As you know if you’ve been following along, I turned in the manuscript for this, my second cookbook in the “100 Perfect Pairings” series, in January, and then photography happened in February. (If you haven’t been following along, here’s a post about the photo shoot.)

Since then, we’ve been through a round of edits – basically a copy editor went through the whole thing, in the form of a Word document for each chapter, and noted her suggested changes, then I went through the whole thing and reacted to her suggestions.

We’ve also been back and forth with the designer a few times on the layout. It’s basically the same as for book #1, but with more pop. The colors are brighter and cheerier, the type is more clean and contemporary – and overall, it’s just more fun, friendly, and alive.

I love it.

Then we got into page proofs (pictured here). This is where they “pour” the manuscript into the layout and we see how it’s all looking on the page.

The page proofs reveal how many pages the book wants to be, which is, of course, more pages than the publisher budgeted for. And so, before looking at the page proofs with a fine-toothed comb, I had to take an ax to them and make cuts.

Twenty-one pages worth.

With most cookbooks, when you need to cut pages, you cut recipes. But in a book called “100 Perfect Pairings” you can’t have, say, ninety-four recipes. So I had to get creative.

It wasn’t easy. Ask any writer and they’ll tell you that cutting copy is like tossing their gems, killing their babies. But I did it, via pages littered with post-it notes (pictured here).

Now all those length-cutting changes have been incorporated and the page proofs are back to me for the fine-toothed comb. I have a couple of weeks to do that, then I’ll see page proofs again, to confirm that those changes got incorporated.

After that, if my memories of #1 are accurate, I won’t see it again until it’s a real live printed book!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now – isn’t she pretty?!?

And when I say “we,” I really mean Brigid Callinan, COPIA’s then-Culinary Programs Manager and the uncontested Sorbet Queen. Brigid had previously been the pastry chef at Mustards Grill and co-wrote the award-winning “Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook” with Cindy Pawlcyn, so she knows a thing or two about delicious desserts. (Nowadays, Brigid teaches cooking to the US Coast Guard and works with her friend Lenny Rice Moonsammy at Good Food Source.)

With fresh fruit from COPIA’s gardens, Brigid made strawberry sorbet and peach sorbet. She made persimmon and apple sorbets. And sorbets from plums, blueberries, and honeydew. Week after glorious week, COPIA guests enjoyed all manner of sweet, smooth, bright, and tangy sorbets, thanks to the incredible fruit that the garden provided – and Brigid’s incredible talents.

One summer, however, the Sorbet Queen decided to take a vacation. And so she passed the spatula and taught me to make sorbet in her stead.

She started by telling me to use only the best fruit I could find and to cut off anything with the slightest bit of bruise or over ripeness, pointing out that the fruit wasn’t going to get any better by virtue of becoming sorbet. (In the COPIA gardens, it wasn’t a challenge to find great fruit, but now I only use peak-of-season stuff from the farmers’ market.)

Brigid showed me how to combine the pureed fruit with simple syrup, and how to magically use a whole, clean, raw egg to test my balance of the two. She taught me how to add acidity – lemon or lime juice – to add crisp dimension and complexity to the sweetness. And she taught me how to use the industrial ice cream maker down the hall at Julia’s Kitchen restaurant, so I could make gallons of great sorbet at a time.

When Brigid returned from vacation and tasted the fruits of my labor, she was so pleased that she dubbed me the Sorbet Princess.

To this day, thanks to Brigid, I make some of the best sorbet ever, like the absolutely amazing batch of Marion blackberry sorbet pictured here.

And now, with Brigid’s method spelled out below, so can you. Referring to yourselves as Lords and Ladies of Sorbet is entirely optional.

How to make sorbet without a recipe

1. 

   Dime-sized egg - sorbet base needs more simple syrup

   Make a batch of simple syrup: Mix equal parts sugar and water, heat them together, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves, then thoroughly cool. You’ll need about a cup of simple syrup per pound of fruit.

2. Prepare your fruit: Start with really good, ripe fruit that’s juicy and aromatic. Cut the fruit into chunks, discarding any rotten or bruised parts.
3. Some fruits are best if they’re cooked first, including blueberries, huckleberries, pears, cranberries, apples, some plums, and rhubarb. To cook, place the fruit in a large pot with a bit of water on medium-high heat. Cook until the fruit is very soft, then thoroughly cool.
   

   Quarter-sized egg - sorbet base needs more fruit puree or water

4. Once your fruit is ready, puree it in a food processor, then strain it through a medium-mesh sieve.
5. Combine the fruit puree with the simple syrup to taste.
6. Check the balance with the egg test: Carefully place a clean, raw egg (in the shell) into your sorbet base so that it floats to the surface. If the amount ofshell that’s showing is about the size of a nickel, your balance of fruit and sugar is correct and it will yield a sorbet that’s neither too soft or too hard once it’s frozen. If the egg is sitting lower, showing a dime-size or smaller, add more simple syrup. If it’s floating too high,
   

   Nickel-sized egg - sorbet base is juuust right

   showing the size of a quarter or more, add more fruit puree or water.
7. Now taste. Notice how it’s sweet, but syrupy so, a little cloying? Add lemon or lime juice until the sorbet base tastes sweet but also crisp and clean, typically about a tablespoon per pound of fruit.
8. Add salt to taste. Make your sorbet base very assertive – once it’s frozen, the flavor will be less intense.
9. Thoroughly chill your finished sorbet base, then freeze according to your ice cream maker’s manufacturer’s instructions.

(If you absolutely can’t stand not having a recipe, here’s one for Berry Sorbet.)

I understand.

Rosés have been too sweet, too soda pop-y, and too much like Hawaiian Punch. (Although I totally confess to loving those sweet, typically inexpensive rosés mixed with ginger ale – it’s my favorite poolside punch!) But the dominance of too-sweet rosé is changing. Increasingly, drier styles are showing up on the shelves of supermarkets and wine shops. And these are delicious wines. Wines of quality and finesse. Wines that are worth knowing and enjoying

Why? Because rosé is like no other wine, uniquely combining mild red wine fruit flavors – think strawberry, cherry, cranberry, and currant – with the best-served-cold lightness and brightness of a white wine. With rosé, you get the best of both worlds. Win-win!

Which means, yes, rosé is a great choice for when you can’t decide between red and white, as is often the case with me. But even better, this not-quite-a-red-not-quite-a-white quality makes rosé uniquely positioned to pair with foods that also fall somewhere in between.

Take, for example, the Tilapia with Gazpacho Salsa pictured in this post. (The recipe will be in my second “100 Perfect Pairings” book, the one focusing on entrée recipes that’s due out next spring. Meanwhile, take a peek at “100 Perfect Pairings: Small Plates to Enjoy with Wines You Love” which came out in April.) This dish features a relatively light fish with a gazpacho-inspired salsa – the salsa has tomato, bell pepper, onion, olives, garlic, smoked paprika, and a few other goodies. All in all, it’s not quite intense or heavy enough for a red wine – although it’s on the verge of working with a Pinot Noir, especially if the fish were, say, sea bass or swordfish, something with a little more heft. But with all those flavors in the salsa, especially the smoked paprika, it’s a little too intense for a white.

The solution? You guessed it – somewhere-in-between rosé.

For similar reasons, rosé works with most Mexican food. It works with barbecue and grilled dishes. It works with much of the simply-prepared, Mediterranean-inspired foods that have increasingly become American cuisine.

One of my recipe testers last fall chose to test recipes to go with rosé, and her husband was aghast. She pressed on, made the recipes, and presented them at the table, along with the wine. Suffice to say that he became a convert and no longer pooh-poohs her willingness to recipe test.

Hooray for rosé!

There’s no better time than summer to try it. But like me, you might find yourself drinking it year round.

And here’s what I’m inspired to say: sustainable seafood, sustainable seafood, sustainable seafood.

If you know what I’m talking about, if you’re already aware of the important work that people like Seafood Watch are doing, and if you already buy only sustainable seafood, stop reading this post, get yourself a lovely piece of sea bass (like mine, pictured here) or other sustainable seafood, and pat yourself on the back.

If, however, you don’t know about sustainable seafood and especially about Seafood Watch, let me tell you. A program from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Seafood Watch was created to help consumers and businesses make choices for healthy oceans. For you and me, that mostly means choosing to eat seafood that’s fished or farmed in ways that don’t harm the environment and that, therefore, supports ecosystems that will exist long into the future.

I love the environment. I’m pro-ocean. But the biggest reason I’m a supporter of sustainable seafood is simply because I love fish. If I want to keep eating it, I have to help make sure that the environment that produces it is in good shape. And if you want to keep eating seafood, so do you.

I know of three great ways to make sure the seafood you’re eating – whether it’s store-bought or enjoyed in a restaurant – is sustainable.

One is to consult Seafood Watch. You can visit their web site and type in any fish you’re thinking about. They’ll tell you whether they give that fish a green, yellow, or red light, and why.

From that same page, you can also print one of their pocket guides, which makes it easy for you to carry their recommendations around with you.

You can even download their guide as an iPhone app, which means the info will always be up-to-date.

A second way to make sure your seafood is sustainable is to look for the Marine Stewardship Council label. Like Seafood Watch, the Marine Stewardship Council studies and evaluates the world’s seafood, although with slightly different criteria. Unlike Seafood Watch, they have a logo – a blue oval with a fish – that certified sources can use on their products. You’ll see MSC-labeled fishes at Whole Foods, for example. But note that just because one item at a store or in a restaurant is MSC-certified, it doesn’t mean all of them are.

A third way to make sure the seafood you’re eating is sustainable is to shop and dine at stores and restaurants that only sell sustainable seafood. This way, once you’re in the door, you can choose anything you want. How do you know a shop or restaurant sells only sustainable seafood? Ask. If they do, they’ll be proud to tell you all about their program. If they don’t, they’ll have met one more reason to consider one.

Here in Napa, I shop almost exclusively at Kanaloa Seafood. For almost any item in the store, they can tell me the exact person who caught it, when, where, and why it deserves to be on their 100% sustainable menu. I’m also proud to regularly teach classes at Ramekins Culinary School, possibly the country’s first cooking school that serves only Seafood Watch-sanctioned seafood.

Yes, being committed to sustainable seafood means that usually I pay more for my fish. But you know what? That’s the price of being awake and aware that there are consequences to my actions. And it’s a price I’m willing to pay so that I can keep eating great seafood.

Do I do everything I could possibly do to make the world a better place? No. But I do this. And if you’re interested in eating delicious seafood long into the future, I’m suggesting you do, too.

A belated happy Ocean Day. How will you celebrate?

Of all the things I’ve ever said in all the cooking classes I’ve ever taught, the thing that most amazes and delights people is when I teach them how to tell when their meat is done. So, in the hopes of amazing and delighting you, I’m going to teach you, too.

Now, when I say “how to tell when your meat is done,” I mean besides cutting into it, which spills out its delicious juices and makes it more likely to be dry, and besides using an instant-read thermometer, which is effective but, for cuts less than about 1 1/2 inches thick, more trouble than it’s worth.

What I’m talking about is how to tell when your meat is done simply by touching it.

Ready?

How rare meat feels

Okay. Now, with your non-dominant hand, the one you don’t write with, touch together you’re your thumb and index finger – not pinch, just touch. This is a participatory exercise, so play along! Now with your other hand, touch the pad of your thumb. See how that feels? Kind of soft and squishy, but with a little firmness about 1/2 inch deep? That’s now rare meat feels.

