My best-friend-since-7th-grade is about a million months pregnant and I offered to host a baby shower for her this month. Being the urban, single woman who is a bit clueless about things such as baby showers, my first proposal was to have the shower at a Mexican restaurant in Jen's hometown of Sacramento. This idea was met with dead silence. So, I changed plans and enlisted the home of another great Sacramento friend and have set about planning a traditional baby shower, complete with lunch buffet and possible games.

Of course, I still had a couple of tricks up my sleeve. Jen is about the "greenest" person I know, still taking public transportation in 106 degree Sacramento heat while being 8 months pregnant, and recycling everything possible, so I decided to play off of the green them a bit in the shower invitation:

This week, I have set about menu planning. The shower will take place at the end of the month, right around the height of heat in Sacramento. It has a special twist as Jen is gluten-free. My goals for the menu were to have interesting, non-traditional shower foods that can be prepared in advance with a minimum of attention needed near serving time. A tapas-themed meal came to mind, and things began to fall into place.

Drinks

• A selection of homemade syrups. This is the summer of syrups in my apartment, and I am in the process of testing out a few that I think will work for the shower. In the photograph above, you can see that I have made a mango lime syrup, blueberry ollalieberry syrup, rose geranium syrup, and strawberry lemon verbena syrup. I plan on adding a ginger syrup to the mix as well.
• Seltzer Water
• Sparkling Wine
• Lemons for adjusting flavor
• Coffee

Snacks

• Marinated Olives
• *Spicy Fried Almonds
• Pimientos de Padron, pan-fried and salted
• Cheese plate with Jamon Serrano, Spanish Chorizo, Spanish Cheeses, Quince Paste and Bread

Entrees

• *Tortilla Espanola. I have made this in the past, and think that it will be a crowd-pleaser. It has an added bonus that it is supposed to be served room temperature, so it will be easy to prepare in advance.
• Zucchini Carpaccio Salad. While I have found a couple of recipes for this, I am trying to replicate the delicious appetizer that I order at my neighborhood Italian restaurant, Jackson Fillmore. They serve it with slivered almonds and Pecorino Romano cheese. The zuchinni seems to be cut into very small matchsticks, which is something that I need to test out this week.
• Mushroom Salad in Radicchio Cups. I asked readers on my personal blog for a good mushroom salad recipe, and I am going to take suggestions from them for the salad and then put it in radicchio cups, as suggested in the above Epicurious recipe.
• Gazpacho. Never made it, don't have a specific recipe. Do you have a recipe you love?
• Mini-Meatballs in Saffron Sauce. This recipe seemed to go with the tapas theme, so I am going to test it out this week to make sure it's up to snuff. This is the only entree that I plan on serving hot.
• Romesco Sauce for bread dipping, meatballs or tortilla. I don't believe that romesco sauce is typically served with tortilla, but I look for any excuse to include this nutty, spicy sauce with a meal.

Dessert

• Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcake. I'm not a baker, but this recipe from Elise's Simply Recipes seems like it will be possible to pull off for a crowd. I may need to pre-test.

* Recipe from Bittman's Best Recipes in the World

This is the plan -- at least for today. I offered to make dinner for a few friends this week with their agreement to be recipe testers for the above entrees. I am hoping to get some feedback and refine the menu before the shower in a couple of weeks.

Huckleberry Potatoes, Little Organic Farm

Open many books about fresh vegetables and you will find a section in which the author laments about the commonality of the term "new potatoes." We've all seen new potatoes referred to on menus and in supermarkets across the country, but the truth is that what we find are rarely true new potatoes.

"Real new potatoes are harvested from the plant's trailing underground roots while the plant is still growing. They tend to be small and their skins are thin and flaky. They are prized for their fine, delicate flavor, so if you find them -- usually when the first early summer crop is still weeks from harvest ... nab them. I've never seen them sold anywhere but at the farmers' markets and roadside stands, but they may start appearing in specialty markets."

-- Jeff Cox, The Organic Cook's Bible

I smiled this week as I read in the CUESA Newsletter that Little Organic Farm would be returning to the market for a new season. Dave Little farms in Marin County and brings some of the best potatoes you'll ever have to our Bay Area Farmers' Markets. I buy his potatoes from the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market or the Sunday San Rafael market.

