Today’s Quotable Friday is a very special one, it is dedicated to my friend Eric Trifilo whose life was tragically cut short on Sunday.
When I think of Eric, I always see an enormous smile and I think of the fabulous food he made and his big booming voice and great laughter. Eric was the first person to teach me knife skills in the kitchen and the first person who ever told me about a Canon Rebel. He had a passion for life and music and dancing. He loved his sister Beth more than I can possibly tell you, and I am so grateful that he brought her into my life.
So, today’s quote comes from Melody Carstaire
If you can’t find anything to dance about, find a reason to sing.
Have a good, safe, and happy weekend.
X
Sabrina
We all have our likes and dislikes- and things towards which we feel ambivalence. I have a predilection towards vanilla bean, bright green herbs like cilantro, cauliflower, winter squash, florals (like jasmine, rose, lemon verbena, lavender or rose geranium), berries, chilies, and citrus. Ah yes, fresh, bright, punchy, slightly tart, like a burst of sunshine through the cold grey wet weather.
My friend Irvin of Eat the Love knows about my citrus crush (I’ll stop short of calling it an addiction). When Irvin brought me as his +1 to this year’s Chocolate Salon, he was able to steer towards bars and confections that he knew I’d love “That one is so you” he said about the lovely confection with lime and cardamom, and he was so right. When he needed advice about bergamot, he pinged me. I flushed with warmth and affection, not only does my friend know my tastes, he trusts my strange, quirky, area of expertise… citrus.
I don’t mind, on a personal level, being known as a girl with strong tastes, but I’m careful to try to pepper this blog with a good variety of marvelous seasonal things. If you knew the consistency with which I eat cottage cheese, kale, arugula, grapefruit, farro, and oat berries, you might think me a bore- you also may not need my recipes anymore.
In an effort to shake things up a little, I made a pretty outstanding pot of chili, my very first with … get the recipe
Oooh, I love Fridays. Most of us who work regular 9-5’s do. I look forward to my weekends at home with Joshua and the dogs and time to cook, write, and make photographs. Fridays bring with them the promise of Saturdays and Sundays- friends, a glass of wine (or two?), farmers markets, flea markets, walks in the park or on the beach, and sleeping in.
Now, I’m also really loving the last day of the work week for a new reason. Quotable Fridays. I choose a quote, I make a poster, if you like it (and you will, right?) you can download it for free! Or simply share it with everyone you dig on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the like, because everyone loves a good quote, and who couldn’t use a little inspiration?
Today’s quote is from Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc Fame. I think you may have heard of the guy.
“A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe. “
~Thomas Keller
Have a fantastic weekend, and happy cooking.
X
Sabrina
Home. It feels really good to be here. It’s funny how, even after just a few days away, I appreciate the safety, sanctuary, and calm that Home provides. Oddly enough, 48 hours ago, I really didn’t want to be here.
Friday night, in the midst of the first real winter storm we’ve had in California this year, we hopped in the car for a vintage Sabrina & Joshua-style road trip. Everything about our trip, from leaving a little too late, to the dramatic weather was perfect. We reminisced about the days when we lived in Southern California and made that drive back and forth to the Bay Area more times than I can count- only then it was often in a classic Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham.
In 1999 we were a couple of broke kids who had just moved in together in a sweet little apartment in Venice Beach. Joshua’s dad lived on Naples Island in Long Beach. He had a little sailboat where we would sometimes go and spend the night and go for a sail the following day. I’d always bring a homemade quiche and bottle of port. Before heading off to sleep on the boat, Joshua, his dad, their longtime friends, and I would sit around the house on Ravenna Street and have a jazz jam session, passing the bottle until late into the night. I still think of these salad days as some of the happiest of my life.
The last twelve and a half years seem … get the recipe
When I think about the things I love (aside from my friends and family) I can list them like this:
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Food
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Art
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Design
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Typography
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Cooking
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Writing
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Literature
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Photography
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Playing in Ocean…
Well that last one doesn’t fit in this list… but.
I’m introducing something new and I think, pretty cool. It’s Quotable Fridays. I’m going to choose a cool quote, which may or may not be food-related and I’m gonna make an awesome poster for you to download and put on your walls, in your cube, your locker, or your car (that would be crazy-cool!)
