Cellar Door Café

Once in a while I have a perfect meal. Perfect company, perfect food, perfect wine, perfect experience. Last night was one of those nights, the stars were aligned. After a long hot day working, I met a dear friend at Bonny Doon’s new Cellar Door Café. We met at 5, for what my friend calls “Sinner,” Sunday dinner, and sat at the bar and ordered a bottle of Cigare Blanc. With the open doors, a gentle breeze, and view of the train tracks, the cool glass of the Cigare Blanc really hit the spot! This was my friend’s first time visiting the new Tasting Room and Café so we took a stroll. The interior whispers Randall Grahm –quirky, cool, humorous, elegant, comfortable … always comfortable. The spirit of Randall Grahm is, wonderfully, present in every detail.

Beam me up, Charlie!

The hour arrived when we could start ordering and so we did. The Café offers a three course Prix Fixe menu for $32 or a choice to order from the small plate menu. We chose the Prix Fixe with a starter, a Fennel confit and Bellweather Farm ricotta pizza. The rest of our dishes began to emerge, perfectly timed. The chickpea bruschetta topped with smoked chevre and a chickpea pesto… This was followed by roasted local roots and greens topped with a farm fresh egg. Well, the smokiness of the potatoes and the sweetness of the radishes were both a surprise and delight and utterly sublime with the creamy rich flavorful fried egg. We finished with roasted nectarines and brown butter shortbread topped with honey lavender cream. I am a very frugal user of the “OMG” but, I must say, this dinner earned 4 OMGs!

Chickpea bruschetta

Beautiful roots

a perfect end to a perfect meal, dessert delivery by Chef Parker

The food is served family style and the servings are extremely generous, worth every penny and then some. Executive Chef Charlie Parker is not only a master in the kitchen but a very gracious and attentive host, a winning combination. Chef Parker’s tasty skills, easy manner, and generous and friendly nature make his relationship with Bonny Doon a natural. I hope this rising young chef continues his fine craft of aligning the stars in the Dooniverse, for I am surely to become a regular.

I recommend this experience highly. If in Santa Cruz, make a point of setting aside a few hours to drink and dine with Bonny Doon.

Every now and then I get a serious itch to leave Santa Cruz. This itch becomes severe when I don’t get my big city fix. Up until today, I always thought of myself as a big city girl. I mean, I love big cities, the bigger the better! New York, London, Paris, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Rome, New Delhi… Urban exploration is a serious passion. I can wake up early and not return to my hotel until late, just meandering through the streets, letting the city take me where it will. Oddly, today, I couldn’t wait to get on my bike and head to the ocean, and Farmer’s Market, and cafe, wine tasting at Bonny Doon, and even gin tasting! And you all know how I feel about gin… The amazing thing is that I was able to do all of this via West Cliff Drive, the local promenade along the ocean that overlooks the Monterey Bay. West Cliff Drive is my highway!

Her is a list of the top ten reasons why I live here. This list serves two purposes, for me to read when the itch returns and as an advertisement to friends in big cities so when they get the itch for a fresh ocean air… and are interested in a house exchange!

