An elegant preparation of salmon – good enough for serving to guests, but easy enough to do for a weeknight dinner. It has a few more steps than some, but it’s very do-able and it’s delicious.What you see above are 2 fillets – I saved the half for another meal.

With salmon defrosted in my refrigerator, and a limited number of things I could put with it, I did a search on google for salmon + tomatoes + ginger and up came a bunch of options, and the recipe here is what I made with it. I had to improvise just a little bit, and I thought pine nuts would be a nice addition. The original recipe came from Fine Cooking, but I made some alterations to the recipe. After putting an oiled spice rub on the fish, it’s pan-seared in oil. I used my instant-read thermometer for this.

Because I knew from reading the recipe that it would all come together quickly, I prepped everything in advance – chopping tomatoes, toasting the pine nuts, fresh basil leaf at hand, and I made a pot of green beans (simple prep with bacon) to go with it. So, once I started cooking it all came together quickly. I also made the rub – ground coriander, ground ginger, a bit of cayenne and a drizzle of oil so it will stick to the fish.

The salmon is cooked through to 135° (I used my Thermapen to make sure). The fish was removed, then you make the sauce. The tomatoes aren’t really cooked – they’re mostly just heated through, but you make the sauce with garlic and ginger. All that is scooped onto the top of the salmon, then you deglaze the pan with a little white wine (vermouth for me) and some chicken broth and a tiny bit of butter and that is poured over the salmon. Garnish with basil (or cilantro) and the toasted pine nuts. Done. I thought this was really good. It wasn’t hard to make, although you do have to do a bit of sous-chef stuff with the chopping and mincing.

What’s GOOD: This was really tasty – I liked the bit of heat in the rub (from the cayenne) and the ground coriander and ground ginger also gave it some depth of flavor. The sauce is very fresh tasting – there’s very little of it, actually – don’t go thinking this is a sauce-sauce. No. It’s just a tiny bit of liquid that’s very flavorful. I liked it a lot.

What’s NOT: really nothing – it takes a tiny bit more time than a quick pan-fry, though. Get someone else to help you with the chopping and mincing and it will come together quickly.

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These days I’m a family of one – well, I was until about 2 weeks ago when I gave in to the urge to have a pet. One of my granddaughters (Sabrina) volunteers at a pet rescue center in San Diego, and she’s a huge cat lover, so she’s been chiding me, pleading with me, begging me to adopt a cat. I started off with all kinds of parameters – my want list was: adult cat, very lovable, talkative, preferably a snowshoe cat, and already declawed. Oh yes, and short haired. Spayed or neutered too, of course. She’d identified several cats over the last 9 months or so, but for a variety of reasons (like I was going on a trip in 2 weeks, or no, it’s long-haired, I don’t want that kind; or no, it’s not declawed . . . the list went on). Finally, though, I told her about a month or so ago that I was finally ready and within about 2 weeks she’d found the perfect cat for me. I set up to drive to San Diego the next day and get him, and no, my granddaughter wasn’t able to put him on a hold. Just before I drove out of my garage I thought I’d best check online to make sure he was still there. Oh, darn. He’d been adopted that morning. My granddaughter was heart-broken.

A week or so went by and my daughter called to say she and Sabrina were coming up to Orange County for the day (a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm was in the cards for grandson John and 2 of his friends). As soon as they arrived Sara was online looking at shelters in my area. Well, one thing led to another, and off we went to a cat rescue center. I looked at the adult cats and didn’t have any “feeling” for any of them and the only one I kind of liked nearly bit me. So much for that. On our way out we walked through the kitten room. Oh, I should never have let the employee there hand me a kitten. My downfall. This kitten is 4 months old, isn’t declawed (and if most vets and cat friends had their way no cats would ever be declawed, I understand) and he wasn’t a snowshoe, although he has sort of similar markings of one. He’s neutered, chipped, and has his shots. But oh my gosh, he’s a KITTEN. Kittens are a lot of work – they almost never slow down.

I love him to pieces. He’s very sweet and talkative. He does let me hold and pet him some, though only on his timetable, not mine. That’s normal, I know. Yesterday I took him to the cat vet and had “soft paws” put on his nails. It’s like acrylic nails for cats and they’re attached with super glue. They’re supposed to last 4-6 weeks, but I can tell you little Oliver has already, 24 hours later, chewed off 3 of them. The vet said I’d probably have to have them done a 2nd time – by then it’s hoped he’ll realize that he can’t use his claws for much. And I won’t have to declaw him. I had them do it to all 4 paws as he’s already using both front and back claws for climbing onto chairs and sofas. He’s pretty good about scratching on his cardboard scratcher and short sisal tree.