Anyway, everyone loves Freebies! I love printables, and I love people who say awesome and witty things that are worth quoting. If you have a quote you’d like turned into a poster, let me know in the comments.
This first one is from Robert Farrar Capon, a pretty interesting guy. A priest turned food writer, cookbook author, and Columnist for the New York Times. I love what he had to say here.
“I like a cook who smiles out loud when he tastes his own work”
What a delightful image. I’ll leave you with that, and the poster, for the weekend.
Have a great one
X
Sabrina
Since moving to our new house, I’ve been itching to start a garden. In San Francisco terms, we have quite a bit of space. While our “garden” is currently full of weeds, a giant Jade plant, some geraniums, and an unidentified tree, it is about to become a full-blown urban homesteaders dream.
The first step in my journey to becoming a real gardener was to actually take a class. Love Apple Farms, a small biodynamic farm in Scott’s Valley kindly invited me to come hang out for the day. I had the pleasure of taking an early spring gardening class and spending some time with founder, Cynthia Sandberg.
Love Apple Farms is pretty well-known for tomatoes- Cynthia grows over 300 varieties- each selected for it’s own qualities. Though the farm doesn’t sell produce to the public, each year, their tomato seedling sale is a chance to stock a garden with countless varieties of tomatoes from the rarest heirlooms to the hardiest juiciest straight-up salad tomato.
It’s hard to talk about Love Apple Farms without talking about the Farm’s symbiotic relationship with Chef David Kinch, of Manresa Restaurant. If Manresa sounds familiar, it’s probably because it has two Michelin stars, has been named one of the top 100 restaurants in the world, and is a semifinalist in this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards. Though other chefs had asked Cythia to supply them with produce, she finally said yes to Chef Kinch because her dinner at Manresa was “Rapturous” and “life … get the recipe
For 13 months, I’ve been participating in the Burwell General Store Vintage Recipe Swap, yet this month is simply bursting with firsts.
I’ll start with the obvious: it’s my first time posting a vintage recipe remake on a Wednesday. For those of you who are familiar with the swap, you might be used to them coming on Sundays. Well, our group of 30 or so, has split into two groups of 15 with half of us posting on the first Sunday and half of us posting on the third Wednesday.
The second first (that sounds funny) is this. Of all the vintage recipes Christianna has given us, this is the first that has ever actually repulsed me. From hot slaw to jelly cake, grandma’s chicken pie and drop biscuits to company time lemon cake, I have always found something to love in the recipe we’ve started with. This Orange Snowflake Salad may be my bête noir, the thought of it is completely horrifying. he recipe contains two packets of orange jello, pineapple juice, pineapple, cottage cheese, onion, cottage cheese, and celery- oh and just to be elegant, one should serve it on a lettuce leaf- with mayonnaise.
With morbid fascination, I some researched Orange Snowflake Salad. While I was unable to find it’s exact match, I found an abundance of Jello-salad related delights. My favorite little chestnut gleaned from said research? By the 1950’s Jello salads were so wildly popular that Jello launched a whole line of flavors … get the recipe
Almost exactly one year ago, my back was so bad that I took three months off work. I considered back surgery, and really struggled with what it meant to be unable to do the work I’d done my entire adult life. While I was off work, I also had a cooking accident, which almost cost me a fingertip. It was a rough patch to say the least.
A few weeks ago, while getting ready to have my friends Lani and Tom for dinner, something snapped in my back. I acted fast this time, going on steroids, getting an epidural shot right away and doing pilates at home as well as my physical therapy exercises that I’ve become all-too familiar with.
Then came another cooking accident- this time a burn from hot butter and spices, stretching from my neck to my solar plexus. It looks like a map of Hawaii, and it hurts like mad.
Worse than the pain, is the fear. I’ve been here before, and I am not the kind of person who likes to be in stasis. Recently, I’ve let this fear completely paralyze me. There have been no posts here, no meals photographed, no recipes written. I’ve been stuck, and unable to push myself from the ledge.
I keep thinking of my friend Michael Procopio. We dined together a few months ago when he was suffering from a bout of writers block coupled with a case of serious perfectionism. I went back to reread the … get the recipe
