Last week our piano teacher hosted a holiday salon, which is sort of like a piano recital for adults. Instead of playing in a large performance hall, we play in her living room. In December, we always have a little reception after, with wine and nibbles. A fellow pianist, Ida, brought along dried Hachiya persimmons. [...]
We had a pile of pears left over last week and I needed a quick recipe to use the stash before our next box from Happy Child CSA ripened. Fortunately, there was a great recipe included in the weekly newsletter, Becky’s Pear Cake. It was easy to make, and I modified slightly with the addition [...]
One of the neat things I learned last weekend at the BlogHer Food Conference, from the Pear Bureau Northwest, was that pears on my backyard tree will not ripen by themselves on the tree. So, when I got home, I promptly picked the remaining pears (some early ones dropped to the ground and became chicken [...]
Warren Pear Last weekend, I posted about the pear-almond upside down cake, which was a great recipe and well received. But I did not tell you the whole story. We have been subscribing to Frog Hollow Farms CSA since the beginning of September. Each week, we receive a bountiful box of fresh, perfectly ripe organic [...]
Pear Upside Down Cake Lisa was right. She and I have been subscribing to the same fruit CSA (Frog Hollow Farms CSA) since early September. Each week, with our 5 pound box of perfectly ripe, organic and local fruit, we receive a recipe for a delightful dessert using the fruit. I tend to avoid these, [...]
My grandparent’s farm was in Southern California, east of San Diego. The side of their property, or maybe it was the next farm over, was filled with avocado trees, a giant orchard. Unfortunately, my palate was not advanced enough at age 5 to take advantage of all those avocados, but fortunately, as I matured, so [...]
Figs are starting to appear in the store and farmer’s markets, and this recipe seems a great way to preserve the figs for the cold winter. This pickle uses cinder vinegar, sugar, cloves and cinnamon, which gives a deep, hearty flavor to the fruit. The recipe comes from my Grandmother’s neighbor, Mabel, and was originally [...]
Summer is here! And I can see peaches at our local farmer’s market. Life is once again good. I found this old recipe in my box, from my paternal Grandmother. It was typed on a small sheet of writing paper on my Grandmother’s typewriter, which wrote everything in cursive. And the date is August 1971, [...]
My mother’s favorite thing in the whole world was lemon curd, spread on toast or just eaten by the spoonful. I am sure if she had tried lemon cream, she would have added that to her list of favorites. And in my Baking, From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, we are introduced [...]
Gee, I guess after two weeks of posting something other than cookies on Cookie Thursday, I might have to change the title. Maybe. Not this week. Anywho, last week was my son’s half birthday at school. Oh, you must remember from when you were in school. Those children whose birthdays landed during summer vacation never [...]
Last weekend, all my Hachiya persimmons in the garage decided to ripen at the same time, and when I had pureed all the pulp, the first thing I did was make a batch of these persimmon cookies, a recipe I obtained from my friend Lisa. It is one of a plethora of persimmon recipes I [...]
One of the many gadgets I inherited from my Mom were two Steamed Pudding Molds. She used them every year to make Persimmon Pudding, around the holidays. Steamed pudding is a traditional English dessert, generally made out of some fruit or another. Christmas Plum pudding comes to mind. Apparently, there are also savory steamed puddings, [...]
