Tarragon and Chives

  Broccoli, Cheddar Cheese, Brown Butter & Sage Soup October brings mild weather in our area with a small amount of rain in the monthly forecast but we can still see slight changes outside, leaves turning colors and falling off trees.  We don't really see a big  change here until November when hopefully we will experience rain and our fire season will be diminished. I found sage in a garden pot and thought about creating a soup using sage brown butter, here comes Fall-really just around the corner.  I tried to garnish my soup using broccoli florets, grated cheddar cheese and fried sage leaves, what happened?  The cheese mostly sunk along with the broccoli florets but the fried sage leaves saved the day and floated on top.  I also added a flourish of sweet paprika and I think that turned out ok, so if interested in a garnish for the top of your soup just go with the sage and paprika. Ingredients and Recipe for Broccoli, Cheddar Cheese, Brown Butter & Sage Soup serves 6-8 3 t

  Rock Shrimp Ceviche Ceviche made with fresh lime juice and a little zest makes an easy flavorful appetizer, bring on the margaritas and pull up a chair on the deck.  We've had a break from the foul air and our red flag 🚩 fire season but that's forecast to change this weekend.  The air is going to heat up and the wind is going to blow giving us our second red flag 🚩 warning this year.  I don't think they're going to turn off our power but you never know, unfortunately.  But, better safe than sorry.  Cold food will be in order, ceviche is easy and I'm forecasting that it will be a perfect appetizer, no generator required-just ice, plan ahead. Ingredients and Recipe for Rock Shrimp Ceviche with Jalapeños and Manzanilla Olives serves 6 1 pound rock shrimp 🍤 , peeled and deveined  6 limes, juiced and zest of one lime 1 medium large tomato, cut into small dice 1/2 small red onion, sliced thin 1 large jalapeño, minced 1/3 cup minced cilantro, plus extra for garnish se

  Beer Batter Onion Rings We made a birthday dinner for our son, Taylor.  My husband, Scott grilled steaks and corn.  I made macaroni and cheese, green beans and oven roasted rosemary potatoes. Don't ask me at what point I decided we needed fried onion rings to go with the above mentioned feast.  Oh and I don't want to forget to mention the ice cream cake I made earlier in the day-6 am- with layers of crushed chocolate cookies, chocolate syrup, chocolate mint gelato, vanilla almond coconut gelato and hazelnut chocolate gelato, did I mention chocolate?  I think I decided to make onion rings because I could, it was one of those decisions that was premeditated, that I have no good excuse for and they were a huge hit!  Sometimes you just have to bring that deep fryer out of hiding.  Here is the recipe, thanks Martha. Recipe and Ingredients for Beer Batter Onion Rings serves 6 2 cups all purpose flour, divided  1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, plus more for sprinkling 1/4 teaspoon ground

  Pasta with Rock Shrimp I almost can't make pasta anymore without adding thin slices of jalapeños, also minced parsley and most of the time grated parmesan.  Although, this pasta dish doesn't have any parmesan and shock of all shock I  didn't miss it.  I bought a half pound of rock shrimp 🍤 to make ceviche but that didn't happen, it happened later and I will get to that in a few posts.  I love capellini which is a lot like angel hair pasta.  I love angel hair pasta with fresh tomato basil garlic sauce, that might be my favorite pasta sauce, so simple and delicious. I'm sharing this recipe because it was a huge hit at my dinner table with the rock shrimp and all the other ingredients -at first bite my husband, Scott, said this is really good, it must have been the jalapeños. Recipe and Ingredients for Capellini with Rock Shrimp, Lemon, Capers and Jalapeños  serves 2-3 8 ounces Capellini pasta 8 ounces rock shrimp, peeled and deveined  1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1

  My Favorite Apple Cake Apple 🍎 🍏  cake for dinner?  That would be a yes and thank you very much from me, but I would love a slice anytime, definitely with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Especially when the skies are a somber gray and the air is full of ash.  Too unhealthy to walk or play outside but cool enough, no bright sunshine in my California day, to turn on my oven and bake a cake. WE need apple cake.  I recently had a good size harvest from my apple trees.  I gave away several bags of apples to friends and of course left myself a few healthy bowls of apples in the kitchen.  But, now it's time to get serious about a few annual baking projects that I enjoy.  Apple cake along with apple pie are both on top of my pre-fall to do list.  I've been making just the pie fillings bagged up for the freezer but the apple cake is to be sliced and enjoyed today, amen. I made a few changes to this original recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table so I'll s