Food & Wine. Art & Food History at Abi's Farmhouse Kitchen
Those of who who know me well understand that I have this crush on my old stove. Circa 1941, my Occidental Electric last lived in a dusty old Barn here at Annadel before we rescued her. Only two burners work regularly, sometimes only one on really cold days and gas has trouble reaching the house. […]
Finale! We did it! Sort of. Anni and I seized the day! And tackled the final stage of our Gingerbread House Castle: the Assembly and Decoration. We pulled up the “Royal Icing” recipe and measured out our ingredients: 3 & 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 eggs, and 1 tspn vanilla extract. Disclaimer: The recipe actually […]
Our four flat Gingerbread House walls are still on my kitchen counter, on my favorite green cutting board, and draped in a clean dish cloth. Waiting to be pasted together with sugary icing and holiday cheer. While I have decorated the rest of the house merrily, it has been a whole SEVEN DAYS since starting […]
DISASTER Anni and I continued where we left off and began drafting plans for our Gingerbread Princess Castle on parchment paper. Note to readers: children’s washable Crayola markers is not ideal for castle renderings. After much (one sided) deliberation on turrets, we devolved into breaking out the bag of Mint M&Ms intended for decoration…and opt […]
The Big Princess Poopie: After stalling this week on our Winery Gingerbread House, we woke up to big rains and the Big Baking Day… and a missed deadline. In my infinite pregnancy abilities, I mis-calendered delivery of said House for tomorrow. But it is really due today. (Sorry SVVGA!) Frankly, at this point in my […]
Friend Maureen convinced me in a less hectic-Holiday time (i.e. 2 weeks ago) to compete in a Gingerbread House Building Competition amongst all of the Wineries. For the entire Sonoma Valley. With the confection structures to be publicly displayed at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. I thought, “sure! why not? Blue ribbon all the way!” […]
“Cooking gave her structure, it was substantive, meaningful, it brought her accomplishment and independence, everything she’d long desired. The last thing she wanted was a conventional life. Julia dreaded turning into the obedient little woman…. Far from resenting the kitchen to which she was virtually chained, she learned to love the feel of food and to […]
Now that we have all eaten our weight in constructed starches and savory desserts, the nerd in me wanted to look into the nuts and bolts of pumpkins… the very thing most of us are still digesting. Pumpkins are part of the Curcurbita pepo family, a group of North American Squash that includes acorn […]
8:06 PM on a Thursday night: Just shy of 6 months preggo with our second, I dream and dream and dream of a full, proper “local’s pour” of crisp, bright Chardonnay. I can even hear it unfurl into clean stemware right now! Selfishly, we have this cellar across the creek calling my name. And no […]
I loved this quote from Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone “Practically speaking, if you’re concerned about the quality of food you eat, cooking be of vital importance for it’s the only way you can really know what you are eating… There’s also satisfaction in taking responsibility for what we eat instead of […]