While I was in Sacramento over the summer I spent a Saturday morning with my my grandmother Grandruth. We went to the farmer’s market, the peach farm, I helped her hang some art and we had lunch together. It really was a perfect morning. While we were at Tomich Peach Farm, I took a few photos while I listened to my grandmother and the farm owner talk about peaches in a way I never even knew existed. They weighed the pros and cons of three different varietals, talked about the lug of the peaches (I am still not sure what that means) and then discussed in detail when the peaches would be best to eat. After about 10 minutes we finally had a box of the most beautiful peaches and I enjoyed them immensely for the next few days I was in town.

After a few days in Sacramento I headed down to Santa Cruz to see my mom’s side of the family and since my Mom lives in Santa Cruz, I had to go to to the beach. I actually went a few times, including two trips to the Boardwalk.  At this point Kevin had joined up with me on the trip, and I think the following photos sum up the difference to how Kevin and I approach outings to the beach.

This is Kevin’s idea of fun:

I still do not understand how he can submerge himself in cold water and love it so much. So much as my little toe gets wet and I swear I have hypothermia. 

This is my idea of appropriate beach behavoir (and yes I am wearing a long sleeve shirt, cause Santa Cruz just isn’t that hot):

Can you tell I am my mother’s daughter?

At least we both have a good time and are enjoying life in our own ways.

Farewell summer! This year was a great one and now I am looking forward to pumpkin pie and hearty veggies!

Anyway, Canada Day was on Friday and it was great! In years past Kevin and I have gone to Dan’s annual party at the Inn at Laurel Point to watch the fireworks, but there was no party this year – we figured out that there was a wedding going on in the Penthouse – but we still headed down to the waterfront to watch the fireworks and I think this year they may have been the best! They were exploding right over our heads and the cutest three girls (and their mom) sat down next to us. Watching fireworks with these three little munchkins was pretty awesome. The youngest kept saying she was scared (and if you look below, she sort of looks it) but afterwards she said they were great. Right before the fireworks started going off the little girls started saying “Happy Birthday Canada.” They all said it in unison about three times and them the little one said it REALLY loud all by herself and them BOOM! the first firework went off and she screamed super loud. To be honest I was a bit startled too, because she had perfect timing! It was pretty cute though!

Yep, that is all that was left after the show.

Hope all my American compatriots have a great Fourth!

Both of the dinners I made came from my all time favorite cook book The Gourtment Cookbook. Eighty percent of what I cook comes out of this book and I have yet to be disappointed with any of the meals I have made from it. For Le Creuset’s first meal I made Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic.

Ingredients:

1 (4 lb) chicken, rinsed and patted dry

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1 scant cup olive oil

2 fresh flat leaf parsley sprigs

1 fresh rosemary sprig

1 fresh thyme sprig

1 fresh sage sprig

1 Turkish bay leaf

1 celerey rib

40 garlic cloves, peeled (from 3-4 heads)

Instructions:

Put rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350 F

Sprinkle chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Tie legs together with kitchen string and fold wings under chickn. Heat oil in 6- to 8- quart wide heavy oven proof pot (enter the Le Creuset!) over moderately high hear until hot but not smoking, Add chicken and sear, turning it carefully, until golden brown all over, about 10 min. Transfer chicken to plate.

Tie the herbs and celery rib together with string and add to pot (I don’t have string, so I just threw it in the pot). Scatter garlic over the bottom of the pot and put chicken breast side up on top. Cover tightly (not a problem because the Le Creuset lid weighs about 5 pounds), transfer to oven and bake, basting twice, until thermometer inserted into thickest part of a thigh (without touching bone) registers 170 F. Transfer chicken to cutting board and let sit for 10 min. Reserve pan juices. Spread garlic on toast and cut chicken into pieces and serve with some of the pan juices.

Yummy!

Now I always eat my food before I remember that I am supposed to take a photo of it, but I encourage you to make this recipe yourself to see (and taste) how the dish turns out.

For the second recipe I made Black Bean Chile, which went great with the leftover chicken we had, and also made some killer Juevos Rancheros the next morning. I have made bean chile before, but honestly it wasn’t nearly as good as this one (and I know this as a fact because Kevin said “Hot damn, that is good chile,” or something like that.Whereas when I made the other chile and asked his opinion he said, “Well you seem to like it, but really I just think it’s okay,” again I may be paraphrasing).