Dave Little in his field, Tomales, Ca

"This year's crop looks really good. The taste is going to be very good, though the drier spring may mean lower yields," says Dave Little about his potatoes. Little Organic Farm practices dry farming, a method of growing in which the farmer plants in wet soil and then does not typically add additional water to the crop as it grows. When potatoes are grown this way, the resultant product is a potato that is high in sugar content and wonderfully flavored. The potatoes have a lower water content and therefore a higher concentration of potato flavor. The trade-off is a very low crop yield. "Farmers who water their crops get a yield of 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of potatoes per acre. We're lucky to get 10,000 pounds," said Dave Little in a phone interview.

Bay Area chefs also love the flavor of Little's potatoes. Range, MarketBar, and Greens are among restaurants that buy Little Organic Farm potatoes for their menus.

All of this potato goodness is made even better when you can buy new potatoes that have been freshly dug. The potatoes that Little had at the market this weekend had been hand dug on Friday and obviously had never been put into storage. If you get a chance to taste them, you will quickly understand why these potatoes are so prized among those of us who seek out new potatoes.

Warm Potato Salad with Bacon

To celebrate the new potato harvest and in honor of the Fourth of July, I made a warm potato salad with bacon that was inspired by a recipe in this month's Gourmet magazine. The recipe seems to be very forgiving to changes. First of all, use your judgment with their suggested cooking time. I found 30 minutes to be too long, and pulled the potatoes out after about 20 minutes. While I followed the general idea of the recipe, I added shallots into the vinegar and tossed them with the warm potatoes because I didn't have chives. Then to add a bit of green in at the end, I chopped up some Ancho Cress -- a spicy green that I picked up this weekend from Marin Roots Farm.

The result was delicious, and a great way to show off the amazing flavor of new potatoes.

I have been finding my food news in some interesting places. When I only have a minute or two and need the most information possible, I check out the Ethicurean's Daily Digest for the latest on food policy, industrial agriculture, and activist projects going on around the world.

But when I have a little more time, one of the first places I look is Grist. Grist is an online magazine published by Grist Magazine, Inc. -- a non-profit organization with a mission of educating and energizing "the next generation of environmentalists with hard news delivered with a light touch".

I first noticed Grist's commitment to reporting food-related stories when they began publishing articles by Tom Philpott in 2005. Philpott co-founded Maverick Farms, an educational farm in North Carolina. He's a fantastic writer who brings thought-provoking topics to the table. He writes with a farmer's perspective, and often rounds out food politics debates with a point-of-view not being written about by others. This week, for instance, Philpott published "The hand that feeds: don't blame farms for the farm-subsidy mess," an article challenging those of us who assume that an elimination of farm subsidies would go a long way in ending the inequities created by industrial agriculture. Check out the comments thread for this article as well -- they are very interesting.

Grist's general food coverage is often interesting and new. Samuel Fromartz, the author of Organic, Inc. and the writer at the Chews Wise blog, writes for Grist. He recently wrote a post for Grist's blog about the ousting of a large organic dairy from organic certification.

One of my favorite sections of Grist is the Ask Umbra column in which Umbra Fisk tries to answer questions that we can't find answers to. In the past few months, I have learned whether aluminum bottles are safer than Nalgene-type bottles, and if it's more energy efficient to boil water for tea on the stove, in a microwave, or in an electric kettle. Not all Ask Umbra columns are food-related. In a column on Monday, Umbra hilariously tackled whether it's more environmental to pee in the ocean or behind a sand dune.

If you're an RSS-fiend like me, you can sign up for food specific posts to Grist, or for email updates to different sections of the site. It's an interesting place to get food politics news and read opinions from some of the key leaders in the policy field.

I've often heard about, but never made it to, the famous parking lot events held in the small parking lot of a Berkeley food triumvirate: Cafe Fanny, Acme Bread, and Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. The most well known of these events is the Oyster Bliss celebration that takes place in the Spring. This past April marked the 16th Annual Oyster Bliss event. Other annual parking lot events are Provence Day and Beaujolais Nouveau Day.

At Cafe Fanny the other day, I noticed a sign announcing a new event -- one featuring the salumi of Paul Bertolli's Fra' Mani. From the sign, and in Bertolli's words,

"I've been waiting for just the right opportunity to celebrate Fra' Mani in the local community where it was born just a little over a year ago. As luck would have it, we found our home a stone's throw away from our friends at Kermit Lynch, where I never fail to find the right wine match for my salumi. I am proud to share the work of our first year with our neighbors and friends in what has become Berkeley's only center for seasonal outdoor Bacchanalia -- Kermit's front yard."

