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In their own words:

Welcome to Humble Pie! We are a family business and we love pies! We make at least five different pies for Thanksgiving and everybody has their favorite request for their birthdays. The business was inspired by the people we love. We live in Nevada City in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra. Luckily, there are many farmers in our area where we source most of our ingredients.

I began by boiling the potatoes, I cut them into quarters and started boiling them as the rest of the meal came into focus.

As they cooked, I melted butter in a pot and added some whole coriander seeds from the depths of the spice pantry. Next I thinly sliced the celery and added it to cook in the butter.

When the potatoes were barley cooked through, I added them to the celery and butter to finish up and to embrace the buttery goodness.

To add some color and to get my fix of greens, I tossed in the Rainbow Chard, also sliced very thin. I added the salt generously, potatoes and celery can take a lot of it.

After cooking for about 7 minutes together, my humble lunch was looking really delicious! I plated it and added a few toasted pine nuts I had.

It turned out to be so good, warming and hearty and it was made only with what I had one hand! Score! Here is to working with what you have!

Erin has taken 2 classes at In the Kitchen and when she saw my posting about Dinner with Eileen and Eva, she offered to open up her home for a sneak peak of what a typical weeknight dinner is like at her house.

Erin’s husband Dan was in New Zealand attending a Rugby Tournament who it was just the Moms and the boys for dinner.

Felix and I arrived at 5:30 and Erin had already roasted the beets, pears and onions that would make up our meal. She was putting the finishing touches on a few other dishes to serve the kids.

One of her sons is a very picky eater and so making sure that he gets nutrients at all can be a challenge. Her method for making sure he gets enough is to start the meal with a nutrient packed smoothie for the kids. Felix gladly partook in the family ritual of sitting at the table, drinking the smoothie with a fun bendy straw while Erin finished up dinner.

Next came small plates for the boys with steamed corn and green beans from her CSA box. The boys ate the corn and most of the green beans, then squirting a bit of ketchup on the last few.

Erin and her family came to Nevada City by way of New Zealand where they had lived for the past 4 years. She had mentioned a cook book that she loves written by what seems to be the Martha Stewart of down under, Annabel Langbein. The dish that she prepared for us as from the cookbook, The Best of Annabel Langbein; Great Food For Busy Lives. Sounds about right!

The dish was called, Harvest Salad of Roasted Beets, and Pears with walnuts, onions and goat cheese……YUM! It was served over a lovely bed of butter lettuces with a red wine vinaigrette.

As we sat and ate and talked, Erin and her sons shared a family dinner table tradition of each sharing their favorite thing of the day. Her sons are 4 and 6 and so the back and forth sharing that took place was very sweet and reminded me of the fun to come as Felix gets older. Next we played a game called castle where we go around the table and shared what specific items we would want in our own personal castles……again, pretty fun when you get going! I said I would want a baker making fresh cookies and croissants 24/7 and Erin said that I would probably want a state of the art gym in the castle too!

We had a very fun time, I really enjoyed the casual, kid-centric approach to dinner though simultaneously teaching the boys about the back and forth on conversation and dinning manners.

Here is the recipe that Erin made for dinner:

Harvest Salad of Roasted Beets, Pears, Walnuts and Goat Cheese

4 larg beets, peeled and cut into rounds

3 large red onions, cut into wedges

3 large pears peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs balsamic vin

salt and pepper to taste

1.5 c walnut halves

4-6 handfuls mixed greens of your choice

1 c goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Place beets in a shallow roasting fish. Place onions and pears in another dish. Divide oil, sugar and vin evenly between the dishes and mix through. Spread items evenly on the dishes in a single layer. Bake for 50-50 minutes, stirring as needed and cooking till tender and all liquid has evaporated. Toast walnuts in a skillet until golden brown.

Tp assemble salad, toss the greens with a dressing of your choice, add the onions, pears and beets, top with walnuts and cheese.

Serves 4 as a main course or 6 as a side.

Stay tuned for what is to come…….I am hoping for many, many jars of sauce and tomatoes for the winter.

Greg’s farm is located on West Main St in Grass Valley on some former fallow land…..go visit him, or better yet, call and place an order for your own canning tomatoes!

I thought I would take the opportunity to remind you all of this wonderful concept, especially this time of year when there is so much bounty to be shared!

Like what you see? Head on over and pick something up for dinner…..have some extra fruit from your tree? Bring it over to share!

I love our town

Several years ago my Aunt and Uncle built a new cabin on the old cabin site and it is built to accommodate our entire family! So this is a second year that Joe and Felix and I have gone there and spent one of the last weeks in August relaxing, swimming and enjoying the energy of another small town, though very different than our beloved Nevada City.

One of our favorite ways to get to know a new town is by eating out at reccomended resaurants and going to local thrift stores and yard sales. We got to do both in TH.

Last summer we literally stumbled upon truly incredible resturant. The Prospector is located on the main drag of town (which is to say, the ONLY drag in town!) It is nothing you would look twice at if you were looking for a place to eat without knowing what you were looking for. The building is old and funky, tables and a deck kind of thing, though the one thing that I am sure draws people in is the brick wood fired pizza oven sitting outside and the inviting chatter of happy people dining al fresco.

