Muir Woods

Last week we headed to Muir Woods in Marin to commune with the redwoods before we have to head back to a place where the tallest things are made out of concrete.

Lichen.

We'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go.

Our New Pet

Doesn't this squash look exactly like an octopus?? I suppose putting eyes on it helped...but the shape of the head and the tentacles were definitely there already.

OctoSquash is going to keep us company for a while, until we can go see our California pets.

Also, I recently made: Mushroom ragout, sage polenta, and collard greens. The mushroom ragout was absolutely amazing. It looks really humble and unbeautiful, but it tastes super rich and complex. With garlic, sage, thyme, onions, and tomato paste, it’s hard to go wrong. I stewed the collard greens with garlic, olive oil, fresh ginger, cumin, salt, and lemon juice--They were good, but not as tender as I would have wanted. I’m not sure if I’m ready to go the Paula Deen route, which includes “smoked meats” and butter. There has to be a happy medium.

Giant, Jurassic-sized collard leaves!

Picking out the mushrooms was awesome…there’s a mushroom stand at the farmer’s market I go to, and I’d never had a reason to patron it before. The specimens I selected did not disappoint.

I also made this swiss chard and ricotta tart (all recipes except for the collards are from The Heart of the Artichoke). Putting greens in a dessert may seem strange, but that wasn’t the reason I wasn’t crazy about it--it was a bit too cloyingly sweet. With less sugar, I think it would have been really yummy.