Kathleen Hill: Gift cards, holiday meals, MFK Fisher writing contest

The morning after…

We’re surviving the strangest Thanksgiving ever, overwhelmed with (or ignoring) frightening warnings, fewer family members, less food, dining outside in 64 degrees, and yet we have lots to be thankful and grateful for.

We are here and we are alive, and hopefully everyone found a warm meal.

We have several fun and exciting happenings coming up to cheer us all up in the next few weeks, hopefully with proper social distancing and masks.

Restaurants are open, at least outside

Another reason we are fortunate is that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s so-called curfew only limits dining between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and few of our restaurants and bars are even open that late here in “Slownoma.”

When things were “normal,” so to speak, the Girl & the Fig, Tasca Tasca and Oso were known to stay open late (along with Black Bear Diner), with many late working restaurant employees indulging in after work hunger. Others I have known used to make a beeline to Sonoma Market to pick up pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to “cleanse their palates” after cooking, chopping or cleaning on their feet for hours in a hot kitchen.

So since Sonoma’s sidewalks roll up pretty early, the new curfew doesn’t mean much here and won’t do much to curb the virus.

Holiday gift cards

In these unusual times, there are ways to give gifts that help others. You can purchase food or gift cards from local restaurants and wineries to help them struggle through those same regulations and warnings. Or order takeout food.

If you can’t decide on a cookbook or other gift for someone, shop locally and purchase a gift card from Sonoma Community Center for a cooking class or other virtual lesson, Sign of the Bear, Williams-Sonoma or Readers’ Books. All will provide safe pickup arrangements.

Let’s support our neighbors in business to keep our community going.

Three Fat Guys holiday winemaker dinner

This menu sounds very good, and it’s next Saturday, Dec. 5.

Fat Guy Tony Moll and winemaker and another Sonoman, Jim McMahon, will host a holiday dinner with Erik Lowe of Belfare catering preparing the food to go with McMahon’s wines.

Three Fat Guys has a lovely tented patio in back.

The menu includes welcoming bites of a crudo with California caviar, local citrus, and New Harvest olive oil and a butternut squash poke with Asian pear, toasted sesame and Korean chili.

The first seated course will be lobster bisque with oyster crackers, followed by beef Wellington with Swiss chard, horseradish from Little Paradise Farm (end of East Napa Street), and thyme jus. Dessert is chocolate cake with brandied cherries and whipped cream. Erik Lowe is former owner-chef of Maybeck’s in San Francisco. $155 including wines. 6 p.m. Reserve at tfgwines.com.

Lisa Lavagetto’s virtual make-ahead holiday meal

Speaking of Beef Wellington, former Ramekins Cooking School Manager Lisa Lavagetto and former Ramekins Kitchen Manager Julie Steinfeld give a fabulous sounding Beef Wellington virtual cooking class Saturday, Dec. 5 courtesy of the Sonoma Community Center, Saturday, Nov. 5.

You can purchase all of the ingredients and create the meal in your own home as Lisa and Julie demonstrate making it at the Community Center, or you can simply sign up, get the recipes and instructions, watch and make it on your own time whenever you want.

The Dec. 5 menu you will learn to make includes mini Beef Wellington with gorgonzola and mushrooms, green salad with roasted beets and goat cheese; and a gingerbread roll with crystalized ginger whipped cream. You will learn how to make all of this for just $25, and find the supply list on the Community Center’s website, but you have to search.

Since Ramekins no longer has a culinary school or gives cooking classes, this is a rare opportunity to learn. Lavagetto has appeared on Guy’s Grocery Games, won five gold medals and Best of Show at the Sonoma Harvest Fair, teaches at College of Marin’s Indian Valley campus (virtually now), and runs the food competition stage at the Marin County Fair.

Julie Steinfeld graduated from Tulane University, worked as a pastry chef and chef in New York restaurants, and has worked in catering for many years. Together Lavagetto and Steinfeld have formed Sonoma Food Gurus catering and cooking classes in private homes.

This class is hard to find on sonomacommunitycenter.org. On the front page, scroll down to Culinary Classes, and find the link to this class below the wine tasting class which happens two weeks later in December. $25. 1 to 2:30 p.m. 938-4626. 276 E. Napa St., Sonoma.