I can’t tell you how many “foodie conversations” I overheard heard in the 2 nights we ate there over the course of our 4 day stay in TH! The people who find The Prospector are clearly devotees of source to table cuisine as well as being slightly adventurous! The Prospector is known for their Certified Napoletana Pizza, allocated and hard to find wines and food and wine consulting. The certified Napoletanna Pizza is no joke. The sauce and the dough are made to very spesific specifications, the toppings as well and NO VARIATIONS read the menu and they take it seriously!

Robert and Ruth Martin are the owners and do an amazing job of keeping their bistro casual and relaxed, though keeping the standard of the cuisine at an extreamly high level. The thing that comes to my mind while eating there is the INTENT. It is not often that you see food prepared, and pizza at that with such an incredible intent, to the point of being art. Robert works the outdoor kitchen (indoor in the winter) with a focus that is intense and proud. He turns out divine and inspired food all night long, with the help of one assistant, 1 dishwasher and Ruth as the hostess. That is it. It is a stiped down asmosphere to keep prices reasoanble without sacrificing on the quality and again, INTENT of the food.

Our meal started with a house salad…….and again, the salad was nothing ordinary. The plates comes stacked high with a variety of beautiful town lettuces, tossed perfectly in light balsamic dressing, with cracked pepper, sea salt and shaved Parmesean on top, expertly presented.

We orded 2 pizzas, one classic Margharita and one Il Perdente, topped with capers, olives, artichoke hearts, onions and smoked mozzarella. The pizzas cook in about 2-3 minutes in the wood fired oven. Let me explain the perfection of these pizzas; a crushed tomato sauce with nothing more than basil, salt and tomatoes, thin, yet soft crusts and cheeses and toppings to blow you away. Joe had a spiritual experience eating the Margharita!

To end the meal came the dessert pizza, now this was intense! It is a small pizza dough cooked and then topped with caramelized sugar, marscarpone cheese, white truffle honey and lavender flowers. I wish I had one right now because my mouth is watering.

Being able to maintain this level of food in such a small town is a true feat. After labor day the tourist season ends and TH goes back to being a pretty sleepy little village, but Robert seems to maintain his focus and passion for creating beautiful food.

Thank you for making our time in TH so memorable once again!

The Prospector

23092 Fuller Rd, Twain Harte, CA 92383

209-586-1313

Here are some photos and her thoughts about the class that I created to highlight light, summer dishes. Maybe this will inspire you to book your own private class with In the Kitchen! This is a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday or do something fun and different with friends!

Wendy Van Wagner, owner of In the Kitchen, has been teaching and cooking up fresh food with mainly organic and local ingredients since she returned to her native Nevada City four years ago when she set up her own cooking school and local community kitchen.  Her fresh approach to traditional and non-traditional cooking has taken off in Nevada City, where locals and visitors can take classes ranging from knife basics, canning, sushi rolling, ice cream making and beyond.  Click here for a complete list of the upcoming classes.  When brainstorming with Wendy about how guests at the Outside Inn could take part in her classes Wendy suggested I come try a private cooking class, which can be arranged for anywhere from 4 to 12 people.  My cozy class included some old friends with whom I sliced, diced and tossed to create a fabulous “Perfect Summer Picnic” menu.  Wendy is an excellent teacher who not only demonstrated the recipes, but also put us to work to help create the dishes.  One of my favorites was the Shine on Root Salad, a beautiful raw root veggie salad that looked like a piece of art work after we put everything through the Japanese mandolin. Our picnic also included Wendy’s Shaved Fennel Salad; combining fresh zucchini, fennel, pine nuts, feta cheese and arugula.  The rest of the summer meal included a baked savory zucchini cheesecake, garlic greens with kale and Parmesan cheese and finally, divine olive shortbread biscuits.  Check out Wendy’s website and see if there’s a class that might work for you, if not, email her and she’ll create a custom one just for your tastes.

For more Photos of Erin’s class visit the BLOG!

Matthew Shapero, a farmer with Living Lands Agrarian Network, is raising pastured, organically-fed chickens this season right here in Nevada City. Red Rocker Farm is on a nine acre parcel just off of Red Dog Road, no more than a mile and a half out of town.

The chickens are unlike any you’ve tasted before; they are not the typical Cornish Cross but are instead a heritage breed developed by a small, family hatchery. As a result, the meat has a unique, old-fashioned, full-chicken flavor. The birds are raised with great care at the farm: they are allowed to spend their first weeks of life in a roomy brooder; by their fourth week, they are put out on pasture–which supplements their organic feed with grass, grubs, minerals, and bugs–and moved daily; and they are processed with respect right here on the farm.

The cost will be $5.50/lb for chickens that have been weighing out at 3.25-4.25lbs–a nice dinner for four with leftovers for broth. If you are interested in fresh chickens over the course of the year, Matthew also offers a Poultry CSA.

The Half-share includes 2 chickens/month for eight months and a Full-share includes 4 chickens/month, at a reduced cost per chicken. We process chickens two Thursdays a month and have fresh chickens available for sale on those days, but also will have chickens at all times available for sale out of the freezer. This Thursday, June 29th, we will be processing chickens.

Come on out between 3pm and 6pm to pick up a fresh one. Email Matthew with questions or if you need directions: matthew.shapero@gmail.com. His number is (805) 680-3159. To learn more about Red Rocker Farm and its part in the Living Lands Agrarian Network, please visit our website, livinglandsagrariannetwork.org