Tuscan still life

Vino Nobile, Aperol, cantalope, fresh plums and peaches, crusty bread, peccorino and truffle honey.

Trip to Normandy

Simple pleasures of French food



A crusty and light baguette
Creamy camembert purchased in the farmers market and allowed to come to room temperature
Fresh beautiful French radishes
A bottle of Apple cider
Garlicky and sweet saucisson

Consume near a beautiful ruin while sitting on the lawn. Delicious!

London Broil

Marinating a Top Round sirloin in a marinade from Joy of Cooking: 1 cup of red wine, some crushed black pepper, three cloves of garlic and a quarter of an onion.

It's marked as London Broil from the package but all the recipes in Epicurious.com contain soy sauce or ginger which seems out of place in a traditional American beef dinner that my father so enjoys.

Will accompany with either home fried potatoes cooked in bacon fat and onion, mashed potatos with butter, or baked potatoes with sour cream. Also brussel sprouts quick sauteed with garlic and olive oil or broccoli served fresh with a squeeze of lemon.

Perfect Sunday Breakfast

Toasted english muffins topped with smoked salmon and fresh arugula with a squeeze of lemon with a soft boiled egg on top served with a cup of Prince of Wales tea with milk and sugar. Consume with Astrid Gilberto in background and sunday paper in front of you.

December- the time to eat sweet Clementines. With their easy to peel skin, their sweet juice, and perfect size, I love clementines.

Sicilian Anchovy Pasta

Its raining outside. A cold November evening and the sun has set at 5pm. What to do for dinner? I'm craving something solid but tasty and I am not willing to go to the store to just buy an ingredient. This is one of my typical pantry staple dishes. The only thing it was missing was fresh parsley or basil. But in the summer, I have that on the balcony so its not so bad.

Sicilian Anchovy Pasta

Prepare angel hair pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.

In olive oil, sautee a small chopped onion, four chopped anchovies, red pepper flakes, and dried basil. Supplement the olive oil with some of the oil from the anchovies.

Stir in the hot pasta into the olive oil/anchovy/onion paste and add some pasta cooking water to moisten. Add lemon juice and fresh Parmesan.

Delicious!

A Platter of Figs

Forget about getting back to the land, David Tanis just wants you to get back to the kitchen

For six months a year, David Tanis is the head chef at Chez Panisse, the Berkeley, California, restaurant where he has worked alongside Alice Waters since the 1980s in creating a revolution in sustainable American cuisine. The other six months, Tanis lives in Paris in a seventeenth-century apartment, where he hosts intimate dinners for friends and paying guests, and prepares the food in a small kitchen equipped with nothing more than an old stove, a little counter space, and a handful of wellused pots and pans.

This is the book for anyone who wants to gather and feed friends around a table and nurture their conversation. It’s not about showing off with complicated techniques and obscure ingredients. Worlds away from the showy Food Network personalities, Tanis believes that the most satisfying meals—for both the cook and the guest—are invariably the simplest.

Home cooks can easily re-create any of his 24 seasonal, market-driven menus, from spring’s Supper of the Lamb (Warm Asparagus Vinaigrette; Shoulder of Spring Lamb with Flageolet Beans and Olive Relish; Rum Baba with Cardamom) to winter’s North African Comfort Food (Carrot and Coriander Salad; Chicken Tagine with Pumpkin and Chickpeas). Best of all, Tanis is an engaging guide with a genuine gift for words, whose soulful approach to food will make any kitchen, big or small, a warm and compelling place to spend time.