morsels & sauces

February 26, 2011 Berkeley   Negronis  Cava Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Black Olives Olives with Garlic, Lemon, Cumin Salad Pork Spanish Potato Salad with Mussels Filo and Dried Plum Pie with Hazelnut Gelato                  

It's cold out there tonight.  There's talk of snow for tomorrow.  Snow.  Snow near sea level!  Snow in San Francisco! So I did some searching around and discovered on Peter Hartlaub's blog that the past sixty years have seen three snow falls in San Francisco--February 28, 1951; January 21, 1962; and February 6, 1976.  And The Chronicle records that there were two other snows in December 1882 and February 5, 1887.  I love this 1887 photograph of Shotwell Street (between 22nd and 24th).  Besides the absolutely lovely lamppost, I love the ladies with their umbrellas.  Hartlaub, Peter. "A Century of Snow in San Francisco : The Poop." San Francisco Bay Area — News, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Classifieds: SFGate . The San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. Tonight to keep warm, I made one of my favorite soups.  Celery and wild rice were quite simply made to go with one another.  Wild rice, as you probably already know (you smart

Continuing in my squash-related posts... I love risotto.  However, I didn't grow up with risotto, as my (single) mother (of three) often opened a can or a box, added sauteed hamburger, poured us a glass of milk, and called it a meal.  She had a lot more to do than stand at a stove and stir constantly, as risotto demands that you do.  Further, she wasn't taking any chances on whether we would like dinner.  She stayed with what was tried and true--chili, tuna tetrazzini, tacos, and spaghetti.  She made the mistake once of letting me choose my dinner for myself. Imagine with me: my mother's first birthday celebration after her divorce from my father.  Younger than I am now, she was taking her three children (ages 9, 8, and 2) to the nicest restaurant in town.  For something special, she announced that we could order anything we wanted--what joy for a seafood-loving, land-locked, midwestern girl.  I scanned the menu, quickly passing over the pasta and the children's

Oh, I have been away.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been making steaming bowls of Red Russian Kale with lemon juice and salt or a plate full of chicken with stir-fried bok choi, or my personal favorite, a casserole of organic broccoli, brown rice, cheddar cheese and a can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup (seriously, the Midwestern in me is in California-hippie-heaven with that one).  I just haven't been photographing and writing about them.  I have fallen behind.  You understand.  But such is the fate of February, when the end of our second term at school doesn't creep up on you so much as all out assault you, take-no-prisoners style.  And while I still have twenty more papers to grade today, I am making the sacrifice to cook before I tuck into them.  Such a sacrifice. Anyway, today, we're going to try to put a dent in the butternut squash.  Full Belly Farms , the CSA that sends me this box, thinks that I have more uses for butternut squash t