I look forward, all winter, to asparagus. That is the signal of spring for me! I also can’t wait for fresh peas and fava beans and the very best of all, in my book, summer peaches! Yum!

Yum! Sounds great! I’ll have to make it one night when my husband is in school, he hates mushrooms. What a weirdo!

If I stocked up I’d be huge, so I buy just the amount I want to eat at the moment.

Your cheese making experiment is inspiring! I have been wanting to try making cheese, so far I have just had one very unsuccessful attempt at ricotta, which I don’t like that much anyway. Perhaps cheddar would be a better choice. If I win the tickets I will take my father to see the movie in Berkeley. He is my partner in cheese, we are both obsessed!

The tomatoes have been coming at me so fast this season that I’ve found it very hard to keep up. I wonderful problem to have, I realize. I’ve been eating BLTs all summer...levain bread, hellma’s mayo, tomato, Niman Ranch bacon, sea salt and a generous amount of pepper. Heaven! Nothing like a BLT with gorgeous summer tomatoes...you have to eat over the sink because the juice drips down your arm! I also make a tomato tart which is great with corn chowder. Super easy summer dinner. Lately though, they’ve been coming so fast, along with the peppers, that all I can do is roast them. I use my cast iron skillet, put the whole cored tomatoes in with some pepper in between each piece and a basil leaf or two inside the whole left by the tomato core, throw in a few garlic cloves, drizzle on some olive oil and roast for an hour or so in the oven. Theyn I just pack them up and freeze them, or puree them and freeze them, if there are any left after snacking on them. Those roasted tomoatoes are really good on top of some burrata cheese with a drizzle of balsamic. Yum!