True Food Cookbook

Andrew Weil, MD is the founder of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and a partner in True Food Kitchen.  He is the author of several bestselling books including Spontaneous Happiness, The Healthy Kitchen, Healthy Aging, and 8 weeks to Optimum Health. 

I've been following Andrew Weil for years. I subscribe to his newsletters, read all this article on health, and have such a deep respect for the man because of his integrative school in Arizona. He feels that our doctors come out of medical school not knowing anything about nutrition or how to help their patients achieve wellness through diet so he single-handedly opened the first integrative school to teach this to doctors. He is affecting the way medicine is taught in this country and now others are following in his footsteps.  He is a guru in the wellness community.  

The book is based on eating an anti inflammatory diet.  Why is this important?  Because inflammation is the root of all disease. If you can reduce the inflammation in your body you will reduce your risk of disease. 

Dr.  Weil has always taught diet first, medicine second, but when he decided to open an actual restaurant showing people how to eat I immediately had to see it. Fortunately for me there is a location close to my house in Newport Beach California.  I then purchased the book and started making some of the dishes in my own kitchen.  I am a pretty healthy eater anyway but having a cookbook like this makes eating right all the more enjoyable.  The recipes are not difficult and color photos are so nice to see. It's fun to make a dish and then see if you end product looks like the photo.  Trust me they won't look as good! 

I am not a broccoli fan but the Braised Broccoli with Orange and Parmesan made me a believer  Now I can eat it without saying yuck. The Kale Salad is one of the best selling items at the restaurant and it is in the book. There is a Citrus Sesame Sauce recipe that I use on everything. He shows it on green beans but you can make a batch and put it literally on anything.

Good eating should be enjoyable but also do something healthy for the body. The recipes in this book do just that. 

My new favorite cookbook - Country Cooking of France

Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan. 

I go to the library about every 3 weeks and each time I go I walk through the cookbook section looking for something new or something I have not read before.  I picked this book up and brought it home to read having never heard of it. I ended up reading it cover to cover.  Over time I've learned that instead of buying books and hoping that I like them, I now check them out of the library first and check them out before buying them and being disappointed.  

Books like this are meant to be relished.  Every morning while I was having my coffee, I turned pages and read the book.  I got lost, in the stories, many about certain recipes, and about the villages where these recipes were born, and about the people.  There are also some stories about the great restaurants and chefs of France.  It was so enjoyable reading the stories and I consider it an added bonus that you don't normally get with a cookbook.  And of course reading all the recipes and the techniques was the interesting part to me and is usually the reason I buy a cookbook. 

After reading this book only part way I knew I had to own this book. Books like this are very rare.  The recipes are wonderful, the stores an added bonus, and the photos make you feel like you are there.  It is beautifully written and so authentic.  There are tons of cookbooks on the market and lots of them are not very good. I've tried making recipes from some of these books and they don't turn out. And I am a good cook. I know what I'm doing.  That is why, when I find a book like this, I have to own it and add it to my collection, and I feel compelled to share it. I think it is part of the enjoyment to see my friends appreciate the book along with me.

My husband and I will enjoy many great meals from this book, and I get the enjoyment of trying new recipes that I would never otherwise make. I can't wait to get started. There is a recipe for a goat cheese salad I want to make so I already made the marinated goat cheese the other day. In a week or so the cheese will be ready and I can then make the salad. And when I do, you can bet I will share it on my food blog for you to enjoy. 

Buying a whole salmon

I was out food shopping one day, cruising through the fish department, and ran into an entire whole wild salmon for sale.  Hum.  I stood there looking at it, comparing it to the filleted salmon right next to it, and the price difference of each item.   The whole fish was $3.00 per pound cheaper than the fish that was already filleted. Wouldn't you seriously consider it for that kind of savings?  Or is it just me? 

I had some experience in filleting a fish many years ago and found out how difficult it was, so I really had to think about this.  Yikes, did I really want to get myself into that situation again?  In the end I could not pass up the savings and bought the whole fish.  I brought it home and begged my husband help me fillet it! 

