San Francisco's Slow Food Nation '08 Garden

Last Saturday Hubby, my mom, and I drove into San Francisco to see the Ming exhibit at the Asian Art Museum. The museum is located in the heart of the civic area of San Francisco, and one can see the beautiful historic San Francisco City Hall from the steps of the museum. As we drove by City Hall to park and go into the museum, my gardening sensibilities were intrigued by the sight of the pedestrian mall directly in front of San Francisco City Hall--it was blooming in sunflowers!

After visiting the museum, I told Mom and Hubby that I HAD to go and see the sunflowers in front of City Hall. So we walked the short distance and found that not only were there sunflowers, but there was an entire vegetable and flower garden covering the space. The garden was planted as part of Slow Food Nation '08. Hubby and Mom sat on one of the many burlap-covered hay bale benches while I slowly meandered through the garden with camera in hand.

Butterflies, honeybees, bumblebees, and birds all flitted about in the garden that felt like an oasis in the urban center of San Francisco. The juxtaposition of the large produce garden against the bustle of urbanity was striking. It made for some really fun shots. And it also drove home to me once again, that it doesn't matter where a garden is, nature will find it and thrive.

The following are some of my favorite shots from a delightful afternoon...

Sunflowers in front of San Francisco City Hall

The juxtaposition of pollinators (Tithonia Mexican sunflower) against the background of city life

The large round beds alternated with pollinator flowers and edible produce

California Poppies slipped over the burlap berms that formed the large round planter beds



A non-traditional pink California Poppy caught my eye because it was so striking



The round bales of straw that served as a fence around the garden were
a favorite of the birds looking for nesting material

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The Strawberries Just Keep Coming

The most prolific strawberry plants are growing in a tiered terra cotta herb/strawberry pot which could easily be grown on any balcony, terrace, patio, or probably even inside by a sunny window. There's nothing better than fresh strawberries!

The Pomegranates are Ripening...

...and I still don't have any really cool recipes for anything with pomegranates. Does anyone know of a good pomegranate vinaigrette recipe they'd like to share? How about maybe a pomegranate bread recipe? Please post or email your great pomegranate recipes so we can make the most of our wonderful crop this year.

Mom's Coffee Cake

Have you ever wondered why a cake that has no coffee in it continues to be called "coffee cake"?

I never did, until Hubby brought it to my attention after we got married. I grew up eating my mom's coffee cake and never questioned the name--just like I never questioned the reason why we called the piece of furniture in front of our sofa a "coffee table". It just "was". Who cared that we never drank coffee? It was just "coffee cake".

Yesterday, thanks to a post I read on Middle of Nowhere on an empty stomach, I developed a hankering for a great crumb cake. The only thing I could think of from that point on, was my mom's coffee cake. So I broke down and made some.

I decided to make it in a square pyrex dish instead of a 9x13 pan. That made for a longer cooking time then prescribed by the recipe, but it finally baked all the way through and I had a wonderful taste from my past.

Mom's Coffee Cake

Combine the following dry ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix well and set aside.

Combine the following wet ingredients in a separate bowl:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 2 beaten eggs

Mix the wet mixture well.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture. Mix well. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan or pyrex dish.

Prepare the topping in a separate bowl by combining the following ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp butter

Mix until crumbly. Dot and crumble the topping mixture over top of the batter.

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes until a test toothpick (or other probe) comes out clean.

The cake is a moist and dense crumb cake that isn't overly sweet in order to balance out the sweetness of the crumble topping. It can be eaten hot or cold (it's really good the day after baking). I don't know how many calories are in it, and I don't want to know. Sometimes, I just need a taste of being a kid again.

Mom! The Watermelon's Making Faces At Me Again!

Did You Know Your Fridge is "An Aladdin's Lamp"? Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1,
I highly recommend that you do so
before reading this post which is Part 2.
You can read Part 1 by clicking here.

