was pulled paper thin. If the dough is being fussy and keeps springing back, let it rest for another 15-20 minutes. Place the pulled-out dough on the prepared pan, and jerk the pan to make sure the dough will move around on the cornmeal ball-bearings (you don't want it to stick to the pan).

Add your toppings if you are using toppings (less is more!) and slide the topped pizza onto the baking stone. Bake until the crust is crisp and nicely colored - I start checking on it after 7 minutes or so, but it can take quite a bit longer depending on how thick or not thick you've pulled it. Remove from the oven.



Makes six 6-ounce flatbreads.


They are a breeze to mix up by hand, meaning there's no reason to dirty up your electric mixer. Said another way, you don't need to cream the butter into the sugar, which is where most of the effort is usually required. Instead you mix the sweeteners into barely-melted butter, add the egg, and pour that over the flour mixture. No sore arm muscles ;)

And while we're on the topic of holiday cookies, I thought I should point two favorites from last year. I loved these elegant, powder-kissed Swedish Rye Cookies, and my pal Sante's Hermit Cookies were great as well - they're full of nuts and spices and currants, topped with a snow-cap of icing.

Thanks again to Tim at Lottie & Doof for inviting me to participate. Can't wait to see who is up next.

Sidenote: My apologies to everyone who is having trouble searching the site (using the search box in the top navigation bar)....It's broken right now, and we're working on a fix. Hopefully soon!

If you can't locate whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute spelt flour. Or feel free to use all-purpose flour if that is what you have on hand. As far as the unsulphured molasses goes, I use Wholesome Sweeteners or Plantation Organic Blackstrap Molasses. I used a Scharffen Berger Bittersweet 70% here. You can use light brown sugar, or light muscavado sugar in place of the natural cane sugar.

1/2 cup / 3.5 oz / 90 g turbinado sugar
6 ounces / 170 g bittersweet chocolate
2 cups / 8.5 oz / 245 g whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup / 4 oz / 113 g unsalted butter
1/4 cup / 2 oz / 60 ml unsulphured molasses

2/3 cup / 3.75 oz / 100 g fine grain natural cane sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, peeled
1 large egg, well beaten

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C degrees - racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line a couple baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper or a Silpat mat, and place the large-grain sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.

Finely chop the chocolate bar into 1/8-inch pieces, more like (mostly) shavings really.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt.

Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is just barely melted. Remove from heat and stir in the molasses, sugar, and fresh ginger. The mixture should be warm, but not hot at this point, if it is hot to the touch let it cool a bit. Whisk in the egg. Now pour this over the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.

I like these cookies tiny, barely bite-sized, so I scoop out the dough in exact, level tablespoons. I then tear those pieces of dough in two before rolling each 1/2 tablespoon of dough into a ball shape. From there, grab a small handful of the big sugar you set aside earlier and roll each ball between your palms to heavily coat the outside of each dough ball. Place dough a few inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies puff up, darken a bit, and get quite fragrant.

Makes roughly 4 dozen.

I suspect some of you might not be familiar with seitan. You can buy it at many natural food stores, and the Whole Foods Markets here in San Francisco stock it as well. But let me back up a bit and say, I've only recently become enamored with seitan. In fact, it has always been one of those ingredients I would skip over at the store. I suspect this was because I've never been interested in making meals with faux meat. In addition to that, I think we can agree, seitan is not an attractive ingredient. To my eye it looks like dense, wet, papier-mâché. Nicknames? Some people call it wheat meat....again, not very charming. All that aside, I've come to enjoy seitan. Here's how.

Wayne came home with some "cutlets" one day (this one). He chopped them into small chunks which he then pan-fried. The little pieces got nice and brown, and crispy. I had to admit it was quite good. Ever since, and despite its status as the least photogenic ingredient in my refrigerator, I've been making an effort to been cooking with more and more of it - mostly in stir-frys, or as a protein-packed topping on chunky soups, or in a range of throw-it-all-in-the-skillet type meals like this one.

For the other components in this particular recipe? I almost always have bags of leftover cooked heirloom beans in my freezer, so I used those. And then tossed a few handfuls of broccoli in olive oil and roasted it for just a few minutes. That's pretty much it.