I've gotta tell you it was a little overwhelming. And you have to have to certain amount of strength to cut through it all, and that's where my husband came in. He has the brawn, and I have the technique.  Between the both of us, we took turns at the fish.  It took a while :)  He cracked through the backbone so we could cut it down the center. 

Then we had to fillet the fish off the backbone, which is the most difficult part, and you can lose a lot of fish if you are not careful.  Then I starting pulling out the bones, and finally we cut it up into serving size pieces. 

In the end we ended up with 9 meals from this fish and since it cost me just under $42.00 which averages out to $4.66 per meal, which is $2.33 per serving. For wild salmon!  I am thrilled.  I can't believe that we get to eat wild salmon for this prices. 

I put the servings in zip lock bags and put them in the freezer. Now I simply pull out  a bag, put in a bowl of cold water to defrost, and its ready to make for dinner.  

There is no way on earth I will ever find that deal again but now I am so happy I decided to tackle it.  It just means keeping your eyes open and being open to something that is a little more work than you'd like.   With the prices of food these days I am willing to do a little more work to get the savings. 

I hope this will inspire you to go out and find a deal and tackle it.  Good luck! 

Hold the Salt

Have you noticed the explosion of new salts available now? Every specialty store has them and even some of the supermarkets are carrying a few gourmet brands. It seems they are everywhere. It can be interesting and exciting to study them, where they are from, what unique flavor they lend to food, are they used while cooking or as a finish salt. And the colors; a rainbow of beautiful choices. I've been hooked several times and am now the proud owner of all kinds of salts I never used before. Now the fun begins. How does it change the taste of a dish? This is called playing with your food, and I like it. I love to get all those little jars out and decide which one gets the honor of sitting on my food today.

Beside the flavor, and size of the grains, there are health reasons to be excited about the salt that is now widely available. We often hear bad things about salt and that is because table salt is refined and most people eat processsed food which is loaded with salt. There are 84 trace minerals in salt but 82 of these have been removed from table salt leaving only sodium and chloride. Not good.

Sea salt, however, contains all the trace minerals we all need in our diet. Celtic sea salt nourishes our body with the minerals we need as it contains all 84 trace minerals. Many wellness doctors say that everyone needs 1 tsp of sea salt per day. This salt should be in everyone's pantry. While you are there
do yourself a favor and get rid of that table salt. Your body will thank you.

It is fun to experiment with the different salts. It's surprising how different foods can taste with various salts. I am proud to say that my pantry now contains the following salts: kosher, fine sea salt, course sea salt, pink himalyan, maldon, celtic, fleur de sel, truffle salt, and alderwood smoked salt. Use them all and look forward to finding more varieties in the future.

The Simple Pleasures

I am a happy girl today. It is true that some of the simple pleasures in life can bring so much joy.



I am a frequent visitor of my local library. It's big, it's beautiful, and it's full of wonderful books. It's an adult candy store. I could spend hours in there, and sometimes do. It is specifically full of books about food. Cookbooks, books written about the food of other countries, books written by people who raise and grow their own food, food writer opinions, big picture books, historical stories. You can read a book that will teach you something or you can look at the pictures. You can try the recipes or simply enjoy the stories. You can hold the book in your hands, feel the paper, smell the musk. You won't get that on a Kindle.



When I go to the library I usually stand in the cooking aisle and look at each shelf, scanning the books to see what is new or what I have missed. I always find something. I have found books this way that I would never have known existed and would have never read. Some of the best and most enjoyable have been the books I just happened upon using this method. I also have a journal where I write down books I want to check out of the library. When I read a review or reference to something that I think I might enjoy I jot it down in my book journal and take it with me to the library.



Today was one of my library days. I checked out four new books, brought them home and laid them out on the coffee table, made myself some lunch and sat down to peruse and enjoy. I get a funny little excited feeling like I have a secret. It makes me so happy. It might seem like such a small thing but then if this small thing makes me so happy then I think it should be done, and often. To do things for oneself that bring contentment and joy is something we should all practice.