After returning from the vet’s office Oliver was glued to me. On the drive to and fro I had a hard time listening to his plaintive meows from inside his cat carrier – which he just HATED – the meowing was so pitiful as if he was in terrible pain.

I won’t even TELL you how much money I’ve spent on litter boxes, litter, toys, dry food, wet food, more toys and more toys. Two of the upscale dry food choices I’ve purchased he won’t eat. Gee, he’s only a kitten and he’s already pernickety about his food? Oliver gets very bored and I shut him up in a windowless bathroom when I go out somewhere – I feel sorry for him closed  up in that room for several hours at a time. But I’ve been told to never give him fish (too much mercury), even the canned cat type. I do have a fish-flavored treat type that’s tuna flavored and he’s all over that. Also learned that cats are lactose intolerant. But he craves milk – he nearly drags my coffee mug out of my hands every morning trying to get to it. I’ve given him a few little licks of yogurt. And did you know that cats don’t develop a taste for catnip until they’re 6 months old?

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Recently I visited with friends who live in Morrison, Colorado. Sue and her husband Lynn are foodies as I am, so Sue and I spent some time preparing lunch and dinner things. One night, after we’d been out for a nice lunch and weren’t overly hungry, we didn’t feel like having a regular, big dinner. So Sue made (with me helping just to chop up the tomatoes) these delicious bruschetta appetizers. These are different only in that fresh mozzarella cheese is toasted on the little baguette slices and THEN the bruschetta stuff is scooped on top.

When my friends used to live here in California, we frequently had one another over for dinner. We always had lively conversations, and talked about the wine we were drinking, or wines we’d had or were going to buy. And trips we had taken, were taking, or were talking about taking. My DH and I visited them a few years ago in Colorado, so there were shared memories of our previous visit.

This appetizer took relatively little time to make, from beginning to end. A lovely baguette had been purchased the day before at a farmer’s market in Boulder, along with gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. Sue had basil growing in pots on her deck, and she had fresh mozzie. Plus some garlic, Parmesan and balsamic vinegar. You can serve this hot with a bowl of the topping, or you can serve it up freshly stacked, with napkins. It was our main course, and we ate a lot of them. Sue had gotten the recipe online at Taste of Home. I’ve renamed them, only because they’re not quite a typical bruschetta – the mozzie on the bottom makes them a bit different – a bit more substantial. So I’m calling them “toasts.” You could make them on bigger pieces of baguette or other bread and they’d be open-faced bruschetta sandwiches even. Any way you make them, they’re delicious.

What’s GOOD: these would be good even if you didn’t use the mozzie underneath, but that one thing makes them a bigger, nicer tidbit of an appetizer. Or a light lunch. These were delish, and although I don’t make bruschetta very often, if I make it in the future, I think I’ll use this recipe.

What’s NOT: well, you’ve got to have all the ingredients – the fresh mozzie, the good, ripe tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, Italian parsley etc. If so, you’re in business!

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The other day I decided I really needed to make some chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t made any in a long, long time and I do like to have some in the freezer. I guess I was craving them. There were some other cookies left over from Christmas still lurking in freezer corners. I tasted one and threw out the bag – they had zero flavor. That’s what you get for freezing cookies for 7 months! So new cookies were in order, but I wanted to do something different. Enter almond paste.

The original recipe came from Cheryl Sternman Rule’s blog, 5 Second Rule, one I read regularly. And her epiphany about these cookies is a bit round about, but she ended  up making little tiny balls of almond paste to mix in with the cookie dough at the last, so there would be some little pockets of straight-shot-almond-paste mixed in. A little flavor explosion. I thought I was going to make them the same way.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep almond paste on my pantry shelf. It just dries out. So, no, I didn’t have any almond paste. So, I’ll just make some. Hmmmph. I’ll only make enough to use for this recipe, since almond paste is really expensive stuff. I know from experience that using a part of a tube of it isn’t a good idea either, because then it really dries up fast.

