Note: we served this with a nice Parrano cheese melted onto a slice of baguette.

2 T EV olive oil
3 leeks, sliced, soaked to remove grit and drained
3 stalks celery, cleaned and chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh marjoram
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley chopped
2 medium kabocha squash, cut into quarters, roasted in oven on cookie sheet, cooled, peeled and chopped into chunks
1.5 quarts chicken or veggie broth
1/2 t pepper (white is better, but can use black)

Saute olive oil with leeks and celery until green color has turned. Add marjoram, parsley and bay leaves and stir a bit. Add squash chunks, broth and pepper. Simmer for 35 - 40 min. Cool and puree and return to the pot

1/2 cup dry sherry
1 1/4 t turmeric
3/4 cup heavy creme
1 T salt
2-3 pinches of saffron

Stir in the remaining ingredients and adjust salt and pepper to taste. When ready to serve, bring back to a simmer on the stove. You can garnish with creme fraiche or greek yoghurt, crisped leeks, chopped pecans, toasted seeds (squash or pumpkin), etc.

This pasta recipe was inspired and altered from this La Cucina Italiana recipe.

When I go to the farmer's market in the fall I look for zucchini blossoms and often they are 3 to 10 for a dollar. But at the end of the day, sellers are often still very stocked with them, and you can ask to make a deal. I made this dish with 100+ blossoms (which are pretty mild and the receipe was great with that number of them) because a seller sold me all her remaining stock for $3.

Ingredients

* Coarse sea salt
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
* 5 large shallots, thinly sliced
* 1 pound zucchini, thinly sliced crosswise
* sweet corn cut from 4 cobs
* nutmeg ground fresh to taste, about 1/2 a large pod or 3/4 tablespoon of preground nutmeg
* 10 tablespoons finely chopped fresh marjoram (it's mild when fresh and you can use a lot in this recipe)
* 50 - 100 large zucchini blossoms, stems and pistils removed
* 1 pound fresh pasta like an angel hair
* 16 ounces fresh ricotta cheese (2 cups)
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Asiago or hard cheese for grating

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add shallot, reduce heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes. Add zucchini, marjoram, corn and nutmeg; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 7 minutes more. Stir in 1/2 the zucchini blossoms and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and season with salt.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta. Transfer pasta to a large serving bowl. Add zucchini mixture and ricotta; stir to combine. Moisten with pasta cooking liquid, if desired.

Serve drizzled with oil and sprinkled generously with pepper. Gently fold in the rest of the blossoms so that they are visible on top.. and sprinkle with asagio cheese as desired.

So, first, this is not made with Hachiya Persimmons but rather the ones that are more like apples, in that they are eaten when crunchy, usually fresh, and are squat in size.

First, a slice of the Persimmon Cake, which looks as carmelized as it tastes:

I adapted this Apple Cake recipe from Razzle Dazzle Recipes for Fuyu Persimmons:

Persimmon Walnut Cake

5 cups organic Fuyu Persimmons peeled, chopped into small pieces
2 cups organic evaporated cane juice sugar
2 organic eggs slightly beaten
1/2 cup organic olive oil
1 teaspoon organic vanilla
2 cups organic unbleached pastry or baking flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups organic walnuts chopped

In bowl stir together chopped persimmons and 1 cup sugar; let stand 5 minutes.

Mix on high beaters: 1 cup sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla.

Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Fold gently into in egg mixture until all is incorporated and dry mixture is gone, but don't overmix to keep lighter.

Fold in apples mix and walnuts, mixing well.

Pour batter into greased and floured 13 x 9 baking pan.

Bake at 350ºF for 60 minutes or until done.

The Finished Product:

You could serve it with whipped creme and another with ice cream that had chocolate and orange. Both were delicious and the persimmon really stood up to the ice cream and in fact was a great combination.

