Vanessa Barrington

Mendocino Abalone Plus Recipes: Abalone Ceviche with Kumquats and Abalone Chowder with Bacon

I’m not a diver but I’m a cook so I feel fortunate to have been invited on a camping trip with a bunch of abalone divers. I’m always happy to let my imagination run wild in the camp kitchen. And even happier to be able to eat copious amounts of one of the last wild foods available to us.

After my chilly weekend at Van Damme State Park in Mendocino, I have a new appreciation for abalone and the divers who harvest it. Because you know what? It’s not that easy to catch abalone. You may think, “How hard can it be? It’s not like they run away or anything, right?” And though abalone can’t technically move fast enough to flee from divers, they do have other deterrents at the disposal. As does the Calfornia Department of Fish & Game. 

 

First of all, while there are seven of species of abalone in California, the only ones the divers are allowed to take are Red Abalone no smaller than seven inches in diameter. To preserve the population, licensed divers are allowed three abalone per day with a maximum of 24 per season. The season runs from April through November with a closure in July.

 

Regulations also prohibit the use of oxygen tanks, so would-be abalone divers have to be highly skilled.  Imagine diving down to a depth of 20-30 feet in freezing water, while holding your breath. Once you’re down there, you have to find the abalone, make sure they are the proper size and species and then move swiftly to pry them off the rock with a special tool. Tip them off to your presence and they seize onto the rock, making it impossible to remove them. One strike and you’re out. The seas can be rough, and visibility can be low, adding to the difficulty.

For these reasons it’s also dangerous. Emergency responders in Mendocino County rescue about 15 abalone divers each year. Nearly every year, somebody dies while diving for abalone. Last year’s death count was three.

 

Lets say you’re diving and you make it back to the surface with your abalone and head to the campsite to relax. First you have to pry the abalone out of their shells (this sounds nicer than saying you have to kill the live mollusks), and then you must trim out their goopy reproductive and digestive organs, as well as the black edges and the tough bits of the “foot.” Finally you have to pound the hell out of them or they’ll be too tough to eat. Then you can relax while someone else cooks them (if you’re lucky). In reality, most divers do cook. Usually they grill it, poach it, or slice, pound, bread, and pan-fry it. All are perfectly respectable ways to enjoy the sweet, oceany flesh.

On the third meal, something a little different was in order. I’ve made ceviche with abalone at home previously, but I wanted to do something a little different, so I brought along some kumquats to go with the usual ceviche flavors. The chowder was entirely unplanned. It was an incredibly cold weekend and, on one of our frigid hikes, Haven and I were fantasizing about chowder. We had potatoes in the cooler. We thought if only we had cream and bacon, we could make a fabulous abalone chowder. Luckily one of the other campers had both cream and bacon so our dream came true. 

Here are the recipes—proportions are estimated. We cook by feel in the campsite.

Abalone Ceviche with Kumquats

2 abalone, sliced thinly into strips

6-8 kumquats, sliced as thinly as possible

2-3 serrano chiles, finely diced (seeds removed or left in depending on how much heat you want)

1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1/2 of a red onion, cut half, then thirds lengthwise and then thin, half-moon slices

Juice of 5-6 limes

Salt to taste

Toss all of the above in a bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

 

Campsite Abalone Chowder

This was truly a camp collaboration incorporating the ideas of many. One of the beautiful things about this chowder was that we were able to use the tough abalone trimmings to make a super flavorful stock. If there had been celery, I definitely would have put some in both the chowder and the stock. I used leftover cooked bacon from breakfast for the chowder, but if you don’t have cooked bacon you could sauté it in its own fat, add the onion and skip the butter if you want (or pour off some of the bacon fat and still use butter for flavor)

Stock:

2 pounds abalone trimmings

1/2 of an onion, roughly chopped

1 slab bacon

Chowder:

1/2 stick butter

1/2 of an onion, diced

2 to 3 russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 abalone, diced

4 to 5 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled

Cream to taste (about a cup)

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the abalone trimmings, onion, and bacon in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer slowly for 1 to 2 hours, strain. (can be made one day ahead and refrigerated).

