Category Archives: Food and Family

Top Farm-to-Table Restaurants in Sonoma County

Farm-to-table Sonoma County

“Sonoma County chefs love their local ingredients and supporting independent farmers. Menus sing with produce grown in Wine Country gardens, meats from Wine Country ranches, dairy from Wine Country creameries, and seafood from Wine Country rivers and oceans.”

Source: Top Farm-to-Table Restaurants in Sonoma County

I get this newsletter from Sonoma. Are you a foodie like me? You will love reading about all this wonderful food. One of these guys makes his own salami. I felt like sharing. Must be because I have read too many books about anti-dieting lately. In California we go kind of nuts about local grown, farm to table cuisine. (OK we go very nuts.)

Tellicherry Pepper

27 Replies

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”–Julia Child

I recently discovered this delicious pepper. Very tasty on steak when freshly ground on top before grilling. I think it would taste good on lamb as well. Telllicherry pepper comes from the southern coast of India. It is very fragrant and has a ” robust, pungent, fruity flavor” per the container’s description from Costco.

Some more information about the different types of pepper from Dana Angelo White on Food Network .

Do you have any favorite recipes with Tellicherry pepper?

I like boneless Rib Eye steaks for grilling, which are usually very tender.

How Irish Coffee Came to America

29 Replies

Irish Coffee was brought to San Francisco by one of its famous newspaper columnists, Stanton Delaplane. He had first tasted Irish Coffee at Shannon Airport and wanted to recreate the coffee. He collaborated with Jack Koeppler, then the owner of the Buena Vista Café, and with the help of the mayor of San Francisco, created the recipe for Irish Coffee in 1952. It is still served at the Buena Vista to this day.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Erin Go Bragh!

A Tureen is a Pretty Pot

16 Replies

Tureen- a large, deep, covered dish. A noun from the French word terrine, feminine of terrin or of the earth. An earthenware dish. (Dictionary.com)

“covered container, sometimes made to rest on a stand or dish, from which liquids, generally soup or sauce, are served at table. The earliest silver and pottery examples, dating from the early 18th century, were called terrines or terrenes (from Latin terra, “earth”), which suggests a pottery origin for the form. Most tureens are crafted in a bowl-like shape that has been influenced by the decorative conventions of their time, but novel pottery types, in the form of realistically modeled animals and vegetables, have also been popular.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)

640px-Musée_de_la_faïence-20-saucière via wikipedia

640px-Tureen_Marseille_1770_DMA_1997-46 via wikipedia

I usually serve soup right out of the pot on the stove into bowls for holiday dinners or everyday eating. I have not served soup or stews out of a tureen on the table. It would be another large serving piece to store and wash. In recent years, when I do host any holiday meals, I like to keep it simple. It is because the preparation and cooking is an all day affair, (unless I order take-out 🙂 ). After I am done with prep, cooking, serving, eating, visiting with guests and family, I am tired. The clean up can be exhausting if I am using my good china and crystal which I like to hand wash. I think a soup tureen would fall into the category of hand wash. Especially if it were a pretty china one.

But I can admire pretty tureens and I love fresh soups.

Sunset Magazine online has some quick recipes for soups:

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

|Lindaghill|

Happy Hanukkah

8 Replies

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah to all my fellow bloggers, friends and family who are celebrating this holiday! Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season. ❤

The Holidays are Coming So Why Do I Feel Like a Grinch

14 Replies

Here we are swiftly heading toward Hanukkah and Christmas. I don’t get as caught up in the holiday celebrations so much lately. Why is that? I think my way of wanting to celebrate has changed. I realize that I celebrated the holidays for my kids when they were living at home. I still like to make Thanksgiving. I really like Thanksgiving. I think it engenders feelings of family warmth and togetherness for me more than the other holidays.

Now it is just me and my husband here in the house. The empty nest. Both of our kids are adults and making their own lives. We will be seeing them and spending time with them which is very nice. They both have their own ways of celebrating with their partners.

I don’t feel like decorating the house. It seems like house decorating could be rated on a scale. Some people really go all out and have their yards and houses covered with decorations and lights. I imagine the interior of their houses might look like a holiday craft magazine layout. Then on the other end of the scale is me. No outside lights or decorations and nothing on the inside of the house as of now. I noticed there are other neighbors who do not put up lights outside as well. I wonder if it has to do with religious differences.

My husband did not grow up with Christmas celebrations in his home or lights outside so he does not care and does not miss anything if I choose not to decorate. My son and daughter-in-law do have a Christmas tree and my daughter usually doesn’t for environmental reasons. We all do exchange small gifts.

I don’t feel like making anything for Hanukkah either. We will probably light the menorah. We usually go to my son’s or to one of my sister-in-laws for Hanukkah gatherings.

My grinchy-ness could be that I don’t feel the need to decorate my house and make so many preparations in the past few years because my family has grown up. Now I can take a break and enjoy being the guest at their houses.

I know I am fortunate that my kids are not too far away. My son lives nearby and my daughter is in the same state. We will be seeing both of them over the holidays. There are people who do not have families or their kids close by and that has got to be hard for them or they could be estranged.

If you have an empty nest it may be that the holiday celebrations have shifted to your kids homes as well. Or if your kids are too far away how have you decided to celebrate the holidays?

The Day After T Day

21 Replies

Continue reading →

Countdown to T Day

26 Replies

Well the countdown clock has started. My husband picked up our Thanksgiving turkey from the market yesterday. We like to get one that is all natural and a hen. We are not having many guests this year. That is fine with me. My kids will be here and a brother-in-law.