Marc of Mental Masala and The Ethicurean accompanied me to the salami-fest on Saturday. "I know the last thing you probably want to do is go to a sausage-based event," I wrote to him last week when I invited him. Marc's a vegetarian. But he gamely came along and noshed on Acme bread, Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold cheese, and some pistachios as I dug into my plate of pork.

The menu featured two choices: Fra' Mani Grilled Classic Italian Sausage with Cannelini Beans ($12), and a Grand Salumi Platter with 7 different types of charcuterie from the Fra' Mani kitchen ($16). I chose the Salumi platter and was served dry chorizo, salametto, salame toscano, soppressata, salame gentile, mortadella, and salame rosa. This choice was an obvious one as it gave me a chance to taste all of the salumi side-by-side as well as allowing me to taste two new products from Fra' Mani -- the mortadella and the salame rosa. The salame rosa was wonderful and studded with pistachios that added to the flavor profile. And I can't wait to get my hands on some of the mortadella - it's going to be fabulous in sandwiches.

The event also featured wines from Kermit Lynch chosen specifically to go with the Fra' Mani products which were all reasonably priced at between $5 and $8. Before leaving, we tasted a sublime lemon pistachio cake and a good salted chocolate cookie from the Cafe Fanny table.

All in all, a fantastic event.

I will be eternally grateful to the participants at Chowhound because they taught me, many years ago, to love taco trucks. I now seek out taco trucks wherever I go and some of the best tacos I have eaten have been off of these mobile trucks in many different cities. My mouth waters to think about the tacos at the El Novillo taco truck in Oakland's Fruitvale district followed by a licuado nuez -- a milkshake with walnuts -- from the Ojo de Agua truck nearby.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate the community that springs up around taco trucks in many towns. In some places, I will be the only "jueda" at the trucks -- surrounded by mainly Latino families or workers on lunch breaks. The workers and owners of the taco trucks are usually immigrants to the United States and seem to work very hard at their jobs. Cleanliness is always a question when I bring friends to taco trucks for the first time, and contrary to popular belief, taco trucks are inspected by the Health Department and are held to general health and safety standards. Is every taco truck I have gone to immaculate? No, but neither is every "brick and mortar" restaurant.

Citing safety and health concerns, along with cries of "unfair competition" from brick and mortar restaurants in the area, the City of Salinas is considering an outright ban on "mobile vendors" or a severe restriction on their business. In January, the city set a cap on the vendor permits at the current count of 31 and no new permits will be issued causing a gradual fade-out of taco trucks in Salinas. Next week, an as-of-yet unpublicized proposal is scheduled to go before the city council that will further restrict the taco trucks. The proposal could include possible time restrictions instructing taco trucks to only operate between 6 pm and 6 am, could require that the vendors move their trucks every 15 minutes to one hour, or could cause taco trucks to have to move off of public streets and on to private property zoned for the business.

Melanie Wong, a frequent poster to the Chowhound boards, is often in Salinas visiting family and has been highlighting the wonderful food coming from the Salinas taco trucks. "I'm on the side of good food, and the side of the best tacos I can find, wherever that is," she says. And in Salinas, the best tacos seem to come from the trucks. In talking to other customers, Wong discovered that the Salinas taco trucks are a magnet for Latino families up and down the valley as the town is known for having some of the best food around. And according to a thread on the Chowhound boards this week, many Chowhounds agree about the caliber of tacos they tasted.

This is not an easy battle to fight. The Salinas United Business Association (SUBA) is in favor of restrictions on the taco trucks, and the taco truck vendors are not naturally organized enough to have a united voice to fight the issue. Fortunately, the vendors have recently retained counsel from the Central Valley. "The vendors couldn't get anyone in the area to represent them," says Wong, as the issue in Salinas is so divisive.

Restrictions or elimination of taco trucks seems to be a trend in cities throughout the nation. The city of Santa Ana has been trying to ban trucks over the last year, Nashville considered an ordinance, and Los Angeles has passed restrictions on taco trucks.

The ban bothers me because it seems like big business squashing the little guy in order to make a higher profit. While there may be legitimate health and safety concerns, in most counties there are processes in place with the county health inspector to handle any issues without the city council stepping in with an overarching ban. The same goes for vendors working without legitimate licenses. In both instances, the government should be going after the perpetrator instead of banning an entire class of food providers.