In a soup pot, melt the butter, add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and simmer until tender. (I added water to stretch it here because the broth was super flavorful) Add the abalone, bacon and cream and simmer until the abalone is tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

On Smuggling, Renaissance Men & Chile Baked Beans with Nopales and Queso Fresco

I found these beans back in January while wandering around the big market in Cuernavaca Mexico. Like almost all markets in Latin America, there’s so much to look at it was a little hard to take it all in. At one vendor’s stall I looked down and there, among the usual plastic woven bags filled to the brim with posole, beans, and chiles were these gorgeous, fat, purple beans. I had never seen them before.

I stopped and stared, waiting for the vendor to finish helping another customer. Interestingly, a solo male shopper somehow picked up on my excitement and in very slow, elementary Spanish patiently told me what they were called—Ayocote Beans. He then spelled the name for me slowly so I could write it in my notebook, and told me that these types of beans are commonly eaten with molé in the state of Morelos. I’ve cooked with Steve Sando’s Ayacotes, before but I’ve never seen the purple version.

Throughout this exchange, the vendor just watched us, smiling. I thanked the man profusely and marveled on what had just happened. In Mexico, the women in the household usually do the marketing and the cooking. Sometimes you’ll see entire families shopping together, but it is rare to see a man shopping for food alone, especially one so clearly passionate that he was willing to share his knowledge with an ignorant gringa. (Incidentally, some of the people I met in Cuernavaca call this place north of the border “Gringolandia”, but not unkindly) He was either a chef or a renaissance man.

I tucked these babies in my backpack, buried deeply in layers of dirty clothing and made it through customs. I only felt a little guilty for lying about not transporting “seeds or plants.” My plan if caught was to say, “Get Out! Beans are seeds? I had no idea!”

I hung onto these for a couple months until it was time to make a celebratory bean dish. I wanted to do them justice, but didn’t want to make molé. Plus I needed something vegetarian so I went on over to Heidi Swanson’s bean-friendly vegetarian blog, 101 Cookbooks, and found this recipe which I improvised from to create my own. Basically I kept the queso and pesto, ditched the breadcrumbs, added nopales, and switched out the tomato sauce for a straight chile sauce. You don’t have to smuggle exotic beans from Mexico. I think either recipe would be great with pretty much any bean—from pintos to cannellinis, to borlottis.

Chile Baked Beans with Nopales and Queso Fresco:

3 dried red New Mexico or Ancho Chiles

3 garlic cloves

1 pinch of Mexican oregano

1 pound of beans, cooked until tender with enough of their broth to be moist but not too soupy

2 nopales

Queso Fresco

Pesto:

1 bunch cilantro

2 garlic cloves

Juice of 1/2 of a lemon

Salt to taste

Olive oil

Destem and remove the seeds from the chiles. Toast the chiles in a hot dry cast iron pan or comal until fragrant but not smoking, about 20 seconds per side.

Remove them to a small bowl and pour boiling water over. Soak for 20 minutes.

  

Put the chiles, the 3 garlic cloves, the oregano, and a few pinches of salt in a food processor or blender, reserving the chile soaking water. Process until smooth, adding chile soaking water a little at a time until the puree is the consistency like that of thin batter.

Using the edge of a sharp knife, scrape the spines off the nopales. Slice them into thin strips and then dice them. Boil for 10 minutes in salted water until tender. Drain.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and, in a large casserole dish, stir together the beans, the chile puree and the nopales. Sprinkle with queso fresco and then bake until brown and bubbly.

Meanwhile, make the pesto. Place the cilantro leaves and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Process until finely chopped. Add the lemon juice and salt and then slowly add the olive oil in a thin stream until the mixture is smooth and emulsified. Drizzle over each individual serving of beans.

Curried Cauliflower Soup with Annabelle’s Mustard Seed Oil and Yogurt

Whether roasted, braised, sautéed, gratinéed, or simmered gently into a soup, cauliflower is one of my favorite winter vegetables. I crave it for comfort…its soothing sweetness and versatility. It is a vegetable that takes very well to Indian spices, so when I’m craving that flavor profile, I usually braise it with whole spices that I’ve toasted and ground and serve it as a side dish.