1. West Cliff Drive. A mere mile from my house, always a good place to walk or ride my bike. Always always clears the head, brightens my eyes, puts color on my cheeks, and a smile on my face. And when I’m really together, I can harvest mussels for dinner while on said bike ride or walk.
2. My community. Besides absolutely fabulous landlords and incredibly kind friends, I am neighbors with the divine Susie Bright ( sexpert and personal consultant), Pim Te (blogger, baker, and shopper extraordinaire), and Randall Grahm. All express incredible kindness, affection, and sincere interests towards me, my projects and, more importantly, my daughter.
3. The weather! I have a year round kitchen garden, an amazing rose collection, and access to all the fruit trees in the neighborhood and, believe me, there are plenty!
4. Cameron Marks Boutique. A great shopping experience offered by my friend Vanessa Ambrose. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have both the key and alarm code and have been known to work out all kinds of interesting trades for clothing and accessories! How much apricot chutney and lemon preserves can the poor girl eat? I hope, a lot!
5. Lulu Carpenters, boutique coffee house and roaster. Great coffee. cafe, and staff. This is my home away from home, the staff is always welcoming and they absolutely adore my daughter. It also happens to be where Stella learned to crawl, go up and down stairs, walk, and say Yirgacheffe, Papua New Guinea, macchiato, and pain au chocolate.
6. The butcher department at Shopper’s Corner. Shopper’s Corner is an amazing locally owned grocery store with an extensive wine collection and full butcher department. Did I mention that the butcher’s are extremely handsome, knowledgeable, and always happy to fulfill any requests.
7. Santa Cruz is a university town nestled between the ocean and the mountains, an excellent situation for a forager at heart. Mussels, sea urchins, boletes, chanterelles, trompettes du mort, miner’s lettuce, wild fennel along the bluffs, and berries, berries, berries… 
8. Year round Farmer’s Market. I am at most a 10 minute walk, and much shorter bike ride, from two amazing markets. I frequent Wednesdays and Saturdays, perfect frequency for veggies and fruits. And, by far, the best stand is Dirty Girl Farm. Best strawberries, haricort verts, beans, and selection of greens. All organic!
9. The pleasure of living in a small town is the quality of life. I have an open door policy, friends always stop by and I love it, as does my daughter. I can walk into any restaurant, or bar, and feel instantly at home because I am surrounded by friends in the kitchen, among the staff, and diners. A new definition to the family meal… And being in California, especially Northern California, means an open and friendly manner rule the day!
10. Lastly, except for a couple of very hot weeks in the Spring and Fall, the weather is such that I can wear boots year round. Love my Fryes…

I love the internet! It is such a social and intellectual equalizer. One no longer has to have access to great libraries to gain knowledge, inspiration, and insight. Of course, great libraries are fantastic but not always at one’s fingertips so when you are in a rut, open your laptop and visit the Old Foodie. These past two weeks have kicked my a**! Simply too much going on at once and when my daughter feel asleep at 6:45 P.M., I was too exhausted to think beyond opening my laptop. Fortunately, the Old Foodie is bookmarked and all I had to do was click.

Janet Clarkson is the Old Foodie and she is fabulous! Her blog is incredible, such an inspiration! Her writing and choice of subjects are current, fresh, totally accessible, historic, and fun! What could be better?  I love that she provides the original sources and I always wonder, “does she type it all in or does she have a scanner? This woman has patience!” The information is there for us, the readers, to examine and interpret and, if we wish, go straight to the source if we desire more. This sharing of scholarship is not always done, so I really appreciate what I see as the Old Foodies keen desire to inform and educate. 

So tonight I had the pleasure of reading about “Ladies who Dine in Public,”  “Coffee Recipes,” “Preserving Eggs,”  “A White Dinner,”  and “To make a Quiddany.” I can go on and on, but I think you get the point! Also included with each post are great quotes. Really great quotes. So, Janet, thank you for giving me a great selection of reading to help heal my poor — and spirit. You are not only a wonderful source of inspiration but also a great teacher.

As the weather improves, so does my tendency to eat more fish. With warmer weather, I tend to spend more and more time outdoors and, before I know it, it is dinner time! Fish is always so quick to cook and living here on the coast, there is always a good variety being sold at the Farmer’s Market. This is the time when I consult the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program religiously and I encourage you all to do the same.  

Conservation efforts for the ocean and it’s inhabitants is a really important issue. We all need to be aware and responsible for what we choose to eat.  The MBA offers excellent up to the minute information on ethical seafood edibility.  Please download the brochure and put it somewhere handy, there is even an application for your iPhone… Be responsible!

