Saturday is off to a good start. Shelly and her husband Jamison arrived at my place at around 9:00am and we headed to breakfast before going to Jack London Square to walk around the Eat Real Festival. In their words:

'Eat Real's mission is to make real food as accessible and as affordable as fast food at events held in strategic communities across the United States. Eat Real's success will be measured by increased public awareness of and respect for the craft of making good food and by the growth of green collar jobs in America's growing regional food economies. Eat Real's vision is of an America where food's crucial importance to the health of our bodies, communities and economy is universally recognized, and where access to healthy and affordable real foods is a right, not a privilege. Also, in our ideal America, food tastes a whole lot better.'

I can dig that.

One of the booths that I stopped at was the SFBA booth, you can find their website: HERE. Charlie recently mentioned an interest in beekeeping and I thought I should learn more. Membership to the association is $15 for an individual, $20 for a household. Many of the classes through SFBA are free, but there are several other perks to having a membership.

I am still a bit jumpy from my recent wasp sting, so this may have to be a one man show in our household. But I have no problem reaping the benefits of having all the honey I can handle.

Tonight... heading to the Sonoma Premiere of The Wine Guy at Jacuzzi Family Vineyard. If you have nothing else to do, or even if you do, you should come out. Reception starts at 6:15pm.

It has been a while since I have had a kitchen. After moving out of our flat, Charlie and I were constantly moving around for about 6 months. So now, I am getting settled again. Everything is in it's place, I have officially been bitten by the cooking bug. It just so happened that said cooking bug bit me on a day that reached a high of 95 degrees! So, the natural result was ice cream. I am a touch sensitive to gluten, so I had to find a recipe that would satisfy my need for creamy goodness without the side effect of heartburn. The result: Coconut Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Just saying those words makes my mouth water. It was delicious.

Ingredients:

A 14oz can of full fat coconut milk
2 eggs, whisked
1 vanilla bean
3 Tb raw honey

Make the custard:

~Set up a double boiler, when the water is simmering add the coconut milk. Split the vanilla bean and add the seeds to the milk and throw in the pod as well. Whisk fairly regularly until the milk and vanilla are hot but not boiling.
~When the coconut milk is hot add one ladle full at a time to the whisked eggs whisking all the time until the temp of the eggs is approximately equal to the temp of the coconut milk. Then add the egg mixture to the coconut milk on the double broiler.
~Whisk until thickened to a custard.
~Remove from heat and remove the vanilla pod.
~let the custard cool until you can hold your finger in it without burning. Add in the honey and mix well.
~Put the custard into the fridge or freezer to cool.

Make the Ice Cream:

~When the custard is cool take it out of the fridge and make it into ice cream according the the directions for your ice cream machine.

This is delicious served with fresh berries. I think I will also try it with other add-ins. Lavender or maybe chocolate chips? Any other ideas?

Enjoy!

I am always honored to be asked to do a littlest hero's photo session. This one was particularly fun, I got to photograph two little ones. Oliver and his big cousin Mila.

Oliver's parents found out that he had Down Syndrome when Mari was just four months pregnant. "We felt very anxious throughout the rest of the pregnancy but as soon as he arrived  we fell in love and the fears dissipated. Oliver had to spend a few weeks in the NICU because he had pulmonary hypertension and wasn't able to keep his oxygen levels high enough. He has a heart defect that will hopefully resolve on its own without surgery. He is a delightful baby. He just started smiling and cooing and we are enjoying every moment with him."

This is about the time that I was paid one of the best compliments EVER. I am not sure where it came from, maybe her mom was trying to bribe her into the kitchen so I could get some images of Oliver by himself. But Mila said that I was better than Pancakes. That's right, Pancakes are no match for me. I am better than Pancakes. It was nice to hear, I have a new mantra.

I can't get enough of those freckles. Mila is such a cute little munchkin!

Sweet little Oliver. He was such a good sport. He seemed to be perfectly happy to let me photograph him. No fussing, a totally happy baby. It is no wonder his parents fell in love.

Oliver and family, thank you for an amazing session! Mila and Oliver, you two are just beautiful. A delight to be around and of course, I think you are better than pancakes too!

After a great meal of fresh clams and fish and whatever else was pulled out of the sea that day we decided to walk up the clock tower.

The street was full of people devouring the treats from the sea. And it is all for charity, not that I need an excuse to eat great food.

Chioggia, you sure were good to me.