When Summer becomes Winter

We coast dwellers are having our winter now.

This is my favorite soup of the summer season but today, as I write this

I may want to serve this Roasted Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho

hot , instead of cold.... I filled my clay pot with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, red jalepeno

yellow onion and garlic, slathered in olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and roasted

until the tomatoes have carmelized.

I then blend it in the blender until smooth, chill, season to taste and garnish

with a fine mince of english cucumber, chive and red onion.

Dreamy.

I took a few months off from writing and HERE  to go inward, plant my garden

re-evaluate what I needed, what I value and how do I share my work and this devotion with my community.

It is now mid summer and we coastal natives are blessed with temperate weather, the summer fog cooling the ridge tops and river valleys, feeding the redwoods their beloved mist.

I wake each morning to the sea scattered with the salmon boats

the newly born ravens screaming for breakfast

that softness and reassurance that the morning fog brings to my mountain.

The honey bees have arrived en mass, perhaps changing my ideas of hive collapse.

The garden is now beginning to offer her harvest, the orchard abundant with fruit, the bees wrecklessly in love with my poppies and lavender, the nopales flower, the Burmese honeysuckle blossom.

When I am quiet I can hear buzzing and feeding, the pollination is audible.

These are my first harvest of leeks

and in the spirit of offering, abundance and deliciosity

I give you my

 Leek Fontina Tart

First you'll prepare a 12" tart shell, lining it with pastry dough and chilling well.

Clean and cut , ah, about three or four leeks (if they are smallish)

and saute' in extra virgin olive oil, a dash of red chili flake, sea salt and cracked black pepper

until very tender. I like to get the pan hot first and give them a bit of a sear first, a wee

bit if crisp, then slowly braise.

Take this leek yumminess and fill the tart pan and generously grate fontina cheese

on top. 

Bake at 375 degrees until the cheese has fallen in love with and married the leeks

&

the crust is nicely cooked.