It's Time To Let Them Go

To be perfectly honest with you, I still have the chanterelle mushrooms. When it came time to slice and saute them...I just could not do it. They were so beautiful I just couldn't say good bye. So I wrapped them up in paper towels, and gently placed them on a clean tea towel in the veggie bin. During the evening while we made the pizza, I would go and sneek a peek at them..say Hi to them, tell them it was just not their time yet. They were too special, too precious.They were gold.

So the pizza was missing the chanterelles...we put on olives instead. But it was good.

Today the rain hit hard..and so did the thunderstorms. Which is really unusual for around here.Poor little Dande made a break for the upstairs closet. She is still there. I'll just let her be.

With a dark rainy day looming, I knew I wanted to stay home. And deep down in my heart of hearts I knew it was also probably time to let the chanterelles go.It was time to say good bye. I know they won't last forever and I might as well enjoy them before they go bad. Actually, I like the idea of making a mushroom pasta sauce more than putting them on the pizza.

So this morning I decided to get out the pasta machine and crank out some fresh pasta.

The recipe is the one I will do tonight. You can use any mushrooms for this..unless you know Zipper...

Chanterelle Mushroom Pasta From The Hills Of Big Sur

Put on a large pot of water to boil. Make sure it has a fare amount of salt.

The mushroom sauce:

Saute a couple of shallots in butter and olive oil till soft.

Add diced carrot and a diced celery stalk to the shallot and cook till soft.

Add sliced mushrooms, about 2 cups.

Add about 2 cups chicken stock and cook till reduced to about 1/2 cup, 20 to 30 minutes.

Add 1 cup heavy cream and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer till sauce
is thick enough to coat a spoon,about 15 minutes. The sauce should be on the thick side.

Cook the pasta..Enough for 2.... till done, drain and add it to the mushroom sauce pan.Set aside about a cup of the pasta cooking water to add to the sauce if it becomes to thick after adding the pasta.

Coat the pasta with the sauce, add salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle the pasta with chopped fresh italian parsley and chives. Can add about 1/4 toasted pine nuts, if desired.
Top with grated parmesan cheese.

Charmed, I'm Sure

It's finally raining out here in bone dry California. Finally. We had such a downpour around lunchtime I had to don boots and coat and take a broom to the front porch. It was raining so hard and fast the garden looked like a lake. I thought Farmhouse was a goner. I thought for sure it would flood. But we made it o.k. We're all high and dry.For now at least.

So on this rainy Monday..my thoughts go to supper. Haven't been able to turn on the oven much. Just been too warm...but not anymore. So I got out one of my favorite cookbooks. "Fanny at Chez Panisse" by Alice Waters. It was first published in 1992. And the illustrations are adorable. The recipes are simple.It's about making good food easily with basic ingredients and simple techniques.And I wanted to make the gingersnaps for dessert tonight to serve with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream. My favorite gingersnap cookie recipe is in "Fanny". The book is just so charming I wanted to share it with you.

When we were little my mom would make Mark and I spareribs and potatoes in the oven on rainy days. She would just get out a big old baking pan, quarter the potatoes, pour a little olive oil over them, toss and sprinkle them with salt, throw them in the pan and place some seasoned spare ribs over the top. Bake at about 375 degrees for and hour or so and...supper. All you need is a salad. And on this stormy night, biscuits wouldn't be bad either.

Whiskey Sour has on his tweed sweater..the one with the leather buttons and is wearing his Christmas scarf. He has a nice spot in the red plaid chair here by "woodstove". And I made Dandelion a cozy bed in an old red wool blanket I brought back from Maine...she is on top of the farm dining table. Just don't tell anybody.She likes it there.

GOLD STRIKE !

So I am over at our local natural foods store this morning..waiting to pick up Buddy's cough syrup prescription at the pharmacy next door......and I am cruising in the produce isle and there they were. PURE GOLD ! Right there next to the lettuce. Chanterelle Mushrooms. I could hardly believe my eyes. There were only 3 of them. So I grabbed a bag and scooped them up. I could feel my heart race. I would rather have these than a bag of diamonds.

And what perfect timing. I was planning on pizza for Sunday night as the storm slams in from the Pacific Ocean. With El Nino out there...we are suppose to have a real downpour.

