Empty Nester Cooking Club

 Peaches

Elaine suggested we start a book club. But, I'd done that before, and was interested in doing something different.  "How about a cooking club?" 

Elaine was the host for the first session....and she chose peaches as the theme. 

Kim made an arugula salads with burrata, sliced peaches and a frolic of pistachios. The tasty vinaigrette was green from fresh basil. Elaine grilled marinated peach chicken & peaches cut in half out side in the rain on her deck. I brought a bowl full of chopped peaches coated in sugar & a bit of flour with freshly grated nutmeg...allowing the juices make a yummy sauce...baked it for 30minutes...then topped with an oatmeal/ brown sugar streusel and baked for another 15 minutes. The delicious peach crisp served with vanilla bean ice cream. 

I brought a Languedoc Viognier ...with hints of tiny peaches. :) 

The Iconic Recipes of Bonnie Bonjean

Blueberry Buckel

Buckwheat Pancakes

Cinnamon Twists

Gingerbread House

Spanish Rice

Lemon Chicken

Pesto & Spaghetti with shrimp

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fig & Oatmeal Bars

Apricot Bars

Molasses Cookies

Butter Cake

Devil's Food Cake

Blueberry Pie

Strawberry Pie

Lamb Curry

Buckeye Balls

Linzer Torte 

Walking On Sunshine

 

I pull the shades to the morning sky. The sun has not yet peaked from behind the Alps. Mountains like a fortress encasing this little French ski town. I brush my teeth, wash my face.  My clothes laid out the night before. Ski socks, long-underwear, turtleneck, ski pants and jacket all decided. I grab my boots, skis and poles and head to the elevator, down to the main floor.  A man brings out fresh rolls, croissants, fruit and arranges them on the counter in breakfast room. The coffee is strong, bitter, delicious, awakening me, warming me. I sit at a table by the window overlooking the Arve river below. The aquamarine waters from the glacial torrent rush by. Glaciers melting above town have supplied this river and its beautiful hue. I am so happy to be back here, ready to ski the Vallee Blanche. I eat my toast with jam and sliced bananas…comforting fuel for a rigorous day with my guide. Soon I’ll be wearing a harness and crampons to hike with my equipment down the face of the mountain covered in loose snow, exposed…and then ski untracked powder for miles. I have come here to test myself, to leave all my worries behind, for a day.  Just to be me, on a mountain with no other cares. Maybe I’ll ride through town after on the horse drawn sleigh driven by the old man with his furry horse at full gallop singing Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves.

Fall

 Nothing Gold Can Stay 

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

~Robert Frost

Apfel

 

Don't still under the apple tree with anyone else but me...

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could. ~ Louise Erdrich

Fall

See those threes turning gold in the hills..

LOVE

I used to send this flower to you on your birthday...and on Mother's Day. 

Miss you, Mom.