Sonoma County Champagne Sojourn

Visiting Northern California always takes me back to the bliss of nature. Whether rural, suburban or urban bound, flora and fauna still reign supreme. Trees command street sides, doe appear across the street from housing complexes nipping on stray bushes and weeds, sidewalks are lumpy where green things are constantly threatening to break through and long lazy afternoon drives through wine country produce spontaneous culinary adventures found in verdant pockets and wineries along the American River.

 My most recent sojourn through this woodsy nirvana was accompanied by two friends who took me to a very old graveyard where family members lived in eternity amongst crumbling marble stones, petrified mushrooms and ancient monuments to icons like the God of Bacci. Pretty apropos for a crew whose next stop was the Korbel Headquarters in Guerneville.

 I love wine tastings but have never tried a champagne tasting: 6 samples of champagnes varying from super sweet to ultra brut. I ventured off my usual course for the rose and was pleasantly surprised by the semi-sweet blush that wasn't cloying but fruity and crisp. This is a rose I would buy at home. I also didn't realize that Korbel made brandy but they do and it comes in a sampler pack alongside champagne varieties for about $50.

I was happy we had brought along an ice chest packed with interesting sodas bought at an old fashioned candy store along the way. A bottled coffee soda from Simpson Springs tasted amazingly similar to my old time favorite soda Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge and was perfect caffeine kick response to the bubbly in our brains.

The Korbel deli provided an exquisite foraging in the forest worthy lunch that consisted of a vegetarian sandwich that took my breath away. Thick artisan brown bread spread with tangy olive tapenade and layered with grilled eggplant, provolone cheese, mushrooms, tomato, red pepper and dark lettuces. 

Belly full, I could have easily spent another few hours there listening to the sounds of the nature around me. And watching the romantic ebbs and tides of the life going on all around us, including this beautiful little grasshopper duo playing piggy back across a thin wood railing.

My Big Fat Greek Fantasy Life

If I ever had the need to create a request for my single last meal before death, it would contain honey greek yogurt. I have been obsessed with the food of Mediterranean Greece for as long as I can remember but it wasn't until this past year when greek yogurt started popping up the shelves of almost every boutique grocery store that I realized I could be perfectly happy eating just this item of food for the rest of my life.

Growing up American, yogurt was always a part of my culinary fare. I have had many phases with the creamy dairy delicacy and minor periods of obsession with certain flavors. My Catholic school '80s era lunch boxes were full of Yoplait strawberry banana. My high school lust was for boysenberry generic brands. And my twenties were filled with plain yogurt mornings mixed with granola or vanilla tubs taking the place of ice cream for dessert.

My Sebastopol sister Sonia picked me up from the airport on my last visit and the minute I got in the car she asked me if I had a spoon. She asked it as if having a spoon getting off an airplane was a perfectly reasonable thing to ask. My first thought was, "What, does she want to do a snort of cocaine? That is so '80s" but those sordid thoughts were relinquished when she pulled out the big tub of honey greek yogurt that she had purchased along the way and couldn't wait to dive into. We spent the next two days making trips to Trader Joe's for the stuff. At least I know now that I am not the only crazy one.

Greens Addiction

I know this ranks under the freak files, but I crave greens like normal people crave chocolate. I was one of those kids who actually loved brussell sprouts, too. As an adult I have come to relish the discovery of all things verdant and plucked from the earth from mustard greens to burgundy tinged artisanal lettuces, from broccoli to radicchio.

My obsession of late has been to visit my friend Leslie's garden on a weekly basis for a canvas tote full of freshly grown kale of which I eat daily in egg scrambles. Our mutual friend Paige, who runs a major art gallery by day, is a member of our kale-crazed club who is constantly surprising me with her own creations like kale chips which are basically made by throwing kale onto a baking sheet and sprinkling with olive oil in a hot oven till crisp.

If you're still reading and are like me, then you will love this warm, Southern, summer greens salad that I tossed together yesterday. All ingredients can be bought for discount prices at your local Fresh and Easy market. In under fifteen minutes, I had a savory dish that can be eaten alone or as a side accompaniment to meat and fish.

