Brentwood, California - A Visit to the Orchards

Coral cherries ripe for picking and pie making













We had family in town recently and decided to take a drive to Brentwood, California to pick some cherries.

The area around Brentwood is full of orchards and fields where strawberries, peaches, plums, apples, loquots, almonds, and every other kind of produce you can imagine is grown. Much of what is grown in the area ends up in stores across California but locals can also go and pick their own produce, which is what we did.

Once we had our eight, yes, eight pounds of cherries, we ate some fresh and then pitted the rest and froze them in 3 cup bags for making small pies and cobblers throughout the year.

With the eight, (coincidentally it seemed that eight was our magic number for the day) pounds of peaches, we ate some fresh, and we made a huge pie. We ate the peach pie warm, with vanilla ice cream... it was dreamy!

If you are from the San Francisco Bay Area or, if you are planning a visit to our area soon, check with the Harvest Time organization in Brentwood to see what is in season and perhaps plan your own visit to pick your own produce.

The Nobu Cookbook

seared albacore with onion salsa from the Nobu cookbook and various makizushi (yes, with a "z") made at home












I posted "Making something new from the Nobu cookbook" on my Facebook status update and my sister wrote back, "What's Nobu cooking?" When I read the reply, I nearly fell out of my seat! Why had I not told her about this cook book before?

Nobu is the great sushi restaurant in Los Angeles and one of the hardest restaurants in the world to get into. It's owned by Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. There are now several Nobu restaurants, and Nobu had a cook book published in 2001 and a copy came with my husband when we got married (along with a washer and dryer and a bunch of junk). I use the book often to make a recipe for onion salsa that is excellent with grilled albacore. Most of the ingredients are exotic and somewhat intimidating - like I'm EVER going to kill and clean an octopus in my kitchen - but it's sure interesting! The sauce recipes are plentiful and simple, and there are good marinade and appetizer ideas in the book.

Nobu Cookbook

Lunch with Ruth Reichl at Boulevard

First course: white bean puree & tuna confit, toasted baguette, pickled baby radishes









I had the privilege to enjoy a delicious lunch, made by none other than Chef Nancy Oakes (she really did the cooking) and the company of good friends at Boulevard Restaurant in San Francisco on May 9, 2009, to celebrate the release of Ruth Reichl's new book Not Becoming My Mother. In the book, Ruth pens stories both new and old about her mother, their mother-daughter relationship, and her mother's battle with depression.



Second course: fresh sheepsmilk ricotta & bufala mozzarella, arugula salad, eva's tomatoes from the farmers market, olives, extra virgin olive oil








Being a fan of Ruth's other books like Comfort Me With Apples, Tender at the Bone, and Garlic and Sapphires, I was expecting more of a food related read but this book was nothing like that. "Not Becoming My Mother" is a long overdue look at the journey of a woman who gave up a lot of what she wanted out of life in the name of others happiness.

Third course: pan roasted halibut, herb roasted artichoke, green asparagus, fresh snap peas, baby zucchini, spring peas, clamshell mushrooms, beurre blanc







If you know anything about Ruth Reichl's Mom from reading the previously mentioned works, you'll know that she was a horrible cook (she once gave a dinner party of 28 guests food poisoning) and her shortcomings became subject matter in Ruth's books. This book left me feeling kind of bad that I laughed so hard at the expense of Ruth's Mom and her shortcomings in the entertainment department.



Fourth course: persian lime pudding cake, seacrest strawberries













All in all, the day was fantastic for me and my friends. It was a sunny 75-degrees in San Francisco, we enjoyed a fantastic four-course lunch together, sipped delicious wines, and we got to meet one of our culinary heroes, Ruth Reichl! I'm happy to report that she was very gracious, signing our books and even posing for a photo. I read Not Becoming My Mother in the evening when I returned home and thoroughly enjoyed it.