Tarragon and Chives

 This rich and tender lemony almond flavored pound cake uses at least two of the Meyer lemons from my fully loaded potted Meyer lemon tree.  I can't think of a better use of my lemons.  My side yard neighbor has a huge lemon tree covered with lemons all year round, I see it from my kitchen window -which is very nice. I asked him what he does with all his lemons and he told me that each year he donates bags of lemons to a crab feed.  I noticed that he also leaves bags of lemons in front of his house for neighbors. I'm sharing this lemon almond pound cake recipe because it's just so good baked with the sliced almonds on top and lemony glaze, not bad looking either. 1&1/2 cups all-purpose flour 4 large eggs, room temperature 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup -for the glaze 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest, plus 3 tablespoons lemon juice, divided-for the glaze 1 cup almond flour 1&1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon s

Carrot and leek soup is a bowl of sunshine in winter, specifically for dinner on a rainy gray January evening.  A bight flavored easy to make carrot soup embellished with a spoonful of mellow miso, a dusting of Rangpur lime zest with freshly snipped marjoram minced over warm creamy tops with a sprinkle of fleur de sel, reminding me of warmer al fresco dinners in the south of France.  This is the first installment of my soup and wine blog series.  I'm starting with a light but tasty winter soup, a soup that goes well with wine.  We start our soup and wine night by greeting guests with a Kir Royale, made with French champagne Laurent-Perrier and a spoonful of Crème de Cassis served in a flute.  I like to serve cheesy  gougères  from my blog to nibble, followed by a glass of Williams Selyem "Estate Vineyard" Russian River Valley Chardonnay to accompany our carrot and leek soup with miso, lime and marjoram.  A fun evening was had by all.  I also made fudgy chocolate brownies

  The world's easiest deep dish cheesy pizza just became easier when I discovered SF Joe's Original house made pizza dough and sauce available for pick up anytime.  The first time I made a deep dish pizza in a skillet I used traditional homemade tomato pizza sauce, caprese mozzarella balls and homemade pesto sauce.  We loved this simple cheesy pizza with crispy edges and pesto flavors.  I've made it a few times for dinner, served with a green salad and a glass of red wine.  But after I discovered the pizza dough and sauce at Joe's, pizza became easier to make and it certainly is better homemade right out of the oven. I also like to use basil leaves in place of pesto for variety, even easier to prepare.  The 9" cast iron skillet is just the right size for the purchased pizza dough.  I had a little leftover pizza sauce after spooning it around the mozzarella balls over the risen pizza crust before baking in a hot oven.  I tucked sweet basil leaves around the mozzarel

  My cookie exchange food blogger group continues to inspire my baking.  The week after our potluck cookie exchange party is always the kick off of my Christmas 🎄 cookie baking season.  I've had this excellent cut-out sugar cookie recipe from my friend Gina from one of our first get togethers and now it's time to share it.  We made sugar cookies to decorate for Valentines day with a small group at my house about ten years ago.  I was just checking our the pictures and I think we did a pretty impressive job on our homemade cookies.  My friend Lisa gifted us all a snowflake cookie cutter which I happily used to make my cut-out sugar cookies.  My daughter Katie gave me a small bag of candy cane Christmas sprinkles from Etsy and it was just time to put all of these wonderful things together to create a new blog post as I have fallen way behind on my usual posting.  I started this blog to share my recipes with friends and family during covid, which since vaccines isn't as scary

 First ripe black figs are sliced and artfully arranged in an unbaked buttery tart shell.  They are brushed with a Meyer lemon glaze, sprinkled with Armagnac and baked in a hot oven for about 45 minutes.  I like to serve slices of fig tart with spoonfuls of crème fraîche, creating a simply luscious dessert for the fig lovers in my life.  I say, the more figs the merrier however the amount of figs and their arrangement is up to you.  Because I find it easier to roll out- my favorite tart dough is made using an egg whisked together with a teaspoon of ice water.  The tart shell doesn't need to be pre-baked and works very well with this quite saucy fig filling.  I also brush a small amount of the lemon glaze on the tart shell bottom before I arrange my fig slices, just to seal it up a bit.  Try to stick with a tablespoon of Armagnac sprinkled over the figs before baking as not to add too much additional liquid.  The abundant hot bubbling fig slices, lemon glaze and armagnac filling wil

 Our intense, way too long heatwave seems to be winding down, finally.  Here is a recipe for cold soup for dinner for our way too hot-Bay Area's September heatwave of 2022, or one in the future.  I always thought September and October were too hot, but now...the word dread comes to mind.  So, I made this cooling gazpacho one night during the worst of the heatwave, like 112F during the day and over a 100F at dinnertime.  It wouldn't surprise me if we still have another heatwave before the rainy season which used to start in midway into October, now I'm dating myself, and we had snow in the Sierra in November. I am loving the addition of plums to my soup, instead of the usual cucumbers that are chunked up and blended with the tomatoes.  The plums came from the farmers market and were innocently sitting in a bowl, minding their own business, next to the tomatoes on my counter, when the idea to add them to the tomatoes in the soup came to me.  Plums add a sweet note to the soup