First, I only really make this pie if I've picked blackberries somewhere. The reason? It's too expensive to buy this many blackberries from the store, and they don't taste nearly as good as when you pick them fresh. Or if in season, buy a flat at a great discount at the farmer's market.

Step one: rinse about 10 cups of blackberries very gently to test the dust off. Put in about 1 cup of sugar and juice from a big meyer lemon (about a 3/4 cup) or 1.5 eureka or lisbon lemons (about a 1/2 cup).

Step two: make a pate brisee crust.

1.5 cubes or 12 T butter
2.5 c sifted flour
1 T evaporated cane juice organic sugar
1 t salt
Cold water

Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a metal bowl. Cut the butter into the flour, sugar, salt mixture a pastry cutter, working until the butter is in very small pieces, about 1/4" cubes or smaller and coated with the dry mixture. Be sure not to touch the mixture with your hands which will warm the butter and melt it. Just use a knife to scrape it from the pastry cutter, and work quickly to keep the mixture cold. Add 1/4 cup cold water and using a fork, blend the mixture into a dough. Carefully add a tablespoon at a time of additional cold water until the dough is crumbly but there is only a small amount of loose flour outside the main dough ball. Working quickly, take the dough and place it in the center of a large piece of plastic wrap. Then fold the wrap over teh top of the dough, press everything together and quickly and lightly form into a disc. Place the neatly wrapped disc into a ziplog bag. Put into the fridge for at least a half hour.

Step three: roll out the crust.

Place about a half cup of flour over a work surface at least 24" x 24" and then take half the dough from the plastic. Leave the other half back in the fridge. Put flour on a rolling pin, dust the top of the half disc, and carefully roll out the crust. Once it's about 1/8" thick uniformly by about 15" in diameter, lift the dough in a single piece into a 10" pie pan. Place the fruit into the pan with crust. Cut the edge of the crust leaving about a half inch around the outside edge of the pan. Set the fruit / crust in pan into the fridge.

Get out the other half of the dough rolling it out using the instruction above. Once the dough is approximately 15" in diameter, cut out a shape or two (star, moon, circle, etc). Pull the fruit / pan out of the fridge. Carefully lift the dough over the pan, and press the edges together either with fork tines, or with a three finger press to make ridges.

Mix well in a small bowl:
1 egg
1 T water

Brush the egg mixture over the top of the pie crust.

Step four: bake it.

Bake the pie in a 350 deg F oven for 50 minutes (10 min more if at high altitude). Crust will be lightly browned and the berries will be bubbling inside the holes. Let cool and serve with creme fraiche, vanilla ice cream, whipped creme, or plain.

And here is the finished product:

Sugar syrup: heat in a pan, dissolve sugar, then cool and chill in fridge for a couple of hours.
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup water

Berries: clean fresh berries or thaw frozen until they are defrosted but still cold, keeping all juice
8 small baskets of very ripe cold fresh
or
1.5 lbs frozen unsweetened blackberries, thawed with juices

1/2 meyer lemon juice

Directions:
Puree blackberries with juice and cold syrup in blender until smooth. Strain into large bowl; discard seeds. Mix in lemon juice.

Process berry mixture in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer sorbetto to a container; seal and freeze until firm, about 6 hours. Keep frozen until ready to serve.

Note: we made this with Liquid Nitrogen. That means we wore gloves, masks, and purchased the Nitrogen in a Dewar from someplace like Airgas. Then at home, we carefully poured the nitrogen into a steel bowl with the sorbetto mixture, stiring it with a wooden spoon, fully decked like Dr. Horrible.

The Sorbetto was creamy, with no discernible ice crystals like what comes from a regular ice cream maker. It was so creamy, it was as if there was a little dairy in the mix, even though there was none. If you want an adveture, do a little research on using care with Liquid Nitrogen, and then try that method.

I made this tarte bout 10 days ago for Esme Vos' birthday.