Today I got:

• Mozzarella. The pictures alone are just incredible but along with that there are recipes from some leading chefs that I plan to try. Oh boy!



• An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David. Elizabeth David was a food writer who reached acclaim the 1950's in Britain. This book was first published in American in 1985. James Beard described her as a purist and perfectionist and intolerant of mediocrity.



• Is there a Nutmeg in the House, again by Elizabeth David. Insisting on authentic recipes and fresh ingredients she taught that food need not be complicated to be delicious.



• A Flummery of Food, Feasts for Epicures. A funny little book of stories collected over the years about never to be forgotten meals, moderation and overindulgence, fine wines, romantic places, grand banquets, proper and improper behavior of hosts and guests, and food for fantasy. Sounds intriguing.

I can't wait to start them all. I only have three weeks so I've got to get busy. Tonight I will continue the enjoyment by reading in bed, possibly with a nice glass of wine. After all, practice makes perfect!

CSA Food Basket - week one

This week I drove down to the farm and picked up my first food basket, as they call them. Holy moly! The thing was so heavy I could barely lift it into my car. It smelled wonderful....like dirt and like being on the farm. I wanted to just sit in my car for hours and get high off the fumes. And my dog Pepper was diggin' it too.

I made a point of unpacking it item by item onto my kitchen counter. I looked at each piece, smelled it, thought about what I could do with it, and examined it like it was some kind of jewel. I was in awe. You will be surprised how much stuff I got. Here is the list:

1 bunch celery

4 heads lettuce

1 bunch swiss chard

1 bunch lacto kale

1 bunch parsley

3 heads broccoli

2 summer squash

3 pickling cucumbers

4 regular cucumbers

1 bunch carrots

4 oranges

1 grapefruit

4 plums

3 red bell peppers

3 yellow starburst squash

1 melon

3 large tomatoes

9 roma tomatoes

I knew it was going to be generous but, seriously, I had no idea there would be that much stuff. After I got over how beautiful it all was I set about putting it away. Most I could leave out on the counter as long as I used them fairly soon but I did have to wash the lettuces right away and get them bagged and into the frig to chill. I admit I have not done that in awhile. I have been lazy and buying lettuce in a bag. But now I actually had to wash the dirt off of it, spin it dry and store it somehow. Heck this is work.

The key is to plan what you need to eat first. The lettuces and kale would get used first because the carrots and squash could spend a few days in the refrig. And I knew we would eat the fruit for breakfast or lunch so that was not a problem.

Now what is interesting is that my husband does not eat cucumbers, he says they don't agree with him. Did I say we received four of them? What the heck am I supposed to do with them? The folks at South Coast Farms sent me a recipe that I decided to try. You slice the cuc's, salt them and let them sit for 15 to 30 minutes, wash and dry them, then mix together vinegar and sugar and marinate them in that for awhile. I was astounded at how good it was. Seems terribly simple to be so good. And my husband liked them! Wahoo. With the rest of them I made a salad with cuc's, garbanzo beans, tomatoes and some Italian dressing. Then I will make a gazpacho and we should be done with them.

And I have 3 pickling cucumbers. What does one do with only three of these? Am I supposed to make some pickling brine just for the three? I think out of everything in the batch these will be the most challenging.

The chard and kale I sauteed in olive oil with some garlic, a small pinch of red pepper flakes, and some salt. I topped that with white beans and diced tomatoes and drizzled it all with olive oil. We were feeling quite healthy.

The green summer squash I used one night in a big salad. I cooked it quickly in a grill pan with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I also used one head of the broccoli, some of the tomatoes and the carrots in addition to a piece of salmon and made a big tasty salad as an entree for dinner.

The broccoli was a challenge for me. I am not a fan broccoli but my husband is. He was so happy it was in the house but I was trying to figure out what I could do with it to reduce that bitter broccoli taste. I had three heads. The first one I simply streamed and hit it with some salt and Al ate it all up. I had a couple bites and thought oh yeah this is as bad as I remember it. So the next time I made a pasta dish. I blanched the broccoli and set it aside. In a large saucepan I added some olive oil, garlic, and pinch of red pepper flakes. Let that saute for only a few seconds then get the broccoli in and the pasta and start tossing. Add a little pasta water or stock to make a bit of a sauce. Serve it in big pasta bowls with a grating of Parmesan. Now this broccoli I could eat.

