The last load of our washing machine hasn’t dried yet, empty bags still linger in our hallway and far too many emails are crowding my to-do list, gathering more e-dust by the hour. We’re home again. The welcoming sunshine at the airport was an insidious trickery – right, meanwhile we’re back in a constant rain mode, for most of last week anyway. Fortunately, we have some great memories to draw upon – here is the lowdown:
Sherry and Bob two of the most wonderful friends and very knowledgeable culinary enthusiasts took care of us while we stayed in the bay area and Napa Valley. A long weekend full of delicate surprises was kicked off with a visit to the amazing Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, where we met with Heidi and Wayne before we incidentally stumbled into Derrick and Melissa – we soon realized that more delicious days lay ahead of us.
Don’t get deluded, we’re still on the road. After indulging ourselves in fabulous food in California (including a Yountville adventure…) and a few thousand miles later – haunted accompanied by serious roadfood – we finally reached our last destination, Colorado Springs. We were fortunate to meet dear fellow food bloggers along the trip and are packed with countless stories and delicious recipes, more upon our return home next week. For the time being, luckily our dear friend Stephanie agreed to jump in and share her mom’s delicious peach cobbler recipe with us, the one we savoured during a fantastic family dinner a couple of years ago. Need to stop now, because it’s breakfast time and a very tempting frangrance of pecan pancakes with fresh raspberries lies in the air…
On a balmy night in mid-August, we sat on our patio with friends enjoying food and wine of the season. For the “contorni” course, I served a late-summer rendition of Caprese salad — all credit to my friend Mary Beth — substituting fresh peaches for tomatoes. As we relished the aged balsamico dripping off the peaches, creamy mozzarella, and freshly picked basil from the garden, our friend David warned that we should be aware of the dangers of becoming stone fruit fanatics (David’s brother has apparently been found in front of the kitchen sink with a blank stare and juices from the first peach of the season running down his chin). I confess to have enjoyed a mango that way myself, one found fallen from the tree, having warmed to full ripeness in the Costa Rican sun. I highly recommend adding this to the “things to do before I die” list, if you haven’t already. Let the juices run!
Enough is enough! After a week of constant rain we decided to leave and go west. Like in a few thousand miles west. I’d love to claim to have this level of spontaneity, but the trip was planed well ahead – it’ll be a solid mix of visiting friends and family as well as enjoying a handful of fancy restaurants and there will be a lot of driving. Curious? More upon our return!
Rumor has it, there might be another yummy guest post lined up while we’re away for the next 2 weeks. See you soon.
If somebody would have told me, that the spontaneous idea of setting up a food blog back in 2005 would change my life in so many ways, I would have laughed it off and called him or her crazy. Heck, I didn’t even know, if I’d still be blogging after a few months. But to my own surprise I did and blogging became an integral part of my life. My passion for cooking and good food expanded to writing about food and food photography, our travel destinations we started choosing by food preference and not so much by weather and beaches. Soon freelance projects were knocking on my door, not to mention all the passionate people I had the pleasure to meet along the way.