Recipe:

Top:
12 Apricots
1/4 cup evaporated cane juice or similar organic sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice (prefer meyer lemon but can use lisbon or eureka lemon)

Filling:
2.5 cups ricotta cheese
(you can make your own, with 1/2 gal of 2% milk, plus 1 cup cream, brought to a simmer in a large pan, with juice of 1 large lemon. then let it cool, while it curdles. Strain it and discard the "milk" keeping the soft cheese.)

Grated nutmeg from about 3/4 of a nutmeg seed or 1 t nutmeg
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 T vanilla
1/4 t salt

crust:
4 cups hazelnuts
2 T cold unsalted butter
1/4 t salt

Directions:
Make the crust first. Preheat oven to 325 deg. F. Pulse in a food processor the hazelnuts. When they are finely ground and even, add the butter cut into a couple of pieces and the salt, and pulse until finely ground together in a light mix that will just look like nuts but have the butter and salt distributed.

Press the mixture into a 8x10" pan, with 2 inch sides. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly toasted on edges.

Let cool.

Make the filling by mixing well all filling ingredients. When the crust is cooled, carefully pour into the crust, and spread evenly without pulling the crust away from the sides.

It should be lower than the top of the crust.

Then prep apricots by slicing them in half. Pour sugar and juice over them and gently fold the apricots in order to coat them with bits of sugar and the juice.

Then take the apricots and put them into a row face up, so that they are neatly spread across the top in a 4 x 6 grid.

Bake at 325 deg F for about 40 minutes, or until some of the ricotta has browned slightly and the filling is lightly firm.

Cool and serve.

This is something my mom made occasionally on weekends for breakfast. We loved it! She got a recipe from a friend visiting California from Bulgaria. And we usually served it with cut up fresh peaches or strawberries.

Honey Puff Pancake for 4

Ingredients
1 c milk
1 c flour
6 eggs
zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T. honey
1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 oz cream cheese
3 T. butter

Serve with:
* Lemon cut up into quarters
* powdered sugar
* strawberries, peaches or other fruit, dusted with a tiny bit of powered sugar to bring out the juices

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put milk, eggs, lemon zest, honey, salt, flour, cream cheese and baking powder into a blender.
3. Blend at high for about 2 minutes.
4. Scrape sides and blend again for another minute.
5. Put 8 or 9" cast iron skillet into oven until hot, then add butter to melt.
6. Pull out the pan, swish the butter around.
7. Pour the batter from the blender into the pan.
8. Bake 25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.
9. While the pancake is baking, pull together the toppings in little bowls:
lemon wedges, powered sugar and in a larger bowl, cut up fruit.

Pancake is like a souffle and will fall some after being removed from the oven, but don't worry. Set the table. Get everything ready, including having a hot pad on the table, so you can immediately serve it. Slice the pancake into about 8 slices and serve with the toppings. I like to poke (with a fork) a few times into the middle of the the slice of pancake. Then squeeze lemon, then dust with powered sugar, then put the fruit on top.

That friend I mentioned who taught me to make Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic (Karen Bryant) also used to make this. I remember a lot of wonderful family dinners of roast beef or leg of lamb, with this relish on the side. It's the best. So even though it's not pepper season in California, it is in Mexico. And the Berkeley Bowl had Organic Red Bells on sale Friday, so I bought 20 of them and made this.

Sweet Red Bell Pepper Relish

Step 1:
Cut the peppers in half, core and remove seeds, and mince using a mandoline, or a food processor (be careful not to pulverize.. you want little chunks) or chop them into tiny little squares of pepper.

I used about 20 in this dish to make the relish.

Step 2:
Use a large collander, and drain them for about 6 hours.

Step 3:
Take drained chopped peppers (save the liquid, which you can use for stock or a soup or just drink.. it's amazing stuff.. or poach salmon in it with a few herbs, and on and on) and place in a large sauce pan.
Add two cups organic raw sugar and 2 cups organic apple cider vinegar. Also add a pinch of salt.

Bring to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes, until soft, with a relish taste.