And I don't buy the claims of unfair competition from traditional sit-down restaurants. When I go out to eat at a restaurant, I don't usually end up at a taco truck. It may be legitimate that the taco trucks pull from franchise establishments like Taco Bell, McDonald's and Wendy's, but I don't see much crossover between restaurants and taco trucks. But even if it were the case that taco trucks were competition, how about making a better taco that attracts people to your business and letting the market decide what it likes best? There will always be the issue of cost, as taco trucks have lower overhead and can sell the tacos for less. But with value-add services such as liquor, sit-down service, and menu items other than tacos and burritos, it is possible to attract people to a sit-down restaurant over a taco truck.

Additionally, the Salinas taco trucks are providing food to a clientele that may not have much other means to eat out. There is a high concentration of very low-income agricultural workers in that area who either don't have the time or don't have the money to eat at higher-end restaurants. "The Salinas taco trucks are a vibrant part of the local community", says Jeanne Brophy who visited the taco trucks in December. "They are a great alternative for those who don't want to spend money going to sit-down restaurants and want fresher and tastier food than traditional fast-food franchises."

The possible taco truck ban in Salinas has overarching effects for all of us in the Bay Area. This could set a precedent that will soon come to our communities, and the ban will affect approximately 49 families in Salinas. Immigrant families that are trying hard to create a business and add value to their city by preparing and serving great food -- families who are a part of our greater Bay Area community.

If you are interested in having your voice heard about the Salinas taco trucks, contact the Salinas City Council before their scheduled meeting on June 19.

To visit the Salinas taco trucks, check out this map detailing the location of all the trucks (via Chowhound).

All photos courtesy of Melanie Wong and used with her permission.

Whenever I am out of town or away from Bloglines for an extended period of time, as has been the case over the past couple of weeks, I go through a bit of triage reading in order to make sure I check in on my favorite people in the most efficient way. As I am doing this, a lot of the reading involves clicking and skimming to get the general gist of what's happening in the blog world. But every once in a while, a post stops me in my tracks and I read it carefully, savoring every word. This was the case this week when I read Tea's post entitled "Panforte, with Memories". You can be sure that I will be lining up to buy some panforte from Della Fattoria Bakery this week.

I'm not in San Francisco much these days, so unless I want to make panforte on my own I'll be bringing it to Seattle with me. While I'm curious to try my hand, I fear I would never come up with anything as perfect as the Della Fattoria version (and why bother, when they've done all the hard work for me?). If the knights of the crusade were able to carry panforte with them on horseback to the holy lands, mine should have no problem surviving the trip to Seattle. And carry it with me I will, for one taste of this sweet and spicy confection brings back so many memories.

We have a couple of notable new blogs in the Bay Area blogosphere these days. It's already been established that Todd at Bourbon and Branch is mixing up some of the most delicious cocktails around. And now he has started a blog called Straight Up to keep us apprised of happenings at the bar: "I hope to cover a variety of subjects including; what's happening at Bourbon & Branch and other bars around town, new cocktails & spirits and what's coming in the future at Bourbon & Branch." (via Tablehopper.

Another blog that started up last month is a blog by Nigel Walker, the farmer of Eatwell Farm. Keep an eye on his new site for news about the farm and general input about what it's like to run a small organic farm in California.

Since the moment I received Heidi Swanson's new book Super Natural Cooking in the mail, I have been consuming it at every opportunity. It's already been discussed here, so I won't go too much into it. It's a fantastic book, and you should check it out as soon as possible. But if you'd like a preview, check out one of my favorite recipes by Heidi that is also in her new book: Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This week marks the season beginning of three reality TV shows that focus on food. Top Chef starts this Wednesday, Hell's Kitchen started last night, and The Next Food Network Star started on Sunday. My money is on Top Chef for being the most entertaining. As luck would have it, Bay Area Bites' own Stephanie is recapping Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef for Television without Pity and I look forward to reading a season's worth of her insights about these shows. Even if you don't watch the shows, it's worth reading Stephanie's recaps for hiliarious insights like this from last night's episode of Hell's Kitchen:

Ramsay wildly clutches his head when he discovers that that Vinnie is using water instead of stock in the risotto. Vinnie tries to argues that they ran out of stock, but Ramsay, who samples the risotto water, announces that it tastes like "gnat's piss." Awesome. I mean, I didn't know gnats peed in large enough volumes to allow anyone to sample the flavor, but I defer to Ramsay. Because of the gnat's piss risotto, Vinnie is sent to wash dishes while Brad takes over his station.