One recent cold night I wanted soup. And I wanted Indian spices. Plus I had some of Annabelle Lenderick’s hand-harvested mustard seeds that she’d given me last summer. I wanted to do something special with them and I didn’t need any more homemade mustard in the house. I decided to try infusing them into oil.

The flavor result wasn’t earth shattering, but instead rather subtle. Toasted in oil as described below, the seeds will turn brown and pop energetically. Strain the oil and drizzle it over the soup. You’ll notice a nutty, warm flavor spreading over your tongue as you sample the soup.

Serves 4

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (depending on its level of heat and your preference)
3 tablespoons olive oil or ghee
1/2 of a large yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds cauliflower (1 medium to large head)
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
Salt and freshly ground fresh pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil for high heat cooking
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
Plain yogurt for serving
Cilantro leaves for serving

In a small, dry skillet, over medium heat, toast the cumin and coriander seeds, shaking the pan often, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until beginning to brown and become fragrant. Remove from pan and cool. In a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds finely. Stir in the turmeric and cayenne and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil or ghee. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spice mixture and cook, stirring for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant. Add the cauliflower and the broth along with a few pinches of salt and some pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, and then lower heat, cover partially and simmer until the cauliflower is soft, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the mustard seed oil. In a small skillet, over medium –low heat, warm the vegetable oil with the mustard seeds for 4 to 5 minutes. They will brown and begin to pop. Don’t let them burn. Cool and let sit to infuse the oil and then strain before using.

Cool the cooked soup and then puree until smooth. Return to the pot and heat slowly. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper. If you find the soup needs a little acid, add a squeeze or two of lemon juice to taste.

Serve with a drizzle each of yogurt and mustard oil along with a few leaves of fresh cilantro.

A Healthy, Restorative Meal with Sablefish and Dal

I rarely cook a protein, starch, veg meal anymore. And I rarely eat fish either. Our oceans are just so endangered, that it’s a once-in-awhile treat these days. And it’s gotta be on Seafood Watch’s green list, or I’m not even eating it as a treat.

If you’ve never cooked sablefish, you’ll find that it’s a reasonable substitute for the overfished rockfish and snapper usually used in dishes like fish tacos, and other preparations where you want a mild, white fillet of fish. It has a moist texture that lends itself well to a variety of preparations. I always find myself wishing it were a little flakier and a little less gelatinous, but it works pretty well. You may also see it as Black Cod at the fish counter.

This was a really easy dinner to make with little prep time and few ingredients. Its only down side is the number of pots and pans I used. One for the fish, one for the rice, one for the greens and yet another for the dal. If you cook the dal on a different day, that will make it a little less dish intensive.

For the dal, I use red split lentils and just cook them in water with a little turmeric and salt until tender (takes about 20 minutes) Then I sauté chilies (either fresh green or dried red) with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, shallots, and whatever else I’m feeling like adding, over high heat in oil or ghee and then quickly add the sizzling hot mixture to the dal, stir in and cover to permeate the dal with flavor. Ratio of lentils to water is about 4 to 1. The rest you’ll have to eyeball.


For the fish, I followed a recipe in Niloufer King’s fabulous James Beard Award winning My Bombay Kitchen for masala seafood. You don’t even need a recipe. It’s basically cayenne, turmeric and salt rubbed into scored fish fillets that are then fried quickly in a very small amount of oil. It’s wonderful and wonderfully easy. The rest of the meal is just sautéed mustard greens and Massa Brown Rice with some sprigs of fresh cilantro.

And Hey! I’m going to Mexico for two weeks so you might not hear from me. I might try to blog from there, but not sure. At any rate, expect some good posts about Mexican food when I return. I’m staying with a family and I hear the Senora is a very good cook and I’ve been assured that I’ll be welcome in her kitchen. Qué Bueno! Feliz Navidad Y Año Nuevo!

