Miscellaneous: Feeling grateful

A fairly typical meal at home. Asparagus grilled with olive oil and sea salt. Pasta with a sauce made from leftover fish, sautéed onion and Swiss Chard with white truffle oil. A salad of lettuce, arugula, and spinach, all from the garden. Soon, the tomatoes, too will be from the garden. A rosé of Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc from Washington. In a few months, the rosé will be from our own backyard vineyard. The three salt dishes were made by local potter John Chambers. The asparagus sits on a plate made by Gina Kuta, another local potter (both live and work in Sebastopol). Just outside of the frame is a large bouquet of flowers just picked from outside the kitchen door in a pot thrown in the 1950s by my late mother. 

I feel very lucky to live here and to have all the things that I enjoy every day. I take none of it for granted. 

Food I'm Eating: First Homemade Pesto of the Year (July 12, 2014)

Two events mark the true start of summer: Picking the first homegrown tomato from the vine and making the year's first batch of homemade pesto. Cherry tomatoes are already ripening here. Full-sized tomatoes will require another couple of weeks it looks like, but I've just finished making the first pesto of the season. Fresh basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, raw garlic, and salt. Nothing else. Basil gets my vote for most useful of all the herbs. It can garnish tomatoes and it makes pesto. Even a small garden can grow enough to provide pesto all summer long and then, frozen, for most of the winter as well. Presented here in a cup made by local (Sebastopol) potter John Chambers.