food

This wonderfully creamy risotto makes the most of simple, classic Italian ingredients

Adding the parmesan rind to this soup while it cooks gives it a fantastic depth of flavour

These wonderfully light savoury muffins are perfect for breakfast or brunch - or just enjoy them as a snack when you're feeling peckish.

This poached pear dessert is so simple to make, yet it tastes utterly divine

You'll love the flavour of Parma ham with ripe fresh fruit - it goes particularly well with the melon and mango in this refreshing salad

Recipe from Gourmet

Filled with piquant blue cheese, creamy taleggio and toasted pine nuts, this quick to prepare pasta dish is a taste and texture sensation

Recipe from Gourmet

Salty parma ham and sweet scallops are a match made in heaven in this recipe from the Parma Ham Consortium

I saw a table at the market the other night groaning under the weight of a mountain of summer squash. Squash that looked like it wanted to avalanche its way into my basket. I took pity, grabbed a bunch and made my way home. I ended up using a couple that night in a favorite nothing-to-it zucchini recipe. So, I thought I'd share the recipe with you, along with a few non-recipe related links. First, the zucchini. It's a single-skillet kind of thing. Coins of zucchini are browned in a pan, but the thing that makes it special is the toasted golden slivers of garlic combined with lots of fresh dill, plus a sprinkling of almonds for crunch. Prep takes five minutes, if that, and you can treat this as a side dish, or use it as a component of something else...

For example, I often cook up a pan of the zucchini like this, then use it to top off a frittata. You might toss it with a short pasta, a bit of slivered basil, and a bit of feta - also delicious. Over farro, not bad. Baked as a hand-pie in a simple pastry with a smudge of goat cheese? Even better. Anyhow, it's really adaptable. And for those of you who don't use much dill in your cooking...let me just say, dill is under-rated and under-utilized. The more I cook with it, the more I love it - fingers crossed you like this spin as much as I do.

And before I sign off, a few links - because I'm long overdue for a proper "favorites" list:

- I've been using this for a few months, and love it. - Best ever Redfin listing: La Miniatura. - Thinking my nephew might like this when he sleeps over. - More summer camping inspiration. - If I needed a clothing rack, this would be the one for me. - Perfect stripes. (via Bliss) - Loving this idea: banana bread made with chocolate coated walnuts. - Better than the paper kind. (via innumerable goods) - Hoping Little Flower School someday makes a visit to SF. - Summer pizza edition of this joy + ride - Quinoa Falafel @ Sprouted Kitchen. - And lastly - hoping for an English version of this.

Continue reading Sautéed Zucchini...

Recipe from Bon Appétit

Recipe from Bon Appétit

Recipe from Bon Appétit

Recipe from SELF

This past week has been pretty swell. I feel like I'm finally easing into summer, something I wasn't sure was going to happen. I spent a couple nights under the stars with WB, cleaned off the back patio, grilled more meals than I cooked indoors, put some finishing touches on the manuscript, ate mint soft serve at Il Cane Rosso, made tofu burgers twice, saw whales migrating north, and picked up a few vintage baking pans in an antique shop in Healdsburg. That being said, I think the thing that really set the summertime tone around here was finding a tiny frog, no larger than my thumbnail, hopping around under my desk. We caught him in a Mason jar and released him out back.

My first thought was that the little guy must have hopped into our camping gear in an attempt to go from country frog to city frog. But it turns out the likely culprit was my nephew, who spent Sunday morning with us. My sister told me later they have lots of little frogs in their back yard, and he loves to try to catch them. Mystery solved - a toddler here with frogs in his pockets, and one made a break for it.

On the cooking front, I've been cleaning out some drawers. Primarily going through old magazine clippings (which is part of the reason I've been featuring more magazine inspired recipes than usual). I've been finding lots of gems, and these tofu burgers were one of the recipes that jumped out at me. I've adapted them from a reader contributed recipe that ran in the October 2004 issue of Sunset Magazine. The recipe was sent to Sunset by Jeremy Wolf of San Francisco, and I quite enjoyed them. They were impossibly easy to make, relying on the "throw everything in the food processor" technique, and called for a quirky mix of ingredients ranging from tofu, seeds, and nuts, to mustard, cumin, and mushrooms.

I suspect you'll be tempted to tweak the seasonings, it's the nature of the beast. Here's my advice. Don't skimp on the cumin or mustard, you need some assertive flavors to kick in - keep in mind you're dealing with ground tofu and eggs as a burger base. Alternately, if you play around with the seasonings - think bold.

Continue reading Tofu Burgers...

This past week has been pretty swell. I feel like I'm finally easing into summer, something I wasn't sure was going to happen. I spent a couple nights under the stars with WB, cleaned off the back patio, grilled more meals than I cooked indoors, put some finishing touches on the manuscript, ate mint soft serve at Il Cane Rosso, made tofu burgers twice, saw whales migrating north, and picked up a few vintage baking pans in an antique shop in Healdsburg. That being said, I think the thing that really set the summertime tone around here was finding a tiny frog, no larger than my thumbnail, hopping around under my desk. We caught him in a Mason jar and released him out back.

My first thought was that the little guy must have hopped into our camping gear in an attempt to go from country frog to city frog. But it turns out the likely culprit was my nephew, who spent Sunday morning with us. My sister told me later they have lots of little frogs in their back yard, and he loves to try to catch them. Mystery solved - a toddler here with frogs in his pockets, and one made a break for it.

On the cooking front, I've been cleaning out some drawers. Primarily going through old magazine clippings (which is part of the reason I've been featuring more magazine inspired recipes than usual). I've been finding lots of gems, and these tofu burgers were one of the recipes that jumped out at me. I've adapted them from a reader contributed recipe that ran in the October 2004 issue of Sunset Magazine. The recipe was sent to Sunset by Jeremy Wolf of San Francisco, and I quite enjoyed them. They were impossibly easy to make, relying on the "throw everything in the food processor" technique, and called for a quirky mix of ingredients ranging from tofu, seeds, and nuts, to mustard, cumin, and mushrooms.

I suspect you'll be tempted to tweak the seasonings, it's the nature of the beast. Here's my advice. Don't skimp on the cumin or mustard, you need some assertive flavors to kick in - keep in mind you're dealing with ground tofu and eggs as a burger base. Alternately, if you play around with the seasonings - think bold.

Continue reading Tofu Burger...

This sweet soy sauce glaze from Eat Japan is great for jazzing up a BBQ. So slather it on to all your favourite meat and veggie skewers

Recipe from Gourmet

This simple sushi rice recipe from Eat-Japan will give you perfect results every time

Recipe from Epicurious