Christina Waters

Don’t miss Tandy Beal’s HEREAFTERHERE: A Self-Guided Tour of Eternity
September 10-12 at the Cabrillo Crocker Theatre
in Aptos, California. For tickets.

Food by India Joseph Schultz. Music that spans the sensuous cosmos of flamenco. Dance, song, guitar, and exotic dishes - make plans for this splendid entertainment, Raices Flamencas dinner theater evening ($50) 418 Front St. on Saturday, September 11, 7pm; or come on Sunday September 12 at 6pm for just the show ($20. Tickets available at the Brown Paper Tickets website. Details at The 418 Front Street site, or at 831.466.9770.

More about this intriguing evening. Spanish-Moorish cuisine More…

You only need to know two words.

Caramel Almond.

Still high on a flavor-intensive sampling of handmade, all-organic chocolate ice cream from Mission Hill Creamery, I need to figure out how I’m going to live until my next visit to the five-week old ice cream mecca. Scooped up by chef/owner David Kumec himself, the samples absolutely knocked me out. I was treated to a strawberry ice cream with actual, deep summer ripe strawberry flavor. Then something tart and nostalgic called Orange Creamcicle (tastes just like it sounds!).

Next came the chocolate, loaded with artisanal chocolate bits amidst its sinfully dark chocolate creaminess. Yes, everything is organic! But somehow Kumec had saved the best taste for last. Pistachio. Pistachio the way it must have tasted in the Garden of Eden. Deeply earthily nutty, and yet like butter in its texture. I literally groaned right there in front of his fully-loaded ice cream display.

The flavors change daily More…

The pizza crust was parchment-thin and addictively delicious. The handmade salume assortment might have brought any Genovese to his knees. And the delicate cannelloni, slathered with roasted heirloom tomatoes and filled with ricotta. Oh!

La Posta, on Tuesdays, when the fiercely romantic melodies of Italian folktunes by Emily and Paul Rangell make you want to never go home, is by now enshrined in the hearts of local diners who acknowledge the economy, but still refuse to compromise.

Catherine Stern’s kitchen continues to conquer.

We four began with a shared pizza More…

The Penny Ice Creamery opens today! And for devotées of the very finest, organic, artesanal ice cream that is a very good thing. (The tempting image, left, is by photographer Molly Watson.)
(I stopped by and inhaled a cup of Brown Butter Pecan ice cream lavish with eggs, butter and cream.)

Housed at 913 Cedar Street in the handsomely renovated Mission Revival suite across from Gabriella (former doctor’s offices as many locals might recall), The Penny Ice Creamery is a new entrepreneurial venture from former Manresa pastry chef Kendra Baker and partner Zachary Davis. The two bring backgrounds deep in environmental business and finance (Davis’ UCSC background and subsequent MBA), as well as international culinary training in Wales, France, Boston and San Francisco.

Merging their skills and interests, the two arrived logically enough at the concept of small batch, local, seasonal and yes, organic ice creams, complete with designer flavors and toppings. And coffee drinks featuring fresh-roasted Verve coffees.
Open from noon daily (except for Monday) the Penny Ice Creamery is about to become your new warm weather hangout. Rush over and welcome them to the downtown community of places to pamper your palate.

The Penny Ice Creamery - 913 Cedar Street - 831/204-2523.

A plea to cable TV talk hosts!  Just stop it!

I have had to assume for the past year that the incessant updates on CNN and FOX news about the lifestyle status of Lindsay Lohan is purely comic relief. After all what with a tanking economy, horrific Mexican mafia revelations, Afghani human rights abuses, our government’s interminable vacations, and the BP oil disaster, there is much we need to escape. But Lindsay Lohan? A non-talent nobody with a drug problem? Please! It’s no longer high irony to track this poor human being’s wasted efforts at getting her father’s attention via drugs, pornographic photo shoots, public weeping and rapid reversals of hair color.

Enough. Just stop it!

And while you’re at it, CNN, FOX, People Magazine, et al., please stop returning the phone calls, text messages and emails of Jennifer Aniston’s publicist. No one cares about the surgically-altered former Mrs. Pitt. More…

The place was Fort Mason.

The day was perfect — a blend of fog and brilliant sunlight playing tag with the Golden Gate bridge in the distance.

The excuse was the American Craft Council design show and a chance to learn some tricks of the trade from my designer buddy Kate.

After feasting on handmade jewelry and textiles from the top artisans in the country, we cooled our heels (along with throngs of visitors) at Greens, where I’m happy to say both food and service at the legendary restaurant have never been better.

We started with a shared plate of warm grilled Blossom Bluff Farm peaches, shown here with Bellwether fromage blanc, More…

UC Santa Cruz offers a Fall Gardening Workshop on Saturday, August 28, from 10am until 1pm.

Planting a late-summer garden is a great way to save money on your fall and winter grocery bills, so come get some tips on growing a great fall and winter vegetable garden. Join gardener Trish Hildinger for a lecture/demo on “Planting the Thanksgiving Feast” at the UC Santa Cruz Farm on Saturday, August 28 from 10 am to 1 pm.

Included in the workshop will be information on vegetables that perform well in the Monterey Bay region, direct seeding and transplanting techniques, and soil preparation for fall planting.

Cost of the workshop is $15 for members of the Friends of the UCSC Farm and Garden, and $20 for the general public, More…

From Loma Prieta Winery comes a statuesque red wine made from rarely-encountered Pinotage grapes, grown in the Sierra foothills.

The locally-made Pinotage — a varietal usually associated with South Africa and produced in only a handful of North American vineyards—is an opulent tipple indeed, offering enough tannic structure to handle its profusion of cassis, ripe plum, black pepper and sassafras. We loved this wine with bolognese and Italian sausage, but on second thought this out-sized wine cries out for steak.

Wine consultant Laura Ness sums it up as, “Pinot Noir on steroids.” This is a good thing.

Exotic and accessible, the Loma Prieta Pinotage 2008 is available at the mountaintop winery, and at Vinocruz ($45).