How medium rare meat feels

Now touch together – not pinch, just touch – your thumb and middle finger. And again, feel the pad of your thumb with your other hand. Notice how it’s firmer? Isn’t that amazing and delightful?!? That’s how medium rare feels!

How medium meat feels

Thumb and ring finger – that’s medium.

How well done meat feels

Thumb and pinky – you blew it! Just kidding. That’s well done.

This works for all kinds of meat, poultry, and fish – beef, chicken, pork, lamb, salmon, whatever. Chicken, you’d want to cook until it’s at least medium (thumb and ring finger). Steak, it could be anywhere on the scale. Pork, medium, but it’s also okay to cook pork a little rarer these days, to medium rare (thumb and middle finger). Fish also could be medium or slightly rarer.

And this works with all cooking methods, whether you’re grilling, pan-searing, broiling, roasting, whatever. Although, as alluded to earlier, if your meat is more than about 1 1/2 inches thick, all bets are off and you need to use a meat thermometer.

And of course it’ll vary from one person’s hand to another. So what you do is practice. You’re grilling a steak to, say, medium rare – note the above photo of my perfectly-cooked medium rare steak – and you want to check its doneness. So you put together your thumb and middle finger and, with your tongs, feel the pad of your thumb. Now use your tongs to feel the steak. Now go back to the pad of your thumb. And compare.

As you practice this, you’ll undercook or overcook a steak or chicken breast or two, but after a bit, you’ll be able to perfectly cook your meats every time, just by touch, just like in a restaurant.

Make it your summer project, learning how to tell when your meat is done without cutting into it and spilling out its delicious juices or bothering with a meat thermometer. In the process, you’ll get to enjoy a lot of yummy cooking.

Let me know how it goes.

My summer project? Homemade Cherry Garcia ice cream. I haven’t perfected it yet, so stand by. Good ice cream – or steaks or chicken breasts – takes lots and lots of testing and research.

Not every night, of course. But what about once a week? Wouldn’t it be great to avoid cooking one night a week?

Of course it’d be great, you might be saying, that’s why there’s my local burrito joint. And the pre-prepared foods aisle at Safeway. And pizza delivery.

But I’m not talking about forgoing a homemade meal. I’m talking about having the best of both worlds – a delicious, homemade meal without having to turn on the stove.

How about a clean-out-the-vegetable-bin salad, using up bits and bobs from last week’s trip to the farmer’s market? Top the whole thing with a little protein – a chicken breast leftover from the night before or some already-cooked shrimp from the freezer – and you’ve got an easy, satisfying entrée, without breaking a sweat or ordering out.

Sandwiches are good options, too. We’re just barely into tomato season. How about a couple of thick slices, along with shaved Parmesan, olive oil, and basil leaves, on artisan bread? Cool, in every sense of the word.

And then there’s cold soup. You can make it with almost any fruits or vegetables you like. Just puree, maybe with a little juice, stock, yogurt, milk, buttermilk, or cream, and season. You could also add a little acidity – lemon juice or vinegar – and an herb or two.

Serve your soup with a salad or sandwich. Then pour yourself and a glass of wine and toast life, liberty, and the pursuit of heat-free happiness.

Cold Cucumber Soup

Paired with a salad or a sandwich, this soup makes a simple-yet-delicious summertime meal. For something more elegant, serve it with cold poached salmon.

Serves 4

3 cucumbers (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1/4 small red onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, plus sprigs for garnish

1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

In a blender or food processor, combine the cucumber, onion, buttermilk, yogurt, mint leaves, mustard, and salt and puree, scraping down the jar or bowl as necessary. Taste and pepper add more salt if you like. Chill well before serving.

One is, “100 Perfect Pairings” continues to get good reviews. Here’s one from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, another in Carolyn Cope’s blog Umami Girl, and yet another in Napa Sonoma magazine.

Cool, huh?

Wendy making her Spring Vegetable and Prosciutto Tart

Frankly, I keep steeling myself for someone in the blogosphere to say that I don’t know the first thing about food and wine pairing or that my recipes are crap, but it hasn’t happened.

