Tarragon and Chives

 Three years ago we traveled to Portugal 🇵🇹 we played golf, toured around and discovered a place to visit that we loved.  We tried the Portuguese egg tarts, pasteis de nata, a speciality in Portugal that people line up to order warm from the oven.  So, we joined in a long line and came away with the most wonderful  cinnamon flavored egg custard tartlets.  They were just perfect with the take out coffee from a famous pastry shop, creating a delicious picnic of pastries and coffee for ourselves to carry away and enjoy on a nearby park bench.  I've been wanting to recreate mini egg custard tarts like the ones we enjoyed in Lisbon.  However, it turns out they have an oven that they bake their tarts in at around 800F, that's what I read.  It must be a quick trip for those little tarts through that extremely hot oven.  That piece of information didn't deter me from baking my tartlets at 500F in my own oven at home.  The tartlets are best warm from the oven but not bad either se

 Sometimes, in the dead of Winter, I crave a fresh crunchy hearty Asian inspired cabbage and rice noodle salad for dinner.  A fresh salad 🥗 with rice noodles, cashew nuts, cucumbers 🥒  red bell peppers, cilantro 🌿 grated carrots 🥕 mandarin oranges 🍊 limes, shredded Napa cabbage, and sliced scallions tossed in a spicy chili garlic asian style dressing.  Then- there's times when I just want a chocolate chip cookie 🍪 That's another blog post for another day.  Actually I've been thinking about baking some chocolatey chocolate World Peace cookies, again for another day. Today I wanted to get my hands on fresh citrus 🍊  from a few potted trees in my garden.  I love my potted dwarf citrus trees, they fit nicely in my smaller backyard area.  I had all my salad ingredients on hand as I originally planned to use chicken in this salad but then I used it last night for chicken curry on jasmine rice, yum that was good.  We took a drive out to Point Reyes over the weekend and my h

  Today is finally the day I baked one of my favorites, the almost a Danish pastry-almond puff loaf has finally happened.  Does anyone else have the problem of having such a long list of things to bake for the holidays that the baking projects overlap into January?  January is the month of your diet.  January is dessert and alcohol free for the most part but it's different now that we're still under quarantine.  Everything that is normal is now upside down, even my baking, dessert, diet, wine etc schedule doesn't know what month it is.  Hello, it's January No desserts, sad. So, there you have it, today is almond puff loaf day, a holiday recipe on my list since Thanksgiving that never made it to the top of the list.  Some other things, like special Christmas cookies, pies, cakes or breads took short cuts to the front of the line, I'm sure.  But, finally almond puff loaf moved into first position on the top of my list.  I was so happy that this day had arrived that I

  A freshly baked loaf of brown soda bread, just like it's sister white soda bread is yet another miracle of the combination of buttermilk and baking soda that both leaven the bread and impart their lovely flavors.  I like both white and brown soda bread, although I admit feeling healthier when I eat slices from the brown loaf.  Brown soda bread is always best eaten fresh, the day it's made.  However, brown soda bread makes the best toast, of course spread with butter and jam.  I think it's good served with cheese as well.  I have played around with this recipe, it's very forgiving as long as you follow the basic recipe which are the white and brown wholemeal flours, baking soda, salt and buttermilk.  I like to add a teaspoon of fine sugar and sometimes an egg beaten into the buttermilk in this basic soda bread recipe.  You could add seeds or nuts to the dough or you could serve this bread spread with soft butter and smoked salmon. Ingredients and Recipe for Brown Soda