Fran Gage

Just the kind of book about food that I like. More story than recipes. Plenty of background about the agriculture scene in California and how it produces almonds (with help from honeybees), sugar (from beets), eggs (from Petaluma) and butter (from happy California cows).

I learned that the almond is sort of like an inside-out peach: With almonds, you throw away the husk and eat the kernel; with peaches you eat the flesh and discard the pit.

Actually made me want to bake something, which almost show more never happens. show less

Grabbed this for $3 at Half Price Books because of the San Francisco connection.

How charming to read about how the author and her husband snagged a complete bakery grade mixer at the Purple Heart for $10.95. I am actually thinking about trying out some of the recipes. If only I'd had the one for whole plums this summer when they were in season, I long to try a plum sugar cake...

This book is chock full of interesting food-related adventures: going mushrooming in the damp hills, visiting the show more cheesemaker way out on the sheep ranch, plumbing Tomales Bay for oysters, how to cook crawfish. Stories about the author's friend Jerome's big old plum tree that produced incomparable fruit.

I sat with this over my lunch for a week or so. It added some cachet to the leftovers. show less

You wouldn't find any showstoppers in this cookbook but I've only made the date-walnut loaf from this book so far, and it was great! I was really doubtful since the recipe had only 3 tablespoons of butter, but it was delicious and moist and it was quickly devoured. Best of all? It was easy. I'll definitely try more cakes from it, especially since they are simple enough to make quite frequently for my family.

I owned this cookbook on a hardcover. It’s all about cakes!