Lean in close and I'll tell you a secret: Though I am one of the founders of the Locavores and the editor of the Eat Local Challenge website, I still sometimes become a bit fatigued about the ubiquitousness of information about eating locally. While overall it's amazing and overwhelming, when a new perspective on the subject comes along, I am very excited. And when one of the best writers of our time, Barbara Kingsolver, chooses to write about eating local, I chomp at the bit to read the book.

Barbara Kingsolver wrote Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in conjunction with her husband, Steven L. Hopp, and her daughter Camille Kingsolver. Ms. Kingsolver wrote the main narrative while Mr. Hopp wrote intriguing sidebars that are politically and policy based. Camille, Ms. Kingsolver's daughter is a college student who peppered the book with her point-of-view and recipes relating to the text.

The crux of this book focuses on Ms. Kingsolver's family, living in Virginia, who manages to eat a locally-based diet for a year mainly subsisting of their family garden. More than her devoted point-of-view about eating locally, it was Ms. Kingsolver's calm moderation that made me love this book.

Our locavore project nudged us constantly toward new personal bests. But it always remained fascination, not fanatacism. We still ate out at restaurants with friends sometimes, and happily accepted invitations to dine at their homes. People who knew about our project would get flustered sometimes about inviting us, or when seeing us in a restaurant would behave as if they'd caught the cat eating the canary. We always explained, "We're converts in progress, not preachers. No stone tablets." Our Thanksgiving dinner would include a little California olive oil, a pinch of African nutmeg, and some Virginia flour that likely contained wheat from Pennsylvania and points north."

I talked to a friend recently who was frustrated with Ms. Kingsolver's point-of-view, saying that it wasn't possible for the majority of many Americans. While I didn't find Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to be as pedantic as my friend did, Ms. Kingsolver freely admits that this type of diet is possible if you know how, and are willing, to cook.

The Kingsolver family situation is unique -- they cultivate a small farm / large garden, she works at home and makes the time and has the know-how to create delicious local meals for her family. Rather than consider this a "how-to" book, I believe that the best use for it is inspiration for our own eat local lives -- while I may not be able to grow my own food, there are other nuggets of information that I can take from the book and apply to my own life.

The most compelling of the stories in the book were the stories about Ms. Kingsolver's third-grader, Lily, who participated in the family experiment by raising chickens and selling eggs.

Once she'd brought them home, taken her twenty-eight chicks out of that tiny box, and started each one on its path to a new life under her care, Lily was ready to get back to third grade. When we signed her in at the principal's office, the secretary needed a reason for Lily's tardiness. Lily threw back her shoulders and announced, "I had to start my own chicken business this morning." The secretary said without blinking, "Oh, okay, farming," and entered the code for "Excused, Agriculture." Just another day at our elementary school, where education comes in many boxes.

Whether you're not completely sold on the idea of eating locally-grown food, or you are a veteran at the concept, I believe that you will find Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to be an interesting and richly-written story about one family's attempt to eat locally for a year.

If you're interested in hearing more about Animal, Vegetable, Miracle check out Michael Krasny's interview with Barbara Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp last week on KQED's Forum.

This book was reviewed based on a free review copy provided by the publisher.

Every Mother's Day, my family gathers in a park in Long Beach and has a raucous celebration of mothers, family, and food. It started over 20 years ago when my godmother and her sister used to go out to a local park early and stake out spots for us. I would go with them sometimes, and I think that they used it as much as an excuse to hang out and chat as a way to save us a spot. Both of them passed away years ago, but it is a great tradition that we continue. It's now the day that the largest contingent of our family gets together -- our version of an annual family reunion.

My mom's side of the family is all of Mexican descent and rather large, so the picnic usually has an attendance of at least 50 people -- most of whom are related to me in one way or another. The family tree can get a little confusing, and we all laugh as we try and remember if people are actually related to us or if they have just been friends of the family for so long that we think they're related.

Grandma Lupe

My grandmother, who just turned 88 two weeks ago, is the matriarch of the family and so she plays a special role in the day -- greeting everyone as they come, kissing the new babies, and generally holding court as everyone comes by to talk to her.

What started as a fairly casual food tradition has more fanfare in recent years. The general "rule", if you could call it that, for the picnic is that everyone brings lunch for their own families. But mom likes to bring enough food for grandma to be able to offer food to anyone who wants it, so while most families would bring food for 4 or 6 people, we end up feeding around 25 people.