I saw the produce guy and asked where they came from...just as I thought...Big Sur.

When we lived in Cambria..which is about an hour and a half south of Big Sur on Highway One, a kid who worked for John knew where the "special secret spot" was in Big Sur. John went with him one time and he said they walked back into the woods for an hour... although no forager worth his salt would ever tell the truth about where to look....unless he's a really good friend.The kid would sell them to restaurants up in the bay area...he told me he used to sell them to Alice Water's restaurant Chez Panisse. The mothership..to be sure....

Julie and I have eaten there a few times...and it is all they say..and more.

To tell you the truth, the kid's name was Jim, but I called him Zipper. I have no idea where that came from either. But Zipper would show up at my back door when we lived in Cambria with bags of freshly picked chanterelles. I usually just kept it simple...I would make some fresh pasta...saute the mushrooms in butter, add a little cream or chicken stock, salt and pepper, add the pasta to the mushroom skillet, grate some parmesan over the top and serve. That was it. Simple. And it was GOOD !

For our Sunday pizza night....I will roast the sliced mushrooms in the oven with just a toss of olive oil and sea salt, then scatter them over the top of the pizza with just a simple tomato sauce ,gruyere cheese and a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley from the garden.

We'll build a fire in "woodstove",make our pizzas, light some candles..and wait...for RAIN !At Last !

Hot Toast and Jam

The Creative Tuesday Logo on my sidebar is from the wonderful blog Hot Toast and Jam.

goodteatoo.blogspot.com is his blog address. ( i don't know how to link to it...grrr )
He has a wonderful group of people who are participating in his Creative Tuesday's.

It is a great group of very talented people and it is alot of FUN !

I have made some amazing new friends through Mr. Toast....and thought maybe you would enjoy it too.....

have a great cozy winter weekend, dear ones

kary
xxx

Between Storms

It's hard to believe that we are in for a whole week of rain next week. But I guess we are. So I decided to head out to the nursery today and pick up some springtime flowers before the rains hit. It is in the 70's again here today, so planting outside in the garden seemed like a good way to spend the day.The sun was shining on my back as as I planted fragrant stock, sunny yellow violas and linaria.

I picked up this flat of stock at The Hide Tide Nursery in Shell Beach just cause the colors looked so spring like. To tell you the truth, it was all they had. It was pretty slim pickings there. I asked the guy where all the flowers were and he just looked at me and said, "It's January, lady".

And the sunny morning went over pretty well for Whiskey Sour and Dandelion too.

Happy 101 Award

Thank you, Morwenna of Bluebells and Butterflies for the Happy 101 Award ! So kind of you to think of me.....

I am kind of slow on the computer.....so tomorrow I will complete the rest.....

But I wanted you to know that I have received it and am so grateful for it.

Thanks again, dear friend.

Kary

Nothing Fancy

So yesterday afternoon I am watching Ellen and she has on her chef. This man named Tal and he has out a new cookbook called The Conscious Chef. All vegan. Ellen's vegan. And I am thinking maybe I could just try the vegetarian thing that I failed at twice last year...again. Not vegan..cause of my pizza love...just no meat.

Now the weatherman comes on for his update and he says RAIN. What? Rain? Are you kidding me? Does he really mean it? We have been bbqing out in the garden for weeks.You mean I could get my crockpot out? At last. Winter? Here? For me?

And what do I want to put in that crockpot? POT ROAST. How can I do a vegetarian pot roast. I can't. Why do I even consider it? I am thinking gravy and mashed potatoes.

So off I go to Scolaris and there it is. A beautiful pot roast. So I put it in my cart and head to the soup isle. I want the Lipton Onion Soup mix to make the pot roast like my mom made.And YES. You are seeing that right. Canned corn and gravy from a jar. Someone sometimes gives me a hard time about my Heinz gravy love.... (you know who you are.)

So this morning out came the crockpot....I browned the roast first, then put it in the crockpot with the soup mix, some water and a couple of splashes of red wine.

And it already smells good. So tonight, no Julia Child.No Alice Waters. Just old fashion and farmy.

And for dessert....did you see it...isn't it cute? We will each get two bites of that tiny berry pie...