le monde vegetal

Nature is full of amazing surprises.Some are even good to eat. Now is the season of brussel sprouts, which is one vegetable that I never used to enjoy. I have to admit that growing up, the dish was seldom served, but if it was, it was overcooked ( as they used to do) and served with melted butter ( as they used to do ).The bitternes didn't seem to get tamed by that pad of richness, and so, I always refused the cute micro cabbage.Until rtecently, when I discovered a new technique to sweeten the babies.
You cut them in half, rub them with olive oil and salt, and in the oven they go ( 450o) for 25 minutes until they are slightly caramelized and tender.A handful of persillade (chopped garlic and parsley) brings the hated vegetables to revered status.
I had to buy the prehistoric stalk and had fun holding it up like a weapon of visigoth proportions , or the spine of some martian body.As a seasonal contrast,roses from my garden continue to delight.....

grateful

Traffic was the old stop and go.For what seemed forever. I decided to put a Jacques Dutronc CD and was brought under a spell of nostalgia and happiness.Because as I looked to my right, about to cross the bay Bridge to San Francisco one early morning , as the dark was melting into day, the water seemed phosphorescent and glowing,the mist was like a soft silk drapping a shoulder,and the sun, just about to turn a shade of abricot, was going to shine.

puff mommy

This week, I haven't been able to wear my blacks.I have been covered in flour.working with puff pastry. WE are all feeling a little bit bigger in the waist, after sampling airy deep fried puff pastry doughnuts,or potato samosas with cilantro chutney or even those mini"palmiers' with gruyere and smoked ham, or even those "langues de boeuf" of caramelized crispy wafers of puff. I think that I might have to puff a bit as I go up the stairs to the 3rd floor to the big loft where we work.

the season

Driving home in the Santa Cruz mountains, we came upon this vision in the darkness of night.

sunday at the oakland Museum

The exhibit was a retrospective of art from 100 years at the California college of Art and Crafts. I love the Squeak Carnwath, the Manuel Neri, the Nathan Olivera... but after taking a portrait of significant by the koi pond,I was mesmerized by the sight of colors and patterns,water,whiskers,bars and reflections...

august in November

went to the opening of a wonderfully talented artist named Sherry Olsen. Sherry is a famous ceramicist but her fine art is just as special and haunting. It feels raw ,complex, dark and gentle. She was showing with a couple of other people, who used the traditionnal indigo techniques from japan in wonderful new items of clothing,and others who created little voodoo dolls like mobiles of indigo remnants with human hair. Japanese sake in mini glass bowls and artful baskets of radishes and sushi felt like an extension of the art.
August ,541 college avenue, Oakland CA 94618

glam dot

a day in the country

It is a bit of a drive, specially when you encounter tons of traffic on the way back, and when you arrive home, exhausted and your nerves on edge. The Sonoma Valley, north of San Francisco is always a treat for the eyes and soul. Even under working conditions and with the loud buzz of leaves blowers and lawn mowers breaking the silence of the vineyards. After all ,all these beautiful estates need to be primped. But I couldn't resist taking a few snaps to give a flavor of fall, of foods I cooked, of colors, of beauty.

party

Let's pop up the champagne cork, and drink the alchemist breuvage,bubbles bursting in animated pattern in the back of the thoat. Its efffervesence bringing the meaning of life to the lips:short, full of surprises,glorious, exquisite and glowing.

in the hands of Buddha

Last week at the market,I bumped against a bin of Buddha's hands. These wild fruits made their first curtain call a few years ago and I was mesmerized by the weird, probing tapered fingers. Now, it is in the Berkeley grocery store,bins full of them, california mainstream.foodie heaven in the relentless search for the new, the unique, the hidden, the exotic.. My firiend June candies the exotic citrus peel but what else to do with it ? Anyway, I was daydreaming , imagining an orchard, somewhere in California, where the fruit was finally coming to maturity. What does the tree must look like , I ask ? Only to stumble ( once more) onto a dwarf tree at the nursery. I was not looking for a citrus tree then but for some ground cover, Buddha called and took me by his long curly nails to the pretty tree with its huge yellow ornaments.