Weekends are made for projects. This one included building an outdoor table and beginning a mortared outdoor floor. D&S saved us last night by having us over for a impromtu weeny roast. Here are the infamous California baked beans that are so sweet and savory we must resist the urge to lick.

Tonite's dinner may be beyond a nonda. I bought Mangos and Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid ( do good, you deserve such a name!) and made this food that is so incredible, so exotic, so fine, gotta make him mine, that I can hardly write about it. Made spongy, risey, softy, sweety naan, hamburgers that would make all the bbq kings renounce their thrones, and a little raita, so easy, yet like a golden halo, you know it's there but its existence seems unlikely. As you can tell I have fallen into the spice of life and can't get up. Lucky. And I smell like one too.

Light and lemony good morning sunshine wafers paint your insides mellow yellow. mmmmmmmmmmmm, a little cup of tea and thee. (Tate's Bake Shop recipe)

Bonus...cute little vases fashioned from empty food jars! Cupcake Queen picked these posies from her back yard paradise and gave them to me, life is sweet. (Who is that man behind the lens? Christo!)

Debby (aka Cupcake Queen) grew this dandey chocolately sprinkley tree to celebrate Hump(tey dumptey) Daye. Christo snapped this springey shot of her bloomey little happey cakeys.

l'OH il mio dio ché foccia grande avete. This Harvest Grape Focaccia is outrageous! Grapes, rosemary, toasted walnuts and sugar in a big fat Italian flatbread. Leftovers? Heat it and eat it for many pleasureable days of dreaming purple. You won't be able to live without it.(Enoteca/Joyce Goldstein)

Where have I been all my week? Finals, cookouts and excursions with a visitor made for little time in the kitchen. I did pick lemons this morning and filled my new idea of a space saving lemon-picking basket. I made this basket extra long, 13 lemons tall, and thin, a one lemon diameter, to hang in the squeezed confines of my small house syndrome kitchen. Check out the 45rpm plastic disc thingies on the sides of the basket rim. I plucked these from my parents' basement on my last trip home. Think Twist.

Let's see....workout or bake muffins...work out or...BAKE MUFFINS! Got my new cookbooks from Amazon and had to try out the blueberry muffin recipe in Tate's Bake Shop by Kathleen King. A tasty airy quick and easy bundle of miss muffet's blueberry tuffets spilled out of my pan and into my basket to carry to work. (I'll just work out twice as hard tomorrow morning.)

Mother's Day bacon, onion, spinach, french bread puddingish frittataish dishydish. A little sprink of tiny tasty thyme leaves snatched fresh out of our front yard garden added zip to the dooda. I tried out my new, old french baking dish I found at the flea market (those little bumpy salt dishes which were a bonus from the vendor who also sold alot of old easels and wooden art boxes of which I bought a few, too.)

These Latin-inspired brownies sure ain't your everyday betty crockers. Just imagine their deep dark flavor specked with lots of earthy toasted pecans and gooey chocolate chips bobbing atop a thick rich chocolate sea. With each bite your mouth is filled with the slow low hum of sultry secrets.(Arlen's toasted pecan brownies:VIVA la VIDA by Rafael Palomino and Arlen Gargagliano)

Ran home to walk Mr. Sleepy and layer a little garlic toast, parmesan, marinara and fried egg for a yummy runny crunchy spicy Continental noon soire.

HOMEMADE Vanilla bean chocolate chip ice cream, ganache sauce and fresh strawberries. 'Nuf sed.

Dave's cake. Orange Pecan Bread baked to perfection, opening up it's burnt sienna crust to soak in the dripping sugary citrus glaze. He's got the Midas touch. (recipe is in the Siver Palate)

Sunday 8:12 pm and there is so much left to do before work tomorrow. Hard to believe the weekend is almost gone. Hooray for the rain that we all complained about. The trail up Sweeny Ridge was paved with about a million colorful wildflowers. I have some sandwiched in between the pages of my thickest art book and I can't wait to open up the book in a week and begin my wildflower notebook with the first pressings of the season. Dinner Saturday night was compliments of my friend Carol and her husband Tim. Vegetarian never tasted this good. As Tim says, Carol wants to be Italian. I awarded her an honorary distinction due to her nonna ways. Deep flavors surfaced in her roasted potatoes and asparagus with parmesan, homemade foccacia with just the right amount of herbs and crunch, and a puffy light egg, herb, spinach, cheese frittata with that golden edge climbing up the baking dish. Grazie infinite Carol and Tim for a completely satisfying bella notte.

Simple supper. We were going to go out for Cuban, but we decided to head home to Mr. Sleepy and a let's see what we can doo for dinnero in our cupboardo. A wild combination of roasted peppers and cabbage and radishes and onions and roasted garlic and jicama and pears and corn and black beans and tomatoes and lime juice and spices jumped into a bowl and pretended to be salsa dressing for peppered sliced turkey on the hot baguettes I kneaded and rose and baked as soon as I got home from work where picking about 50 new 2008 dog calendar covers is an out of body experience. Arf Arf. Dave wrapped the extra loaves in aluminum foil bringing shades of Buck Rogers floating across my mind. I set up this wooden aluminum still life as a tribute to all the space cadets on earth. Happiness runs in a circular motion.

At 7:00 am I dumped(that's kitchen talk, in this instance it means to carefully scoop) the sugared fruits into a big pot(not big enough) and boiled it for about 45 minutes until it reached about 200 degrees(jelly stage on my candy thermometer) (Check out the sherbert pink and peach foam oozing over the pot rim!) I knew then that this jam was gonna be somethin' preety special so instead of my canning jars I spooned the bam jam into my French jelly glasses. I grabbed a jar to share with my worky friends and left for work...a little early so i could stop at the grocery and pick up 2 Ciabatta loaves and a little pillow of goat cheese. This is how it works: One slice of bread, pile on goat cheese, spread nice chunky bam jam on top and sprinkle with black PEPPER and bite! Groovy way to start your day.....

Read all about it! Tomorrow morning there will be a sweet JAM in San Mateo. Strawberries, pineapples and orange slices covered in sugar will mingle overnight sharing their sweet and tangy. Tomorrow morning things will heat up and flavas will boil and hopefully we'll get four sparkly sunny glasses of gobbly goolicious stawberry pineapple conserve.

My backyard garden is charmed. Despite the winter months of neglect, my little perennials hung on to hope. As soon as the weather warmed up, I peeked around the corner and those poor little orphans had miraculously grown big and beautiful. The scented geraniums burst forth in a glorious reddy-purpley-pinky explosion of perfumed blooms. The effusive banana bread joined the flowers to shout out loud about Spring!

Wow! ooooh! oooh! aaahhhh!
indescribably light, chocolatey, nutty, soft, melty, velvety, Anne cake. Our multi-talented friend, Anne, artist, designer, seamstress, web master, painter, BAKER, conjured up this magnificent flourless chocolate hazelnut beauty to celebrate Doolittle's birthday. This is absolutely the best cake I have ever had the very good fortune to have put in my mouth! Thank you Annie chocolatta bumbalassa!