Sweet, Simple, Fresh and Bright



At this time of year, for pot lucks, BBQs and other gatherings where you might want to serve up something sweet to a large number of people, I can't recommend this combination enough. I've served this trio of fresh fruit, top-notch dairy and nibbly, buttery cookies to different crowds on more than one occasion and, to date, it's always been met with enthusiasm raptures of delight*.

-Strawberries from Swanton & Dirty Girl: Hulled, sliced and sprinkled with a little sugar to draw out their juices and make them glisten.
-A quart of St Benoit's delicious plain Yoghurt, strained for several hours, to thicken.
-A Syrup made by briefly simmering a little water, sugar and a few damaged strawberries together with six Rose Geranium leaves (from Eatwell Farm) before straining, ready to dribble over both the yogurt and strawberries.
-Wholewheat cocoa-nib sables made with crunchy, nutty home-ground wheat flour (wheatberries also from Eatwell Farm) and local Straus organic butter from a recipe in Pure Desserts by Alice Medrich. [One of my very favourite recipe books from the last year.]



(*for proof, see Anood's comment, thanks Anood)



Archives
2007 | Steak House Sublime
2005 | The Pump Rooms - Bath - England

© 2009 Sam Breach

See the kinds of moves they make



We stumbled across this delicious-looking collection of captured wild sausages a few days ago in England and my mum took this little video on her cell phone. Can you guess where we saw them?




© 2009 Sam Breach

Donald Trump will keep his Twitter account as President and will not switch to the Twitter account designated for POTUS



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With those four words, a diet is forsaken.



Today I visited Michael Recchiuti's flagship store in the San Francisco Ferry Building to stock up on gifts to take to my family when I head to England, tomorrow, to visit them. Whilst shopping, something new to the Recchiuti range caught my eye, so I had to buy myself a little present too. I was told that this is a seasonal item available for this month only...




© 2009 Sam Breach

I really should explain this one, but I thought it might be more interesting if I didn't.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

1.00pm on 16/3/15 Fujifilm X-T1 XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR 32mm f/16 1/180 manual n/a average 200 Profoto B1 RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CC (2015) none 1x1

A WWE video is the source of a video Donald Trump shared on Twitter where he bodyslams a CNN reporter.



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Live probiotics, worth investigation.



I was pretty excited, a couple of months ago, when I was wandering around the Farmers' Market with my friend Jen and she stopped to chat with Nigel from Eatwell Farm, whom she knows. Accompanying Nigel on that particular Saturday was his fiance, Lorraine, who started telling us about her work with naturally fermented sodas. As someone who is currently interested in non-alcoholic libations, I was attentive and excited to learn that Lorraine would be selling her creations soon.

The time to try Lorraine's Drinkwell Sodas is now here. You will find her at the back of the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, selling a selection of her sodas. I fell hook, line & sinker for the seasonal grapefruit flavour. I have always loved grapefruit drinks anyway, but this one, with it's muted fruit accents, gentle effervescence and softly tingling aftertaste was incredible. I bought a refillable Kanteen, priced at $20, so that I will be able to keep drinking Lorrain's sodas every Saturday, at $8 for 18 ounces. Alternatively, you can purchase by the cup in smaller amounts. Drinkwell Sodas cannot easily be bottled and sold through stores, they need to be consumed whilst fresh, which is why you will need to go to the source if you want to treat your tastebuds.

When you buy your soda, you can pick up an informational leaflet which will tell you about the lacto-fermentation process used to create the sodas, explaining that these sodas are live, active and containing probiotics which help you maintain healthy intestinal micro flora. At last we have something pure, natural and healthy that is local to boot and tastes really good too. If I were you, I'd give it a shot...




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© 2009 Sam Breach