This peach, basil and olive oil coffee cake is bursting with summer flavor. The Filippo Berio extra virgin olive oil gives it an extra dimension of flavor! (Jump directly to the recipe.)
This post was sponsored by Filippo Berio. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However all opinions below are completely my own and not endorsed by Filippo Berio. To learn more about Filippo Berio olive oils, see where Filippo Berio will be visiting on their summer tour, and enter their sweepstakes for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to Tuscany visit www.followfilippo.com, or follow along with the hashtag #FollowingFilippo.
Summer is in full swing and that means some of my favorite fruit has arrived at the grocery store! And one of my all-time favorite fruit is peaches! I have been buying peaches by the bushel full and desperately eating them as fast as I can as they ripen. But, as with all fruit, there comes a point when I have to use them or lose them! And so, I gathered some leaves off my basil plant, grabbed a bottle of Filippo Berio extra virgin olive oil and made myself a peach, basil and olive oil coffee cake!
If you follow my blog at all, you know that I’m a fan of combining flavors together in all sorts of ways. And though it might sound a bit odd to be adding basil to a coffee cake, the green herbal scent of fresh basil works incredibly well with peaches. But it’s Fillipo Berio’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil that brings the whole thing together in the coffee cake. Not only does it lend a moist richness to the cake, but the subtle pepperiness of the oil adds a dimension that you couldn’t get with regular oil or butter.
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These soft and fluffy Rosemary Pistachio Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Glaze are surprisingly easy to make with no kneading required! (Jump directly to the recipe.)
“So why did you use rosemary in the cinnamon rolls?” asked my friend Rita as I shared with her what I was working on, a blog post about my pistachio rosemary cinnamon rolls with brown sugar cream cheese glaze. It’s the sort of ridiculously over-the-top baked good that I have lately been drawn to making. I had made the recipe back in April but hadn’t gotten around to blogging about it. Rita was curious as to both why I hadn’t posted about it and also HOW I came up with recipe.
Folks occasionally ask me how I come up with a recipe and to be honest, when they do I don’t really know how to answer it. I can tell folks that I found inspiration from other recipes, from cookbooks, from my surroundings, but somehow it never seems to satisfy them. They want me to tell them some sort of secret to making recipes up as if there was a magic wand that I wave in the kitchen that conjures up delicious baked goods. If I lived in a Harry Potter world, maybe that would be the case, but sadly I am muggle without those powers. I’m influenced by nearly everything around me, including things that aren’t even food related and it’s just a lot of hard work and experimentation in the kitchen that leads to the recipes.
The pistachio rosemary cinnamon rolls are a perfect example of how I took my surroundings as inspiration. Thanks to our generous friends Peter and Grant who own a second home up in Sonoma on the coast, we were able to spend a weekend away at their place for a last-minute trip in April. It’s a gorgeous house nestled in the woods, with floor to ceiling windows, surrounded by giant redwoods, and two wraparound decks. It’s the sort of home that make me never want to leave.
Waking up to the bright sunlight, surrounded by trees, slightly disconnected from the world in our friend’s house, was exactly what I needed to help sort of out some of the anxiety I was having of late. And it was the green leaves in the majestic redwoods trees that towered right outside the window that made me think of rosemary as a perfect addition to the cinnamon rolls. It might have also inspired me to add pistachios as well, though AJ really adores pistachios, so he’s probably a huge influence as well.
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The second of two photo essays for the San Francisco Meals on Wheels Star Chefs and Vintners Gala fundraiser of 2017.
Though we could completely fill up by eating our weight in appetizers from the Meals on Wheels Star Chefs and Vintners Gala, we know from past experience to save room for more. The evening is far from over with the seated three-course meal and then the deserts afterwards. During the dinner, AJ and I always sneak off to the back to do some behind-the-scenes photography and to marvel at all the chefs seamlessly moving about, in an orchestrated ballet of plating. While everyone else is bidding on the silent auction for incredible items (home prepared meals by some of the best chefs in the world to a collection of wine that is nearly impossible to purchase) AJ and I watching the chefs grill and plate the food, hoping each dish is the one we’re going to eat. And after all that comes the desserts. In the end, we find ourselves stuffed beyond belief and so happy to have supported an important cause like Meals on Wheels.
See part 1 of this photo essay.
Special thanks to Meals on Wheels for providing tickets to the Star Chefs and Vintners’ gala. I was not monetarily compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.
The first of two photo essays for the San Francisco Meals on Wheels Star Chefs and Vintners Gala fundraiser of 2017.
Every year the annual Meals on Wheels Star Chefs and Vintners Gala is a stellar affair. AJ and I have been supporting the event for as long as we can remember, and it’s the single event that we know we can’t miss. This year was no exception, as Meals on Wheels’ funding has potentially been threatened. Thankfully, the San Francisco community came out to support the vital work that they do. The San Francisco chapter of Meals on Wheels alone delivers over 1.7 million meals a year to homebound seniors. This year, the 30th anniversary of the Gala, raised an astonishing $3.2 million dollars, which is enough to prepare and deliver 640,000 meals! Of course, not only is the Meals on Wheels Gala important to raising much needed funds, but it’s a celebration of the amazing culinary skills of the San Francisco Bay Area. Chaired by Nancy Oakes and Jan Birnbaum, the event is broken down into three sections, the appetizer section, with wine tastings and cocktails, the three-course meal with wine pairings, and the dessert section. Here are some selections from the first section. Look for the second part of this photo essay next week.
Special thanks to Meals on Wheels for providing tickets to the Star Chefs and Vintners’ gala. I was not monetarily compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.
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This twice-cooked eggplant and olive dish is super easy to make but looks and tastes incredibly sophisticated. The secret is California ripe olives! (Jump directly to the recipe.)
This post was sponsored by the California Olive Committee. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However all opinions below are completely my own and not endorsed by the California Olive Committee. To learn more about California ripe olives, follow along with the hashtag #CalRipeOlives
Is it possible to be both simultaneously lazy AND an overachiever? If so, I fit that mold exactly. Take for instance the collaborative cooking challenge I did with a few of my fellow food bloggers up in Napa at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) for the California Olive Committee event. We were given 90 minutes and free range (< -pun intended) of their commercial kitchen along with what seemed like every single available produce in season to play with in the kitchen. And lots of olives. Lots and lots of California ripe olives. And while other teams decided to make one or two dishes and end a little earlier to photograph and hang out, we ended up making three dishes: a potato and olive au gratin, a salad with olive and orange vinaigrette and a twice-cooked eggplant and olive warm salad. Over-achiever much? But here’s the thing, the twice-cooked eggplant and olive dish that I decided to make on a whim (without even consulting my teammates on) was one of the easiest dishes to make prepare – which is why I picked it to make. See: lazy AND overachieving all in one.
I was up in Napa hanging out with a great group of food bloggers at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). The California Olive Committee had brought us up to learn about California ripe olives as well as play with them in the kitchen facilities of CIA. One thing I love about California ripe olives (other than the fact that the farms and packaging companies are family owned and they taste so great) is their versatility. Adding California ripe olives pretty much improves anything you are making.
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