Warm Southern Greens Salad

Total dish is 300 calories
Makes one serving as a entree salad or 2 servings as a side dish

Ingredients:

1/4 bag of Fresh and Easy's Southern Greens (a delightful mixed bag of kale, leafy dark cabbage and whatever else is currently in season)

3 slices of Fresh and Easy's center cut bacon

One tablespoon Olive Oil

One tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar

One tablespoon crushed garlic

One tablespoon Fresh and Easy's flake parmesan cheese

Heat up a pan and the olive oil. Throw in the garlic and heat until just before brown. Throw in the greens and heat on high until they wilt down, about ten minutes. While heating the greens, cook the three slices of bacon in a microwave on a plate between paper towels for four and a half minutes to get it extra crispy. Crumble the bacon and then throw into the wilted greens along with the balsamic vinegar and toss together for about 30 seconds. Heap it all onto a plate and cover with the parmesan cheese!

Light or Dark: Search for the Perfect Flourless Chocolate Cake

There are two kinds of chocolate people in this world: dark chocolate lovers or milk chocolate lovers.

My daughter is a milk chocolate lover. It started when she was 14 and I took her to New York City where she discovered the Lindt store. Well, when your first introduction to fine milk chocolate is from the most famous purveyor of chocolate in the world, I can understand. But my introduction to milk chocolate came as a Southern California kid who would eat leftover M&Ms out of bowls strewn around the living room the mornings after my parents’ parties and I never cultivated a love for the stuff. Cheap convenience store candy bars like Snickers and Milky Way sealed the deal with my brain that milk chocolate was waxy, mild, and most oftentimes way too sweet to pick up the subtle nuances of mellow milk like the Europeans did it to the pleasure of my daughter’s taste buds. Ruined me for life and I grew up loving the darkest and most bitter bars.

My favorite dark chocolate desserts are ganache, flourless chocolate cake and Mexican spicy hot cocoa. I am forever on the search for the perfect versions of these three.

Flourless chocolate cake, when it’s being touted as organic and healthy, can be bliss. When made with applesauce as the wetness, it can be a downright dense and moist dream.  When made on the sinful side it can pack the same punch as my favorite ganache. 

I recently found a version at Il Sogno that, although had a bit of milk in is as well, sings to me. A perfectly round disk, baked to multiple layer perfection is topped with a fluffy pile of shaved dark chocolate. It is then served with a plain, fresh and thick pile of whipped cream that tastes more like cream than sugar. Bite after bite, I taste mostly a subtle hint of milk, followed by a mellow sweetness that’s not too heavy and not too sweet. And the portion is perfect to coincide with one of their gargantuan cups of cappuccino.

Below is a recipe I found that comes closest to the same taste.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces

1 stick unsalted butter*

9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cups heavy cream, cold

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs - this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate - then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, and then remove sides of pan.

While the cake is cooking, whip the cream until it becomes light and fluffy.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioners' sugar and topped with whipped cream. 


* Use a traditional full size stick of butter

Like the Italians Do It at Acqua Pazza

Today I was invited to lunch by two dashing gentlemen named Robert and Angelo. Robert is a very successful painter in town who I have known for six years, and have written about on more than one occasion, but have never spent a good deal of quality time with as most of our interactions happen in passing out in the art world we both dwell in. Quick hugs and kisses here and there at galleries and museum events were replaced today with a long overdue lunch at Acqua Pazza.

Sitting outside on the shaded patio we all decided to do like the Europeans do and savor a long lunch from the special $19.99 pre-fixe menu that includes a starter, entree and dessert. I have been a fan of Acqua Pazza for years. It's an old stand by for good bistro style food like my favorite duck, brie and pineapple omelet, cute little quesadillas, yummy pizzas and when I am feeling especially decadent - the lobster salad.

Because we were having Cabernet at noon like the Italians, and stepping out of our ordinary boxes to discuss things like atheism, animals and American attitudes towards nudity, I decided to order something entirely new with the sand dabs. First I had a bowl of the grainy and light mushroom soup to whet the palate for the exotic new dish. When it arrived, the four small slivers of soft and light white fish swimming in a worthy cream sauce were comfort food to the stomach. A swirled, pile of mashed potatoes and al dente veggies rounded out the meal. Probably didn't need the flourless chocolate cake that followed or the second glass of wine but what the hell, when "pretending to be in Rome."

