starters & snacks

burrata heirloom tomato sandwiches for a Napa Valley picnic

November 19, 2010

Since we live in San Francisco and adore wine, we often go on day-trips to Napa and Sonoma Counties for wine tasting. It takes about an hour and a half to get there so these wonderful visits turn into whole day affairs. When we first moved to Northern California we never really planned so we’d [...]

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flower pepper pickles

November 10, 2010

These beautiful flower peppers came from my friend Sandy who is a great gardener. Aside from their marvelous shape and startlingly red color, these peppers are also blessed with delicious and very sweet flesh, but the seeds can be tricky as you may end up every now and then biting into an extremely spicy one. [...]

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baked Portobello mushrooms stuffed with mushroom oat tomato filling with walnuts, Fontina and parmesan

November 5, 2010

Like mushroom and pink bean loaf, this recipe also comes from The Best – Ever Vegetarian Cookbook by Nicola Graimes. The picture in the book looked as appetizing as the mushroom loaf, so I decided to give it a try as well. Lately, Steven’s been kind of complaining we don’t eat enough mushrooms, especially, he [...]

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sweet and spicy kiwi and yellow cherry tomato salsa

September 20, 2010

I’ve adapted this recipe from one of those that you see at Safeway in the vegetable section; you know, those little cards that suggest exciting ways to mix produce and Safeway products together to make something tasty and fun. This one caught my eye because it looked like a New Zealander’s version of tomatillo salsa: [...]

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New York style pizza with basil cilantro pesto, goat cheese, Kalamata olives and fresh arugula

August 26, 2010

I made this pizza for company last week. I guess I was thinking about it after reading Heavenly’s post about Lombardi’s Pizza in New York. Ah, New York! Callie and Ellie were visiting from Virginia. Ellie is a real fan of Italian food. On that particular day, we were taking a break from sightseeing and [...]

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vegetarian paratha or maybe paratha veggie burgers?

August 20, 2010

I absolutely love Indian cuisine and never got around making my own paratha. Paratha is just a pan-fried unleavened flat bread originally from the Punjab region that is popular all over India nowadays. This recipe was adapted from Prerna’s beautiful blog. Her parathas looked so tempting that I had to try them at home. I [...]

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fresh corn tamales stuffed with shitake mushrooms and brie

August 12, 2010

This is a variation of a recipe for fresh corn tamales that comes from Stephan Pyles’ The New Texas Cuisine. In the Nineties in Dallas, Stephan Pyles was The chef that everyone talked about. In the last year or two that I was there, he opened Star Canyon on the edge of the Cedar Springs [...]

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zucchini blossoms stuffed with goat cheese, cilantro, oregano and pepitas

August 10, 2010

Zucchini blossoms are lovely, don’t you think? The yellow orange color is so pleasing. I’ve been reading about them everywhere in the food blog-i-verse in the past few weeks. One blogger recommends buying them whenever you see them as frequently and for as long as possible. I wish I remember who that guy was! His [...]

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Southwest inspired homemade empanadas

August 2, 2010

My original idea for this recipe wasn’t Southwest at all. I was reading this cool food blog, bitchin’Camero, and got super excited by Mel’s recipe for smoked salmon, goat cheese and spinach empanadas. My folks had just gone on an Alaskan cruise and brought us some smoked salmon as a gift. Perfect! I made the [...]

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pickled artichokes

July 19, 2010

I got a couple of gi-normous globe artichokes at our local Trader Joe’s last week. They were so beautiful and fresh, shipped directly from the cold misty weather of Castroville south of Monterrey Bay in Central California. Not too bad for our carbon footprint, I think… Because we went out for dinner several nights that [...]

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