I'll leave you with a couple snapshots from Palm Springs. Here's a picture of Wayne enjoying a morning espresso. And a photo of one of the date farms we visited. I made date cookies when I got home using little date chunks and a recipe I found on the side of a bag of the date pieces. Unfortunately, they were quite bad, which is why they never made it onto the site :/

Feel free to tweak the ratio of beans to seitan if you like more beans or less. You might also crisp up the beans if you like - I've also thought about adding the beans to the broccoli pan and heating them up that way....You can use any number of beans here - preferably beans that hold their shape. In my freezer I happened to have some heirloom beans bought and cooked from the farmers' market (some sort of cranberry bean?), as well as some Hutterite soup beans from Rancho Gordo - so I used this slightly bizarre combination (this is what you see in the photo). But I've also used white cannelini beans in the past, and chickpeas are great too. From a can will work - just drain, rinse, and shake off any extra water before using.

1 small-medium head of broccoli or broccolini, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
fine grain sea salt

4 ounces seitan, sliced into smallish bite-sized pieces
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon clarified butter or extra virgin olive oil
2 cups of your favorite cooked beans (see head notes)
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan or Grana Padano

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Toss the broccoli with the olive oil and a couple pinches of salt, and place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the broccoli is cooked through and has starting to char just a bit where it is touching the pan. Alternately you might boil, steam, or saute the broccoli - but I like roasting the broccoli for this, it works particularly well.

In the meantime, in a large non-stick or (preferably) well-seasoned pan, over medium high heat, saute the seitan and shallots in a bit of clarified butter or olive oil. I like to get the seitan nice and dark and a touch crispy at the edges. The shallots should brown up nicely as well - ten minutes or so. Stir in the beans and cook until they are heated through, you can even let those brown up a bit if you like. At this point, stir in half the grated cheese, taste, and adjust seasoning if needed with more salt.

Turn the beans and seitan out onto a large plate or platter, top with the roasted broccoli and finish with the remaining cheese.

Serves about 2 as a main, 4 as a side.

Nikole Herriott and her father Lance carve beautiful objects from 100% salvaged wood and have a shop named Herriott Grace. I love their wispy stemmed spoons, and hand-turned, one-of-a-kind mortar & pestle sets. I had my heart set on one of the sweet little salt bowls, but someone beat me to it (next time!). I encourage you to read about them here, or meet them here. It's such an inspiring story.

The last two books I've read (and really enjoyed!): Kafka on the Shore & Drop City. Now I'm on to A Passage to India and Barbara Kingsolver's new book.

Bryan Nash Gil's relief prints are stunning. I noticed as I was browsing the other day, in addition to the Hemlock 82 print, Bryan has created a new print, Locust. Also very beautiful, yet substantially less expensive.

For Bay Area folks, June Taylor's classes at The Still Room are great - fun, hands-on, and you learn a lot. I just noticed she has her new class schedule posted on her site.

The cookbooks on my nightstand right now: Nigel Slater's Tender, Julie Sanhi's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, and Canal House Cooking Volume 2. There are just not enough meals in the day....

After falling down the Etsy rabbit hole: I missed out on this cake plate, and this buttercup yellow watering can, but I did bring home a six-legged lamb.

Waiting for the next cold-snap: I bought this bell-shaped wool hat a couple weeks back at Anthropologie, and I smile absolutely every time I see it.

Worth mentioning, I cancelled our cable and bought an Apple TV. Only wish I had done it sooner.

Custom stationery is the best. I love these Postal Press Custom Initial Note Cards. Thank you cards also come in handy after the holidays, and I like these Thank You Cards with the blind impression, really nice.

It's sold out, but isn't this illustrated calendar neat? (via {frolic!}

One of my neighbors brought a completely unfamiliar-to-me style of cornbread to a neighborhood party the other night. It was sort of custard topped, browned a bit, moist as all get out. She told me a friend shared the recipe with her. The trick? Pour a cup of cream over the cornbread batter before baking. She was nice enough to send me the recipe - turns out it was a Marion Cunningham recipe, and I also (finally) made the connection that it was the cornbread recipe Molly reprinted in A Homemade Life. I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Oh, and while we are on the topic of people I like name Molly, I was lucky to have dinner at this Molly's house last week. She made this Almond Tart, and now I want to make it too.

Oh boy, this is getting long, and now it is getting late. I'd better wrap it up. One last thing - I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday weekend. I feel thankful everyday that I have a place like this site where I can share ideas, recipes, and general ramblings. Thank you all for inviting so many of the recipes you see on this site into your own homes - you have no idea how great (and appreciative) that makes me feel. Safe travels to all of you not at home this weekend.

p.s. Our 101 Cookbooks Kiva Team is still going strong - we're alllllmost at $60,000 in loans, 2071 loans to date. I love it. Makes me so proud. Have a glance at your Kiva account to see if you have any repaid loans to reinvest.