color samples.

The Wednesday eve before a Thursday SummerWinter supper – and it will be the final of Two Thousand Ten. The end of the year always seems to bring the busy flurries. In fact, I find myself frightened at my own lack of inspiration in the midst of tying up all the year’s loose ends. One’s mind has been so filled by December, saturated with memory and anticipation alike that, in terms of orchestrating such a supper, it is always ideal to let the gut take over. As aforementioned in a recent post, wisdom of instinct and desire conveniently set in.

             
I equate the dawning of food inspiration with being a very pregnant woman. Our beautiful friend, Emily, who will be attending on Thursday, is pregnant with a capital P. Ripe, if you will. My secret wish is that she goes into labor at the SummerWinter supper – it’s not entirely unlikely either, for I hear that this pivotal moment can only be induced when a woman is free of worry, non-expectant, and at ease.

            
It’s the same when a food dream baby is born. If we carry out this metaphor, David then would have to be the old woman who lived in a shoe, children galore – his ideas fly ceaselessly from his hands and heart. It was only yesterday, actually, that he treated Sandra and I to personal soufflés on the fly, each in our own petite cast-iron cocottes. Of nutty-sweet Parrano gouda and bitter-clean dandelion greens they were. And just because.

It’s remarkable how such inspiration can catch us on a whim. After a sequence of hectic weeks, mine finally settled in as I scampered through market this morning. I mean it – I really scampered. When it’s cold and misty out, and Los Angeles finally takes a break from feigning an endless summer, the produce at early market gleams, dewy and perky in its frigidness. How could one not get excited about all of this food business?

This time, market presented me with the most glorious and unusual breakfast.

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SAMPLE COLOR SAMPLES:

 Spoonful of Hachiya persimmon, flushed apricot-orange. Flaming pumpkin hearts.

Avocados show greens of fresh olives & baby grasses. Peridot.

Flecks of fuschia & violet scintillate in Mrs. Schaner’s 
Red Onion Jelly.

Custard fruit. Guava-green thin & bitter skin. Soft, ivory innards are milky-sweet.

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