A Proper, Sit Down, Dinner Party.

As a single career girl with three very large dogs, an old, very retired Arabian endurance horse and a rescue donkey, I rarely have time to eat sitting down. Eating over the sink is a luxury too although the clean up crew is always ready to help out at a moments notice. Lately I've been thinking a lot about, and missing the days of Saturday night dinner parties. All of us sitting around till the wee hours, emptying bottle after bottle of fabulous wine and discussing the state of the world we live in.

I don't think there even needs to be anything to celebrate to whip up a delicious, inventive menu, invite guests (let them know they need to "dress" for dinner), pick up some lovely flowers for a whimsical center piece and start cookin'!

(ending) I hope you can make it to the next one. You know the food will be great!

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Summer comes 'round again.

As the evenings get warmer and the crickets song helps even the busiest of brains lull off to dreamland, I realize that it's summer, again. We barely had a winter here on the mountain and spring was about two full weeks, maybe. Gardens are taking hold and my zuch plants are soon to overtake everything else in a matter of days. Summer to me means grilling pretty much everything, every day to keep the heat out of the kitchen. Working in the shop kitchen for hours on end this time of year is not just exhausting but dehydrating! What are some of your favorite things to grill? Do you prefer marinates or dry rubs? Do you wrap your baked potatoes in foil on the grill or just plop them directly on the grill (well olive oiled of course)? Then there are the summer desserts... fresh berries, stone fruit, homemade ice cream. One of my go to sweet treats is this peach and citrus sour cream cake. (recipe at the end of this entry). Of course the star of easy summertime fo...

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Although it's topping 114ºF here in Shadow Hills, CA over this long, last-kick-at-Summer holiday weekend, I can't help wishing for that first sign of Fall. Snuggly sweaters, big fuzzy socks, heavily spiked Hot Cocoa... mmmm, I can just taste it! When we were kids, the end of Summer was always marked by the Jerry Lewis Telethon (was it possible to stay up all night?), shopping for the last bits of things needed to start the new school year and one final Cook Out before Dad would cover up the grill and wheel it back into the garage until next Summer. There were always people visiting at one time or another over Labor Day weekend. Friends coming back from Holiday up in Cottage Country would stop in, knowing full well the grill would be fired up, ice cold beer in the cooler and that final cannon ball into the pool before they head back to their respective homes in the City. Man, I think back and smile. Remembering. SNAP OUT OF IT J...

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Bacon IS a trail snack.

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