Recipe Road Test: Chocolate-Caramel Macadamia Nut Tart

A decadent chocolate-caramel dessert for impressing guests As a I cook I’m usually drawn to the simple and I rarely make something that requires multiple steps. So this tart was a departure for me, since it involved blind-baking pastry, making caramel, making chocolate ganache, assembling it all before the chocolate and caramel set, and piping [...]

Buffalo meat is healthy, tasty and eco-friendly

I am a convert to eating buffalo. Oh my. This time last year I penned an article for EcoSalon about the environmental arguments for Americans to eat buffalo. The main point is that rearing buffalo promotes the restoration of native grasslands in the prairies of the American West. However, as I was living in Britain [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 27 July

I have decided to make the ‘best of the web’ link collections a weekly event, alternating each week between the Gooseberry Fool (foodie links) and Roaming Tales (travel). I hope you enjoy it! Recipes An intriguing idea for salsa – a blueberry salsa! The recipe, tested by Alanna from Kitchen Parade, also includes serrano chilli [...]

Best of the Web: Seasonal eating for July

After months of dealing with immigration paperwork and organising packing and shipping, I have finally made it to California. I’ve been living in San Francisco for a week and I’m loving it so far. We have a great green grocer right around the corner from our house and I’ve also been to the farmers’ market [...]

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