Cool, and serve. Also, you can can it, but either without canning or once opened, you do need to refrigerate it.

Makes about 1.5 quarts.

I made this last night for dinner. Sukiyaki is usually made with beef or just vegetables, but we had coho salmon, wanted some of Japanese flavor, and had four colors of cauliflower.

So.. I modified a recipe I found here for a Beef Sukiyaki. It's kind of bastardized by Japanese cooking standards but it tasted great, was low in fat and took about 20 minutes to make once i chopped up the veggies and sliced the salmon. I also substituted vermouth for the Mirin, which we ran out of and haven't replaced.

Salmon, Garnet Yam, multi-colored cauliflower and Mushroom Sukiyaki

* 1 1/2 cups low salt soy sauce
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* 3 cups soup stock
* 3/4 cup mirin (rice wine) or dry vermouth
* 1 pound salmon fillet, skin and bones removed and thinly sliced
* 1 medium onion, sliced
* 3 green garlic stalks, sliced
* 10 crimini (brown) mushrooms sliced thinly
* 1 garnet yam , peeled and thinly sliced
* 1 cup sliced bamboo shoots
* 2 stalks celery, sliced
* 1 cup soaked, rinsed and sliced shiitakes
* 1 lb fresh thin Asian-style egg noodles
* 2 tablespoons oil
* 1/4 quarter each of four colors of cauliflower (orange, green, white and purple), or 1 whole small cauliflower cut into very small pieces

Directions

Mix soy sauce, sugar, stock, and mirin or vermouth together in a bowl. Arrange meat and vegetables on a large platter, in piles.

Add oil to the skillet and heat. Brown salmon in the oil. Move the meat to a plate, put half of the broth mixture in the skillet and add sliced yam. Cook until tender but still al dente, and with slotted spoon, remove to plate, keeping each ingredient in their own separate piles but placing large lid over the plate to keep it warm. Add green garlic, onion and mushrooms, cook until soft, and remove to plate. Add cauliflower, simmer until al dente. In the meantime, cook noodles in 2-3 quarts of water, without any salt, for just a minute, until al dente. Drain and put back into pan. Add the other half of soy mixture and cover. Prepare bowls, placing a serving of noodles into bowl, then little piles of each of the other types of ingredients, followed by a ladle of the hot broth from the cooking pan.

Serves 4.

Last night I needed to make dinner for someone who'd just had their wisdom teeth out. They were doing fine, and were hungry, but needed very soft food (no chewing) for a couple of days. This is what I made. I didn't want to make traditional Cannelloni because that usually comes with a Béchamel sauce which is very fattening (lots of cream and butter). This dish is very low in fat, and still full of vegetables and good flavor.

Additionally everything in the dish below was made with organic ingredients (except the salt). I can do this at a reasonable cost because I shop at farmer's markets and the Berkeley Bowl, and Whole Foods. Whole Foods, surprisingly, has things in season from local farms at great prices. So I don't buy that much there, but what I can't buy at the Bowl, I will sometimes buy there.

One reason I like organic is because I want to support sustainable agriculture. And because the ingredients taste so much better. But more recently, studies are showing how much better organic foods are for you, because they have dramatically more vitamins and minerals, and dramatically less carbs.

Spinach Mushroom Cannelloni

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have a 9x13 oven safe dish on hand.

.5 lb brown crimini mushrooms
1 med purple onion
2 garlic cloves
3 T EV olive oil
1/2 cup dry cooking sherry
salt and pepper to taste

Finely chop mushrooms, onion and mince the garlic. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for about 3 minutes or until starts to be clear. Add mushrooms. saute until all mushrooms turn color and begin to have a bit of liquid. Add sherry, saute the mixture, stirring occasionally until all liquid is gone and then salt and pepper to taste.

