Well...

I just saw the date of my last post and my oh my it's been a while.

As I sit here in my new house with my pooch at my feet and after a fine meal of fresh chanterelles sauteed in butter, olive oil & garlic it dawns on me that I need to start writing again. It's been too long and I do miss it so I don't have a clue as to why I have been away so long other than say...soccer games, buying and moving into a new house, big projects at work. barely keeping my head above water in so many things but hey, I digress a bit and even border on making excuses...

The new house has presented many a challenge, not the least of which has been moving from a 1450 square foot house to one 840 square feet with a 120 square foot guest house. The yard is magnificent and has presented us with a few herbs and two apple trees, one of which even has apples that taste good and are clear without any brown spots. The other is really a bit more ornamental, the fruit is riddled with brown spots and the fruit is really more for the tree rats than anything else. Really though the birds are plentiful, the squirrels are cute and friendly and the dog loves the pond. He dashes out there and jumps right in before he does anything else. Right now we are watching the sumac turn to orange and red, the hostas going golden before dying and harvesting the last of the apples before a long winters nap. We wrapped the banana tree for it's hibernation and I'm starting to look for the spots in which to grow vegetables next year. There are raspberries here already, a spot for me to plant asparagus and artichokes for next year (the wait will be difficult I assure you) and we brought our potato boxes up from the old house and will find someplace for them along with zukes, leaves and a pizza oven that we will add in the near future.

Anyway, I've gotten a bit outside my frugal ways and I need to get back on it. November we reinstate the path so until then I want to try and get back in the habit of writing; most of this will be more musings along current thoughts on food, the challenges and quirks of learning to cook in my new house (came with a Jennair convection oven but I think the temp's way off) and finding places to keep all our feed and while I'm getting back in the groove, I'll plop a couple recipes here as well but since I can't find the cable to my camera right now it won't have the visuals to go with; please accept my apologies up front.

Tonight's dinner was a perfect example of why I live in the PNW; chanterelles with garlic on toast along with a cheap Cline Syrah so here goes...

Northwest Mushroom Bruschetta

Toast 4 slices of good pugliese or ciabatta and set aside

• 4oz Chanterelles, fresh
• 2tsp Butter
• 2tsp Olive oil, Spanish arbequina works nicely here
• 3 or 4 small sprigs Thyme, fresh
• 1 clove Garlic, fresh
• Kosher Salt & Pepper (fresh ground) to taste
• White wine - my go to cooking white is Big House White from Bonny Doon

1. Melt the butter in the oil and put in the whole thyme sprigs until they start to pop and sizzle
2. Toss in the minced garlic and swirl for about 15 seconds
3. Toss in the sliced chanterelles and a pinch of kosher salt
4. Saute and stir for about 3 mins until the shrooms are limp, add some pepper and toss again
5. Grind in some pepper, add about 1/4 C of the white wine and reduce
6. Remove the thyme sprigs and top the toasts

If you're inclined, grate a bit of asiago over the top with your microplane for another added bit of flavor but it's good w/o too

The Cline was a decent bit of plonk for $8 but a bit weak and hot but more on that later as I continue to search for an everyday red for the weekdays...

Hasta