Nate is the Techie / Barbecue-y half of the House of Annie team. Born in Hawaii, his favorite hobby is surfing...WEB surfing that is.
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Annie had such a delicious success with the Roasted Leg of Lamb recipe from “Cooking In Style the Costco Way” that she picked up another Costco cookbook, “Easy Cooking the Costco Way”. In it, she found a recipe for polenta pie that she really wanted to try.
Normally, we buy polenta in a thick, sausage-like tube from Trader Joe’s. We cut the tube up into rounds and then pan fry or grill them. The polenta cakes then serve as the base for any number of different main dishes. Continue reading Polenta Pie→
One Friday evening, Annie was craving a salad from California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. The nearest CPKs to us in San Jose are either at the Oakridge Mall or the Valley Fair Mall. Neither of which I felt like driving 20 minutes to the mall, then wasting 10 more minutes fighting for parking in the garage, and then waiting in the restaurant for another “15 to 20 minutes” (which inevitably turns into 45 minutes to an hour during primetime) with our two growling tummies plus the kidlets’. No way, Jose!
Also I didn’t feel like a salad. But perhaps something Italian…? I fired up the web browser and went over to Restaurant.com to see if there were any Italian places closer to us. Lo and behold, there’s one right in our neighborhood: Pizzeria Andiamo’s on San Felipe Rd at Yerba Buena. We had eaten there in the distant past but they had recently changed owners and I was meaning to go back. Continue reading Pizzeria Andiamo’s (San Jose)→
"Cuostralee" heirloom tomato from last year’s harvest
I didn’t get a chance to weigh it but it must have been about a half-pound in weight and 5 inches in diameter. The amazing thing is the amount of flesh on the ‘mater – the whole center section is solid. What I liked about it was the pretty design that the seed pockets made.
First of all, let me say, “hello” to all of you whom Annie and I met at the Kumar garden on the Going Native Garden Tour! It was a real pleasure talking with you about one of my other passions, California native plants. I hope the experience was as educational and enjoyable for you as it was for me!
Spring is a wonderful time of year for gardeners. The weather begins to warm up, the sun stays up later, and new life springs forth. All over, the stores are starting to sell vegetable starts to people who have been dreaming of garden-fresh summer vegetables all winter long. And what is the top selling plant? It has got to be the tomato.