We have a funny tradition that has developed over the years. Seems like every year we take a picture of the turkey after it comes out of the oven with me standing by it. I told my husband’s Aunt Audrey, who is more like a sister friend, that I should have a Turkey Album to have a record of all the turkeys over the years. The only way you can tell the difference between the photos is that I am getting older.

I always want to make the Thanksgiving Dinner here at our house. I think it is because I like my own cooking. I like the way my own food tastes. So we usually have it here. My daughter likes to cook with me now as well.

When I was younger, I would usually be the one to do it all. The chopping of the vegetables for the dressing, the sautéing of the vegetables and giblets and making the side dishes. Over the years more and more I have let others bring some of the food and let my daughter and husband help with any preparation that goes on here.

I still make the stuffing and stuff the turkey, get it in the oven and watch over it. Last year I made the candied yams. I use fresh yams. My daughter helped with side dishes like the mashed potatoes and a vegetable. My husband chopped all the vegetables for my stuffing and made the fresh cranberry sauce. Our cranberry sauce recipe is a variation on Aunt Audrey’s recipe. She now lives in Australia and has not been able to join us every year like she used to. She always brought her delicious fresh cranberry sauce. My daughter will sometimes make a pie. Otherwise my brother-in-law will buy the pies. I usually buy my bread rolls from a nice bakery.

It is much easier and more fun to make it a family effort. Looking forward to a relaxing and peaceful day. Many things to be thankful for. My family and our health are two big ones.

Thinking about some fellow bloggers that are having some hard times right now and sending love their way. Celebrating a holiday like Thanksgiving is not just for people who have Norman Rockwell type families if there really are any families like that. I read an article on Next Avenue by a blogger who is estranged from some of his family and he talks about how we can create our own families. I think this is very true we can chose to celebrate with our friends.

While we are celebrating with the people we love we can be thankful for them while remembering there are people who are not so lucky.

I wish everyone to have peace and love on Thanksgiving.

|Nano Poblano| Happy Thanksgiving to The Peppers and all my blogger friends!

Rosh Hashana Dinner

9 Replies

I had a small family dinner party for Rosh Hashana. My menu for the dinner included fresh chicken soup and brisket. I added the home-made kreplach we had in our freezer to the soup along with matzo balls.

Homemade Chicken Soup with kreplach and matzo balls

I don’t have many of my own pictures because I was cooking all this the day of the dinner and it is a lot of work. Next time, I hope to cook some of the food ahead of time.

I really enjoy cooking holiday meals with my family. We all work together to make all the dishes.

My daughter was here and she helped a lot with shopping and some of the cooking. She made a delicious noodle kugel and a spinach salad with pomegranate seeds and pear. She bought the flowers, sage honey and some scented candles.

My husband helped with some shopping as well and picked up a pretty round chocolate chip challah.

It was hard getting everyone together. My daughter Kate had special plans for this weekend so I decided to make the dinner on Thursday night. My son Scott was working late but managed to come over with his lovely wife Jennie. They had helped make the kreplach with me a few weeks ago.

Two of my husband’s brothers and one of their wives made up the rest of our dinner party. I feel it is important for the family to be together and make happy memories.

I have a recipe I follow from my mother-in-law for the chicken soup. I have made it so many times over the years and it changes slightly each time I make it. This time I added a larger rutabaga and I think it gave the broth a sweeter taste. My daughter suggested I add some kale.

My mother-in-law Mary Lynn used to tell me that many Jewish women in the old days did not have their recipes written down with the exact ingredient measurements. Or they might leave out an ingredient when passing on a recipe. She told me a Yiddish expression ” shitararyn” which she said meant put in it or pour it in when adding an ingredient.

I used Judy Zeidler’s The Gourmet Jewish Cook book recipe for the brisket which is made with prunes and apricots and with brown sugar in the recipe. This gives it a slightly sweet taste.

It is a tradition to include sweet foods like honey for New Year because this means you will have a sweet year.

One of my brother-in-law’s made a Honey Cake from his mother’s recipe.

My daughter had a lovely idea about doing a Tshuvah activity where we would all set our intentions for the New Year and ask ourselves what do we want to cast off and what do we want to keep in our lives.

I regret we did not get to this activity at the dinner but I would like to incorporate it into future Rosh Hashana dinners. I want to think about my own intentions during this week for the coming year.

It’s Time to Make Kreplach

2 Replies

Today part of my family got together for what has become one of our yearly rituals, making kreplach. For those of you who may not know, kreplach is like won ton or ravioli. The way we make it takes more than one day and it is a group effort.

First I shopped for the brisket. Then my brother-in-law cooked the brisket at his house because he has a meat grinder. He grinds up the brisket with kasha. We use the meat and kasha mixture as a filling for the kreplach.

My husband makes the dough for the pasta that is wrapped around the filling. He uses a hand operated pasta machine which I gave him as a birthday present many years ago. He does not make fresh pasta anymore but for this once a year kreplach tradition. We usually make keplach before Rosh Hashanah(Jewish New Year). We make a pretty large amount.

We get an assembly line going on our kitchen table. My husband on the pasta machine, cranking out a long flat pasta sheet. My brother in law cutting out circle shapes from the flat pasta. Me, my son and daughter-in-law, complete the last steps by placing a spoon full of filling in the center of the pasta circle.Then folding the pasta over the filling and crimping the edges a bit and bringing the opposite corners together. You’ll have to look at the picture because it is hard to describe.

The kreplach are then cooked in boiling water. After they are cool I put them in separate plastic bags, a dozen to a bag. We sometimes like to sample our work. Today we made about 120. I divided up the bags between us. We freeze the kreplach and it can be used later as an addition to soup or can be baked or fried and eaten alone as the main course or appetizer.

It’s fun making the kreplach together but a lot of work. You can see some of process in the photos I took.