Mom has an additional rule of trying not to repeat a picnic meal too often. In the past, we have served barbecued beef sandwiches, chili, and fried chicken. This year, we finally decided on carne asada burritos after several days of discussions. We then built the rest of the menu.

The Season's First Cherries

I decided to put out a large bowl of cherries for the family to munch on throughout the day. I had been eating cherries during my whole week in Los Angeles -- they are one of my favorite seasonal fruits. The farmers' market cherry vendors in Southern California seem to be a couple weeks ahead of our Northern California crop resulting in fully sweet and delicious cherries right now. "First cherries of the season, make a wish," said my grandmother as she took a handful of them. They have always been a popular snack in our family and I have childhood memories of eating many plump, nearly black cherries at my grandmother's house in the height of the season.

As condiments for the burritos, mom prepared pickled carrots, green onion with cilantro, radishes, guacamole, salsa and marinated peppers. She reads blogs on a regular basis and printed out Anita's recipe for " 'Just like North Woods Inn's' Red Cabbage Slaw" and made it as a side salad. I personally think it went perfectly inside our burritos and gave a nice crunch in contrast to the soft carne asada meat.

Tamari marinated barbecued asparagus

As a vegetable, we prepared a family favorite: Tamari marinated barbecued asparagus. Making this asparagus simply involves marinating it in a ziploc bag with tamari and a small amount of oil for as much time as you can -- anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 day -- and then putting it on the grill for a couple of minutes. It's a dish that often changes the minds of avowed asparagus-haters, and those of us who love asparagus eat it prepared this way like it's candy.

Texas caviar

I made a dish that is loosely based on Texas caviar -- a black-eyed pea salad that is common in the South. I'd never made it before, and most of the recipes I could find online involved canned black-eyed peas, canned corn, and a bottled Italian dressing. I wanted to make it a little more homemade and seasonal so put together a salad with black-eyed peas (cooked from dried in a pressure cooker), red onion, green onion, parsley, celery, and small yellow chile peppers for spice.

I then made a vinaigrette using one part lemon juice to two parts oil, salt and pepper, and garlic. I kept combining the ingredients until I was happy with the result, making sure to let the vinaigrette and other ingredients meld together for a few minutes between each tasting and adjustment. I apologize for not having a formal recipe for you, but I think this is something that is easily done to taste. Make sure to leave the black-eyed peas on the slightly hard side so that they stay in whole bean form in the salad and do not turn to mush through the mixing process.

Jake and Lucy

It's amazing to have a tradition like this with such a large family. The yearly picnic marks a way to keep track of everyone -- new babies being born, spouses and significant others coming and going, the poignant abasence of those who have passed away, and children growing at astonishing rates. By the end of the day, we were exhausted yet content. Another Mother's Day picnic passed, and a new one to look forward to next year.

My good friends Ken and Tricia had a darling baby boy a few months back, and have been in "we're - so - tired - we - can't - see - straight" mode for a while now. I think they're holding it together better than most, but decided a couple weeks back to make them dinner at their house. I was aiming for a dinner that was on the sophisticated side -- something that they wouldn't spend the time to make for themselves.

Making a full dinner in a kitchen that's not your own presents some unique challenges. I usually tend to be fairly casual about my dinner preparations at home, and while I may jot down a few notes, I tend to have the confidence that I'll be able to find everything that I need in my own house and that the dinner will come together. When at someone else's house, however, it's important to have a plan, to prepare as much as possible at home, and to take everything you need.

A couple days before the dinner, I sent K & T an email:

please choose a protein:

scallops
pork
lamb

thank you!

The answer came back a while later: "After a long hard fought discussion, we have decided on lamb." That choice made for me, I was free to build the rest of the meal around it.

Make a plan.

I wrote out a one-page plan for the dinner that helped me know the exact ingredients to bring, what I had left to buy, and what I could prepare at home. I then followed my own instructions pretty strictly, making sure that everything I needed to do was right on the list. This helped to alleviate any pressure of forgetting items or leaving a major part of the dinner in my fridge. At the bottom of the list, I jotted down the brief directions for cooking the lamb at their house so that I could remember the temperatures and cooking times -- this helped me avoid having to drag cookbooks halfway across town.

I purposely chose items that I had made before or that could be easily made in someone else's kitchen. I wanted dishes that packed a lot of punch but that didn't require deep concentration on my part while there. With a baby to fawn over and chatting to catch up on, I knew that following a complicated recipe would not be a highlight of the evening. Risotto was an easy choice because I make it fairly often, but it is a dish that parents of a newborn baby would never make for themselves.