I was totally reminded of the time I took my daughter to Italy in 2005. We spent the last leg of our trip in Venice. We quickly discovered our favorite spot, tucked into an alley, where we went every day at noon for lunch. I got the same thing every day, a pint of sweet white wine and a warm salad of julienned mozarella, eggplant and corn. It was always followed by a nap at the hotel after my daughter's stop on the walk back for a new flavor of gelato.

Stuffed on food, hazy with wine and happy with the love received by restaurant managers Willie and Michelle and their perpetual sweet smiles, I had to go home to take a nap, just like the Italians do. I could get used to having my biggest meal at lunch with wine followed by a siesta, only to resume work in the cooler and darker hours of the day when the phone is no longer ringing with the nine to fivers.

Tabouleh Scramble in the Garden

I recently returned from a three week trip to Austria as the beginning of my new global art piece called The Gypsy Project. As much as I love this idea of roaming the world, the one thing I missed the most while gone was my tribe. I am very lucky to have a group of very close friends that I would call my family. In a book out a few years back called Urban Tribes, I read about my generation's creation of urban families, filled with like-minded people who care about the same things. I realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by people like this and upon my return home to my base and my studio womb, the first thing I felt myself craving were soulful visits with my friends.

Today, I got back to my routine of visiting my friend Leslie in her garden and as always, found a place of solace and vitamins for my soul. As usual, I was welcomed into her kitchen as she served me coffee with honey and her daughter Elle stood on her kitchen block stool to help mommy tear up fresh lemon thyme from the garden and slice cherry tomatoes for our breakfast that was cooking on the stove. I was measured for one of Leslie's new upcycled fabric dresses that she makes from old sheets, doilies and napkins. I chose a maroon paisley print with brown striped lining and look forward to wearing it when I visit Morrocco in August.

We sat in the garden with the spring breezes and discussed staying true to our heart's missions in our work and our world. Leslie reminded me that it was okay to be a wandering artist and I reminded her that it was okay to try to persuade the whole world to reuse-reduce and recycle. Quartered oranges for dessert provided energy for the rest of the day.

Before I left I filled my tote bag with fresh items from the garden including lemon thyme, kale, cilantro, and arugula. And of course, I had to get the recipe for the amazing egg scramble created by Leslie's husband Tim, that we had enjoyed with the birds.

Tim's Quinoa Kale Scramble (Adapted)

Saute chopped kale, cherry tomatoes halved, pesto sauce and cooked quinoa in a pan with butter. In a bowl, combine eggs and lemon thyme and whisk for two minutes then add to the mixture in the pan. Scramble until done. Chop up feta cheese and add in at the end to stir and melt among the other ingredients. Salt and pepper per desire.

Glad Corn Addiction

It all started with my good friend Bill. I asked him to be my date for an evening with my supper club and asked him to bring something for starters. He showed up with two bags of Glad Corn, which turned out to be the most incredible tasting thing I have had in a long time. Imagine the bastard child of good old fashioned corn nuts and traditional salted popcorn. What makes these corn nugget delights so great is that they are puffed and crunchy simultaneously. They are seriously addicting. Bill's small bowl didn't last long in my supper club crowd as greedy fingers swiped the last flakes of remnants from the bowl. 

My best friend Lisa sheepishly admitted to me later that she was aware of Glad Corn already but had been keeping it a secret. Apparently Bill had bestowed a bag upon her a month before and she had been hoarding it in her home snack cupboard, rationing out a small handful per day like a squirrel because she loved them so much and didn't want them to be gone. This is the best friend who hides nothing from me and shares everything so generously, usually. 

Bill explained that they are not found in stores and not anywhere near where we live. He said that he orders a bunch of them from the website when he runs out and told me he'd put me on his distribution list. 

One visit to the website and I learned that Glad Corn's Minnesota-based creators Stan and Gladys Friesen stumbled upon the product by accident. Something about Stan's renewable ethanol energy experiments in the kitchen colliding with Gladys' cooking and a big boom later the Glad Corn was born, better than popcorn and easier on the teeth that most corn products. I also learned that is all natural, gluten free, a good source of fiber and has no trans fats. 

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 38th birthday and late at night I got a text from my friend Bill telling me to look outside on my back porch. A huge new bag of Glad Corn awaited me. I have since come to sprinkle the stuff like croutons on my salads or toss with dried cherries into a small bowl for an afternoon snack pick me up.

