Toasted Breadcrumbs - pg. 63
Alice is really into cranberry beans, although I have to admit I don't know why. They are cute, but lose their cuteness when cooked. Alice also prefers that they be fresh, not dried, but I gotta tell ya -- it took me months of searching to finally find them dried, never mind fresh-in-the-shell. They were found in Berkeley, of course, although even then it took a trip to an obnoxiously upscale market to find them. Anyway, the bean gratin, not only vegetarian but also downright vegan, was absolutely delicious. I would make it again and again and again. With other beans. With bits of (gulp) meat. With other veggies tossed in perhaps.
The best part, purely from an emotional point of view, is that the toasted breadcrumbs (well worth the little bit of work) were made from Acme bread brought home from Chez Panisse. We had lunch at the Cafe Saturday, a belated birthday gift from Randy. As we left I mentioned something about seeing where the loaves of bread were stashed in the servery to our busboy. Sweet kid asked if I wanted to take any home since lunch time was over and they had a number of pieces cut up already that would only be (argh!) thrown out. Yes, yes, yes! We bought cheese across the street and had 2 of the bread hunks in our room for dinner later that night. The other 2 hunks I brought home, perfect for breadcrumbs.
Since we're in the heart of the season, I oven-roasted asparagus, too for dinner tonight. We'll be eating a lot of 'em while they are in season. I love 'em cooked that way and it's so easy, it's criminal.
Yup, we're home from a long weekend in Berkeley and San Francisco. Food, as always, was big on the activity list. Dinner at Ajanta, lunch at Chez Panisse, grocery shopping at some fancy market in Rockridge (boy! did we ever score some great hard-to-find stuff!), and lunch at Inka (a totally authentic Peruvian restaurant) in San Francisco.
And we shopped 'til we dropped. We filled up the back of the CRV at a plant sale at the UCBerkeley Botanical Garden. New hiking boots for both of us at REI. A couple of David Marsh end tables for the library, and 1 more ordered for June delivery. Books from Moe's. A food mill and a spiffy red-and-white striped apron from Sur La Table. Then we took the long scenic route home past Pinnacles National Monument, home to 27 California condors, none of which we saw.
Now? Back to real life. It's raining again. It doesn't rain here in April. Heck, it doesn't even rain here in March. But, it's raining. And the lupines still smell like heaven.
63 down; 242 to go
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