The third head I pickled. Haven't tasted it yet. I have been reading some food blogs about pickling and was getting kinda curious about it all so what the hell....lets pickle some broccoli. I will taste in a couple of weeks and let you know how it is.

The red bell peppers where a bit disappointing. They had a bitter taste. I made pasta in peppers, sauteing the peppers in olive oil and butter with some garlic, then adding some heavy cream and simmering for a few minutes to turn into a thick rich sauce. Lots of fresh basil over the top with some cheese. I have made this dish numerous times throughout the years and it is always satisfying. But this time it had a slight bitter taste of the peppers. I was not real happy with them. The peppers have to be sweet.

The yellow squash in going on the grill tonight with the beautiful organic roast chicken my husband has on the rotisserie. We have owned that grill for years now and have never used the rotisserie. Did it take getting all this produce to make us finally use the thing? Whatever it was we are like excited children at the prospect.

CSA - My new love

I am in love. Ah isn't that sweet? I've been waiting and searching and now it has happened. A beautiful CSA right in my own back yard. I am thrilled and filled with anticipation.

I recently found an organic farm in Orange County that not only grows organically, operates a produce stand, but also has a CSA, which stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture. I have always been curious about the CSA's and wondered what it would be like to be lucky enough to join one. The entire concept is rewarding but living in the city usually limits access to things like this. Getting some organic growers at the farmers market took years and I was thrilled with just that.

The key points about this CSA are that the food is locally grown. The food I will get in my basket is picked in the morning and I pick it up in the afternoon. You can't get much fresher than that. The taste is what food should taste like. A tomato tastes like a tomato not one of those cardboard tasteless things sold in the supermarkets. They practice sustainable agriculture that means they do not ruin the soil, there is no pesticide run off, and they rotate crops to keep the soil healthy for years to come. They provide nutritious food which means not putting pesticides into your body. And when you buy from them you support a local business and the money goes right back into the farm.

The CSA I joined is bi-weekly and I joined for a quarter which will provide us with a basket of fresh produce for the next 3 months. The amount of food in a regular size basket is quite large. They also offer a large basket but with just the two of us we would not be able to use the larger basket. Its' alot of food! Another advantage is that the cost of the basket is far less than I would spend if I went out and bought all the same items at the farmers market. Not only will we be eating better it will be less expensive. Gotta love that.

I can't wait to get my basket and see what's in it. I know there will be things in it that I may not be very familiar with and that fills me with anticipation. I want to learn how to eat some produce I may not have had before or that I have to figure out how to cook. I want to expand my food world.

The farm I found is: http://www.southcoastfarms.com/. You can log on and read about their business and what they have to offer. I found them via Chef Rich at Sage Restaurant, which we frequent. He still goes to the farmers market for ingredients for his kitchen and prides himself on finding small organic growers. That may be partly who he food tastes so good, besides the fact that he is a talented chef.


The picture is from the farm stand and all those tomatoes are organic heirlooms. Each variety has it's own unique flavor. I bought quite a few but within days they were gone. Can't wait to go back and get more.

I will blog about my experiences with the CSA which I am sure will be fun and interesting and I hope you will enjoy the ride with me.

Food News

I am constantly reading articles about food. They fascinate me. What is OK to eat what is not? What does our food supply do for us? Or how it can make us sick. I recently found some good information from the Environmental Working Group web site that I would like to share.

The site offers a list of the produce we should buy organic and what is OK to purchase through conventional growing methods. The organic list is referred to as the dirty dozen. Love that. At the top of the list are peaches. I have been buying peaches once a week for the past few weeks. I love love love peaches. And now I feel a sense of great relief.... that I bought only organic peaches considering they are number one on the dirty dozen list. Whew!