I decided on a simple white risotto (base recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, "Risotto with Parmesan Cheese, page 244). A couple days prior, I worked with a cheesemonger at Cowgirl Creamery to choose two cheeses that worked out really well: a Fontina and a Fiore Sardo. The Fontina provided a rich creaminess and the Fiore Sardo gave a really delicious bite to the dish.

When trying to choose a salad, I remembered Sam's delicious sounding citrus salad, and decided on an homage to that but that used mint to provide a good flavor combination with the lamb. I also knew the acid in the salad would play nicely with the lamb flavors.

The end result was so delicious that I made an entire plate of it for myself for lunch the next day. Pomelo was the perfect citrus to use because it is not as juicy as most other citruses, and its structure stands up to being in a salad without turning to mush. I wish I could provide a recipe for this, but it was basically the ingredients mentioned above combined until the taste was right and allowed to sit for a few minutes before serving. Absolutely delicious.

Prep as much as possible at home.

I did all of the cooking at K & T's house, though I probably could have cooked the lamb at home if I'd chosen. At home, I marinated the lamb in a Mustard-Rosemary paste (The Complete Meat Cookbook, "Roast Leg of Lamb", page 486), washed the pea greens, and roasted the pistachios that I needed for the pomelo salad. I also chilled the sparkling wine and washed all other vegetables that I could.

Take everything you need.

"I don't want you to be offended by the things I am about to pull out of my bag," I told Tricia. I know that her first reaction when I started piling up ingredients on the counter would be to wonder why I had brought the most basic of ingredients when she had all of these things. But I decided that it would be better to just arrive as a complete dinner unit than to constantly have to ask her if she had each ingredient I needed. To that end, I brought salt, vermouth for the risotto, chicken stock, butter, and my own pepper grinder.

Tricia had told me days beforehand that she would provide the dessert. She made delicious sugar cookies from a recipe that she uses from Everyday Food. In retrospect, I would have overridden her decision and either made something or brought it just so that she didn't have to stress out about making dessert, but I was glad she did it because the cookies were delicious.

The dinner took an interesting turn when I completely yelled at their dog for carting off the remaining piece of Fiore Sardo from my market basket while we were eating. The dog and I go way back, so there were not any hard feelings, and the cheese was saved because it was still in its wrapper and was untouched by canine slobber. Ziggy, the dog, should know by now that no one comes between me and a good cheese!

Though this dinner took a little more planning and forethought, I would do it again in a minute -- it was truly appreciated by the new parents, and fun to try making dinner at someone else's home for the evening.

Vineyards outside of Portland

When spending 72 hours in a food mecca like Portland, it's necessary to plan carefully and choose your dining mates wisely. If you do so, or if you follow my suggestions below, you will be able to both eat well and enjoy the food sights of this Pacific Northwest food town.

Thursday, 7:00 pm

My trip started off on a perfect note when I had dinner with some of my favorite Portland bloggers: the fashionable urban homesteaders Patrick and Holly of Letter from Hen Waller and the adorable Jocelyn and her "sweets" from Brownie Points. After some back and forth via e-mail, we all decided on Navarre; a small tapas and wine restaurant near 28th and East Burnside.

Walking into Navarre, you know that this is a different type of restaurant. Shelves are full of preserved tomatoes, pickles, and other canned items. One wall is adorned with dried chili peppers with a rope pulley system to allow the chef to pull down supply whenever it is needed. And this is not all for decoration. The chef is a member of the 47th Avenue CSA -- the same CSA that Holly and Patrick belong to -- and he uses these seasonal items in his dishes and cans items that he can't use right away.

All of this focus on seasonality and local products would be for naught if the food wasn't good, but it's great. When fellow Bay Area Bites author Shuna went to Navarre, she wrote: "At the top of its game Navarre's individual dishes are rich in flavor and history, transporting you from one ancient Mediterranean culture to another, but magically meld well on a share plate."

It's a comfortable, fun restaurant to meet friends and I was lucky to have gone there.

Friday, 1:30 pm

When I had Friday afternoon free to myself, I decided to check out Wildwood Restaurant. Wildwood is consistently listed on "Best of" lists about Portland, and I was excited to check it out. Chef Cory Schreiber uses his menu to show off the best of Pacific Northwest ingredients, and uses food from local farms, dairies, and wineries to make up his varied and delicious menu.