So I researched almond paste recipes. That led to determining the difference between almond paste and marzipan (usually it’s the amount of sugar – more in marzipan according to several sources). But I went through my pantry and lo and behold I found a package of toasted almond flour (from King Arthur Flour). I opened it to see how it smelled – it smelled great, like toasted almond flour should. So I made almond paste with 3/4 cup of that flour, 3/4 cup of powdered sugar, a tetch of almond extract and one egg white.

That got whizzed up in the food processor and that’s what I ended up with (at right). A little bowl – exactly the 2 ounces I needed for the cookies. I thought.

Mixing up the cookie dough was simple enough. Cheryl explained that it’s basically the Tollhouse recipe, but she was so enamored with almond paste that she decided to incorporate the almond paste in little tiny balls. She had a tube of commercially produced almond paste. A product that is firm and will actually make into little balls. If you look at my bowl of home made almond paste, can you imagine trying to make little balls out of that? Impossible. I added more almond flour assuming it would firm up some. Not much. I tried to make it into little balls again. Nope. No luck at all. After adding yet more almond flour, I gave up and just added the paste into the cookie dough so it was mixed in totally. No little balls – it simply was too wet to work with that way.

So, I made a bigger recipe than Cheryl did (double, actually) and I got about 50 cookies. She made hers a bit smaller, I think. I should have gotten 60. I used my handy-dandy cookie scoop, so they were all uniform.

The recipe said 10-14 minutes baking time – mine took 6 minutes, then I turned the sheet around 180° and another 6 minutes and they were done. So 12 minutes.

We’ve been having really humid weather – as I’m writing this it’s still morning and it’s 75° and 78% humidity outside and the A/C is already running. If nothing else the A/C helps lower the humidity. When I’m cooking I just have to keep the temp down – I’m miserable otherwise. That said, I left these cookies to sit out for about 2 hours on the kitchen island, on a rack. That was a mistake, because they became quite soft. Since I eat them frozen anyway, I probably won’t notice, but I should have packed them up as soon as they cooled. Lesson learned.

The day after I made these I took a bag of about 12 of them to a friend. He’s my financial adviser, but he’s almost more a friend than a financial adviser. He emailed me this morning – this is a guy who professes to not like sweets (i.e., when we go out to lunch he never orders dessert), and he thanked me for the cookies and said by far the 4th cookie he ate out of the bag was the best. Ha!

What’s GOOD: I really like these cookies – the almond paste adds a totally different flavor to choc chip cookies and I really enjoyed it. They’re simple – well, except for making the almond paste as that was an added step. Buy the paste if you want to, and refer to Cheryl’s recipe to add the little balls of paste inside the cookies.

What’s NOT: it’s a little bit more work than a traditional choc chip cookie recipe, but very worth it. No down side to me!

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Yes, it’s summer. Yes, this was hot soup. May not be appealing to some, but it was a somewhat cooler evening and I was tired of the usual braised, broiled, steamed or grilled salmon. I had zucchini and a sweet potato, so I improvised with everything else.

Cooking for one can definitely be a challenge. And most often I prefer to make something that will give me at least 2 dinners before I’m tired of it. I simply cannot make any more large quantity things that are frozen in smaller portions, as my freezer is full of them. Recently I made a chicken curry dish that I just love-love, and froze it in about 8 different sizes of ziploc bags. But that’s one that I crave quite frequently, so I agreed with my reasoning to make a big batch. I’m doing my level best to NOT buy more meat since I have a freezer full of meat in my garage.

This day, I’d defrosted a lovely salmon fillet but hadn’t decided what to do with it. Searching through my to-try file I ran across this recipe, from Food 52. It was a “community pick.” I don’t know exactly what that means in their vernacular, but the write-up about it – it’s Brazilian fish stew  – sounded intriguing. I didn’t exactly follow the recipe to the letter – as I mentioned above – I needed to improvise a bit. But I had the salmon, sweet potato, zucchini, part of a hot pepper, onion, a red and yellow bell pepper, garlic, coconut milk, canned tomatoes, cilantro and some fish stock. And fresh limes.

First you marinate the salmon (I cut it up into bite-sized pieces) in lime juice, EVOO, and salt. But only for 30-60 minutes (otherwise the lime juice would start to make ceviche!). That is set aside while you prep the other ingredients. That part didn’t take long. In a big skillet (with lid to use later) you start by sautéing the sweet potato in a bit of oil. As it takes on some caramelization, stir it around to cook it on all sides. I just stirred it several times – I was far too lazy to try to turn each little piece of potato. Perhaps my method of cooking this isn’t exactly true to the original recipe (or to the traditional Brazilian method) but because of some of my ingredients I had to improvise. I added the raw, chopped and sliced onion, and let the two items cook a bit. Then I added the garlic, tomatoes, some of the coconut milk, some fish stock. I covered the pan for about 5 minutes to let the potatoes cook. I had some already cooked zucchini and some cooked pasilla pepper (instead of the jalapeno or serrano), so that was added in at the end, but if you’re using fresh zucchini, add it in during this part so it steam-cooks. I used about half a can of chopped tomatoes, and had intended to use about half the can of coconut milk. Then I added in the marinated salmon and simply let those pieces sit on top of the stew. On the lid went and I allowed it to simmer for about 5 minutes. Into a bowl it went with some fresh minced cilantro on top and my dinner was done.

Afterwards, I realized that I had more than enough for another meal, so I added in the remaining coconut milk. I’ll save the remaining tomatoes for something else, because I thought it would make this too tomatoey. It will be heavy with the veggies and creamy broth rather than salmon, but there’s enough for another soup meal for me. I remember what the Food52 test kitchen person had mentioned, that they couldn’t wait to tell people they had to make this because it was SO flavorful. And yes, it really is. You might not think so because of the rather ordinary ingredients. It all comes together somehow. These Brazilians are onto something!

What’s GOOD: the whole bowl of soup was unctuous. That’s the best word I can come up with. Every bite was delicious – I particularly liked the sweet potato – just barely cooked through with a bit of form to it still. You don’t want to over cook the sweet potato. The coconut milk – well – I think it probably is the star of the dish, but you don’t realize it – it just provides a silkiness to the creamy brothy part. Altogether delicious, and I’d definitely make this again.

What’s NOT: not a single, solitary thing. This is a keeper. And it’s VERY easy.

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If you’ve never made Calabacitas, you’re missing out. Really, truly, missing out on one sensational taste combination. If you want to know more about the dish, click on the link in the first sentence.

Really, this post is not about the calabacitas, although I’ve included the recipe below (again) and the pdf. If you’re inclined, just go to the original recipe – it’s a real winner and one I return to over and over.

Talk about favorites! This was my dinner. Just a bowl of calabacitas. Nothing more, nothing less. I tasted this at a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2007, and immediately came home wanting to know more about it. I think it’s the poblano chiles that MAKE it – those chiles have a very unique flavor, and this time I cut a corner and didn’t char the chile before using it – I just chopped it up and added it in. I was too lazy.

These days, since I’m cooking for one person – just me – I don’t go to the trouble to fix a complete meal all the time. My DH was always wanting a complete meal – meat, veggies, salad, an occasional carb. Sometimes I made a meat and 2 veggies. And I’ve found since I’m a widow, that making a green salad is more trouble than it’s worth. So I buy ready-made salads at Trader Joe’s. Sometimes I’ll use my own salad dressing, but more and more I’m lazy and use the tasty Trader Joe’s dressings they include. They’re all different. More often than not, I’ll have a TJ’s salad for lunch and then I’ll cook a dinner. Or, if I’ve been out and had lunch with a friend, I’ll have a TJ’s salad for dinner. That way I still get plenty of greens and some veggies they include. I have a couple of them that are favorites. I have some kind of Mexican chicken salad from there in my frig. Maybe lunch today.

We have a farmstand nearby and one of their first crops is usually sweet corn. I drive by it nearly every day. And this year they left the land around this farmstand fallow with nothing growing on the 10 or so acres there. The family who run this farmstand lease the farmstand space and they grow crops at other places in the county. BUT, at this time of year they have a big honkin’ sign they lean against the side of the small stand that says “SWEET CORN.” That means their farms are now harvesting the lovely sweet, white corn that’s always the first crop of every summer season. And when I saw the sign my mind just whooshed immediately to calabacitas. That was my CRAVING. I didn’t stop at the farmstand. I was in the wrong lane to get there, so since I was going to my local grocery store anyway, I decided to buy the corn there.

Surely, I’m a real snob when it comes to food. I admit it. I am. I like good food. I’m willing to pay for good food. I’m willing (usually) to go out of my way to find and eat good food.