Fall Chicories Salad and Free Soup Class this Friday in Emeryville

This is one of those salads I could eat every day for months. All local from the farmers' market. Annabelle's puntarelle and escarole, Blossom Bluff persimmons, Art Davis' pecans (spiced with a little brown sugar, cayenne and other spices), and Somebody's pomegranates but I don't remember whose. It's bitter and sweet and crunchy and spicy and refreshing and it's just a great salad. I usually make a lighter vinaigrette with shallots (no garlic) and lemon juice or Champagne vinegar.

In other news:

Nishanga and I will be teaching a FREE soup class this Friday at The Cog.

Ways with Soup
 
Join CoG members and cooking teachers Vanessa Barrington and Nishanga Bliss in an exploration of the many ways of making economical, nourishing, delicious soups.  Veggie stocks and bone broths, the wonders of miso, cream soups and bean soups, soups and fermentation, recipes, and much much more!  Bring a mug and spoon for tasting.  FREE! If you're not a member come and learn from Susan Fleming how The Cog can save you money.
 7pm at The Cog 67th and Hollis in Emeryville.

Brisket Success!

This was a difficult recipe for the book that I finally had great success with. If you’re thinking it sounds strange for someone who rarely cooks meat to make a big ‘ole brisket, you’re right. All I can say is the book has a recipe for killer ketchup. One makes barbecue sauce with ketchup and one needs some sort of smoky cooked flesh to put barbecue sauce on. Hence brisket.

I was going for an authentic tasting barbecue in the DIY spirit for people who don’t have fancy smokers and the like. To accomplish that I came up with a hybrid method for smoking and then baking the brisket to ensure a smoky flavored piece of meat that wasn’t dried out and tough. It worked. I ended up with a bit of a smoke line and a mildly smoky flavor and even though it’s lean, it wasn’t dried out. You have to slice it thinly though.

These lovely little sandwiches consist of brisket, sauce, and the delightful rolls from Neldam’s Bakery in Oakland. We took them to a 40th birthday party in Davis where they were promptly devoured by scientists and graduate students.

Here’s how to do it:

Make a rub with salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, smoked paprika, Mexican oregano, New Mexico chili powder, and pounded garlic. Rub on the meat, wrap tightly and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours. Reserve a few tablespoons of rub to make a beer mop.

The day you plan to cook the meat, soak some wood chips in the morning and, 5 to 6 hours before dinner, build a low slow fire in the grill.

When you can hold your hand over the coals for several seconds, put the wood chips on a piece of foil on top of the coals and place the meat on the grill fat side up, away from the fire. Close the cover and smoke for one hour, turning and flipping one time halfway through. During the first half hour make a mop out of 1 cup of beer and the reserved rub. Baste both sides when you flip the meat.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

After smoking the brisket, wrap it in foil and place it in a baking dish or on a sheet pan and cook for 3 to 4 hours, depending on the size of the brisket. Remove from the oven and let rest before slicing thinly against the grain and serving.

Hunger Challenge Day Six

Another weekend day. Uggh. I eat breakfast (oatmeal with half a peach). Then I spend the morning making jam from the figs my friend had brought over the day before.

For lunch I have 1 cabbage roll with a scoop of beans and a 1/2 a pear with peanut butter. I eat with family members, who are all enjoying restaurant leftovers. I feel mad at my food. I’m sick of cabbage rolls.

We decide to head to the MOMA to see the Richard Avedon exhibit. I’m terrified everyone will want to go out to eat afterwards. I don’t want to forgo the exhibit so I put the other half of my lunch pear in a small container with a scoop of peanut butter and I tuck it in my bag. The exhibit is stunning. It marks the first time I don’t think about food for a long stretch of time throughout the Hunger Challenge.

Mercifully, my companions decide that they will go home and cook just to spare me (and save money). I eat the pear and peanut butter on the BART platform on the way home and don’t offer anyone a bite.

For dinner I eat another scoop of beans and a quesadilla made from the leftover chicken, sweet potato and cheese bits (pictured above) from the enchiladas. My companions enjoy oven-fried chicken, arugula-beet salad, and roasted carrots and potatoes. They also have several cookies during the evening. I write Hunger Challenge posts to keep my mind (and hands) off the cookies.

I’m excited for Monday because it’s the last day of the challenge.

