Spring cooking: Recipe for asparagus tart

An improvised tart to celebrate spring – perfect for a Sunday lunch with friends.
The White Witch still has the East Coast in her wintry clutches, but here in Californarnia, Aslan is on the move. It’s spring! The song birds are pairing up, the squirrels are getting frisky, and the trees are in blossom. Best of [...]

Baking recipe: Chocolate macadamia nut brownies

Super Bowl Sunday party
Along with Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is a venerable American tradition with a focus on food. We had to feel our own way for Thanksgiving, but our neighbours invited us over for a Super Bowl party.
This was my first time watching American football and I must admit it was pretty baffling. It [...]

Thanksgiving dinner: A dress rehearsal for Christmas

We cook up a feast for our first Thanksgiving in America.
Thanksgiving is a peculiarly North American holiday. In the United States it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and in Canada it is the second Monday in October and is, I believe, more of a harvest festival. Perhaps readers can enlighten me on [...]

Recipe Road Test: Ptolemy Mann’s rose-geranium cake

Recipe for sophisticated Middle Eastern-inspired, gluten-free cake with rose geranium

I was browsing in the farmers’ market at the San Francisco Ferry Building the other week when I found a stall selling bunches of rose-geranium leaves. For those not in the know, it’s a specific type of geranium with rough leaves that smell like roses. I [...]

Photo Friday: Sunday breakfast – cinnamon pancakes

San Francisco; summer 2009

Our little house in San Francisco has a cute little garden with roses, a fucshia bush, a beautiful red cedar tree in the neighbouring garden and visiting squirrels and hummingbirds. It is the perfect place to sit on a Saturday or Sunday morning and enjoy home-cooked breakfast and freshly brewed coffee.
Scrambled eggs [...]

Recipe Road Test: Top Crust Peach and Cardamom Pie

The peach season was in full swing when I arrived in California and two and a half months later it is still not over. Some of the varieties have changed but peaches are still plentiful and relatively cheap. My absolute favourite kind so far are the Arctic Snow white nectarines, which are fabulously sweet and [...]

Best of the Web – Gooseberry Fool: Foodie links for 21 September

San Francisco is enjoying an Indian summer so we are dining al fresco as much as possible and enjoying all the wonderful fruit and vegetables. The nectarines and peaches are still in full swing and have been joined by lovely plums and heirloom tomatoes have really come into their own.
With the warm weather, it’s also [...]

Recipe Road Test: Strawberry and polenta cupcakes

What I made with the bounty of my pick-your-own strawberry harvest.

The week before I left the UK I joined a group of friends on an excursion out of London to a pick-your-own strawberry farm. My friend Jessica has some pics up on her blog FushMush – that’s me in the denim skirt and turquoise top [...]

Best of the Web – The Gooseberry Fool: Foodie links for 24 August

I can’t believe August is nearly over already! Ever since I arrived in San Francisco, I’ve been devouring summer fruits, especially white nectarines and peaches. I’ll be sad when peach season is over, but I have a cunning plan to extend it a little further. I bought an entire box of organic white peaches for [...]

Best of the Web – Gooseberry Fool: Foodie links for 10 August

Food and travel
Vegetarian travel. Top 10 countries to be vegetarian in, according to Expatify.

Maltese delicacy. Nanette, the self-styled Ms Gourmet of Gourmet Worrier, writes about ġbejniet – individual cheeselettes formed in little plastic baskets made from fresh goat or sheep milk. The picture of her little girl with a bag of ġbejniet is adorable!
Spanish snouts. [...]

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