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Just a quick note to let you know we're up in beautiful Dunsmuir, California celebrating my father-in-law Al's 70th birthday. We'll be back at it Monday, so pardon any delays in responding to comments and emails. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and as always, enjoy!

Bread Baking Babes - Dan's Garlic Bread

Miracles of miracles I managed to bake this months Bread Baking Babes Bread - Dan's Garlic Bread from Natashya at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies.

This is a FANTASTIC garlic bread. At first the recipe intimidated me, but it's not hard or complicated, it just takes a while.

You start by cooking some whole garlic cloves and making them fabulous. When you dough is ready they get kneaded in.

The dough is cut into 3 loaves for baking. I think I overworked the dough at the cutting and forming stage, but they came out very rustic and adorable.

If Scott hadn't been home when I made this, and knew that there were 3 loaves, I would have eaten a whole one myself. Can I say it again? Fabulous.

You guys will want to make this. Go and visit Natashya and get the recipe here.

Happy Saturday!

Chicken Lu'au

I tried this recipe out after we decided to have a Hawaiian Feast for Christmas. It didn't make the cut, but it was a great dish. I think it's the only dish I've made out of my Sam Choy cookbook, but I've marked so many pages I'd like to try. The photos in the book are absolutely mouthwatering! We may have to have a Hawaiian week here. I'll use Sam and my Maui Taco book as well.....Here I come Hibachi Miso Chicken with Peanut Butter!

What I liked most about this dish was that it had spinach in it. I too often turn to my 'staple' vegetables (peas, corn, carrots) and forget about the rest. I haven't had the interest and passion for cooking lately that I used to have and it's been reflecting in my dinner menus.

The recipe in the book calls for young taro leaves, which are to be boiled first, but notes that fresh spinach can be used instead.

Chicken Lu'au

from Sam Choy's Cooking

1 pound spinach

3/4 lb skinless boneless chicken breast, cubed

2 Tb butter

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp salt

In a large saucepan heat butter and saute onions until translucent. Add chicken and cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, spinach and salt. Simmer 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Mushroom Barley Soup

I love soup  because it's so easy to make, doesn't really need fussing, measuring or gussying up - in other words, just the opposite of baking.  Especially when I've put all of my energy into making dessert and making it pretty, soup is just so easy!  And nothing is better on a cold winter evening, than a nice bowl of hearty soup.  My Dad, who loved to eat, didn't start cooking until later in life, after he and my mother both retired.  He, too was a great lover of soup.  This recipe is basically his with just a few minor changes and a fleshing out of the techniques.  He used equal portions of dried and fresh mushrooms, but I don't usually keep dried mushrooms around, and they can be hard to find.  I find that the cremini mushrooms are so tasty that the dried ones are not needed.  If you do decide to use some dried mushrooms, soak them in hot water, drain them reserving the liquid and then strain the liquid into the soup

Serves 6

1 tablespoon mild oil, divided
3/4 cup cremini mushrooms, washed, dried and chopped
1/4 Vidalia onion, skin removed, and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1 celery stalk, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
4 cups low-sodium beef stock
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 cup non-fat half & half
salt and pepper to taste

Add the 2 teaspoons oil to a large stockpot.  Heat on high, and when the oil is hot, add the mushrooms, and saute until brown.

Reduce the heat, add the remaining oil, onions, celery and carrots, and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not brown.  Add the stock and the barley.  Cover the pot and simmer for 1-1/2 hours.

You can leave the soup as it is, but I like to puree a few ladlefuls , which makes the texture more pleasant to me, and also thickens the soup.  I use a slotted spoon to transfer about a cup or two of veggies and barley to the processor, and then I process it until it is not quite smooth.  After it is ground up pretty well, you can add a little of the broth to help get it pureed.  Once it has the texture you like, scrape it back into the soup.  Stir in the half & half, bring back to a simmer, and serve.  Soup almost always thickens overnight.  If you want it more liquidy when you reheat it, add more half & half or puree some more of the veggies.

