Coming Soon!!!

Why I am Rich

Dora and The Italians

Published story in San Francisco Chronicle

Christmas With M F K Fisher

Icelandic Tales

Rose Levy Beranbaum's new cookbook

Please note edit on Cookbooks part 2 posted December 11, 2008.

Cookbooks in The Kitchen of What's Happening now

part 2: Royal Icing, Mousseline Buttercream, Savarin, Chocolate Domingo Cake, Lemon Curd, are all favorite recipes from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible, that I have made over and over and over because they are the best of their kind. It's nice to make things that you do not get tired of. Maybe that is why some people give up!

Rose is a researcher, scientist, artist, and  cookbook author who talks directly to you. She has worked out all the problems.  We became friends because of a letter I wrote to her about 15 years ago.  She claims in her book that the Mousseline Buttercream frosting will hold up in very hot weather.  I trusted that, and staged a very successful wedding cake at Sequoia Grove Winery in very hot weather.  I sent her the pictures with the letter; in 2 days she called me from New York and we talked for an hour, and have been great friends ever since.  

When she comes to San Francisco there is always some amazing food adventure afoot. Daniel Patterson's (Coi Restaurant)wedding cake, dinner with Marion Cunningham, The Tasting Menu at The French Laundry, a tented first class 3 course dinner with Jamie Oliver in the pouring rain,  an all day excursion to visit the Della Fattoria bread company in Petaluma, and more!

I told her I was on tippytoes waiting for the new book due out in September 2009.  It will be very interesting to see how she views now, what is important in cake making, cake baking. Rose states,"..this new book is all the things that i've evolved since the cake bible (it will be 21 years!) but the cake bible still stands--almost everything is new including that delightful cradle cake!" 

We discovered along the way, a mutual passion for dress design, knitting, and crochet, actually fanatical would be the best word. It's almost folie a deux.

Cookbooks in the Kitchen of What's Happening Now

Part 1: The San Francisco Chronicle food staff listed their all time favorite cookbooks recently. Two of my favorites were on their lists: Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cookery for Everyone; Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible.

Deborah's book was published in 1997; I purchased it 10 years ago.  It has been so used that it is falling apart. Her tone in the book is the ever present teacher wanting to share everything she knows about cookery in the plainest way possible. Her explanations and descriptions make sense and are easy to understand. The best part has been plunging in on faith, and coming up with some spectacular dishes.  She gives you great combinations for flavor and texture.  Her section of pancakes and waffles is one of the best. I have made just about all of them.

A year ago I started buying organic produce from Mariquita Farms and was faced with a bevy of unfamiliar goods.  Deborah to the rescue! Now, tatsoi (baby bok choy), mustard greens, Italian parsley have made it to growing in pots on the rooftop garden....things I never ate before.  I do enjoy a good piece of beef, chicken, pork, fish, but the day to day cooking is continual experimentation with vegetables.  Grated raw beet salad! Shredded brussels sprouts with horseradish! Wild Rice gratin!

The KITCHEN OF WHAT's HAPPENING NOW

A good deal of what is created in my kitchen depends on ingredients that are available in the refrigerator, the freezer, or on the shelves. 

A current project - today!- of creating Fresh Lime Curd is coming from a generous gift of fresh frozen lime juice from Ron Hildebrand and Syndi Seid when they had to leave their Nob Hill digs, and that included the lime trees in one of the most wonderful open space gardens on Nob Hill.

I found out the other day, that multiplying a recipe correctly, gave me 11 cups of lime curd, promptly stashed in Mason jars.  I am creating a festive, frothy wire edge ribbon decoration for the jars, which will be on sale at the annual Holiday Showcase, sponsored by my gang, The Professional Women's Network, taking place every year in one of the banquet rooms at Marine's Memorial. This Friday, Dec. 5, 2008.

While the jars are boiling, I will get out the last of my stash of pureed applesauce from the freezer and make Spicy Oven Roasted Apple Butter, for the same event. The name comes from figuring out a turkey roaster in the oven can do twice the job than making apple butter in  pan on top the stove. You do get a more subtle flavor when things are roasted, even Apple Butter.

Next, I found a good-sounding recipe in the newspaper for Pumpkin Butter, made with maple syrup. Irresistible.  I will let you know.

