Rome, Florence, Paris

And back again to the bay area. It was lovely, but I think for now I'm leaving the journal notes where they are -- in the books that I was reading along the way (namely, Goethe's Werther, Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, and Zola's Belly of Paris). Maybe I'll transcribe them on some cold, rainy November day.

Back home & trying to be more serious this year. Also cooking and baking a lot. A week ago we had an impromptu dinner party in honor of Garth's birthday, where we made roasted patty pan squash and chickpeas, yummy goat cheese and fig crostini, roasted cauliflower, and walnut and apple salad (with the new favorite 410 dressing: maple syrup and mustard, equal parts). The next night Steve hosted a dinner party in Berkeley, where the menu was fried eggplant with tomato-mint chutney and yogurt. Sorbet and fruit for dessert. And the NEXT night, we had an apartment dinner, with an eclectic mix of pear-sherry-vinegar salad, brie and pate and bread, corn pudding, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Then I had to run to the Blitzen Trapper concert, where I was "taken under the wing" of four tall guys. One of whom is named Will, and sporadically texts me. Recipes follow.

squash and chickpeas: easy!
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/08/roasted_patty_pan_squash_and_herbed_chickpeas.php#more

really easy if you chicken out and put the pudding in ramikins rather than in the bowls of the squash:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/roasted-corn-pudding-in-acorn-squash-recipe.html

clearly I switched out the raisins in favor of chocolate:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/02/thick-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/

The other day I made my usual wheat bread. And then these amazing brownies:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/09/adult-brownie-chocolate-salt-coffee-andronicos-supermarket-san-francisco-recipe.html

And tonight I made this soup, but decided to skip the premade broth. It didn't suffer for it. Now I have tons of soup. Mer, help eat soup!!
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/green-soup-with-ginger-recipe.html

I'm all ready for Mer's arrival. I have all sorts of California fruits -- persimmons, a pomegranate, figs -- and fennel salami and pink pearl apples and homemade bread in the freezer and jam and frozen cookie dough and leftover brownies...