[From the farmers' market, September 2008.]
Fall is: 90-degree Saturdays in Sebastopol; Sunday afternoons in the backyard with lemonade and cookies, the perfect grilled cheese for lunch; a change in the air that foreshadows the cooler days to come, even though it’s still hot; cappellini and tomatoes for dinner, with a pick-me-up salad; roasted cauliflower; not [...]

[Summer pasta, August 2008.]
Oh, hello, summer you sweet old thing. How I’ve missed you. I think San Francisco has missed you, too, because the whole city seems in the last few days to have turned into a shining, blue-white, golden afternoon of pure sunlight and warm breezes. I don’t even care what [...]

[Lunch, August 2008.]
Last night I dashed home from the gallery, where I’d had two (small!) glasses of sparkling wine in quick succession at a closing party, so I could meet my friend for a late dinner. We made: a shallot, broccoli, and potato soup simmered in a bit of vegetable broth and seasoned with [...]

[Flowers near the sea, July 2008.]
Sometimes I think I am a very strange person. Take today, for example. It’s warmish (thankfully), the sun is out for the most part, I’m helping prepare a barbecue at work (yes at work, welcome to San Francisco …) and for some reason I’m feeling nostalgic for [...]

In food, as in love, when I tend to fall I fall hard. My stomach seizes up in a fierce knot, and I find I have little appetite for anything other than coffee, wine, water, and a few slices of cheese here and there. I tell myself at these times: be still my [...]