The tradition of patchwork is as old as the production of textiles. In the pre-industrial era, textiles were either too expensive or labor intensive to discard when torn. When they tore, they were saved and mended or torn apart for use in another projects.  And since necessity is the mother of invention, patchwork became a form of personal expression. This is true in every culture, and every culture developed it’s own distinct style. The Amish quilt, the Dervish coat from Persia, the Molas from Central America, the patchwork costumes of Rajasthan and China, and the kesas of Buddhist monks. These pieces gained value as family heirlooms and honor for the time and dedication taken in their making.

I take great pleasure in patchwork. I love sitting on my workroom floor surrounded by silks (I mostly work in silk) of all colors, patterns, weights, from all over the world. Silk of all sizes strewn together haphazardly, and my job is to design by mixing and matching. I really love sitting in the middle of my pile and dreaming, always with a sketch book by my side. As I study the fabric, my eye starts to connect one with the other. Soon I have a pile, and a design magically pops from my head to sketchpad. And while I’m there, surrounded by a cloud of silk, why not design one or two others?

Time and time again my design preference is drawn to the Amish and Japanese tradition. The simple geometric designs in bold colors work beautifully with silk. And since I draw from my collection of handwoven Cambodian silks, I prefer designs that are not constructed of too many small pieces. This allows for the piecing and construction of the quilt in one day. Once the three layers of the quilt are basted, I can begin to stitch or tie at my leisure. I always encourage friends to use a batting made of natural fibers. Organic cotton is wonderful for smaller quilts, and wool and silk for larger ones. Make sure you follow the recommendations for stitch spacing. I love to hand tie quilts with wool or silk batting because it creates a wonderful baffled fluffy affect!

There are great textile museums out there so, when traveling, consult your guidebook. My favorite textile museums are the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Silk Museum in Lyon, and the various textile and craft museums of Delhi. If these aren’t possible anytime soon, visit your local fabric store, I am sure you will get inspired and leave with some fabric and a project!

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Quilting the World Over by  Willow Ann Soltow

For Purpose and Pleasure by Sandi Fox

Japanese Country Textiles by Anna Jackson

Japanese Country Quilting by Karen Kim Matsunaga

Pique de Provence by Ross J. Francis

The role of coffee and the coffeehouse in modern society is excessively clear. Coffee is the ubiquitous morning drink at home, at work, in restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets, and carts along the street. And  the coffeehouse remains a place for students, workers, families, lovers, and friends. A place to go to for conversation or solitude. Yes, I have spent many wonderful afternoons in my favorite cafe drinking coffee and reading a book. And now, as I single mother, any time I spend alone in a cafe feels truly indulgent. 

Coffee and cafes hold a special place of honor in my household. My daughter knows that the first thing mommy must do in the morning is make a pot of coffee. The mantra, “Mommy needs coffee or she is grouchy” is something she understands and chants. Making coffee together is part of our morning ritual, she places the new filter in the basket, closes all necessary components, pushes the required buttons, and turns the appropriate knob. In a year or so she will know how to grind the beans and add the water!

Lulu Carpenter’s is our favorite coffee house. At an early age, around 9 months, my daughter started going there with her father every morning. It is a wonderful ritual for both father and daughter and has continued despite the divorce. Lulus is where my daughter learned to crawl, walk, use a water fountain, go up and down stairs, spoon the milk foam off machiatos, eat pain au chocolats,  and drink hot chocolate. At 16 months she could repeat Yirgacheef, Sumatra, Guatemalan, PNG (Papua New Guinea) and even Grumpy Monkey (a house blend and her mother’s favorite). But how is the coffee?

Overwhelmingly delicious, or “tasty” and Manthri the owner likes to say. Lulu Carpenter’s at the Octagon is a boutique cafe that roasts its own beans. On offer are 8 to 12 beans that are ground and brewed to order. The beans are single origin and selected by Manthri Srinath, the proprietor and master roaster. The cafe has a full coffee bar that prides itself in its espresso drinks and selection of tea.  This is the only place I buy beans and coffee and where the secret of great coffee, fresh fresh fresh, reigns supreme.

