will travel for food

Have you seen the new BBC series Life? It's pretty amazing. I was watching a segment last night about African fruit bats that travel thousands of miles to eat the perfect mango. At a certain time of year, these mangoes ripen in a forest in Zambia. The bats start flying from their small swamps and groves, to gather in hordes and eat. Over ten million bats travel all this way just a specific type of food. They gorge themselves for several weeks and then fly back home, satiated for the time being.  So I don't feel so bad traveling three hours for an amazing meal. The Boonville Hotel is situated in a small town in Mendocino County, surrounded by farms and wineries. I read about it several years ago in a book about food, and saw it mentioned many times since then in blogs and articles. So, I formed a trip around the fact that I needed to eat there. We went. We ate. We are still recovering.

We started with tiny, chilled glasses of Rose wine and a plate of antipasta: prosciutto, cheese, toasted bread and olives. Next course was a salad of greens with tiny pieces of almonds throughout the leaves, topped with blue cheese dressing. I happily would have drowned myself in the main course, Coq Co Vin, which was served with thick homemade noodles. The chicken marinated for over 24 hours, and basically melted into the sauce. I can't even believe how good it was, and sitting here, two days later, I'm still kind of reeling. The icing on the cake, literally, was the dessert - lemon buttermilk cake with strawberries and cream. Definitley worth the trip. Maybe those bats are onto something.

a nice breakfast

 

About two weeks ago someone in our household had a birthday, and requested this breakfast. Well actually, I didn't know it was going to be breakfast - we arrived at lunch time and ate what they made - which happened to be brunch. And it turned out to be amazing:  french toast with pecan butter and fresh fruit (and a mimosa for the birthday girl). The thing I love about this restaurant, in addition to the food, is that most of the ingredients are seasonal and local. Even the bacon. Which I also tried, thanks to my husband, who allows me to steal things off his plate quite frequently. Bananas aren't really local, so just ignore them, but see the orange slices up there in the photo? They're blood oranges, and the photo doesn't really do them justice. They are a beautiful, dark translucent red, and are in season right now. And thanks to where I live, they're also local. (It still amazes me to see oranges growing on trees in my own neighborhood). So, no new recipe for now, just wanted to share the experience. Happy birthday, whenever that is for you. Enjoy the day, and maybe some french toast as well.

saucy

Well. The holidays have come to a close. I - as you might have guessed - love to eat, and love the food that the holiday season brings. Cookies with raisins and sugar or mint and chocolate. Homemade jars of caramel corn or pickles. Turkey sticks and whoopie pies from the Lancaster farmers market. Vacation days are often filled with cooking or baking or eating, or shopping to buy food so that we can cook, bake or eat. And this year, I tried a new recipe from an aunt for cranberry sauce. It's fabulous, and you should try it. The texture is so much better than the jelly that comes in a can, and the pears add a sweetness that balances the tart cranberries. I believe that cranberry sauce can be used various other times of the year; however, if you only serve it once a year, tuck this one away in your recipe arsenal for the 2010 holidays.

• One package of fresh cranberries (about 12 oz)
• 3/4 to 1 cup water
  
• 3 -4 pears - (I used D-Anju)
  
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
  

Cook the cranberries, water and pears over medium heat in a sauce pan for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries pop. Remove from heat and add the sugar and the orange zest. Cool to room temperature or in the refrigerator if you prefer it cold.