FRENCH TOAST SANDWICHES + A BOOK TOUR!

This fall, I'm roaming the West Coast, and taking a trip to NYC, to talk about food with all of you and to share this book I love. Mark your calendars and please come say hello... I'd be thrilled to see you!  

 *Big Launch Party ~ Book Signing and Popsicles in the Edible Schoolyard Garden ~ Berkeley
Omnivore Books will be selling copies of the book.

Open to the Public. Kids are welcome. Bring a friend. The more the merrier!

September 7th, 2-4 @ The Edible Schoolyard Berkeley, 1781 Rose Street 

*Book Signing and Conversation ~ Corte Madera

With Kimberley Hasselbrink of The Year in Food and Vibrant Food

September 14th, 4pm, Book Passage, Corte Madera 

*Book Signing + Demo ~ Seattle

September 24th, 6:30 pm, Book Larder. 5252 Fremont Ave, N, Seattle, Washington

*Food Photography and Styling Workshop ~Portland
September 26th, 3-5, PDX Culinary Alliance. Portland. Sold out.

*Book Signing + Tasting ~Portland
September 27th, 10am-1:30 pm. Beaverton Farmers' Market, Portland

*Cooking Class ~ Portland

September 27th, 6:30-8 Pages to Plate @ The Cakery, Portland Sign up and purchase tickets here!

*Book Signing and Tasting ~ Portland

Powell's Books joins Pastaworks for a culinary book signing. 
September 28th, 3-5pm Pastaworks-Hawthorne, 3735 SE Hawthorne, Portland

*Book Signing ~ New York City

October 8, 11-1. Union Square Greenmarket
  
*Featured Speaker, Maker Talk with Apartment Therapy/ The Kitchn ~New York City ~ new event!
October 8th, 7pm Subculture, 45 Bleecker Street, NYC Tickets available here

*Yummy Supper Cooking Class to Benefit the Edible Schoolyard Project  ~Berkeley

Pair up with one of your favorite kids (your own, a grandchild, niece/nephew, or young buddy) and let's cook and eat a few of my favorite recipes in the amazing ESY Kitchen! 

All proceeds benefit The Edible Schoolyard Project. Space limited to 30 participants.

October 11th, 10:30-1:30 @ The Edible Schoolyard Berkeley. Purchase Tickets here. 

*Yummy Supper Cooking Class to Benefit the Edible Schoolyard Project  ~Berkeley

Pair up with one of your favorite kids (your own, a grandchild, niece/nephew, or young buddy) and let's cook and eat a few of my favorite recipes in the amazing ESY Kitchen! 

All proceeds benefit The Edible Schoolyard Project. Space limited to 30 participants.

October 18th, 10:30-1:30 @ The Edible Schoolyard Berkeley. Sold Out. 

*Panel Discussion ~San Francisco  
Contemporary Food Writing and the Future of Culinary Publishing

@ The Book Club of Calufornia's Symposium, "A Feast for the Eyes: Gastronomy & Fine Print"

With Phyllis Grant, Cheryl Sternman Rule and Celia Sack.

October 24th, 2:30, San Francisco. Tickets and info available here.

*NCIBA Author Reception ~ San Francisco
October 24th, 6-7:30pm 

*Book Signing + Tasting ~ San Francisco

Come to the Ferry Building for the Harvest Festival - I'll be signing books at Stonehouse Olive Oil!

October 25th, 11-1, Stonehouse Olive Oil, San Francisco Ferry Building 

*Book Signing + BBQ Sauce Demo at Oaktown Spice Shop ~ Oakland

October 29th, 5-7, 530 Grand Ave, Oakland.

*Book Signing + Conversation ~ Los Angeles 
In conversation with Adrianna Adarme of A Cozy Kitchen 
November 9th, 3-4pm Diesel, A Bookstore. Brentwood Country Mart. 

*Book Signing ~ Sebastopol, California
November 15th, 7pm Copperfield's Books, Sebastopol. 138 North Main, Sebastopol

*Book Signing + Tasting ~ Albany, California
December 6th 3-5pm, Flowerland, 1330 Solano Ave, Albany 

FRENCH TOAST SANDWICHES with Peaches and Mozzarella

recipe and photo excerpted from Yummy Supper: 100 fresh, luscious & honest recipes from a {gluten-free} omnivore 

Sandwiched between two slices of French toast, peaches get juicy and sweet in the hot oven, and are oh so good with warm, melty mozzarella. Add a drizzle of maple syrup . . . yum! 