Soroptimists selling See’s candy

Hot on their success in selling 444 lobsters from Maine to finance scholarships for young women, Soroptimists are at it again.

This time they are selling See’s candy by order.

See’s candy has been a long Sonoma tradition. I first remember See’s candy being sold by the “Pink Ladies” volunteers at Sonoma Valley Hospital. When that ended, the Shone and Downing families owned Sonoma Market where they sold See’s candy to benefit the hospital auxiliary and eventually moved the charity recipients among other nonprofits.

Now in steps Sonoma Soroptimists to rescue the day for See’s candy fans.

This year they offer their classic lollypops, dark chocolate turkeys, boxes of assorted chocolates, and pumpkin pie truffles including pumpkin pie, cranberry orange, apple pie and pecan pie.

As part of See’s new “Yumraising” program, club member Maida Herbst says that all of the candy costs the same price as at See’s retail stores, with 20 percent going to Soroptimists for their scholarship program. Candy is shipped for free for orders over $65, and “a minimal fee for under $65.” To order, go to https:/rb.gy/pmixtr or email Maida at MaidaRHIA@aol.com.

Sonoma Grille update

Nima Sherpa happily relays that his Sonoma Grille has a fully covered and heated patio and is open every day but Monday for happy hour and dinner from 3 to 9 p.m. Reservations are required due to limited space, but quality remains high.

Nima also says they are open for lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and for brunch on Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Check out Sonoma Grille menus at sonomagrilleandbar.com.

Lori Goldman’s fruitcakes at Chateau Sonoma

I am not a fruitcake fan, but when I had one of Lori Goldman’s a few years ago, I couldn’t stop eating it. Probably partly because she makes them right here in Sonoma. And, yes, she is also the famous knitter.

Using mostly organic ingredients, Goldman includes raisins, dates, prunes, figs, dried cherries, apricots, walnuts and pecans, unbleached flour, brown sugar, molasses, butter, eggs, spices and brandy.

I can attest that Lori and husband Avram Goldman are both great cooks.

She says, “I’ve been making variations of the cake since 1967, inspired by my mother’s baking family. They had bakeries in Poland and Brooklyn, New York called Lowen’s. So in honor of my uncle Liebiel, who died in the Holocaust, I call them Lowen’s holiday cakes.” One pound fruitcake $40, 1.5 pound fruitcake $48 at Chateau on the Square, 453 First St., W., Sonoma. 309-1993.

MFK Fisher writing awards

Audubon Canyon Ranch (ACR), where David Pleydell-Bouverie built MFK Fisher’s “Last House,” recently held their first MFK Fisher Last House Writing Contest.

“Writers were asked to explore the connection between environmental conservation, science and nature, food and drink, and the cultures surrounding them. Many wrote about COVID-19, their gardens, and the wildfires,” according to Wendy Cox of ACR.

While MFK Fisher always said she didn’t want to be categorized as a food writer, many people saw her work that way.

The nearly 30 entries came from Sonoma and as far away as Hamtramack, Michigan.

Among the adult winners were “Love Letter to an Empty Lot” by Rachel Reed of Michigan, “Sandwiched” by Peter Albert, Lorelle Saxena’s untitled work, and “Tending Tomatoes” by April D’avila. Natalie Sandoval’s “Local Eats” won in the youth category. In the children’s category, Josh Cohen came in first and won the all-around grand prize, followed by Sonoma’s Vivien Cuneo’s untitled work, and “Environmental Conservation” by William Francis Stoltzfus of Walnut Creek came in third.

Grand prize winner was the children’s entry called “Rain” by Josh Cohen of Alameda.

After hearing he had won the grand prize, Josh Cohen reportedly told his father it would “take a few days to feel normal again.” Judge Michelle Anna Jordan said his entry had a “beautiful poetic sensibility.” The grand prize was a two-night stay at a waterfront house at Bodega Bay.

Other judges included food and wine consultant and organizer Clark Wolf, Ruth Reichl, Harold McGee, Leena Trivedi-Grenier, Elizabeth Fishel, MFK Fisher’s daughter Kennedy Golden, former Sunset magazine food editor Jerry DiVecchio, Jonathan London and Alice Waters.

Read all of the entries at egret.org/writing-contest-winners-announced. More next year.