The web site has a cut out list that you can print and carry on you for easy reference. Its called the Shoppers Guide to Pesticides and it lists the dirty dozen and the top clean 15, which are the top 15 items that are considered tolerable to buy non organic, or that are on the lower part of the list for pesticide load. They also have a PDF file that lists many more items which is handy for the kitchen and a program for all you iPhone users so you can download it to your iPhone.

The web site is: http://www.foodnews.org/. I hope you take a look and find something helpful to you and your family.

Wine tasting in Paso Robles

Each year, over Memorial weekend, we take a wine tasting trip to the nearby wine regions in California. Santa Barbara, Monterey County, Napa and Sonoma, Paso Robles, which are all within driving distance for us. How lucky are we? These annual trips started about 20 years ago. My husband and I took a spontaneous trip over Memorial weekend and ended up at the wineries in Santa Ynez which is outside Santa Barbara and only 2 hours from where we live. We had such a good time, and drank so much good wine, that we decided to do it again the next year.... and a tradition was born. We then started inviting friends and over the years we have gone with several different groups making each trip unique and memorable. We went to Santa Ynez for many years then several years ago we started investigating the Paso Robles area. This year was our 4th trip there. We have also visited Napa, Sonoma Valley and Monterey County. As they say......its a tough job but someone has to do it.

We left our house early on Saturday morning and we were at our first tasting room by 11:30 AM. After tasting at a couple of places we stopped for a picnic lunch, which everyone participated in preparing. We all bring a few dishes and it turns into a feast. The food is always wonderful or maybe it's just that we are starving and have been drinking that make it taste so darn good. There is something so special about setting up a picnic and tasting all the wonderful food, drinking more good wine, and talking up a storm, catching up and visiting with people you enjoy. Sometimes we sit far too long and have to force ourselves to get up and move on. After lunch we taste at a couple more wineries, until they finally all close at 5:00 pm. By then we are done. Stick a fork in us, done. These days evenings are slow and we usually all want to hit our rooms early to rest up for a repeat the next day. In years past however we would go back to our rooms, freshen up, then go out to dinner and eat and drink more. Ahhh to be young again.

We have a list of our favorite wineries but always try to get in a new one. This year we tried 3 new wineries and two of them were quite good. I love when that happens. We find new wines that we can buy and bring home or look for in the future. We all belong to several wine clubs too.

This years list included stops at: Bella Luna, Martin and Weyrick, Malony O'Neil, Tobin James, Opolo, Minassian Young, Nadeau Family, Pipestone, and Four Vines. We also went to the olive oil place Paso Olivio. Did you know you can do an olive oil tasting? It's wonderful because you can taste before you buy. The people there are all so nice and they obviously love what they do. It's a nice thing to do first thing in the morning before you start with the wine. We all left with bags of precious oil.


I have had one beef with the wine industry. Wine tasting starting because wine makers wanted people to buy their wine so they offered a taste in the hopes you would buy it. Well, here in California wine tasting has become big business. Lots of people go tasting, and some don't buy much, they just use it to party, and many get a little unruly and drunk. (Us older, more mature people, don't do that anymore.) The tasting rooms charge anywhere from $5.00 to $20.00 per person. My feeling is that when you buy from them they should waive the tasting fee but many of them don't. They have become so arrogant! That means if a group of 6 go in and taste you can spend $60 at one stop. And that's before you buy anything. After years of paying for both a tasting and buying from wineries I decided I would boycott certain wineries for this practice. I decided to contact several of them to ask about this policy and I have found that many of them are now changing their policy. It appears the slow economy is causing them to reconsider. I was happy to see this. I also believe in using my consumer power and voicing my opinion. Businesses need to hear from their customers to know what they want. Of course there are still many who will not waive the tasting fee no matter how much wine you buy. Turley comes to mind. Buy a case of wine and you will still be charged the tasting fee. If you choose to do business with them you just have to know what you dealing with.

I have to say that in Paso Robles there are still many fine small wineries who still do not charge a tasting fee. Like Bella Luna who says the still believe they should earn our business. I have found Napa who is the most arrogant of all.