Filling:
In a large bowl add the mushroom mixture to:
16 oz. ricotta (prefer low fat, but you can use whole or non as desired)
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg - that's about half a small nutmeg pod grated (or pregrated from jar if you don't have fresh)
3/4 cup fresh flat leaf Italian parsley finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil finely chopped
1 lb baby spinach (steamed, well drained and pressed of spinach water -- reserve that water for the sauce, and then finely chop)

Mix well, add a bit more pepper to taste, and check salt. Ricotta has salt already and I don't usually need to add any to this mixture.

Shells:
You can use dry cannelloni shells, by preparing by package directions: boil them, drain and separate or use non-precook types. You'll probably need about 18
OR use:
3 sheets of 9x13" fresh pasta, cut in half at 9" side, and equal thirds at 13" side to make 4.5 x 4.5 squares (approximately) - these sheets can be purchased at places like the Berkeley Bowl, Whole Foods, or other specialty or pasta shops

Sauce:
2 - 15 oz cans of fire roasted chopped tomatoes (Muir Glen sells these)
10 large basil leaves, washed and torn in half
Any leftover spinach water from the chopped spinach above.
Salt and pepper to taste

Blend in blender until pureed, add salt and pepper to taste, blend again. It will look frothy and pink red. This is good.

-------------

Assembly:

Fresh pasta method:
Take 18 pasta squares of fresh pasta, lay out on clean counter, and divide filling equally in a straight line down the center of each square. Then pour 1/3 of tomato sauce into the bottom of dish, and gently shake dish sideways to evenly spread over the entire bottom of pan. Take the first square of pasta, with filling evenly through center, and wrap the shell around the pasta with a little overlap. Place it seam down into the sauce on the bottom of the pan, starting on one side. Follow by placing 9 in one row, and 9 in the other row across the pan (so that you have 9 on the top row length wise, and 9 on the bottom row). Pour the remaining 2/3 sauce evenly over the top so all pasta tubes are covered in sauce.

If desired sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan loosely over the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until there is a little bubbling at the edges and between the tubes.

Dry pasta method:
Scoop all the filling into a large ziplock bag or similar bag. Press all the filling to one corner, and then cut the corner making about a 3/4" hole out of your new piping device, and fill tubes. Put 1/3 the sauce on the bottom of the dish, spreading evenly. Place the filled tubes evenly across the bottom of the pan. Then pour the other 2/3 sauce across the top.

If desired sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan loosely over the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until there is a little bubbling at the edges and between the tubes.

Makes 6 entree servings or about 3 tubes per serving.

Note: I would suggest serving this with a salad, but for the person who couldn't chew, we just served these. There's certainly lots of spinach in them.

Last night I decided to make Crab Bisque, something I haven't made in years. Doing a quick search on Google produced a gazillion recipes for things made with cans of things blended to make something that to me didn't bode well for all the fresh crab we had in stock.

I did find this fabulous recipe from Yankee Magazine, which I modified by removing about 1/3 of the fat, and adding crab stock instead of using chicken stock and using a bit more of it. I also added a bit more vegetables and used fresh ginger and lemon peel. It turned out absolutely beautifully.

I started by cracking and pulling out all the crab meat, after which I made a stock with the crab shells and an onion, a few pepper corns and a couple of fresh parley stocks (leaves removed for another dish). Then, follow the directions below.

Creamy Crab Bisque

Makes 6 side or 3 main servings

* 1 pound fresh crabmeat
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1 scant teaspoon shredded ginger
* 2 celery stocks finely minced
* 1/2 cup finely minced green onion
* 2 carrots finely minced
* 1-1/2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
* 1/4 cup flour
* 2 cups light stock (suggest taking an onion with crab bones .. simmering 30 minutes, for stock, or use chicken)
* 1-1/4 cups 1% milk (or 2% or whole)
* 2 pinches cayenne pepper
* 2 pinches ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* pinch of white pepper
* 1 lemon's worth of finely grated peel
* 3/4 cups light cream
* 1/4 cup dry sherry

Pick over the crabmeat for cartilage and return to the refrigerator. Melt the butter in a 4-quart saucepan. Add the ginger, celery, green onion, carrot and garlic. Cover and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Make sure ginger and garlic have mellowed before proceeding. Whisk in the flour. Gradually add the broth and milk, bringing the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly. Add the cayenne, nutmeg, salt, white pepper, lemon peel, cream, and sherry. Heat thoroughly. Stir in the crabmeat and cook until it is heated through. Do not boil. Serve immediately.

