Neely, I hope you are on the mend. My schedule has settled and I am back to cooking and tending the garden. I've been making jams, syrups and sauces. These are, from top, blackberries, boysenberries and ollalieberries. I make a triple berry jam from them. I also made a blueberry sauce and raspberry syrup. Yesterday, I canned eight large jars of nectarine jam and still have a tree full of fruit. Chicken with spicy nectarine sauce. My first attempt at a soft pretzel. This is the wine we made from last fall's harvest. From back, 1. Golden Muscat - juice only, 2. Golden Muscat - Juice and skins, 3. Golden Muscat - Skins only, and 4. California Chablis (Thompson's Seedless) - juice only. After tasting them all, we started blending. We decided to bottle a 50-50 blend of 1 & 4 and not blend 2 or 3. After bottling, I used the last partial bottle of the wine to make this lemon cream herb sauce, which we served over pan seared salmon. My second attempt at pretzels. I added an 'everything' flavor that was a hit with Garrett. I tried a new recipe - Poulet a la moutarde, which was tasty with brown rice and asparagus.

No interesting cooking for people over here, but I’ve been cooking tasty food for dogs :-) We’re in Berkeley taking care of our friends’ very elderly and reportedly on his last legs little dog. I am, of course, determined that he will not expire on my watch, and when he eats enthusiastically I feel better. So, what to feed him? The base is a tasty homemade chicken stock, made from a roasted chicken, carrots, celery, onion - just like you’d make a chicken stock for yourself. We cook a batch of rice with that stock. Other chicken is browned then simmered, and minced up. His kibble is soaked in more stock. Then some more cooked chicken and carrots get pureed with stock into a sort of gravy-paste. Rice, kibble, and gravy are mixed, then briefly warmed in the microwave. Finally, crisp bacon is crumbled on top. I am pleased to say that Elderly Dog positively gobbles his food, cleaning his bowl reliably enough that I can give him his pills crushed in the food. I’d happily eat it myself, actually, except that there’s no salt or spice. Well, I don’t really like kibble. All the fixings are in stored in Tupperware so feeding doesn’t take long.

Neely, I'd be a little sad about selling your vacation home too, those are usually just associated with vacations and family events and mostly good things. Life changes, though, so I hope whatever happens works out well for you and your family. I don't know what is happening there with you but here real estate is selling like crazy in spite of the interest rate increases and the big price hikes, I'm not sure why. I'd need some rice for that nice saucy korma, though! Sleevendog, I need to stock up on flours and things too, I"ve been diligently working to use up or discard old/outdated items or those that have just deteriorated in quality enough that they need replacement. But it's gardening time, and I'm busy babying my little plants, fertilizing asparagus, pruning grapevines and spraying fruit trees for fungus with our weird weather. Anyway, Elery likes Mexican food a lot and we are surrounded by farms and orchards, so a lot of Hispanic workers come seasonally and many more stay year round. Authentic (and cheap) grocery stores are plentiful, although there are just as many that are neither cheap nor authentic, so those have to be weeded out, usually by a bad experience! Lobster rolls sound good, but I'm driving our neighbor to a nearby town as her car is out of service. She says she'll take me to dinner, there's a local pizza joint that is known for their breadsticks and she loves them. So, it'll probably be soup and breadsticks. Annie

Thank you, Hoang Ton, for the quite fabulous spring rose tour of your beautiful garden. I surprised myself by being most impressed by the stunning Lady in Red climber, which I know nothing about. What a gorgeous way to welcome visitors to your house. Also impressive were the Iceberg hedge, Raold Dahl, Jubilee Celebration, the great color of Lady of Shalott, and the many rose companions you grow so well. I loved the vignettes you captured in your video. You've got a lot of lovely views to just stare at. Thanks. Diane