old growth

On our mostly coastal adventure we stopped in the woods, on a hillside in the Rogue river valley.

on the coast

I love beach towns at the end of the season.

the waves

I could just watch the ocean all day

black candy

There is a plum cake in my head, and I don't know quite how to get it to manifest in the real world. This first attempt isn't bad. I found a simple but elegant recipe, basically a variant of pound cake, and traded in some of the flours for darker flours, some of the sugars for darker sugars and I browned the butter.

I think the kamut flour adds an especially tasty element. Next time it needs a ton more fruit, and less cake, and I think maybe a little cardamom?

I made plum jam too. The trick is to use fresh plums as well as dried, I used the brooks variety of italian plum, both from the same farm. Red wine, lots of bay leaf, black pepper, a few apples from the yard for some extra pectin.

smile for the camera

tomato days

I can barely keep up with these little guys!

Dried these out low and slow while waiting for UPS last week, now happily packed with herbs in olive oil for rainy day pastas to come.

Whole wheat pasta, smoked pork cheek (I smoked it!), pesto, and these little sugar bombs, parmesan, always parmesan.

about town

We've been having a good weekend, hope you have too. I have pictures of a couple of delicious things we ate, but we'll get around to that after coffee.

isn't it obvious?

I didn't need to stop by this useful trailer at the state fair,

I already live there, duh,

This was the free weenie roast at the beach this weekend, and I would show you a picture of the smores too, but I had so much marshmallow and chocolate all over my hands that I thought maybe I should leave my camera in the bag for a bit.
The place we stayed was charmingly and efficiently all american, they pulled out a speaker and played taps at seven thirty, they kept the fire going and had plenty of marshmallows, plenty of cleverly repurposed wire coat hangers to roast them on.

J. and I poached an abandoned pile of embers and a couple of chairs much later, and listened to the waves and watched the clouds and the stars. It really was more than anyone could ask for.

I don't need to say it, do I?

you can hear the apples dropping when the wind picks up

The smell of fallen apples, I never go out without a scarf, the angle of the sun,

hello september first.