I felt like having Chai today, and these were the ingredients I had, verse say, what came in the recipes I saw online. Instead, I made up my own which I liked more than any Chai I've had in any shop or even homemade by others. None did the orange zest, and most had very limited ideas of Chai, like the one with just cinnamon and ginger.

Step 1: Boil 5 minutes, then steep for 10 minutes:

1 Tbsp fennel seed
1 Tbsp cardamom seeds
2 or 3 pieces star anise
10 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/2" ginger root, sliced thin
1/2 tsp black pepper corns
2 bay leaves
1 orange or tangerine worth of zest
4 Cups water

Step 2: Add, bring to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes, then strain and save tea:

2 Tbsp good Darjeeling tea

Step 3:
Whisk together, either via in microwave for 3 min, or on stove:

6 Tbsp honey
3 Cup 1% milk






Step 4: Blend and serve in mugs.




Serves 4 (about 6 cups).

I was asked to do a recipe for a garlic contest at KTEH. Here is the recipe passed on to me when I was in the 6th Grade, by a very dear friend, Karen Bryant. She was one of the mom's in the neighborhood. She died when I was just out of college, but when I make this I think of her.

The sage noodles came later, when I was experimenting with some fresh pasta, wanting to jazz it up. The cool think about it is you don't really have to make the pasta, though it's great if you do. You just need a pasta roller, fresh pasta, and cleaned fresh herbs, rolled between two sheets of the pasta. It turns out like Japanese paper and is gorgeous with a delicate flavor to put behind the chicken and garlic mixture.

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic with Sage Noodles

Ingrediants:
4 small or 3 large whole heads garlic, about 40+ cloves, broken into cloves
2 chicken breasts, 2 legs, 2 thighs, about 2.5 pounds -- preferably air chilled for better flavor, with bones and skin but trimmed of fat
(recommend you get a whole organic air chilled chicken, have it cut up by the butcher, and then take the neck and back to make broth for another use)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac
1 1/2 to 2 cups dry white wine
4-5 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup fresh sage well chopped
4-5 bay leaves (dried or fresh)

1 lb Fresh pasta if you have it, or 12 oz dry pasta if you don't

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the butter and oil in a large pot (with a lid that can go in the oven) or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Boil water in a 3-4 quart pot. Separate cloves of garlic and once the water is boiling, drop them into water for 60 seconds. Drain and cool the garlic. Then peel. Set aside.

Dry the chicken with paper towels if wet (air chilled doesn't require this). Pat each piece on both sides with salt and pepper. This is the only time you'll add Salt and Pepper, so its okay to add a fair amount.

In batches, saute the chicken in the butter and oil until nicely browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or a spatula so as not to pierce with a fork. If the oil/butter is burning, reduce heat to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate. Once pan is empty except for the oil/butter, add the garlic cloves to the pan. Lower the heat and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned but not at all dark (which will cause the garlic to get bitter). Add the Cognac and the wine. Scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan and bring the liquid to a simmer. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme, sage and add the bay leaves leaves. Cover and put into a 350 degree F oven. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Chicken should be slightly loose from the skin.

In the meantime, boil either fresh pasta for 1.5 minutes or dry pasta according to directions. Drain and arrange on a platter. Place the finished piece of chicken on top, and spoon liquid and garlic cloves, herbs and bay leaves. Serves 4-6 depending on appetite.

