Tarragon and Chives

  Garlicky heirloom cranberry beans simmered with tomatoes, lots of garlic and fresh herbs is a summertime treat around here, especially with a generous amount of pesto spooned over the top of each bowl.  I like a grating of Parmesan cheese on top of my soup along with a few shredded leaves of fresh basil, then I'm a happy camper.  Yes, fresh homemade pesto gives extra deliciousness in every spoonful of this cranberry bean soup. Rancho Gordo heirloom beans are my cranberry beans of choice and fresh sweet basil is in just about every outside container in my garden.  The elbow pasta, carrots, zucchini and cranberry beans make one of my favorite soups a hearty meal that can be made earlier in the day and served later, anytime you like.  I made my pesto a few days ahead and kept it in the refrigerator until I was ready to put the soup together for dinner.   Ingredients and Recipe for Garlicky Cranberry Bean Soup Serves 6 8 ounces heirloom dried cranberry beans,...

 slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant & over the top crop basil pesto Two Summer recipes and I know it's October  🎃 , but with the smokey 💨  skies and hot 🥵 temperatures, aka: red-flag  Warning ⚠️ end days of Summer I still have recipes to make and share with you.  Japanese eggplants are fun because they're easy to grow and very purple, a beautiful color. I like the way the long slender eggplants hide in their compact little bushes making you lift up their leaves and really search for your harvest.  I like the lushness of the sweet basil plants 🍃and their confidence to grow and grow right up into October.  Tomatoes are basically done and I have one more apple tree to harvest, maybe this weekend. I would make falafel and cover it with slightly spicy minty marinated Japanese eggplant.  I would also make potato gnocchi and smother it with over the top crop of basil pesto, thank you very much. hmmmm.. Ingredients and Recipe for s...

We made a road trip to play golf a few weeks ago to the Oregon coast at Bandon Dunes, it's beautiful. This was our fourth trip to play golf in the past several years at Bandon. We cancelled our trip to Ireland this summer and don't know when we will make it back over there to play golf at some of our favorite courses in the world. I'm not complaining, yes its disappointing to cancel all your vacations but I have this new food blog and I can drive back up to Oregon and play golf there again soon, so there's that. We played the new course at Bandon called Sheep Ranch and it was incredible just like the other courses. I can't even say which one is my favorite because in their own ways they are all equally challenging and ruggedly beautiful, in that Oregon coast kind of way. Which brings me to this carrot Jalapeño soup recipe that I enjoyed at the Pacific Grill at Bandon Dunes. They would not give me the recipe, of course I asked. But, then I went googling and t...

  Tomato salad is a Summer favorite, especially with basil.  Dinner is just a whole lot better with tomatoes, sometimes I find myself slicing up a few cherry tomatoes just to add color to my plate.  Mostly I like a big sliced tomato salad, a large commitment to tomatoes, just throw myself into it.  This is a fun tomato recipe with a little crunch from the toasted pine nuts, a lot of flavor from the Sumac shallots Marinated in white wine vinegar and if you really want to go big, add soft goat cheese in big clumpy slices- perfect pillows for the shallots and sumac.  Now I'm happy. Tomato Salad with Basil, Pine Nuts and Sumac Shallots 1 large shallot, sliced thin 1 & 1/2 T sumac 1 T white wine vinegar Sea salt, pinch 2 large tomatoes, sliced 18 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half 2 T extra virgin olive oil 1/2 cup, lightly packed fresh basil leaves 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts Soft goat cheese, sliced (optional) Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, to taste Place sh...