A Visit to Straus Creamery & Cowgirl Creamery

In the San Francisco Bay Area we are very lucky to have such incredible dairy products produced in our own backyard. Though many enjoy the milk from Straus Family Creamery and cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery very few have seen exactly where those products come from. Last week I got a chance to visit both, thanks to Cathy Strange, the Global Cheese Buyer for Whole Foods Market. While visiting California she took a small group of writers to visit both the dairy and the cheesemaking facility, at Tomales Bay and Petaluma. I learned what makes Albert Straus, Peggy Smith and Sue Conely such pioneers.


Albert Straus is a second generation dairyman. He took over his parents farm which was established in 1941. He transformed what was a struggling conventional dairy and converted it to the first organic organic dairy West of the Mississippi River in 1994. Despite all the challenges of running a dairy farm today it is thriving. In moving forward, he embraced many of the practices from the past, including using glass bottles, selling milk that is not homogenized and bringing back Jersey cows and Jersey crossbreeds. Jersey cows are smaller and produce less volume of milk so they were bypassed in favor of Holsteins but yield a richer, higher fat milk.


To be organic, all the feed must be organic and free of growth hormones rBGH and rBST, but Straus goes one step further, verifying that the feed is GMO free as well. The cows are milked twice a day, and the young calves live in clean and idyllic quarters with plenty of access to pasteurized milk which helps them grow to be particularly healthy and robust.

All power at the dairy is offset by a methane gas digester that takes waste from the cows and turns it into electricity.


Straus has led by example, encouraging many local dairies to 'go organic.' Now 50% of the dairies in Marin and Sonoma counties are organic.


Peggy Smith and Sue Conley co-founders of Cowgirl Creamery got into the cheese business, inspired by the Straus matriarch, and Albert's mother, Ellen Straus. Both women came from the restaurant world and began by creating fresh organic cheeses from Straus milk. They still make clabbered cottage cheese, creme fraiche, and fromage blanc, but what they are most known for are some of their unique aged cheeses, especially the soft ripened bloomy rind Mt. Tam, Inverness and my favorite, the luxurious triple cream washed rind Red Hawk, so pungent and buttery, which won best of show at the American Cheese Society in 2003.


Peggy and Sue work with local organizations like Marin Organic and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (where Sue is currently board chair) to ensure that farmland is protected.


At their main cheesemaking facility in Petaluma, not far from Straus dairy they use the freshest milk, and are particularly gentle with the cheese curds, creating very high quality cheeses.

Thanks Cathy! Come back and let's visit some more cheesemakers soon.

While Straus Family Creamery is not regularly open to tours, you can book ahead if you wish to visit Cowgirl Creamery or take a class.

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Hello from beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea, California! Michele and I are here to tour a couple family farms as guests of knowacaliforniafarmer.com. Hopefully, I'll have some photos and more info to share when I return to San Francisco on Sunday evening, but in the meantime I wanted to post this experimental chicken satay burger video.

I've been thinking about how to do a chicken burger using some of the same flavors found in Thai-style chicken satay, and this was my first attempt. I thought it was pretty good, and benefited from some seasoning adjustments, as you'll hear. I think the concept is solid, but I'll continue to try and perfect the execution.

This is one of those videos where I especially hope some are inspired to take the idea and run with it. Then, come back and share your incredible success with the rest of us. This is a fun jumping off point in regards to doing burgers inspired by other classic dishes. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Enjoy!

For the burger (4):

1 pound ground chicken

1 1/2 tbsp coconut milk

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp sambal chili sauce

1 tbsp bread crumbs

2 tsp soy sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

pinch of cayenne

For the peanut sauce:

Peanut butter thinned with a squeeze of lime, seasoned with more sambal or hot pepper

For the slaw:

1/2 cup grated or julienne carrot

1/2 cup grated or julienne cucumber

2 tbsp sliced jalapeño

2 tsp Asian fish sauce

1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

Great Gazpacho

I had a hankerin' (oh yes I did) for gazpacho now that our weather has turned more summery. I was going to make my usual version with V8, but in the freezer I found a bag of tomatos that I had oven roasted and frozen last fall.

I used this recipe as my inspiration, but I went much simpler.

2 bell peppers (I used one orange and one red) whizzed smooth in the food processor with a few cloves of garlic and a spoon of sugar. I added my thawed tomatos and juice and pureed until smooth. I stirred in a couple of shots of red wine vinegar and some salt, then chilled for an hour.

Serve with a piece of cheesy toast, and a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.