Sweet "P"s and Sundays

When I was a kid my favorite sweet things were Cotton Candy, Watermelon and the scent of Sweet Peas warmed by the sun. I believe that delicious scent is what really sent Dorothy and her cohorts into dreamland in the Wizard of Oz because honestly, although poppies are pretty, their scent is not nearly so intoxicating.

One day each year "Enchanting Sweet Peas" in Sebastopol invites the public to wander through their sweet-pea-only nursery with noses wide open. Intoxicated, we were! Ted was in digital camera heaven, "snapping" every pea flower in sight while I flitted from stalk to stalk hummingbird-style drinking in their perfume.


Down the road, we noticed the cultured sweet peas' wild cousins growing along the roadside. Ted stopped to do more "snapping" among the poppies and vineyards, while I picked a few wild sweet peas — barely scented, much tougher in texture, but charmingly roguish still.


And speaking of rogues ... Mater from "Cars" is alive and well in someone's front yard.

The Sebastopol area is a weekend voyeur's delight — full of Quirk Factor. Old, deconstructing trucks, tractors, barns pop up to surprise, and oh those Patrick Amiot sculptures! (Read about Patrick and his wife Brigitte at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/17/NB165807.DTL)




Sunday Farmers' Market in Sebastopol is a crazy human stew that is just delicious! Gotta EAT it! One of the best ever Almond Croissants in the entire world lived there (until we ATE it!) Live music has kids dancing in the square, "Que-tips" (shall we say "gypsies" instead of "old hippies"?) wander around in tie-dye, and in between is every imaginable flavor of person ... just plain old havin' fun.

Our nine-month-old niece, Nayla, loves hard plums, so I searched the market to find the hardest plum I could find. The vendors thought I was nuts (crazy Que-tip?) because most people want 'em ripe, but I finally found a Satsuma that was so hard I was sure Nayla would be able to "gum it" (she has no teeth yet) to her heart's delight without breaking the skin. I was wrong. She did break the skin, but she also loves sour, so she was happy!

Anyway, Ted was so inspired from our sweet Sunday in Sebastopol, he made Butter Mochi when we got home. Butter Mochi is made with lots of butter, coconut milk, mochi flour (a kind of sweet rice flour), egg and sugar. So sweet, so rich, so soft yet slightly rubbery, Butter Mochi is strangely addictive. You eat a tiny piece and think you'll not eat another, until you do, again, and again, until it's all gone. And don't you just love to say those words together? Butter Mochi. Butter Mochi. Butter Mochi. Feels so good in your mouth just to say it.

So ... Butter Mochi All Y'all ... till next time ...