Yet.

Knock on wood.

I also wanted to share about Wendy, Louise, and Rebecca, pictured at the top left of this page. I met Wendy in a Ramekins class, and she returned for the first book-related class there, bringing along Louise and Rebecca. They all bought copies of the book and have since been spending almost

Wendy and a guest enjoying recipes from "100 Perfect Pairings"

every Wednesday night cooking their way through it!

They make a few recipes from a different chapter each time, then on Thursday or Friday I get a present in my inbox, in the form of raves about and photos from their evening. Isn’t that the cutest thing?!? The last email was entitled “If it’s Wednesday, it must be Pinot Grigio” – I’ve included a couple of those photos in this post.

(Wendy, by the way, is a cooking teacher as well, in Fresno. Her business is called Seasoned to Taste and I’m going to be a guest instructor on October 19.)

The other group's Chunky Corn and Avocado Dip

Meanwhile, another group of women got together to cook and share recipes from the book, and also sent photos. One of those is here, too – even more cuteness!

Lastly, I wanted to share a few of my favorite blog posts of late: Michael Ruhlman sharing his frustration with misleading labels, Cheryl Sternman Rule sharing her birthday dinner at The French Laundry, sort of, and Lia Huber sharing some of the awesome choices she’s made in her life.

Share at will.

Not with expensive shoes or daytime soap operas or Facebook – so I guess it could be worse.

The object of my obsession is Salmon Caesar Salad.

It started about a month ago, when I was working on a story for Bon Appétit, for holiday roasts. One of the recipes was for Rosemary-Rubbed Side of Salmon, which meant, in varying-sized hunks, I cooked my way through about seven pounds of the stuff. And not just garden-variety salmon – beautiful, succulent, sweet, creamy salmon from the best fish market in town. $116 worth, thank you very much Bon Appétit.

And THAT meant that I ended up with a lot of salmon in the freezer. A lot. Just about as I was portioning and freezing the seventh or eighth piece of it, maybe because the weather finally turned warm, I started thinking about Salmon Caesar Salad.

So I made it for dinner about ten days ago. Nicely coincidentally, I also had leftover homemade focaccia in the freezer, so I turned that into salty, crispy croutons. I whipped up a batch of lemony Caesar dressing, from a recipe in my book. And I tossed them both together with some fresh farmer’s market romaine. I plated it with a few shavings of Parmesan, and then a big hunk of (thawed) leftover salmon broken up over the top.

Ohgh. (That’s a cross between a moan and a sigh.)

But that initial salad only served to whet my appetite. I’ve made it a couple of times since, and each of them was just as good, but the obsession continues.

I’m down to the last hunk in the freezer. I’m afraid to use it because at least now I have the possibility of a Salmon Caesar Salad, if not an actual one.

It could be worse.

Right?

Salmon Caesar Salad

What is it about a great salad with a toothsome hunk of protein on top? Satisfyingly crisp and refreshing, yet hearty, I could have one for lunch or dinner every day, especially during the warm weather months. But then again, I’m obsessed.

Serves 2

1 ounce Parmesan Cheese

1 head romaine lettuce, trimmed and cut or torn into bite-sized pieces (you should have 7 or 8 cups)

1 carrot, shredded

2/3 cup croutons, homemade or store-bought

6 tablespoons Caesar salad dressing, homemade (recipe below) or store-bought, or more to taste

2 cooked 4- to 6-ounce salmon filets

Freshly ground black pepper, for serving

Use a vegetable peeler to cut the cheese into thick shaves (you should have about 1/3 cup). Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, carrot, croutons, and dressing. Arrange the salad on plates and top with the cheese. Break up the salmon and arrange it on top. Serve immediately, passing the pepper grinder at the table.

Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing

This dressing is particularly lemony, which helps a salad made with it pair with a bright wine like Pinot Grigio.