Hunger Challenge Day Five

I wake up resigned. It’s Saturday and I feel a little depressed. I start thinking about all my friends the farmers’ market vendors. Will they wonder where I am? I sure miss them. The farmers’ market is my church, my favorite place in the world to be. I don’t know what to do with myself and keep wondering if there are persimmons in the market yet. I convince myself that they are making their debut today and I’m missing it. Then I feel like a baby.

When food is your one luxury, the only thing you spend money on and it’s also your entertainment, what do you have left?  What will I do with myself on Saturday with no shopping and cooking? I don’t feel like myself. I feel like I’m living in a world devoid of color and I start to fantasize about going shoe shopping. I snap myself out of that really quickly and make breakfast.

Breakfast: 1 egg; 1 piece of toast; 1 wedge of melon
I suddenly realize that the bread tastes really sweet. And it’s not even a really cheap brand, but it’s definitely got sugar in it. My taste buds are off or something. In Hunger Challenge land all foodstuffs contain sugar.

I spend the morning cleaning the house and then a friend comes over with some figs from her tree. I give her some cucumbers from my garden and some jam that I’ve made. I eat a couple of figs. It’s crazy to turn down free food. I’m trying to find the line between really challenging myself and being so contrived that it’s ridiculous. I’m feeling apprehensive again because it’s Saturday and there are family activities planned involving children and meals out. I’m really not sure how I will deal with it yet.

Lunch: A bowl of the emergency lentil/rice/bok choy soup and a tortilla with butter. Really good.  A lot better than those enchiladas. I also eat half of a pear with peanut butter.

In the afternoon we go bowling with family. Everybody gets popcorn. It’s easy for me to resist even though I’m hungry. Then, we go to a Mexican restaurant that I really like. Now I’m really hungry. I think about just giving in and then decide that that would definitely be crossing the line I mention above even if others pay for my dinner. I mean this is supposed to be a challenge. So I order water and sit there. And sit there. And sit there. I’m really hungry. After holding out for 30 minutes I eat some of the free chips with salsa. There’s that line again. I mean really. They are free. I’m sitting there. And I’m hungry. The bill comes and I start to automatically reach for my wallet. Then I realize I didn’t eat anything and I feel sort of crazily gleeful.

Dinner: I heat up two enchiladas and a scoop of beans. The beans taste good but I have to choke the enchiladas down. The cilantro doesn’t help. Do I really have to eat these one more time? I am relieved when dinner (and Saturday) is over.

Cooking for the Hunger Challenge

All culinary traditions have ways to make small amounts of food stretch. I wanted to borrow from a few different traditions just to experience the range of different types of foods that can be made cheaply. And I didn’t want to get bored.  My big plans involve my family’s Serbian stuffed cabbage, some enchiladas, and Vietnamese style rice porridge. Other than those, I plan to improvise over the week.

So the plan is to make the cabbage rolls and cook them the day before the challenge starts. I also decide to poach a whole chicken and then tear the meat off the bones and strain the broth for later use. This was a necessary because I needed to have food ready to go for Day One. It promised to be a busy day—one in which I work away from home, go to Spanish class at night, and don’t get home until 9pm. I had to be ready.

I cooked the rolls as planned basically using this recipe from my family files. But I did a few things differently to streamline. I used less meat and more rice to make it cheaper, and I cooked it on top of the stove instead of in the oven, I used canned tomato sauce, and I omitted the sauerkraut. Here’s the reworked recipe.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Makes about 12 rolls

1 head of green cabbage

3/4 pounds of ground beef

2/3 cup uncooked, long grain white rice

1/2 cup minced onion

1 egg, beaten

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 14-oz can tomato sauce

Salt

Bring about 3 inches of salted water to boil in a large pot. Core the cabbage and put it in the pot with the lid on. Cook for about 12 minutes, turning once. Remove and drain until cool enough to handle. Reserve the cabbage water.

In a large bowl, mix together the beef, rice, onion, egg, salt, and pepper until just blended.