Yesterday I discovered a really cool recipe. I remember when I was a kid, I loved putting potato chips into into my sandwiches. Didn't matter if it was peanut butter and jelly or meat and cheese, the chips would always cause the sandwich to crunch with delight and tingle the tongue. So I created an adult, healthy version that delivers the same pleasure, is only 420 calories, is super filling, and delivers an amazing energy punch!

Glad Corn Almond Butter Wrap

Spread two tablespoons of organic almond butter on a whole wheat tortilla and sprinkle 1/4 cup of Glad Corn on top of the almond butter. Roll up and enjoy the crunch!

Heart Food in Sebastopol

I recently spent a whirlwind three days in the Northern California town of Sebastopol. Thirty degree days with crisp sunshine highlighted my introduction to this small, stunningly beautiful town filled with down to earth folks and bohemian young ones. I was there on the occasion of my twin soul brother Charles' premiere of his film The Exile Nation Project. I stayed with him and his partner Sonia, who, together, make up my soul family. After going to Burning Man with them earlier this year, I learned that they eat the same way I do, with an emphasis on health and probiotics so my trip was filled with yummy food all designed to give us the extra energy we needed daily to get through our packed itinerary. On day one, I discovered that I could rise early and walk two blocks in the energizing cold air to the town center where two lesbians run a stand alone deli counter style coffee shop. This became my morning ritual for hot soy, vanilla lattes filled with foam and swirled with a heart.

The rest of the day consisted of running errands for that evening's film premiere so we ate on the run, lots of Greek style honey yogurt and Trader Joe salads topped off at night with red wine and chocolates made by the ladies at Earth Honey Haven, an intentional community in the Oakland Hills. The huge orbs of chocolate with names like Shaman's Balls, were the most exquisite raw, organic truffles packed with flavors like chipotle and chili and coconut.

On the second day, waking up high and exhausted from the successful premiere, Charles and I made a huge hearty breakfast together of asparagus omelets with seared steak chunks and English muffins. Sonia contributed her famous smoothies made from blue-green algae, kefir milk, macha powder, bananas, coconut water, almond milk, and pear.

On the way to the airport we stopped at Wild Flour Bread Bakery to sample freshly made hunks of bread oozing with goat cheese, red pepper and ryes. I am not a scone person but I became one for this huge, soft, steaming chocolate version that had slivers of candied ginger, shards of real dark chocolate and peppery, chipotle spice to fire up the tongue.

I may have left my heart there in my home away from home but my belly came back smiling.

Everyone Needs a Neighborhood Nosh Place

I have been hankering for some time to find a neighborhood food place. The kind of joint you can go to regularly without getting bored of the food or the ambiance. A place close enough to home so you can drink wine and walk back to the pad. A place that can equally fulfill a nice dinner out or a solo meal at the bar. A place where the staff actually strives to know your name. So I am not at all embarrassed to admit that I was at 3rd Corner Wine Shop and Bistro three nights in a row last week.

How can I help myself? It's got what I consider the perfect meal. Yes, this means I actually ordered the exact same thing three nights in a row as well. At least I had three different dinner mates and I can get away with the excuse that I am so in love with the food and this particular trio of menu items that I just felt compelled to turn my friends on as well, but the truth is I would've ordered the same thing solo.

First off is the duck confit flatbread. A large slab of wood comes with this exquisite faux pizza made with a light thin dough, a sweet truffle oil base, and generous hunks of shredded rich duck topped with peppery arugula leaves.

Second is the artisan cheese plate served with four kinds of cheese including two little hunks of decadent bleu drizzled with honey, toasty slivers of broiled buttered baguette and walnuts, dried cherries and apricots.

And last but not least the bowl of large creamy mussels swimming in a tangy wine sauce topped with a pile of thin truflfle oil fries dotted with aoli to soak up the juice.

And to top it all off, Melissa my favorite waitress recommended an addicting $15 bottle of Sean Minor pinot noir from the restaurant's in-house wine store that was so good, I now have to bring a bottle home after every visit.

My three dinner dates on those three nights in a row were wildly diverse. The first was my artist friend Michael Hinkle and we spent an hour discussing our passion for painting. The second was a facialist friend Tanya who regaled me with tales on keeping the skin clean while we sampled the cheeses. And the third was an old pal Stephen who sucked me into a three hour conversation on spirituality. All three companions agreed that the meal was amazing and the wine great and thanked me for turning them on to my favorite plates!