Pasta method:
If you wish to make it fresh, make according to your favorite recipe. Then roll out two thin sheets (#5 on pasta machine hand roller). Place the first sheet down on flat surface, place sage with stems removed on layer, and then place the top layer. Stems will tear it, so you should cut these out. You can also use any other herbs. Then, using a hand crank pasta machine, carefully roll out the two layers, starting back at #3, and moving to #6 setting. The herbs will spread out through the pasta a bit like Japanese paper. Then, take a pizza wheel and cut sideways into 1.5 inch strips. Dust with flour and reserve until ready to cook.

When you want to have a nice breakfast on a weekend, these are light (half whipped egg whites!) and very special. We keep blueberries (purchased from the farmer's market during the height of summer season) along with organic low fat ricotta, purchased at the occasional sale, in the freezer. Then in the winter on a weekend, when you have time to hang around and enjoy them, you're ready to go and it's easy.

Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes (via my mom)

3 organic eggs, separated
1 tsp. baking powder
Pinch salt
zest from one lemon (prefer meyer, but you need a fine plane zester to avoid the pith, but it tastes deliciou)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 lb. organic lowfat Ricotta cheese
2/3 c. organic milk
1/2 c. organic flour

reserve for cooking:
1 cup organic blueberries

Separate eggs and beat whites until stiff. In another bowl, mix other ingredients well. Fold in egg whites. Cook on hot griddle as for any pancake turning when bubbles. Place about 6 - 8 blueberries around each pancake. Cover top with a tiny bit more batter. Turn and cook until center is light but firm.

Serve hot with real maple syrup or cinnamon sugar hot off the griddle. These don't keep, even for 5 minutes. These are very light pancakes! Recipe may be doubled.

So.. I know what you're thinking. Granola, like Hippie Do Berkeley 60's tie-died granola? No.. this is a bit more hip, gourmet, delicious and yet you can still have it for breakfast and not really need lunch until say, 2 or 3pm.

I like it because it's got all the goodies but costs the same to make as that overly sweet, overly fatted but not very interesting organic granola from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

Granola

Dry Ingredients:
4 cups thick whole rolled oats
1 cup flax seeds (golden or brown or mix)
1 cup wheatgerm or coconut flour (optional)
1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds (or some kind of seed, could be sunflower seeds)
8 oz slivered almonds (Trader Joe's sells an 8oz pkg)
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
2 Ts Nutmeg
1 teasp. salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup EV olive oil (I use one that is pressed with oranges when the press the olives.. gives an added orange oil flavor)
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or lightly oil a 22" x 15" x 1" cookie sheet or pan large enough to hold about 10 cups of granola by the end of it.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Bring wet ingredients to a low simmer in a pan, then pour over the dry ingredients, mix well. Spread the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn the mixture carefully. Add (up to) about 5 cups of some mix of extras evenly across the cookie sheet and turn the whole mixture again. Bake for 15 more minutes. Cool. Makes about 8 cups granola.

Goodies:
2 cups walnuts or pecans or cashews or hazelnuts or brazilnuts or almonds -- chopped or broken up
2 cups cacao nibs (I get these at Whole Foods .. organic at $6.99 a 1/2 lb)
2 cups dried fruits: cherries, golden raisins, cranberries, plums, peaches, apricots, pears, white figs, dates, prunes -- chop up larger things like dried figs or apricots or plums into quarters
1 cup dried or fresh coconut meat (large shreds are sold at the Berkeley Bowl as well)

Good flavor ideas (I buy all this stuff organic at either the Berkeley Bowl or Whole Foods or Trader Joe's:
Sour Cherries - Chocolate (cacao nibs) - Pecan or Walnut
Figs - Chocolate (cacao nibs) - Walnut
Plums - Coconut - Cashew or Almond
Golden Raisins - Apricot - Pecans or Hazelnuts
Fig - Coconut - Brazilnuts or Almond
Cranberries - Chocolate (cacao nibs) - Pecans

Note: the mix in the picture is Sour Cherries, Cacao Nibs and Pecans.

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system.