I started my lunch with a cream of asparagus soup. "I can give you half a bowl if you'd like," my server gently suggested. Such a nice way to say "you may have ordered too much food for one person, how about if we make it a little less." I was thrilled with the suggestion, and when the soup arrived it was the perfect amount. Served with a dollop of mushroom duxelles in the middle, it was perfectly flavored with the duxelles mixed in to add an additional dimension.

The lunch continued with a very good trout dish served with roasted root vegetables, and I left my lunch happy and perfectly sated.

Friday, 6:00 pm

My Friday evening with long-time friends Jeff and Molly began at Mint in North Portland just off Interstate Avenue. Mint is a fashionable bar that takes its cocktails seriously, and it was nice to enjoy a drink and some company there. The best of our drink lot was the Ad Lib, described as "Crater Lake Vodka muddled with cilantro and lemon lime juice, served up in a sugared martini glass". The cilantro added a surprising flavor to the cocktail that was enjoyed by all.

Friday, 8:00 pm

Ken's Artisan Pizza was the highlight of my trip, hands down. Ken's serves the kind of pizzas I dream about. When Monday pizza nights became wildly popular at Ken's Bakery on 21st Ave, the folks at Ken's decided to spin off a pizza restaurant and they have done so with great success. The pizza is thin with a blistered, burned (in a good way) crust, and is topped with delicious, carefully chosen ingredients. Between three of us, we shared a mushroom pizza with several varieties of mushrooms and a margherita pizza topped with a large pile of fresh arugula.

Friday, 10:00 pm

Our evening finished at Noble Rot, a small wine bar that serves dessert and has an ample dessert wine list. While Jeff and Molly shared dessert, I tucked into a delicious glass of port, and we wound down our evening.

A young market shopper.

Saturday, 10:00 am

A good friend laughs about choosing her retirement home with her husband based on the proximity of an excellent farmers' market. The Portland PSU Farmers' Market makes me want to move to Portland as soon as possible. It has the vibe, it has the variety, and it has the community flavor that I am constantly seeking in my farmers' market exploration. In addition to the presence of stellar farmers and vendors, the market features one of my absolute favorite prepared food vendors anywhere: Tastebud Farm with their wood-fired oven that they bring to the market. My breakfast this trip was a pita filled with delicious garbanzo beans, lamb, and other goodies.

Saturday, 2:00 pm

Saturday afternoon we took a ride in the country to Erath Winery and Sokol Blosser Winery. It was an amazing day to check out wineries with large billowy clouds adding a magnificent touch to landscape photos. As we drove past nut orchards and fields of mustard, it was a great time to take in the beauty of this countryside.

Fiddlehead ferns at the market.

Sunday, 12:00 noon

On Sunday, we explored the North Mississippi avenue area, with a leisurely lunch at the friendly Mississippi Station, a restaurant with great fries and a nice beer selection, and then a trip to The Meadow: a store that sells chocolate, wine, flowers, salt and pepper. I immediately gravitated to the salt area and spent a good twenty minutes exploring the world of salt. The owner and employees are very knowledgable about the ins and outs of finishing salts, and I left with some fun selections.

Sunday, 3:00 pm

Even though we were late to get to the airport, Molly insisted that we stop at Grand Central Bakery where she ran into to buy me a large, springy and delicious ciabatta to take home. I thoroughly enjoyed it when I arrived home with a chunk of Rogue Creamery cheddar cheese while I reflected on how great 72 hours can be.

Locations and Links

Navarre
10 NE 28th Ave
Portland
(503) 232-3555

Wildwood
1221 NW 21st Avenue
Portland
(503) 248-9663

Mint
816 North Russell
Portland
(503) 284-5518

Ken's Artisan Pizza
304 SE 28th
Portland
(503) 517-9951

Noble Rot
2724 SE Ankeny
Portland
(503) 233-1999

Portland PSU Farmers' Market
8:30 am - 2:00 pm on the campus of PSU
in the South Park Blocks between SW Mongtomery and Harrison

Erath Winery
9410 NE Worden Hill Road
Dundee
(503) 538-3318

Sokol Blosser Winery
5000 Sokol Blosser Lane
Dundee
(503) 864-2282

Mississippi Station
3943 N. Mississippi Avenue
Portland
(503) 517-5751

The Meadow
3731 N. Mississippi Avenue
Portland
(503) 288-4633

Grand Central Bakery
Several locations in Portland
(503) 232-0575