Fried Green Tomatoes at Fisherman's

It started when I read the Fannie Flagg book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. I became obsessed with tasting a dish that hinted at exotic Southern cookouts, where belles drank mint juleps and fanned their faces in the afternoon sun from all the humidity. It sounded so odd that people would eat green tomatoes.

I finally got a chance to eat this tasty dish at Fisherman’s Market and Grill the other day and it was worth the long wait. For $5, I received a plate of six hearty tomato slices coated in a crispy batter and served with the perfect, refreshing tangy white sauce. Biting into the tomato was a delight; the frying makes the normally hard green tomatoes soften, to release flavorful juices, but without getting mushy like the red, ripe ones would.

This is only one of the many things I love about Fisherman’s Market and Grill, the fact that on any given day there are unique little specials offered that rotate based on freshness, availability and season.

Thirteen years ago lifelong friends Louis Pagano (who grew up in San Pedro on his father’s fishing boat) and Bill Mortz opened up the restaurant to deliver the catch of the day to desert residents. Now, four restaurants later, the places are known for their casual atmosphere, glass deli counters that showcase slabs of fresh fish, and no nonsense

For me it’s become the place to go for the perfect cajun salmon Caesar salad or baja fish tacos on busy workdays, hearty swordfish sandwiches for early evening dinners, oysters and chardonnay on lazy spring Sundays, or raw ahi for sushi-making dinner parties. Located between Trader Joe’s and Michaels with a large patio for eating alfresco, it also provides great people watching in the bustling shopping center.

New Year's Resolution Meal Making Debuts

I have vowed this year to cook more. Kind of difficult in a miniscule kitchen in a life of constant opportunities to dine out for work and play but I am determined. And not only am I determined to cook more, but I am determined to make my own meals from scratch straight from my creative brain without looking for recipes. Oh, and throw in the equally important intention to be healthier this year. All those things combined are quite a tall order, and honestly a little intimidating, which is why I let most of January pass by before even beginning. But alas, a few nights ago I gave in to my sincere desire to actually keep a resolution this year, and made my first meal that fits the requirements of all the above. I must say, I am quite impressed with the outcome and now have slated an hour every Sunday to making lists and shopping for food for the following week in some semblance of organized fashion. I have even started a coupon file. My grandmother in Iowa with her lard-fingerprint smudged coupon accordion file would be proud...

Kimberly's Date and Veggie Israeli Couscous Delight

(Takes a pan and a pot to make but in the end turns into a one pot meal!)

Ingredients:

One medium sized zucchini

2 full baby bok choys

2 diced garlic cloves (or a squirt of prepared chopped garlic from a bottle)

Israeli couscous, dry (I like the kind in the long bag at Fresh and Easy)

4 Medjool dates

Your favorite balsamic vinaigrette dressing

1-1/4 cup chicken broth

Butter

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop up the zucchini into same width slices and clean and remove the good bits of bok choy. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and throw in the garlic and let it start to sizzle on high heat. Put the zucchini pieces into the pan on top of the garlic and let sear on one side. Then turn the zucchini pieces over and add the bok choy and turn the heat down to medium and cook until desired tenderness. About fifteen minutes does the trick for me. At the last moment, throw in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and mix around. Take from heat, cover and let steam and sit while preparing the cous cous.

In a saucepan, boil 1-1/4 cup of chicken broth and one healthy pat of butter. Add 1 cup of the couscous and cover. Turn the heat down to low and steam for ten minutes. While steaming, cut up the dates into tiny pieces. When done steaming, fluff the couscous and add the dates and mix. Let sit for about a minute as the date flavor infuses then throw the whole pot into the pan with the zucchini and bok choy. Toss and serve as a one plate entree dish!

Green Quesadilla

Everyone has their munchie of choice, you know that food item that you run to again and again in a variety of situations because you know it is the only thing that will solve your cravings. You know the thing that you make sure is always in the house so whether it's first thing in the morning, midnight after too much wine, or in the afternoon when you aren't feeling like a big production or like running to the store, the ingredients are ever waiting. My thing is a quesadilla.

