Home, but Thinking of California

Home again.  And so happy to be here. The sun is shining, the mountains off in the distance are tinged with purple, and robins are hopping about the lawn with promises of spring.

But being in California was a wonderful interlude. And, as if to remind me of all I'm missing back there, this note arrived in my inbox this morning.  It's an offering of antiquarian cookbooks from the wonderful Omnivore Books in San Francisco - and it makes me want to turn around and run right back and spend an afternoon perusing this fascinating collection.

Among the books that caught my eye is that Farmer's Market Cookbook above, with an introduction by MFK Fisher and "local recipes for lamb shanks Brentwood, barbecue salsa, Iberville fish fry, etc., and descriptions of the various characters at the Farmers Market."

There are so many interesting items here - go take a look! - including these gems:

And while I'm on the subject of California, one recent LA discovery is Galco's, which stocks 700 different kinds of soda!  Today they're featuring this: