Christine Cooks

March: She is a sultry, wanton wench with her come hither dance toward Spring as she promises warm breezes and sunny skies then slams the door in your face just as you begin to lose yourself in her lies.
March's ritual of a day of sun followed by four days of rain, repeat, keeps my food hankerings in a tizzy.  What I crave this time of year, when Spring begins to flirt with Winter, is strawberries and asparagus. What I make, when March decides to turn...

Update 12-31-14: I re-made this today to take to a new year's potluck gathering, adding smokey ham and substituting rich chicken stock. I left out the red bell peppers and added 4 diced carrots to the saute. It's rich, earthy, and has a wonderful salty...

Two weekends, 40 pounds, eight baking sheets, one major f**k-up, and, finally, success!
Even as I read and read, and read some more, about slow roasting tomatoes, there are so many different versions out there (right?), so many disparate oven temperatures, ways to cut, sprinkle, or not, drizzle, or not, remove seeds, or not, roasting times...

Peaches ripen later on the north coast than in hotter-in-summer parts of the US, which makes July the start of the season for our truly local ones.  The peaches pictured below hail from Neukom Family Farm and may be found these days at local farmers...