Ingredients:

1 lb black beans (about 2 cups) picked over, rinsed and soaked

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayanne

1 teaspoon dried oregeno, crumbled

1 small dried pasilla chile, stem and seeds discarded, coarsely chopped (Now I live in Canada where Mexican food seems to be a foreign concept – so I just used a Chipotle chile – which I found dried at Market on Millstream)

3 tablespoons veggie oil (which I almost never cook with, so I just used butter)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced (but since I used all the garlic in my house the night before I just threw in some of the roasted garlic that I had leftover)

1 tablespoon chapped canned chipotle chiles in adobo (again, I live in Canada, so I just grated a bit extra of the dried chipotle chile I had)

1 turkish bay lef

6 cups water

1 (14-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, drained (juice reserved) and chopped

salt (I found I needed quite a bit)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Oh, I also added corn and carrots to the stew. I often throw in extra veggies to stews/chiles. I take after my mom and with cooking, at least, I take the recipe as a rough guide not the end all of how something can be made. Baking though, I take very seriously and always follow recipes. 

Instructions:

Soak beans in enough water to cover by 2 inches, refrigerated, for at least 8 hours. Drain.

Toast cumin, paprika, cayenne, and oregano in a dry small heavy skillet over moderate heat (I just used the Le Creuset pot for all of this), stirring constantly, until fragrant and a shade or two darker, about 2 min. Transfer to bowl.

Finely grate pasilla in coffee grinder (or in my case just use my micro-plane grater and grate chipotle chile and toast with other spices).

Heat oil (again I used butter) in 5- to 6-quart wide heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Quickly add onion and bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, chipotles, and spice mix, reduce heat to moderate and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 min. Add beans, bay leaf, and water, bring to a simmer, and simmer, covered until beans are tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Add tomatoes, with their juice and salt to taste and simmer, uncovered for 15 more min. Discard bay leaf and add cilantro just before serving (unless you are like Mrs. Child and hate the taste of cilantro).

I also threw a dollop of sour cream in my stew before chowing down.

Yummy!

Le Creuset I won’t neglect you in the next year, I promise. Cast iron pots/pans have found a way into Kevin and my life in a serious way – nearly every morning we use our caste iron skillet to make breakfast – and even though they are old school technology they are amazing and hold heat better than any other pot (or pan) in our house.

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I made Kevin watch “Put a Bird on it,” the first night in Portland and the running joke was that just about everywhere we went, sure enough, there was a bird on it. Here are a few photos from the trip. Some I took and some Kevin took (I am also waiting for a role of film to get developed, so look for the “film follow up”).

Welcome to America! This is the first thing you see. Kevin is excited about deep dish pizza! Kylies was a great late night dinner option in Seattle.Last time we were in Portland we were told to check out Mother’s and it was amazing, so of course we had to go back!There were birds everywhere, even in empty store windows.
Drinking beer at Henry’s makes you sleepy. Tasters from Migration Brewing.
Yes, even the dogs in Portland can have a hipter stache.Ok, maybe not the best doughnut ever (still pretty good though), but certainly the only place (I know of) that has bacon on a doughnut. We checked out the Japanese Gardens, which were lovely.More beer at Rogue.And if you are a REALLY posh store (such as Oblation in the Pearl District) you not only have birds on stuff in your store you have a real bird in the store!Le Pigeon figured one bird isn’t enough, so two must be better.

Yeah for anniversaries!

Kevin isn’t a huge fan of sun-splosions near/on peoples heads, but I kind of like it, even though my hair looks about twice as big – being all backlit and all. 

Thanks Sharon and Kevin for making me feel extra pretty!

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Photos by Darren Beckwith:

Photos by Nichole Taylor:

Photos by Scott Paterson:

Photos by Geri DeZarn:

Yes, my dress did shrink a little after I got it cleaned. No biggie, but you can see the liner.

Looking at these photos reminds me how much I love my husband, so a big THANK YOU to all the photographers who sent me photos. Also, a big shout out to Jenna and Tristan who documented the day.

If you would like to donate money to Japan to help with their recovery, please click here. Or you can make a $10 donation by texting REDCROSS to 90999. This donation will go to support relief efforts for the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific. In light of all the incredible (and sad) photos that there are out there, I thought I would share a few from my time there.

Here’s hoping you have a Valentines filled with love. I take that back, here’s hoping you have a full life filled with love. Why confine it to one day?

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Some of these photos were taken by either Kristin Ferris or Rebecca Wellman, though I am not 100% sure which ones were taken by whom, otherwise I would have credited them. My apologies.