Dianne Feinstein

I have always been a rare bird when it comes to television, but the events of 30 years ago in San Francisco with the tragic shootings kept me watching my little screen.  An announcement was about to be made, a woman appeared, spoke so movingly about what had happened. I was looking and looking at her face, listening to her voice, trying to understand why she looked so familiar. It was not anything recent, it was in the past.

It took a day to sort it out.  

I attended a Catholic convent school for 10 years in Eureka, California. the last year some of us were selected to travel to San Francisco for a big Catholic school conference (my selection was interesting because I was one of 2 in the whole school, not a Catholic.) Part of our activities was a visit to Sacred Heart Convent school on Broadway.  We were ushered in, then up stairs to sit in, late, on a school production, all done in costumes. As we sat down in the dark, a young woman in blue satin breeches and delivering an impassioned speech. She was riveting!  I think I sat there and memorized her face because, years later on the television screen, it was one and the same person, Dianne Goldman Feinstein.

I did have occasion when she was mayor to tell her this story.

Behind The Scenes at the Wedding

 Friend, Sherial, hosted the wedding reception and dinner in her penthouse for her niece, Rachel. Just about all of her family from Mississippi came for the wedding events.

Godson, Mark, the groom, also had all of his family there. It took me about 3 days to sort everyone out, since children were grown up, babies born, new spouses, etc.,  but here is the best part:

 When Sherial was just getting out of high school in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, she set her sights on California and The Larger World, and convinced her father to sell a cow to finance her trip to California and enrollment to San Diego State. Aunt Ruby lived there and Sherial would be able to stay with her. This was %$4^&@# years ago; Sherial went on to become a flight attendant, travel the world, settling finally in San Francisco. She found her true calling in real estate. I think we have been friends for about 25 years.

Last night, the 3^rd night of festivities, I was still catching up with the relatives, sitting in the kitchen talking to the bride’s sister and her great aunt.

It was one little remark that led to a great revelation: I was sitting and talking to Aunt Ruby! A grand lady!

 -Day of the wedding while delivering the cake to the penthouse, one of Sherial’s sisters said, “Ah do believe ah’m havin’ a meltdown.” I told her that I had a very good friend in my Los Angeles days who came from Meridian, Mississippi, and was very fond of frequently telling me,”Miss Di-hann, Ah’m havin’ another sinkin’ spell.”  Laughter all around.

A FAVORITE POEM

Peace Be Onto Thee, Stranger

Peace be onto thee, stranger, enter and be not afraid.

I have left the gate open and thou art welcome to my home.

There is room in my house for all.

I have swept the hearth and lighted the fire.

The room is warm and cheerful and you will find comfort and rest within.

The table is laid and the fruits of Life are spread before thee.

The wine is here also, it sparkles in the light.

I have set a chair for you where the sunbeams dance through the shade.

Sit and rest and refresh your soul.

Eat of the fruit and drink the wine.

All, all is yours and you are welcome.

Ernest Holmes

The Science of Mind

THE KITCHEN OF WHAT's HAPPENING NOW

COCKTAIL -A guest brought a bottle of chardonnay wine all chilled and ready to go.  I was polite but really did not like it. Next night I turned it into a delicious cocktail by adding Quady VYA red vermouth and a few drops of FEE whiskey barrel fermented bitters. (Thanks to SFChronicle for telling me its in my neighborhood wine shop, Blackwells, on Geary and 21st avenue.) Very tasty. A drink without the big punch of distilled alcohol.

APPETIZER - I was looking for tinned fruit pastes for a long time.  At the recent New Zealand wine tasting in the Presidio, there is was paired with some strong white cheeses.  Soon afterward there was a Baker's Dozen luncheon at the Foreign Cinema and I saw again, the grocery store across the street that said  it specialized in Central and South American delicacies, or things, or something.

I found 2 pastes, guava and quince, 2# tins under $5.00 each. I presented the guava paste with 2 white cheeses (placed on grapevine leaves from my rooftop garden) with a homemade bread on a marble tray, part of a celebration for a wedding this week, held in a glorious penthouse with amazing views.

Today I made delicious appetizers with the guava paste sandwiched between the Monterey Cheese and a fresh apple slice. I like the milder cheese in this combination. Another step away from crackers!  More on that later.