Continuing on through the reading that is helping me gain a better appreciation for my refrigerator, the next section of the book helped me realize just how new the home refrigerator was to the homemaker of 1927 when this book was published.

Click on the image below to enlarge for reading

Chilled fruit for breakfast; frozen ice cubes in water; firm butter squares or balls; crisp salads and frozen desserts... all were a novelty that one didn't usually enjoy at home. That is, until the home refrigerator came along. When I read this, I try to get into the head of the homemaker that suddenly had vast culinary horizons opened to her. How must that have been?

I've seen a lot of technological advances in my own lifetime, and the advent of the microwave oven is the only thing that I can think of in my personal experience that would be akin to the advent of the refrigerator for these women. I remember the first microwave oven we purchased for the family when I was 11 or 12 years old. I remember all of us huddling around it to witness the phenomenon of being able to boil a cup water in a minute. It was miraculous! The culinary possibilities seemed endless!

That's how it must have been for these women (and their families) that were being guided by this book (and others like it) through the uncharted waters of home refrigeration. The culinary possibilities must have seemed endless.

Did You Know Your Fridge is "An Aladdin's Lamp"?

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire a vintage recipe book that was originally published in 1927 by the General Electric Company entitled "Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus: Specially prepared for the General Electric Refrigerator". It's a hardcover book and the original price printed on the title page reads "Price Two Dollars". I was pleased to find that it was authored by a Miss Alice Bradley whose is credited as being "Principal of Miss Farmer's School of Cookery, Cooking Editor of Woman's Home Companion, Author of : Cooking for Profit, Candy Cook Book, For Luncheon and Supper Guests" (that's some resume!).

What is so charming and wonderful about this book is how it instantly transports me back in time to the perspective of the "modern American homemaker" of the late-1920's and what new horizons she was enjoying with the invention and availability of home refrigeration.

I am so charmed by this, that I hope you'll indulge me over the next few posts as I share my reading with all of you. And since the original print is what lends it much of its charm, instead of re-typing the text I've decided to share scans of the original pages with you.

Click on the image to read it in an enlarged size

See what I mean? Reading these words has caused me to reflect on how much we take for granted in the kitchen. To the homemaker of the late 1920's, a fridge was "an Aladdin's lamp" and "a form of health and happiness insurance" for her family. Nowadays we just take that big square thing in the kitchen for granted. Who knew it was such a magical thing? Apparently our grandmothers did!

Click here to read Part 2 in this series

A Braver Woman Than I

This is another contribution from Grammy's recipe box. I inherited this recipe box as a young girl when my Grammy passed away from ovarian cancer. Over the years, I have cherished its contents. Some recipes date back to my Grammy's mother El and Grammy's aunt Esther in the 1910-20's. If you use a recipe or cooking tip from Grammy's recipe box, I'd love to hear about it.

To see more of Grammy's recipes, click on the "Grammy's recipe box" label at the end of this post.


I recently posted how I am too afraid to make up the vintage recipe for homemade marshmallow that I found in my Grammy's recipe box. Well, there is a braver woman than I out there named Emiline at Sugar Plum. She took on the daunting challenge and succeeded! You'll have to visit her blog to see her amazing food photography that showcases her results.

Emiline wrote in her post about this vintage recipe adventure of hers:

"The recipe was simple and I loved the vintage(?) feel of how it was written. I'm not sure how old Grammy was when she made marshmallows, but I kind of picture her making these in the 50's, wearing cateye glasses and saddle shoes, maybe while watching I Love Lucy."

Here's how vintage the recipe truly is... it was written in fountain pen by my great-great-aunt Esther sometime between 1910 and 1930-ish.



The way I can date this recipe is that some of the other recipes my Grammy's box are actually dated with Esther's name in the top right corner. This undated recipe looks like those dated ones so that's how I can zero in on a date. I can imagine that Esther probably jotted down a lot of the recipes that her niece, Elsie (my Grammy) would have witnessed Esther making and fallen in love with. Elsie probably made this recipe from that time forward into the 50's (and beyond) as Emiline envisioned.

