Kathleen Hill: Cochon Volant weekend and crab season unshells...

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Pig out at Cochon ?Volant this weekend

Rob Larman is offering half off your entire bill Friday through Sunday to celebrate his first year with Sonoma Valley’s only surviving real barbecue joint. Great kale and wedge salads as well, and don’t miss Lizzie’s cookies. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 18350 Highway 12, Boyes Hot Springs. 509-5480. Cochonvolantbbq.com.

Dungeness crab ?season opens part way

The recreational crab season has opened, with real fans and sport crabbers reserving campsites and spots a year ago and hanging over coastal piers, hoping that last year’s disastrous season didn’t repeat itself.

State health officials have warned consumers “to remove the body cavity including the guts or viscera from crabs caught north of Point Reyes before cooking.” Apparently the toxins would be in that part of the crab.

Commercial crabbers are hoping for the go-ahead next week, assuming the toxins are under control.

Potter Green extravaganza at Cornerstone

Nina Gerety and Tom Wright will stage a “Celebration of Color & Light … and Jazz” at the green barn just east of the Sunset gardens at Cornerstone this Sunday, Nov. 13 from 1 to 4 p.m. Gerety’s Potter Green & Co. is a garden concept shop that combines elegance and a certain funkiness from water features to clothes and imported bells to call the kids for dinner.

Gerety says, “The magic of color and light are what many people first experience when they visit our amazing Sonoma Valley.”

Artists featured include Nancy Granger, “who is obsessed with the interplay of water and light,” according to Gerety. Granger also has represented the artwork of several big name musicians as well and, incidentally, is married to Cline and Jacuzzi winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos. Photographer Don Kellogg of Marin, a winner of many international photography awards, will show his view of light and shadow through his camera lens, as textile artist Susan Stark weaves earth colors into landscapes.

Sip Cline wines to the music of well-known international jazz greats Mad & Eddie Duran. Free. 23586 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. 996-8888.

Sonoma cookbook ?authors at Ferry Plaza

Paula Wolfert, Laurie Figone and Cowgirl Creamery’s Sue Conley and Peggy Smith will be signing their cookbooks at San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Sunday afternoon along with some of the country’s other best women chefs in the Les Dames d’Escoffier San Francisco chapter’s “Literary Feast.”

Each author will provide tastes from their books including the great Diana Kennedy, Leslie Sbrocco, Jerry Anne Di Vecchio, Renee M. Shepherd, Tanya Holland, Margo True, Ann Evans, Dorie Greenspan, Linda Carucci, Amy Guittard, Joyce Goldstein, Georgeanne Brennan, Linda Lau Anusasananan and myself. Sales via Book Passage benefit LDEI scholarships for young women culinary students and writers. $10, culinary students $5. 3 to 6 p.m. Tickets at cellarpass.com/a-literary-feast-tickets-1801.

Ramekins class openings

Sign up quickly for a hands-on “Soup it Up” class Thursday, Nov. 17 with Jill Silverman Hough from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Pierre Lagourge’s “Delicieux French Cooking” demo Friday Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., a hands-on Japanese Cooking with Tea with Donna Lo on Sunday, Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a fun hands-on parent and child class with Hollie Green on Sunday, Nov. 20 from 3 to 6 p.m. More info at ramekins.com.

Winery notes

Several sources say Jaymie Powers will move her sparkling Sigh champagne and sparkling wine room to West Napa Street just east of Tasca Tasca. Manuel Azevedo, who serves small plates of food from the Azores, is excited about her arrival, which will be good for everyone in that block, especially when the Andersons’ hotel is built.

The site used to be an interesting antiques collective when Stuart Teitelbaum started his Homegrown Baking bagel shop where Tasca Tasca is today. Still one of the best deals in town, Teitelbaum serves great bagels and sumptuous sandwiches in his Marketplace location.

Windee Smith and business partner Chad Richards have morphed her former Valley Wine Shack into an unusual, elegant and very selective Panel wine club and shop. An ever-changing group of winemakers, sommeliers, and experts blind-taste from among the finalists and rate them on the Davis 20-point wine tasting system. According to Smith, “This process creates a unique synergy resulting in wines being chosen for their elevated quality and drinkability, rather than labels or marketing prowess.” To join the club, contact info@panelwines.com or 938-7152. 535 W. Napa St., Sonoma. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and by appointment Saturday and Sunday. Freixenet USA recently launched a new brand, WindVane, referring to the wonderful wind that blows through the western Carneros Region. Freixenet’s Gloria Ferrer vineyards and winery are on the west side of Arnold Drive south of Sonoma. They start with a 2014 WindVane Carneros Reserve Pinot Noir ($80) from their 335 acres of east-facing vineyards across from Cornerstone. Only 100 cases of the pinot will be available selectively. Next year they will release 3,000 cases of WindVane Estate-Grown Chardonnay and Pinot Noir nationally. Winemaker Steven Urberg got to create freely, utilizing the windiest vines on he property, as well as the steepest, rockiest and thinnest soil on the property.

Thanksgiving pie ordering

If you want to help teenagers trying to help themselves, check out Teen Services’ Lovin’ Oven’s fifth annual holiday pie sale, all made this year under the guidance of Anastatia Chiurco, who is also a blacksmith at her Steel Geisha ironworks and has taught welding at Hanna Boys Center. The Holiday Pie Sale raises funds to support the Teen Center’s mission “to engage and support teens and young adults with work-readiness skills and experiences that empower them to succeed,” according to Emilia Donovan. All Lovin’ Oven pies are nine-inch and include flavors such as pumpkin ($15), cranberry apple ($17), and pecan ($17). Watch for Teen Services Lovin’ Oven Holiday Cookie Boxes in early December. You must order before 5 p.m. Nov. 16. And pick-up are Tuesday, Nov. 22 from 5 to 7 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 23 from 12 noon to 7 p.m. Order at teenservicessonoma.org or call 939-1452.

Ramekins Culinary Center offers a variety of upscale desserts including a salted caramel Gravenstein apple pie ($27), spiced butter pecan bread pudding with vanilla bourbon Anglaise $28), gingerbread and pear roulade ($25), pumpkin chocolate marble cheesecake ($28), and a Thanksgiving Cookie Dozen of ginger spice cutouts, cranberry oatmeal, and sea salt and chocolate chip cookies ($18). Order at ramekins.com, click on shop at bottom of page, or call 933-0450 to order by Nov. 21. Pick up Nov. 23 starting at 10 a.m. 450 W. Napa St., Sonoma.

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