And I learned a huge lesson making this dish, this time.

IF YOU WANT A QUALITY PLATE OF FOOD, USE QUALITY INGREDIENTS.

I purchased zucchini, corn and poblano chiles at the grocery store. Mistake. The zucchini was fine, and so was the poblano. But the corn? Oh my goodness, it was tasteless. Absolutely without taste at all. I should have stopped cooking – this was when I had used my wonderful handy-dandy corn tool to shave off the kernels and one errant one flew across the island. I retrieved it and into my mouth it went. Hmmm. Not much taste, I thought. I should have stopped then and there and made a trip to the farmstand or to the other local, independent market that usually has good corn. But I didn’t. I was lazy and said, well, maybe the other ear will be fine. No, it wasn’t. The corn cost me a dollar for 2 ears. At the farmstand they’re usually about $1.50 apiece; never again will I quibble about the price. I have 2 more ears in the frig. I should throw them out as I doubt I’ll eat the corn from them. I don’t know if they’re GMO corn. Probably. Albertson’s must have gotten a deal on the corn – cheap corn = cheap on flavor. Maybe most people wouldn’t care. Their loss, and certainly mine. The good zucchini carried the flavor along with the poblano chile, but the usual sweetness from the corn was missing.

So, if you make this, seek out good corn – taste it first. I don’t know exactly how you do that – grocery stores wouldn’t be very happy to see you flipping off the husks and silk to pull off a kernel. Well anyway, go to a source you know and trust and the corn will probably be good. Maybe it has to do with our drought? That’s a possibility, but our farmers are allowed to use the water they need (I think). It’s us residential consumers who are required to use 25-33% less water than we used to.

What’s GOOD: this calabacitas dish is sensational. I’ve been making it year after year after year, and until this time, when I used a poor quality corn, it’s always met my expectations. Just find good corn!

What’s NOT: nary a thing, except the finding of good tasting corn. Do seek it out.

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To say that I’m flummoxed is an understatement. I bought 2 new Dell all-in-one computers (as in blurry photo above) about 9 weeks ago. My kitchen computer, the one that houses my entire recipe collection and my photo software, the one I use for all my blogging etc. just quit working a few days ago. Hours and hours have been spent on the phone with Dell (of course, they don’t want to replace anything yet). They’re very reluctant to do a major fix until they have to. They want me to start from scratch. Am not sure I’ll do that – yet. I have a great local guy who works with me on computer stuff, networking, wi-fi, etc. when it’s beyond my ken, and his assistant is working today trying to see if she can restore the unit.

I have everything on my system backed up (files, recipes, but not the programs, of course) on Carbonite, so I HAVE everything, but it may be days or a week or more before I’m able to get back in operation. I use google photos, so fortunately not more than a few weeks ago I finally got all my photos linked up with that. And fortunately, I was completely up to date with the posts I’d completed. 

Maybe you won’t notice anything different – maybe by the time recipe posts I’ve already done go live (there are a few in the bank), my computer will be back in operation. I could try to restore everything onto my upstairs office computer, but it’s awfully hard to run up and down the stairs all the time. I suppose I could move the upstairs one downstairs. For now. I’ll wait a day or two I think. 

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Plums are in season now – or maybe, lucky you, you have a plum tree? If so, here’s a new way to use plums and if you’re so inclined you can can it to keep for another season.

Shopping at Trader Joe’s, I spotted some plumcots, a hybrid fruit that’s more plum than apricot, and am not really sure what’s different about them (in tasting them I really couldn’t tell the difference with it and a straight plum). But I’d read this recipe for a plum chutney and decided I’d make it. As I write this, I’m going to entertain one night soon, about 12 people, and I wanted something to serve alongside some grilled meats. I’ve made this and will also make an old favorite, Escoffier’s Peppers for Cold Meats. I don’t think I’ve made those peppers for a couple of years and I love them.

It took over an hour to make this, but most of it is just simmering time. There’s about 15-20 minutes of prep time involved. It’s not difficult – just chopping the onions and plums mostly. The plums are the most gorgeous color, aren’t they? I love the color red. If you came to my house, you’d know how much I love red. It’s not in every room, but it’s in several!

