Fresh raspberry crostada. The lightest buttery angel crust filled with a walk in the woods to pick a basket of earthy red berries baked until crisp and juicy and sweet. (You can find the recipe in Cucina Simpatica/Johanne Killeen and George Germon)

I'm glad I remembered this clay casserole cooker thingy hidden in my cupboard. Perfect for pot-roasting this succulent chicken with vegetables (John Ash recipe) for Sunday night dinner. The 40 cloves of garlic impart a subtle sweetness to the tender moist chicken submerged in a broth-wine sauce beneath the carrots, potatoes, celery and onions. This is an inexpensive and easy one-potter that once uncovered reveals a simple elegance.

My kitchen has been torn up a bit the last few days due to appliance installation. Nothing romantic, a necessity due to my old faithful dishwasher's sudden increase in geyser eruptions spilling all over my kitchen floor. So with cooking at a minimum, I satisfy myself by researching the mention of food in the stories we all love: "But though Stepan Arkadyevitch was accustomed to very different dinners, he thought everything excellent: the herb-brandy, and the bread, and the butter, and above all the salt goose and the mushrooms, and the nettle soup, and the chicken in white sauce, and the white Crimean wine--everything was superb and delicious." (Anna Karenina, Count Leo Tolstoy)

Roll a big fatty noodle stuffed with cheese, spinach and ground turkey. Simmer up two sauces, a white and a red, mix 'em together and whadaya got? bibibbity bobbity bubbley lasagna bundles.

(Cook lotsa tasty Italian recipes from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ketchup Bottle, Beach Chalet, Great Highway, San Francisco.

"I Paint What I Eat," Julieannie says.

Greg Doolittle says, "Ketchup is my favorite food group. I put it on everything especially eggs, and potatoes, and meatloaf, and cookies."

If you come to San Francisco, along with wearing the flowers in your hair be sure to visit the Ferry Building; aka foodie heaven. These artisan cheeses from the Cowgirl Creamery (visit their website) are just one of the unbelieveable delights you can find there. If you are lucky enough to be there on Saturday you will experience (are you experienced?) the Farmers' Market overflowing with seasonal fruits and veggies, handmade breads and pastries, fresh fish, organic meats and local olive oils, a beautiful place for sensory overload.

While my scallop stew is simmering I am out in the garage stirring up some milk paint, cutting wood, sanding and painting what will become the legs for a table made from this FREEMAN crate which I found on Cape Cod. Making paint takes a recipe and some mixing so I thought I would sneak it onto my food blog. Lexington Green and Mustard. Anyway, the crate table will function as a small sideboard in the dining room so as soon as it is complete I'll adorn this funky little folk art piece with a scrumpty country desert like some fruity frenchy tarty thingy and take a picture of that! I'm going to bang all those blocks together into a randomly chosen green block mustard block tower for the legs which will attach to an interior frame I will build to support the crate. Plans change as things begin to wobble but that is the challenge. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Now I need to tend to my scallop stew.
HAppy Spring.

Rebecca's big fat oatmeal cookies! Melt-in-your mouth, airy puffs of spicy sweetness drizzled with buttery sugary icing. Pour a cup of hot ameretto expresso AND IT'S FRIDAY! You can taste the weekend coming your way.
Rebecca found this recipe in the Paula Dean cookbook.

Okay, so I went a little crazy with the mustard polka dots, but food is supposed to be fun! Wednesdays are feed me seymour because I have to run out the door or I'll be late for class nights. Warm baguette stuffed with cheese, salami, sliced roast chicken, hot peppers, mayonnaise and polks dots on the side is a speedy, super, supper solution. (recipe idea:Country Living magazine October 2005)

I just love GIADA DE LAURENTIIS everydayitalian. This month's Bon Appetit featured Giada's strawberry tiramisu recipe. Oozing, heady-flavored layers were certainly a "pick-me-up" (English translation of tiramisu) on a boo hoo do we have to go back to work Monday.

*****CINDERELLA BREAD******




















Oh my, my, you better eat this pain perdu before midnight. With a little tap of a magic wand, these humble ingredients of bread (brioche), cream(homemade creme fraiche) and eggs are transformed into royalty.

Thinking Spring, as suggested in the new issue of Bon Appetit, took a bit of imagination amid the March thunder and lightning and tinkling frozen rain. But what the hail, Seared Wild Salmon with Dijon Broth, New Potatoes and Baby Spinach valiently sprung forth to announce the season's anticipated arrival.

Tonite Rebecca and I made chocolate-dipped fingers! We swirled, twisted, dunked, drowned, flipped and flopped our creamy peppermint centers in an ocean of melted chocolate. This candy recipe is from a fellow photography student who got the recipe from an "old woman she knew (who lived in a shoe?)." Despite the obtuse, gooky looky the candy was sinfully de-lucious and the fingers weren't bad either.

Sarah and Marcee and baby Sadie look out at the Pacific from the deck on their Santa Cruz bungalow. Their yard came with wandering grape vines bejeweled in the summer with sweet juicy purple nuggets. I took some cuttings home at the end of last season and they took root in a glass of water on my windowsill. (Just now, I was wondering, if you saw Man Facing Southeast?) I am looking forward to planting them this weekend.

If your Mediterranean-inspired recipe calls for preserved lemons you may have a hard time finding them in your local grocery, so why not "put-up" your own? I am lucky enough to have a lemon tree in my own backyard, Dorothy. I found this recipe in the Serena cookbook and plan on making a Moroccan Sausage Stew in 6 weeks when the lemons have soaked in the salty, peppery, garlicky juicy.

The naan was heart-shaped and the curry was hot! 50 great curries of india by camellia panjabi sent me scurrying to my local Indian grocer on Palm Avenue. Nirmal, the owner, is from Nepal. Do you know about Nepal? he asks. Well, I know a little something about the hash... I will return to his market to buy kava which he suggested and I have not tried and also rent some movies which he suggested and I have not tried.....His shelves were filled with magic bags of exotic spices from which I was able to make cauliflower gashi. Coriander seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, dried red chiles and tamarind, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, paprika, sauteed fresh ginger, garlic, onion and coconut all combine to create "the sights, tastes, smells and touches of love." (Kathopanisad 8th century BC) Dhanyabaad.

Fish Chowdah and Slaw. Salt water runs in the Stetzko veins.

I feel like a little babushka queen when I make this amazingly fresh and creamy ricotta cheese. It wasn't until I made it for the first time that I recalled my grandmother making "potcheese," but alas, I was too young to appreciate curdled milk. The "recipe" is in Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking. We'll eat it tomorrrow morning on toast topped with preserved oranges and chopped mint.