And those cat-eye glasses and saddle shoes Emiline envisioned? Well, I don't think Grammy wore saddle shoes BUT here is a photo of little me wearing my Grammy's cat-eye glasses! I loved her glasses (she had more than one pair) because she always got the really snazzy ones--some with little rhinestones.

As for watching "I Love Lucy" while making the recipe? Well, that would have been problematic because as that show was being watched by most households in the U.S., my Grammy was living in the Indian Valley nestled in the northern woods of California where TV signals didn't really reach until the 60's. She would have been accompanied by radio if anything.

Grammy probably also made this recipe at an earlier time when she lived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the thriving and bustling 20's, 30's, and 40's. Here are two great photos of my Grammy Elsie outside her place of work at a grocer's in downtown Oakland in the 1930's. She's the one sitting on the curb in the first photo...

Yup, my Grammy was a stylish marshmallow-making woman! And now that honor belongs to Emiline at Sugar Plum. Way to go, Emiline!!!!!!

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickle Chips

Since we had a generous harvest of cucumbers this year (one of which was hooked over into a round fat "U" shape), Hubby decided to try his hand at making some homemade pickles. Hubby researched various recipes online and then created his own hybrid recipes of all of them. The recipe is as follows:

8 cups thinly sliced fresh cucumbers
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper
2 cups sugar
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 tsp Kosher salt (do NOT use iodized salt)
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp ground turmeric (for color)
1 tsp ground cloves
8-10 whole peppercorns

Slice cucumbers, onion, and bell pepper and set aside in large bowl. Combine remainder of ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves and mixture is at a slow boil. Shut off heat immediately. Combine heated mixture with vegetables in the large bowl and let cool to room temperature. When cooled, transfer to an airtight container and store in refrigerator for at least 24 hours before serving. Will keep in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks (but it won't last that long).

Hubby is the pickle fan in the household so he's the one that can offer an official opinion on how they turned out. Hubby says:

"The pickles are sweet--but not too sweet. The peppercorns add a nice little bit of heat along with the slight edge of the red bell pepper. These pickles taste much fresher than the pickles you find at the grocery store. Of course, you can't beat the crunch. They're very crunchy. They would be great on hamburgers although they're tasty right out of the container. It was a grand experiment that actually worked this time. That's all I have to say about that..."

Apparently, Hubby is the Forrest Gump of pickle making.

My Favorite Healthy Snack

I've been a big lover of Triscuits ever since I was very young. It's probably because the complex carbs in Triscuits help to keep my seratonin levels up so I'm in a great mood. I usually ate them plain as a kid. Then I later acquired a taste for them with a hearty slice of extra sharp cheddar on them.

Two years ago, when I adopted a WeightWatchers based lifestyle I had to cut down on the cheddar. It was back to eating plain Triscuits (7 of them equals 2 WeightWatchers points)... that is until I discovered The Laughing Cow cheeses!

The Laughing Cow Light cheese wedges are only 35 calories each with 2g of fat per wedge. One spreadable wedge is sufficient for me to have cheese on every one of my 7 Triscuits. And they are oh-so-yummy!

The packaging reads:

"A Taste of France!
'La vache qui rit' (The Laughing Cow) cheese has been a French favorite from the dairy-rich Jura Mountains since 1921."

The Laughing Cow cheeses come in a variety of flavors of which I've tried three--original swiss, garlic and herb, and french onion. My favorite is the garlic and herb with a french onion in close second only because it's harder to find than the garlic and herb. We like to buy the value 3-pack that has a total of 24 spreadable cheese wedges (8 in each round "wheel").

Don't be turned off by the word "Light" either. I can't taste the difference between the "Light" and the "Original Creamy" that only comes in the swiss flavor. So if you haven't tried them, I strongly recommend that you do.

Click on the nutrition table above to enlarge