There is nothing like fresh cut roses to add fragrance and cheer to any room. Roses are easy to grow, relatively low maintenance, provide a quick and satisfying landscaping effect, are long living, and give wonderful blooms that change every day. Watch the bloom unfold and change colors, a bouquet of wilting drooping roses is a personal favorite! Roses are the perfect plant for the garden and equally accessible to every level of gardener and garden. It is easy to slide into the role of a rose collector. The variety of roses that are available to the home gardener is astounding. Whether you prefer long stems, long blooming, reds, apricots,  variegated, double blooms, cabbages, fringed petals, a climber or for a pot, there is a rose for everyone.

The purest in me prefers antique roses, pre-1900,  but I have been known to buy the occasional David Austin rose! My first garden was the one I created with my now ex-husband. I learned a lot about gardening and, I think, the most important lesson was that the garden is dynamic. The pleasure of gardening, besides weeding, is watching it change. As a novice, I had to learn not to be afraid of moving plants  if they did not thrive where I wanted them to live. Also, plants get sick and it’s okay to pull them out! I had a rose, Reine Victoria, that I loved but no matter where I moved her, she was always sick. Occasionally she would gift the perfect bloom with the most memorable of scents but always on the most pathetic looking bush imaginable. After several years of nurturing that produced very little effect, I decided to remove her. Sad but liberating! My collection of roses quickly grew to almost 40. I know each by name and blooming habit. Oh how I love when Cardinal de Richelieu begins to bloom! Such closely formed buds that open one petal at a time until, suddenly, it opens fully. And what an incredible color, almost a deep purple. The Cardinal only blooms once and for a very brief period but I look forward to his visit every summer…

One tragedy of my divorce is having left my garden behind. All my roses, espalliered fruit trees, quince tree, and the most productive of plum trees. Fortunately, my ex and I are committed to co-parenting and the pursuit of friendship and creative collaborations! And since we are neighbors, I have full visitation rights! For my new, and smaller garden, I have finally made my decision. A Variegata di Bologna, Quatre Saison, and Ispahan. A reunion with an old friend and two new, and a new garden is born. I buy my roses from Roses of Yesterday and Today.

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In my world lipstick is not a cosmetic but an essential accessory. I never leave home without it and I may forget my iPhone and even my wallet but never, absolutely never, my lipstick.  The lips are the most symbolic part of a woman’s mystique. They dance the language of love, of sorrow, of laughter and pleasure, of mischief and sound. And when painted they become the most alluring and memorable feature on a woman’s face. Lipstick may have started as a magic tool wielded by temptresses like Cleopatra, geishas, courtesans, and prostitutes but the sexual and class stigma once attached to coloring one’s lips has disappeared. Now commercials selling facial tissues show a little girl putting on her mother’s lipstick and the wonderful tube of lip colors can be found even in grocery stores.

The psychology of lipstick is deep, profound and even magical. When feeling down, put on lipstick and smile. The effect is immediate! No matter your size, age, coloring, or state of your pocketbook, the purchase and application of lipstick can make the female psyche roar! In fact, my hair stylist always insists that before I leave the salon I apply lipstick. I always leave feeling like a million bucks!

And so every season, or when I’m feeling blue, I walk to my favorite magic potion boutique for a personal consultation with my lipstick guru Deborah Schatan of Sky Meadow Apothecary and Spa. Deborah knows how to read a woman’s soul, she looks into your eyes and understands what it is you are seeking, what you desire to be. An aviatrix, a glamorous hiker, a professional woman taken seriously, a romantic, a mother with style, a sex goddess… One little tube of lipstick can evoke each and every one of those personas but the trick is in finding the right color. This can lead to a lifelong pursuit of the perfect red, the sheerest of nudes, the pink that produces the prettiest of pouts, and the most important of all, your signature color.

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