The pink tree bled pink today.

MEALS WITH ERICA.

We've been cooking some delicious things. The amazing thing about all these recipes is the proportions and cooking instructions are about perfect, so I'm just posting links to the recipes themselves.

I only have a small comments. The pine nuts in the caponata and sesame seeds in the roasted carrots are best generously toasted, so they are golden brown and a completely different color than the raw versions. The carrots and the cauliflower can stand to be very well roasted and almost burned. The lemons and oranges in the carrots should be quarters or halves because they otherwise completely dry out, and in this recipe I might even do extra oranges and lemons in order to have more juice for the dressing. To help spread the butter over the cold chicken, it's okay to heat it up so that it is very soft and easily spreadable. It doesn't really need to be rubbed into the chicken. The salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary (the only herb we had) will nicely stick to the butter with just a tiny bit of patting. Go generous on the herbs. For the eggplant caponata, we fried the bread in a little bit of olive oil and this tasted delicious. I also added fresh mozzarella to the caponata as is done in the actual restaurant. For the lamb, I would err on the side of undercooking in the oven. Also, the pan needs to be very hot in order to get it nicely browned.

I learned a new way to cook fennel tonight from Erica. Slice a fennel bulb, toss with salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Cook at about 400-450 degrees on a baking sheet until well browned. The result is almost creamy and very delicious.

Lamb with Pistachio Tapenade - hello dinner parties

Beretta's Eggplant Caponata - best caponata recipe ever

Rosemary and Lemon Roast Chicken - my first roast chicken, sold

Parsley Gremolata for the Chicken - this makes all the difference

Perfect Roasted Cauliflower - onions and garlic and truffle oil

Roasted Carrots with Oranges and Lemon - Spotted Pig style

Small Pear Cakes with Cardamon Cream - the whipped cream is divine

Garlic Confit - very intense

Most of these dishes work perfectly as a light, easy dinner on a week night. Best eaten as a heavenly respite from dining hall food.

Honolulu.

Kahala.

Moana.

Waikiki

Love Hawaiian words.

Pink trees.

Andy Warhol polaroid portraits

Genius.

Farrah Fawcett, Carolina Herrera, Debbie Harry

San Francisco has a completely unique light

It's like a Wayne Thiebaud painting

So white and bright