While I am partial to the peach and mozz combination, you can make these sandwiches with all sorts of other fillings—baking French toast is an easy way to feed a crowd for breakfast or brunch. In the winter, try sliced pears with mozzarella or even Parmesan. You can also stuff your French toast sandwiches with jam and cream cheese any time of year. 

INGREDIENTS makes 4

• 2 eggs
• 1⁄2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup, plus more, warm, for serving
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• Pinch of sea salt
• Sprinkle of ground cinnamon
• 8 slices sandwich bread {GF folks: I particularly like Canyon Bakehouse 7 Grain Bread here}
• 4 tablespoons salted butter
• 3–4 ounces fresh buffalo or cow’s milk mozzarella, thinly sliced
• 1 peach, pitted and sliced into 16 thin wedges 

 
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Generously coat a large baking sheet with butter. In a wide shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon.

Submerge each slice of bread in the eggy batter for 30 seconds or so. You want to coat the bread but not let it get soggy. Place all 8 slices of battered bread onto your greased baking sheet. Bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes. 
 
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and flip all the slices of bread. Tuck a nub (teaspoon or so) of butter under each slice of toast before returning the baking sheet to the oven. Top half of the bread slices with a layer of mozzarella and four peach wedges. Continue to bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until all the toast is golden brown and the mozzarella is nice and melty. 

Assemble the sandwiches and generously drizzle warm maple syrup over the top. Serve right away. 

......................

CHICKEN WITH 40 GARLIC CLOVES

It's gotten so cold and blustery these past two weeks - once the sun goes down, all I want to do is cozy up with my little family for a warm meal and go to bed nice and early. These long dark evenings suit my homebody tendencies.

This easy chicken dish, from Alice Waters' fantastic new cookbook Art of Simple Food II, is just the kind of comforting one-pot main that calls my name this time of year. The chicken is tender, moist and infused with a subtle herby garlic flavor - plus all those roasted garlic cloves are heavenly squeezed onto little toasts. And oh my is the sauce delish... you can't help but mop it up with a smile on your face.

As Alice suggests, you'll only need a simple arugula salad (sauteed spinach is also nice) and toasted bread on the side and you're done. Family meal accomplished.

For those of you who didn't see my last post, don't miss out on a sweet opportunity to buy a signed copy of Alice's Art of Simple Food II to benefit the Edible Schoolyard. Be sure to place your orders by December 15th.

INGREDIENTS from Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food II
printable recipe

• 4 chicken legs, or one whole chicken cut into pieces
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 40 unpeeled cloves garlic (from 3-4 heads)
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme 
• 1 bay leaf
• for serving: toasted slices of crusty bread {Bay Area GF folks: Mariposa baguettes are quite nice here}; simple arugula salad or sauteed spinach

Note: If possible, generously season the chicken with salt and pepper the night before cooking.

Heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. First, deeply brown the skin side of the chicken - 10-12 minutes. Flip the pieces and brown the underside for another 4 minutes or so. (In order not to crowd the chicken pieces, I do the browning in a couple of batches.)

Preheat oven to 375.

While the chicken is browning, separate garlic cloves leaving their skins on but removing excess papery skins. Place 40 individual garlic cloves in the bottom of a lidded baking dish. Add thyme sprigs, a bay leaf and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Toss to coat.

When the chicken is nicely browned, nestle it on top of the garlic and herbs. Cover the pan with foil, then the lid. Place pan on the middle rack of your hot oven. After 50 minutes, take off the lid and foil and let the chicken cook another 10 minutes to crisp the skin a bit.

Serve slices of toasted rustic bread with the chicken to dip into the delectable juices in the bottom of the pan.

Serves 4

Wishing you all warm, peaceful, healthy holidays!!!!

2013 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Japanese barware from Umami Mart


It's that time of year...time to splurge, play, indulge and shower the people we love with gifts!

After scheming up all sorts of ideas, I've gathered some of my favorite picks for this holiday season to share with you. You'll notice plenty of brass and gold, tiny herbs, cookbooks old and new, delicious olive oil, a perfect mortar and pestle, and everything you need to trick out a home bar. Why not give your loved one a gift certificate to her favorite restaurant? Or a signed copy of Alice's new book to benefit the Edible Schoolyard?

These items - from thoughtful, beautifully-curated small businesses and my favorite non-profit, the Edible Schoolyard Project - are just the kinds of gifts I love to give (and receive, hint hint). If you have a moment, peruse the links and I hope you'll feel inspired too.

Wishing you all happy holidays!!!

A signed copy of Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food II to benefit the Edible Schoolyard Project (order by December 15th)

Mix and match small tools from Kaufmann Mercantile

Tom Dixon brass small form bowls from GARDE

Marble mortar and pestle from Quitokeeto

Small heirloom brass handled scissors from Food 52 Provisions

A gift certificate to a favorite restaurant

Stonehouse Rosemary Olive Oil*

my favorite micro basil seeds from The Gardener

Vintage cookbooks from the fabulous Omnivore Books
- Omnivore stocks every imaginable new cookbook too -


*I have an ongoing working relationship with Stonehouse Olive Oil as their photographer. I've fallen in love with their rosemary oil which is so ridiculously good drizzled onto a big warm bowl of white beans or hearty minestrone - I had to add it to my gift list. As always, all opinions are my own!

A SALAD FOR THE EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD {+ my little video on how to supreme an orange}

Alice Waters' original Edible Schoolyard is a five minute walk from our house. For years, we've taken early evening strolls through the garden, ogling the vast array of plants, herbs, fruit trees - all inspiring our own tiny backyard veggie garden.

When our boy Otis was getting ready to enter middle school two years ago, we couldn't resist King. We wanted Otis to have the freedom to safely roam our neighborhood, ride his bike to school, have local friends, and be a part of our community school. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the Edible Schoolyard was a huge draw for us in making this change.  King kids are fortunate enough to have classes in both the Kitchen and Garden programs associated with the Schoolyard.  Every time I visit, I'm stunned to see a huge group of middle schoolers not messing around or worrying about being cool, but totally focused and invigorated about cooking, gardening, eating, and learning. I've never seen adolescents so excited about vegetables! Who wouldn't want their child to have this invaluable education... an education which instills a passion for learning that permeates all aspects of the school, way beyond the Garden and Kitchen.

King kids know they're lucky to have the Schoolyard - I see them taking great pride in knowing where food comes from, and how to grow and cook nourishing food for themselves.  I dream of these King kids becoming parents a generation from now, and the joy and knowledge they will be able to share with their own families - the healthful meals they will cook with their own children.

When my amazing friend Phyllis asked if I'd be interested in teaching a class with her at the Edible Schoolyard to benefit our Berkeley Public Libraries, I immediately said "YES!" On Saturday, we had a blast cooking with 11 adorable kids and their moms, dads, and even a few grandmothers. Phyllis, a pastry master, taught everyone to make sumptuous savory tarts - my oh my were they incredibly good. Then, I worked with the gang on making a deconstructed salad and taught the kids how to whip up a simple vinaigrette in mason jars. Watching all their eager little faces as they shook up salad dressing and ate lettuce like it was candy made my heart swoon. While I always feel lucky to cook with my own kids and their friends, it was totally inspiring for me to cook with this group of kiddos I'd never met. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the tiniest taste of the magic the Edible Schoolyard gets to experience every day. I'm savoring it.

CITRUS, FENNEL, RADISH + PISTACHIO SALAD
 serves 4
{printable recipe}

For the dressing:

• 1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard
• generous pinch of good sea salt
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil

For the salad:

• 1/2 pound baby arugula, or butter lettuce
• 1 medium fennel bulb
• 6 radishes
• 8-10 kumquats
• 2 oranges: Cara Cara or blood oranges are my favorites here
• 1 cup roasted salted pistachio, shells removed; or 1/3 cup pepitas
• optional: arugula and/or fennel blossoms

The dressing: First, place all ingredients in a lidded jar. Shake vigorously until dressing has emulsified. Dip a leaf of lettuce into the dressing and add more salt, vinegar, or oil to your liking.

The salad: Wash, fully dry and place your salad greens into a large bowl. (Keep in mind that fully dried leaves will be key to your dressing adhering nicely to the greens later.) Trim and thinly slice fennel bulb and radishes. Slice kumquats thin, leaving skins on. Remove any seeds.

Supreme oranges. (See video at the end of this post.)

Place fennel, radishes, kumquats, orange slices, and pistachios (or pepitas) into individual bowls.

When all of your salad components are prepped, and you’re ready to eat, lightly dress your greens. (Go ahead and use your hands to toss the salad - it's the best way to get a beautiful even coating of dressing on all the leaves.) Place bowls of chopped goodies on the table and let everyone make the salad they desire. Pass around small pitcher of extra dressing in case anyone wants to add another drizzle to his/her plate.


I decided to make a little video for you guys ( my first ever!) showing the simple way to supreme an orange. If you struggle to slice clean segments of citrus and are looking for a little help, I hope this video makes your life easier....