We took the scenic route home from Ashland through Jacksonville and the Applegate Valley.  We happened upon Eve's Garden Cafe and Tea Room and decided to stop and have a late lunch/brunch.  The garden was lovely and the food was excellent with generous portions, always a plus in my husband's mind. I ordered the Spinach,

Pecan-crusted French Toast stuffed with dried apricots and mascarpone with real maple syrup Well we didn't make it to Summer Jo's for an anniversary dinner (29 years!!!) but we did stop in for breakfast on our way to Ashland.  I had the French toast pictured above with a glass of lavender lemonade.  Both were outstanding

Norm and Cinda's daughter-in-law, Wendy Lehne, opened Garden Girl Co. this summer, creating value-added products using the Lehne's fresh local produce.  The list of artisan jams is enough to make anyone's mouth water: Loganberry-Tart Cherry, Marionberry-Peach, and Raspberry-Rhubarb, to name a few.  Wendy also makes salsa,

I was just at Sherm's planning to buy a gallon of skim milk and, lo and behold, found out there was a recall of Umpqua Dairy brand and Sherm's brand (which also comes from Umpqua Dairy) milk about an hour ago.  The refrigerator cases were bare except for a few gallons of Organic Valley milk.  The stockboy was directing pe

Luscious Suncrest peaches are ready at Lehne's. They are open until six tonight or get here at 7:30 tomorrow morning for the best picking.

Beth and Kerry Olson of B & K Natural Farm in Sutherlin (541-459-0830) sell ground turkey, as well as whole chickens.  I bought a pound a few weeks ago when I was picking up my chicken order and came up with this meatball recipe.  It was a huge hit at our house. The Olsons will be at Kruse Farms this afternoon deliver

A camping experience not to be missed!This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Burning the french toast

Picking peaches the other day reminded me of my Uncle Reggie and the peach pit baskets he made for me. Uncle Reggie is from North Carolina and has the most beautiful southern drawl, so soothing and calming and peaceful, it's impossible to feel tense or stressed around him.  I could listen to him tell stories about his ch

I just ate the most deliciously sweet and juicy nectarine!  If I were on Twitter, I would tweet about it (and I would also tweet about the two cute little neighbor boys around the corner from my house who are selling lemonade right now and tell you to go buy some--kinda watery, but I can never resist a kid's lemonade stand

Today was opening day at Norm Lehne Garden & Orchard.  A friend and I showed up just after 7:30 am to pick Red Haven peaches.  They don't actually open until 8:00 am, but we were the second in line waiting our turn to pick Red Haven peaches.  By the time Norm unlocked the gate there was a line of a dozen cars behind

 Loaves proofing. I made nine of these sunflower-shaped Semolina Bread with Apricots and Sage loaves yesterday.  The recipe is from the original Amy's Bread, by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree.  The fresh sage in my garden was getting out of hand and this was a delicious way to use some of it up.  It made the house smel

My favorite salad, venison curry, and am had cold san Pellegrino After a thirteen nike hike!This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.Note: To play video messages se

Granola and hot cocoaThis message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Laura's Lassi My daughter, Laura, made Strawberry Lassi to serve with Chicken Curry she prepared when she was home for Christine's wedding.  Light, refreshing and simple to blend together, you can vary the fruit to whatever is in season.  I still had two baskets of Suzi's organic strawberries on hand, so I whipped up some

Perfect chicken salad for a hot summer day.  This salad was a huge hit at my daughter's wedding last month, so much so, that I was asked to make it again two weeks later for my nephew's wedding in California.  The dressing is perfect--light and slightly sweet because it is a blend of mayonnaise and lemon yogurt. "Ve

I was thrilled to find organic Seascape strawberries at the Big Lick Farm booth this morning at our local farmers market.  Suzi and Asinete's farm is now "Certified Naturally Grown."   This is a fairly new designation for small-scale farmers who need to avoid the expense of becoming "Certified Organic.&quo

The Mezze PlatterClockwise from top:  Orange-Olive Tapenade, Pistachio-Pepper Chutney,and White Bean & Mint Hummus served with Sumac-dusted pita wedges. My friend, Laura (not to be confused with my daughter, Laura, who is also my friend!) and I had lunch at Summer Jo's in Grants Pass last week on our way home from a tr

Testing mobile blog again

I just picked up four local chickens from Beth and Kerry Olson of B & K Natural Farm, located in Sutherlin.  They have a sign-up sheet at their booth at the Umpqua Valley Farmers Market.  You put down how many whole chickens you would like and they call you when they are ready to butcher them, once or twice-a- month.Â

I made these shortbread hearts from leftover dough I had frozen after I finished baking over 1500 miniature heart-shaped cookies (half vanilla, half chocolate) to fill the favor bags for my daughter's wedding last month. The recipe below is adapted from the one in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I had to come up

The warm weather finally gave my basil plants the boost they needed to really take off.  I was able to cut enough today (1 ounce) for a batch of Basil Butter with Garlic.  I just tossed the ingredients in my food processor, pulsed it for a few seconds, and, voilà, the perfect way to preserve basil for year-round use. 

I picked up 60 pounds of pitted bing cherries at Hentze Family Farm in Junction City on Friday and have been dehydrating them all weekend.  Yes, I am generally the "Buy Local" gal (hey, Junction City is only about seventy-five miles away) but Hentze's is the only place I know that will pit the cherries for you a

Just got back from picking another eight pounds of blueberries out at Ed and Sharon Richardson's Big Bend Berries.  It was my third time out there this season for a total of 33 pounds, but I still don't have enough to last until next July. My husband eats more of them than I do, so he's happy to go out and help when they

Note:  I thought it was a clever title until a google search came up with a post from August 2009 with the same name.  I didn't notice a change in the crackers until June of 2010. The Nabisco Honey Maid graham cracker on the left was purchased in June 2010.  The one on the right was purchased in May 2010.  I could se

A sunny bowl of just-picked raspberries I picked about nine pounds of raspberries yesterday at Dillard Farm Market for $1.25/pound.  This was enough to make three batches of Raspberry Freezer Jam with enough berries leftover to get some raspberry vinegar started. I posted two years ago about the Ball freezer jam pectin th

There'a a new pie vendor at the Umpqua Valley Farmers Market.  Deborah Keller of Weaver Creek Ranch offers freshly baked pies, whole or by the slice,  at her booth on Saturday mornings.  No need to worry about trans fats in these pies, as they are made with an all-butter crust. As someone who has baked quite a few pies

Fireworks last night in Riddle Our family tradition is to drive down to Riddle and watch the fireworks from the high school football field.  Their fireworks display is the very best I have ever seen and it's right over your head.  The whole town turns out for it and the field is filled with smoke from all the kids setting

I made it back to the Umpqua Valley Farmers Market this morning.  I have missed our local market the past two weeks (wedding/Portland trip) and I will miss it again next weekend while I'm in California for a nephew's wedding. Hom put together a lovely bouquet of flowers for me.  I've been enjoying the roses left from Chr

I drove out to Glide today to have lunch with a friend.  The original plan was to meet up at the Illahee Restaurant & Bakery, however, my friend was the beneficiary of her out-of-town neighbor's CSA box for the week from Big Lick Farm, so she decided to recruit my help in eating up the bounty of local produce.  Lucky