'tis the season ...

to eat crab! Oh sweet dungeness, how I covet thy claws, Your tender appendages give me reason to pause, Between sips of Chardonnay and nibbles of crusty bread, an evening of aromatics that goes straight to my head. Many thanks to our dear hosts that shared their secret recipe of fresh cooked live crab - we can never go back to day-old crustaceans.

Northern California crab season begins around late November and continues for a couple of months with fundraising crab feeds around the area. The avid crab eater travels with wet-naps, a nut cracker, and a tea lighted butter melting ramekin. Oohhh so decadent!

The BEST use for Sauvignon Blanc

... is to wash down that lovely brineyness of fresh oysters. October 30th we went to the coast for the now annual oyster collecting mission. We bought 300, then ate two dozen on the lovely sunny bay with only the Pellegrino brothers, a happy Japanese family and a solo caterer for company. The usual bakery that we stopped at on our way to the coast had the usual warm fougasse bread waiting - but they also had apple-lavender marzipan scones - oh, so up my alley!!

I also had to ask myself why we do not come to the coast more often in October - the weather is divine!