The almighty quesadilla is beautiful because all you need is a tortilla, some cheese, and some fat to fry the two together: everything from that point on whether it be a pepperoncini or some kind of dashing calypso sauce will be considered a perk. And it's a tried and true food form, fruitful in delicious variations and perpetual in its ability to satisfy the palate. I remember when I was pregnant, nineteen years ago, I preferred white flour tortillas, pepper jack cheese and a dollop of store-bought potato salad on top. I know, ugh, right, but when you're pregnant, it's amazing what you will crave. Over the years I have transitioned refried beans into black beans and prefer sharper cheeses over milder choices and gone from piled high with salsa and guacamole to simple crispy disks of plain cheese and spicy chili bits. But one thing remains true, the quesadilla is the ultimate versatile meal in my repertoire of life long, love affair food. Today, in true fickle form, I present you with the recipe of my favorite quesadilla of the moment.

Green Quesadilla

Ingredients:

2 whole wheat tortillas
One pat of butter
Half cup grated organic sharp cheddar
Pepperoncinis with juice
Cooked black beans
Your favorite hot sauce

Heat the butter in a pan and then place one tortilla in. Add the cheese on top and two tablespoons of the black beans. Put another tortilla on top and fry till golden brown and then flip. Brown the other side. Take out and put on a plate. Sprinkle chopped pepperoncini slices on top with some of the juice to wet. Dash with the hot sauce and voila!

Like Dining in an Arabic Living Room

I love Mediterranean food so much that I am not that picky. I can just as easily visit a falafel cart as sit down in world class kabob joint. But recently I found a dream of a restaurant in Palm Desert called Kabobz that blows the lid of anything I've yet to taste in this fare.

The joys of living a block away from my best friend include being able to bop over to her house after work on any given day in slouchy clothes to drink a glass of wine on the porch and recount our days. Recently, after an hour of chat we decided to try Kabobz, a place only a few minutes away located in the Palms to Pines shopping center, tucked between a yoga studio where pole dancing classes are free on Tuesday nights and a yogurt shop. Entering the nondescript restaurant was like entering a private living room of a lower middle class family in the middle east. Tables with brown coverings sat with no centerpieces in a tiny square space with an oversized television set on the wall streaming in the Arabic pop music video channel. My dream. One waitress and a menu of delights awaited us. Being the only people in the place, we were catered to like kings.

The menu was full of traditional items and we ordered a little of everything. The lamb kabobs were tender and fell off with a flick of the fork, seasoned expertly with just a little pepper. Ala carte items like a whole roasted onion and tomato were exquisitely cooked to pull apart with ease. The gyro was dense and rich, wrapped in a fluffy, warm homemade pita with refreshing tzatziki dolloped upon it. The best dolmada that has ever passed my lips arrived in a small bowl of oil scented with a faint sweetness that accompanied my first bite. The falafel balls were moist and large.

It was nearly nine o'clock when two of the valley's renowned foodies strolled in with a megawatt bottle of good wine in their hands. One, the owner of a popular fast food restaurant chain, and his dining companion, one of my great writing mentors, sat down behind us and told us that they come there all the time with their own wine. They convinced us to stay on a few minutes and to partake in a glass of the glorious wine they had brought. It felt like we were in a home, sharing laughs, and we all rued the fact that the restaurant was relatively unknown because it's hard to find a place that offers no nonsense ambiance and food that good. We all toasted and said a prayer that the place would last.

Museum Mood Food

I love eating in museum cafes as much as I love visiting museums. Museum eating isn't like eating on regular sojourns because although it tends to be a quick stop for fuel, it is a more ponderous stop that is taken amidst hours of viewing breathtaking creations that beckon a more conscious and semi-adventurous form of fare. The food experiences tend to go hand in hand with the art experiences and I find myself crafting my eating in alliance with the mood and ambience of the museum I am visiting so that the culinary art becomes part of the overall taste I take away.

For instance, while visiting SFMOMA in San Francisco, I love to sit outside on their rooftop cafe with a big white ceramic cup of frothy-headed cappucino and a slice of rich Mondrian cake. It's the perfect sophisticated snack under the biting city chill while viewing the cooly distant and slightly intimidating spider sculptures of Louise Bourgeois.

At LACMA in L.A., I enjoy breezy afternoons with their special sangria, ripe with fruit spears, and a small salad of whatever is in season with exotic lettuces. This light lunch seems to go in line with L.A.'s health conscious psyche and the reputation of finding new food items with rare combinations first. Seeing major pieces of blue chip art in the Broad wing like Warhols and Koons peppered with the pure light and space painters of Southern California always brings a laisez fare attitude to the meal, sometimes spent until the wine jug is exhausted over conversations about what we've just browsed.

In Boston at the Museum of Fine Art, the meals tend to be regional and deep like a pint of hearty Guinness and hot bread and butter, perfect for that East Coast carb-appropriate brisk walking that occurs from place to place.

 

Recently, I visited the Getty Villa in Malibu and decided it was the perfect place to experience the "when in Rome" mentality. After viewing the Italian, Greek and Etruscan antiquities, the marbled columns and al fresco painted ceiling, I was craving a taste of European flair. My best friend Lisa and I lazed away an hour on the outside patio with an artisanal cheese plate, red wine and a sparsely dressed arugula salad. Something about the presence of brie and other fine cheeses, dried fruits like fig, apricot and date and brown wafers of dark toasted bread spiked with cranberries, seemed to carry us in our minds to the beautiful lazy lunchtimes in Italy where wine is fluid and the ingredients are simple, healthy, eaten slowly and with pleasure. With a view of the Pacific Ocean, we momentarily felt like we could have easily been dining on the cliffs of Sorrento.

Lust for Lebanese

There is something about Lebanese food that drives me wild. For a cuisine based around simple principle ingredients such as lemon, oil, lamb, tomatoes, lentils and rice, it sure has a multitude of delicious variations. And the breads and cheeses are the absolute best.

Recently I found a tiny little Lebanese take out counter in San Diego and was introduced to Manaeesh and Labne. Manaeesh are mini pizzas traditionally garnished with cheese, Zaataar, spicy diced tomatoes, and onions. At this place, the pizza bread was perfect, cooked on top of what looked like a small cast iron half dome, perfectly crisp on the outside and full of hot doughy softness on the inside. Rolled up to contain all the spicy ingredients, it was also stuffed with Labneh, a specialty in Lebanon made of strained yogurt, that is spreadable and garnished with good olive oil and sea salt. Tasting similar to goat cheese, but more pure and clean, with a lightness that made it seem whipped, it was one of the most heavenly substances to ever cross my lips and put me on a good salivation trip for a week that left me hunting it out a week later in my own town.

 Alas, not being able to find Labneh anywhere, I settled for its twin sister goat cheese which is another favorite. The restaurant Tommy Bahamas makes a good American-ized version of a goat cheese appetizer which has turned into my fall-back dish at the bar when I can't find anything more exotic. A nice portion of the cheese covered in a tangy balsamic glaze and surrounded by corn and tomato nuggets to spread on crisp flat breads is the perfect light snack or late night meal.

Being that it is winter, I have pulled out a tried and true recipe for a Lebanese soup to make when I want something to tantalize the tongue but still warm the belly with goodness. The garbanzo flour makes it a hearty choice for dinner and it's even better reheated the next day.

Garbanzo Soup

Ingredients

1 tbs (15 ml) Unrefined Olive Oil

1/2 cup (120 ml) onion, chopped

4 cups (960 ml) cold water

1/2 cup (120 ml) Garbanzo Flour

2 tbs (30 ml) soy sauce pinch of garlic powder, optional

1 tsp (5 ml) sweet basil leaves, crushed

Preheat heavy saucepan, then add oil and onion and saute until soft.

Add 1 cup cold water.
Stir in flour until smooth.
Stir in remaining water gradually.
Add seasonings.
Let cook over medium-low heat until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally, or over higher heat stirring constandy.
Do not allow to boil.

Thanksgiving Evolution

This past Thanksgiving I decided to chuck convention. It's been a road that I have been heading towards for a few years now. It's become increasingly harder for me to dive into the idea of a big, gluttonous feast of turkey and fixings when my diet has become mostly healthy and vegetarian and my family has become so dispersed and insular. It's also been hard for me to justify the expense of the huge meal, or to expect it from anyone else in these economic times. Really, all that aside, I guess I am just turning into a bah humbug over holidays when the very meaning of holidays has seemed to become one big consumer fest of unnecessary food and money outlay. I mean, I am thankful everyday, I don't need one moment to suddenly allow myself to feel grateful or to hang out with my family or to tell people I love them - I already do that on a daily basis.

