Early Thanksgiving

Sometimes great things happen in the kitchen with no planning. My wife had gone shopping at Monterey Market and came home with Full Belly Farm Nante carrots, some lettuces, morels, Persian cucumbers, pea shoots, asparagus and Meyer lemons. Not knowing what she was getting, I brought home artichokes from Nunez Farm and nectarines, peaches, and pluots from Lone Oak Ranch at my hospital farmers market.

The critical ingredient was our son who has just returned to California to get married and then start his training at my medical center. He is really good in the kitchen. An hour and a half later we sat down to:

• Braised artichoke hearts done with shallots, garlic, carrots, white wine, and lemon juice
• Carrots boiled in water with raw sugar and a teaspoon of butter finished with pea shoots
• Roasted asparagus with feta Morels sauteed with garlic, white wine, and lemon
• A salsa for brined, pan-roasted fish made from peaches, nectarines, cucumbers, red onion, wildflower honey, and jalapeno
• Crostini with Point Reyes blue cheese and Marlene Gonzalez' white nectarines drizzled with a mixture of balsamic vinegar and honey
• Red leaf lettuce salad with peas shoots and a white wine vinaigrette

It will just get better when his fiancée joins us later today.