If you are going tasting, or on a buying trip like us, there are several good web sites out there that describe the wineries, the hours, the fee, and the style of wine they specialize in. It pays to do a little homework before going.

Going tasting with a small group is perfect. I love the interaction and listening to each person talk about the nuances of a wine, what they like or dislike, what food it would pair well with. It's interesting to see how we all react to wine, the flavors we prefer, the tannins, the money we are willing to spend on something we truly enjoy. Everyone has such distinct wine personalities. I am envious of the folks who can find the good in any wine. They appreciate a particular wine for what it is. I am not there. I either like it or I don't. And if I don't you are not going to talk me into it. I also hate when you go into a tasting room and they say "but have you tasted ours? Its different". I don't want to taste it. Period! No it is not different. Why do they do that? I guess it's admirable that they think there's is the best, but come on, I am not a rookie at this. Do not try to force something on me that I have not liked for the past 20 years. I only have so many wine points in a day and I am very careful about how I spend them. I am not going to spend them on something I already know I am probably not going to like. One sip and it gets dumped. This happens over and over. Ok I feel better having gotten that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

On Monday morning we met up with our friends for breakfast, said a quick good bye, and then hit the road. We have learned from past experience that the traffic going through LA on a holiday is to be missed at any and all costs so we either leave early or very late. We headed home around 10:00 am and by 1:00 pm we were home safe and sound. As another wonderful weekend came to an we were already talking about the funny moments and good times.

Get out there and drink some wine.

Just how many cookbooks is one person allowed?

I have an addiction. I admit it. It keeps me up at night. I spend hours on it. I scour bookstores, cooking stores, garage sales, the used book section at the library, discount stores, other peoples houses...looking to see what I can find. I hide it from my husband. This addiction has finally surpassed the one I used to have for shoes. Wah! Now that is sad! But it come over me slowly....I didn't even know it was happening....it gained on me over the years....I made excuses....I justified it with a myriad of reasons....my mind played tricks on me. And then one day I woke up and realized I had gone over the edge. My friends started noticing....my husband looked at me with suspicion....my family thinks I have lost my mind....everyone around is judging me....I get defensive....anxiety sets in...I lose sleep....I need help......I need a 12 step program. Gasp!

I can no longer contain them all in my kitchen cabinet, the picture above. I would have thought one cabinet devoted solely to cookbooks would have been enough. But noooo!!!!! At one time I had them in piles on the kitchen counter, until I got sick of looking at the mess and having to clean them.

Therefore, I had to move most of them to the office, and I really don't have the room there either. The office bookcase is full so I just lined them up across the top. Now it is full.

I want cabinets built just for my cookbooks. You got a problem with that? A few years ago I went through a phase where I thought I should, perhaps, get rid of a few. Eck! I gave them to the library. Now when I'm in the library, I see what might be my book! It makes my nuts. Do I buy it back? Do I leave it there? Will I ever use it again? Is that even a valid reason for having it? I just don't know anymore. Since that whole giving them away thing was so traumatic, I stopped, thank goodness. Now I just keep them all, and relish looking at them every day. I bring them into bed....I sit up reading with the light on and looking at pictures for hours...while my husband is sound asleep. He doesn't know my secret. I check them out at the library....so I can at least read them all if I can't own them all.

Don't even get me started on the magazine subscriptions....... I have a special cabinet in the living room just for the magazines.

For those of you who share my addiction have you ever figured out how much money this costs you? I didn't think so. Me neither.

And who gets to decide how many cookbooks is enough anyway? Do we have cookbook police? Come to think of it, that is one job I would like to have.

Fruit labels

I am a supporter of buying organic. To that end I have spent some time researching how we, as consumers, can determine what we are purchasing.

There is a PLU labeling system for fruit that is helpful. If you would like to learn more log on to: http://www.naturalnews.com/.

The one piece of information I use daily is this.

Numbers starting with 9 are organic. This will always be my personal preference.

Numbers starting with 8 are genetically modified. I will not purchase those.

Numbers starting with 4 indicate conventional.

There are other web sites out there so if you want to know more just do a google search on fruit labels.