So this year, I traveled to San Diego where my friend Ian and I spent the wee hours of the morning inside a church kitchen with about twenty other people heating up food for the homeless we planned to serve at Petco Park later in the day. We had Motown music blaring and aluminum pan after aluminum pan of mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, turkey and stuffing heating for about four hours until every last pan was hot and laid into the back of a string of volunteer cars. Watching the food go by, I was becoming increasingly hungry.

At PetCo Park we hung around as many homeless people were fed. The faces of the homeless were different this year. There was a young mother with a baby, a twenty-something year old Hispanic man in a poncho with two huge dogs on leashes as his best friends, an older couple in tourist-looking sweatsuits; point being that the homeless were representative of any-man. Any of us at any given time could easily be them.

Afterwards we decided to spend the rest of the day doing nothing as the concept of doing nothing was something both of us were TRULY thankful for in our unusually busy work-filled lives. Exquisiteness and silent bliss and no agenda were the perfect agenda items for my holiday. Driving home we stopped at Evolution Cafe, where I fell in love with the 100% vegan fast food menu. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries. The burger came on a wheat bun with soy cheese, tempeh bacon and veggie burger and tasted exactly like the bacon cheeseburger of my dreams, which is some fine feat. The fries were sweet potatoes and perfectly carmelized and charred on the outside while mushy on the inside. Topped off with a nice cold Yerba Mate, I was completely content. I wish we had an Evolution in Palm Springs. I would eat one of everything on the menu for a month and still some.

I am thankful that I am learning to change the way I eat, to consider the food on my plate, to respect the concepts of energy usage and waste and that now, even in the fast food world, we are gaining some viable options.

European Flair in the Hood

One of my favorite things about my new neighborhood is that I am a block away from a bustling street of shops, art galleries and cafes lending me a mini-city experience amidst the grandeur beauty of my desert environment. A fan of walking rather than driving, and of the daily coffee stop in the morning, my life has improved ten fold due to location alone. 

Even better, I've found a blissful, ritual morning place in Il Sogno, which means The Dream in Italian and oh, what a a dream it is. Located on El Paseo, the long rectangular space is dark, intimate and very European in flavor. Unlike the work-a-day rat race atmosphere of the in and out places like Starbucks, Il Sogno's whole ambiance is conducive to the long morning whittled away over a cappuccino frothing over with a thick, whipped head and bites of sinful pastries that line the shelves brimming with color and flavorful concoctions. Heart shaped chocolate souffle lava cakes and pumpkin pecan brulees come in small personalized sizes. Lemon bars cut in dainty strips to dip into tea and fresh pastel colored candies on plates tempt the eye. Buttery fresh croissants laden with rich chocolate, grilled egg and bacon paninis, and miniature quiches of mushroom and swiss cheeses arrive warm and inviting. The service is leisurely as is the conversation and I could easily see this becoming my regular lazy Sunday morning place, when there is nothing else on the agenda and one of everything to savor. 

A New Culinary Courtship

I recently moved into a new place to live, one in which I had been hankering for a while over. The location is directly behind a thriving street which is home to lots of choices in yummy food including the addition of specialty food shops, regular grocery stores, and all over the place price-wise restaurants. I decided immediately to avoid the big shopping trip to stock my fridge and shelves because I want to live more like the Europeans - shopping daily for that day's meals, picking things that are fresh and cooking them instantly, and even building up the spices, flavors and herbs in my kitchen to represent what I eat most rather than what most others have. It's been a fun adventure.

When at home, I've stopped thinking of meals in terms of three distinct timed-out things, instead opting to graze amongst a bounty of things I love to eat for both pleasure and purpose. Squares of dark chocolate, nuts, dates, organic sharp cheddar cheese, tortillas, and jalapenos have become my staples.

Today's lunch consisted of one of my favorite quickie home meals.

Sauteed Swiss Chard and Endive Boats

Two huge leaves of red swiss chard

2 cloves garlic

One tablespoon olive oil

One small endive

Walnuts

Gorgonzola Crumbles

Honey

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil. Chop the cloves of garlic into tiny chunks and saute till almost browned. Tear the chard leaves into large pieces and saute in the oil/garlic for about ten minutes till wilted but crispy.

Wash and clean the endive and separate the leaves. Place on a plate in a row like tiny canoes. Sprinkle gorgonzola and walnuts into the boats and drizzle with honey.