Makes 3/4 cup

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)

2 cloves garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a blender, combine the cheese, lemon juice, garlic, anchovy paste, mustard, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper and blend until smooth, scraping down the jar as necessary. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil. Add more salt and pepper to taste. (You can store the dressing, covered in the refrigerator, for up to about a week. Return to room temperature and, if necessary, restir before using.)

It was high time for a makeover. Besides simply being pretty dated-looking, my old site was basically an online clip file – it served as a place to put samples of my work so that I could refer press, editors, and potential clients there when I was pitching a gig.

But with the book out, I wanted to create a more consumer-oriented site, one that readers of my book or magazine pieces, or students in my classes, might visit. I wanted a site that’d show off my wares and that’d help potential fans decide I’m worth being interested in and following, be it via blog, twitter, the book’s Facebook page, or even simply by buying books in the future.

So I put together a collage of how I wanted the site to feel – colorful, friendly, fun, clean, inviting, happy, and, well, delicious – and then asked my brilliant husband to design me something. Aren’t I amazingly lucky to have such a talented husband, and one who’s so generous with those talents? (I hope I wasn’t too much of a crazy-making client, honey.)

And didn’t he do an awesome job?

Isn’t it gorgeous???

Also a big thanks to Kevin McGrath, of Ten3Designs, who built it for me, also awesomely.

There are still a few things to do – I need to add more recipes, for example, and I’m hoping to set up something with a local bookstore so that a click on my site takes you to their site, where you can order a personally-inscribed copy of “100 Perfect Pairings.”

But all in all, this is it – the brand new online me.

Whaddya think?

P.S. Apologies to those of you who got sent a few old posts when the new site went live.

Brunch is both celebratory and relaxed. It’s comfort foods and festive foods at the same table. It’s an opportunity to socialize with the wide promise of a whole day before you. It’s an excuse to drink champagne before noon.

For all those reasons, to me, brunch the culinary equivalent of hedonism.

One of the best brunches I can remember was spent with my friend Dana, who was visiting me in Los Angeles from her home in New York City. We were invited for brunch by her brother and his wife, neither of whom I’d never met. My friend and I wound our way up Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills to their little hippy house at the end of a cul de sac. Our hosts led us to the back yard where, under a tree with a swing, a table was set with a colorful, thrift store hodgepodge of dishes and linens. We chatted endlessly, the perfect combination of old friends and new, while we ate muffins and scones, fruit salad and frittata, and sipped champagne. For hours we lolled there, noshing and sipping, appreciating the company, the food, and the setting – and loving not having to be anywhere else doing anything other.

It was exactly as a brunch should be.

Essential for a proper brunch is some kind of muffins or scones, both of which are easy to make in advance and freeze. (I actually prefer them reheated – in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes – because they get nicely toasted and crispy around the edges.) The flavors for your muffins and scones, savory or sweet, can be seasonally adapted and/or shifted to suit the rest of your menu. I have a basic muffin recipe, for example, and I adjust it to make lemon blueberry muffins, orange cranberry muffins, whole wheat apple spice muffins – whatever.

Perhaps my favorite iteration of all, however, is the springy Strawberry Rosemary Muffins below. They’re a great way to enjoy the amazing strawberries that are pouring into your farmer’s markets right now. And the rosemary? Don’t be put off by it. Berries and rosemary are a killer combo.

Special thanks to Dana, her brother, and her sister-in-law for that incredible, long-ago brunch, and to my friend Pammy, for reminding me how much she loves this recipe and inspiring this post.

Strawberry Rosemary Muffins
A super-simple recipe made out-of-the-ordinary thanks to fresh rosemary.

Makes 24 regular or 10 jumbo muffins

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose white flour
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
2 cups sliced strawberries

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Coat muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, butter, and vanilla. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, rosemary, baking soda, and salt. Mix the flour mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until just combined. Gently stir in the strawberries.

Fill tins barely to the top. Bake until the muffin tops are golden brown and set, about 25 minutes for regular muffins or 30 minutes for jumbo muffins.