The plums get cut up (the recipe said to halve them, but I wanted smaller pieces than that) and then you put it all together in a big, heavy-duty pot (don’t use something flimsy as you cook this, or it will burn). There, below is a photo of all the gorgeous stuff in the pot – the onions, raisins, sugar, dried chile flakes, mustard seeds, apple cider vinegar, malt vinegar (that’s different, huh?) and I added a little bit of dried thyme. Oh yes, and a stick of cinnamon too.

My eye strays immediately to the deep ruby red of those plums. Anyway, the mixture is brought to a boil and simmered for about an hour (without a lid) and it cooks down and cooks down until it’s the consistency of loose jam. Just keep it on low so it doesn’t burn. Listen for the sound of sizzling, meaning it’s too hot, or needs just a little bit of water added to it.

You may wish to can this as soon as it’s done – pour into sterilized jars and seal. But I knew I’d be using it soon, so I just allowed the pot to cool (that took awhile because the mixture was really hot) and poured it into refrigerator containers and it’s now safely stored in the refrigerator until I need it next week. You could freeze it as well, if that’s your fancy.

And there at left was my dinner – some left over chicken with a couple of dollops of the chutney on top.

The vinegar in the mix gives a definite savory edge to this chutney but it’s sweet too – guess that’s why it’s called hot and sweet. There are some red chile flakes in the mixture – I didn’t use many because I’m always wary of using too many, and you certainly can’t un-do it. Chutney almost always has some kind of acid in it, and usually some kind of fruit as well. So this is definitely a chutney, right?

I bought some nice goat cheese, and think I’ll serve the chutney on that as an appetizer. Should be lovely. I’ll also serve it as a relish with the grilled meat. I found the recipe online in several places. One suggestion was to make this ahead because it improves with age. Okay, I’ve done that.

What’s GOOD: love the sweet and sour aspect, though there isn’t much sour. Yet the acid definitely gives it a sweet/savory piquant taste. It’s great with some cold meat. Would be fabulous in a turkey sandwich, I think. Pork would lend itself well to this. Also on cream or soft cheese as an appetizer. Or just plain on a cracker.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of!

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Another easy recipe for grilled chicken breasts. Make up the yogurt-based marinade with oodles of Moroccan spices at least a few hours ahead, or ideally the day before and chill the chicken in it. Grill and garnish with a bit of reserved marinade and some cilantro.

The other night I decided to cook at home for Dave’s best friend Joe. He was visiting (on business) as he does every couple of weeks. Usually he goes out to dinner with customers or an employee , but this night he had dinner with me. I defrosted some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and searched my recipes for some new way to make them. Elise over at Simply Recipes made this version. I changed it around just a little bit – I added some turmeric; I made a bit more of the marinade and reserved some to put on top (forgot to show that in the photo, sorry) and I garnished with more cilantro.

About the topping: I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a rare chicken breast that doesn’t need some kind of topping – like a chutney or a relish, or mango salsa, or a mustard sauce. Something. So on this one I merely made a bit more of the marinade and used it to help the chicken be more tasty and moist. Chicken can get dry so easily – especially so on the grill if you’re not watching it carefully. I don’t know if you have any secrets to maintaining moist chicken? My only technique is to pound the chicken breasts a bit thinner in that thicker part (Costco’s chicken breasts are really big, and very thick) so they cook more evenly. And I use a meat thermometer. Generally chicken is supposed to be cooked to 165°, but breasts are done at 150°. So when I grilled these I checked the internal temp about 4 times to make sure I didn’t overcook them. They were perfectly cooked. The yogurt marinade mostly cooks away during the grilling process – and much of it ends up burned on the grill itself.

What’s GOOD: I liked the subtle flavor of the marinade – it is not overpowering at all – in fact if I did it again I’d probably add more of the spices to the marinade. It needed a bit more. But it was good. It’s low calorie, and I’ll also tell you it’s delicious cold. I made a plum chutney (to serve with another meal and I’ll post about that in a few days) and ate the left overs with that, which was very nice.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Just don’t over cook it, okay?

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The beautiful gardens way up the California coast near Mendocino are off the beaten path if you’re just visiting San Francisco. It’s about 100 miles north and over a set of low mountains or accessed by the very windy 2-lane highway that traverses most of the California coast. If you’re ever there, do make a pilgrimage. It’s very worth it. You’ll notice the sun wasn’t even shining, but there was plenty of light to take photos.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

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