morsels & sauces

I love a good picnic. However, the husband and I have very different ideas of what a picnic should be. I fancy a game of croquet and a gaffe over the strawberries a la Emma Woodhouse. The husband is satisfied with a length of salami and a hunk of cheese. So this was my compromise. We hiked on a Saturday afternoon the northern-most tip of Point Reyes National Seashore .  A simple (but longish) drive to Pierce Point Ranch (a dairy ranch from about 1858 to the 1970s) and a few-mile hike afford gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean and Tomales Bay (assuming the fog hasn't rolled in). If you're lucky, and we were, the elk will be on full display, and there are plenty of rock outcroppings and a one Monterey cyprus tree patch, all just aching for a picnic blanket (and no croquet).  Yes, I brought some salami, and we stopped in Point Reyes Station at the Cowgirl Creamery for some Red Hawk . However, I also made this Raspberry and Brown Sugar Loaf--an adaptation of D...

I have long celebrated the culinary chops of Yotom Ottolenghi on this here website, and Ottolenghi has gotten oodles of international attention for his amazing cookbook Plenty (which I'll admit I have crowed about time and again on this website). However, fellow British chef Diana Henry has her own cookbook Plenty that can stand sentinel on its own. I am delighted to crow about her as well. Certainly, in England, Henry is well known and well beloved; however, stateside, she doesn't (yet) seem to have the same following. Which is a shame, for her cooking is downright pleasurable in that wonderfully, simply satisfying way. Diana Henry, who originally hails from Northern Ireland, is a transplant to London, where she writes for  The Telegraph   and maintains her own luscious  website . Additionally, she has penned eight cookbooks (!) and has a brand spanking new one out that I am dying for someone to drop into my hands at just the right moment. Th...