To stuff the rolls, carefully peel the large leaves from the head of cabbage. With a paring knife, trim the large vein at the back of the leaves to make them more pliable. Lay them out on a flat surface. Spoon out about 3 tablespoons of the beef mixture into each leaf, depending on the size of the leaves. Fold two ends of the leaves inward toward the filling and roll each leaf up like a burrito. Select a lidded, burner-safe casserole dish large enough to accommodate the rolls. Line the bottom of the casserole dish with leftover cabbage leaves. Top with the rolls, layering them. Pour the tomato sauce into a medium bowl or large, glass measuring cup. Using the empty can, measure an equal amount of cabbage water and pour into the sauce. Stir to combine and pour the thinned tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls. Place the casserole, over medium high heat, and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium low, cover partially and simmer slowly for 1 1/2 hours.  You’ll want to watch them but the cabbage leaves that line the casserole should keep the rolls from sticking.

A poached whole chicken is the easiest, most rewarding thing in the world. You can leave out the spices, but they do add a lot. I figured my cushion allowed me to use them. The $1 bunch of cilantro I bought served me well, and would continue to throughout the week.

1 whole chicken
2-3 sprigs of cilantro
1/2 of a sliced onion
3 garlic cloves, smashed
A pinch of peppercorns
A pinch of cumin seeds
A few pinches of salt

Put the whole chicken in a big soup pot. Add the remaining ingredients. Add water to cover the chicken by one inch. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower heat to a very slow simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and leave the pot covered and undisturbed for 1 hour. Remove the chicken from the broth. Cool and shred. Strain the broth and refrigerate.

Vittles for the Great Outdoors: Camping Food

What do you eat while you’re camping? Do you go easy and already prepared? Do you make up soups, stews, chilis ahead? Do you grill? Do you plan to the last detail or do you wing it?

Camping food is one of the best things about camping, in my opinion. A week or so ahead I’ll start playing with menus in the part of my brain that’s always set aside for food. I want variety. I want special things I don’t usually eat (like meat!) I want easy that doesn’t taste like easy. I want lots of flavor for little effort and as always, I want to eat in season, sustainable food from my local farmers’ market.

I understand the appeal of ready-to-eat foods, but cooking in the campsite is challenging and fun. The ability to make do with few utensils and pots and pans is like a puzzle for me. When it comes to dish doing time, I’m always amazed at how few dishes there are for such a fabulous meal. This trip was a little challenging because we found out about the fire restrictions when we arrived. Everything on the menu was cooked in one cast-iron pan and one small pot on our propane camp stove. The only things made ahead were the beans, yogurt, granola, salsa, curtido, and anchovy butter

Here’s a three-day menu:

Dinner # 1
Halibut tacos with Primavera tortillas, homemade cultured curtido, beans, homemade tomatillo-avocado salsa from Catalan Farm tomatillos, cilantro, and chilies, Lucero Farm sautéed okra and squash, radishes, and our own garden cucumbers.

Breakfast #1
Pancakes from Bob’s Red Mill Multigrain mix (pretty good!) maple syrup and bacon
Lunch #1
BLTs with Eduardo’s bread, bacon cooked that morning, River Dog Farm Tomatoes, homegrown lettuce
Dinner #2
Grassfed Hanger Steak from Highland Hills Farm, anchovy butter made from homemade cultured butter, corn on the cob, pan-fried potatoes, and salad

Breakfast #2
Toad in a Hole with Ludwig Avenue Farm Araucana Eggs and Full Belly Farm Melon
Lunch #2
PB & Js with Blossom Bluff peaches
Dinner #3
Let’s Be Frank Hot Dogs with Alvarado Street sprouted hot dog buns, homemade cultured curtido, beans, corn on the cob

Breakfast #2
Homemade yogurt and granola with Blossom Bluff peaches

What we got away from:

Where we ended up:

What we Ate:

Tacos minus tortillas and salsa

Toad in a hole

Fighting the yellow jackets

Steak dinner protected from vicious yellow jackets. We ended up eating in the car. Not an ideal situation.

Susan found these charming covers in a thrift store in Nevada City

 
Happy Dog. (photo by Susan Fleming). No! We didn't eat her.