The Mystery at Oyster Point

I am very excited to announce that the next Mick Malone Mystery is now published

 and available on Amazon.  The Mystery at Oyster Point, the fourth in the series, takes place primarily in San Francisco.  Oyster Point is on the shore of San Francisco Bay, near South San Francisco.  Once home to abundant oyster farms, this area is now a beautiful little marina with a lovely park and a ferry terminal.  On the shore, the quiet fishing businesses have long since given way to large buildings that house multinational biotech companies.  But the area maintains its beauty and charm.

 After completing a security job in London, Mick Malone and his partner, Jock McDuff are anxious to get back to Scotland for a little rest and relaxation. But Mick’s plans are diverted, when he gets a ransom note. Someone has kidnapped Dr. Finfrock, an orange tabby cat that an ex- roommate left with Mick when she moved out. The kidnapper has instructed Mick to meet him at the Ferry Building in San Francisco if he wants to see the cat alive. Flying to San Francisco, Mick finds the kidnapper and is pulled into a much deeper plot, one that skirts the darker side of prescription drug trials.

For more about this book, visit  My Website  

Start Your Summer!!

What is the first thing avid Weight Watchers do when it comes to a three day weekend?  Why we plan the menu of course!  Day one: Burgers; Day two: Barbequed Chicken; Day three: Ribs.   And yes, you can have all of that on Weight Watchers, although it's not quite advisable that you drink a bottle of wine while you're preparing it.  So Julie, my sister, and I poured ourselves a bourbon and gingerale instead.  We actually decided to spread the meal out over a couple of hours by eating in courses.  Here's a recap of our Friday night feast:

For appetizers, we made stuffed cherry tomatoes.  This is a WW recipe that we tried for the first time last week and we loved it.  Scoop out tomatoes, fill with a teaspoon of crumbled bleu cheese and then sprinkle with finely chopped bacon bits and chives.  Two stuffed cherry tomatoes or one stuffed cocktail tomato is only one point.  Absolutely delicious.

For the second course, we made a caesar salad of sorts with baked shrimp.  We took romaine leaves, very lightly dressed them with a combination of bottled caesar dressing (Girard's) and low fat italian.  I like combining the two, as the dressing is not so thick.  Then we shaved parmesan cheese on it and served it with little cheese toasts.   For the baked shrimp, we marinated it in lemon juice, garlic and a little olive oil.  We drizzled about 2 tablespoons of clarified butter on it and  baked it in 400 degree oven for about 7 minutes.  Again, this was really delicious.

We never quite got to the hamburgers even though that was supposed to be the star of the show.  We had planned on makinng little sliders.  But honestly, we just weren't hungry, so we stopped.  Now that is a novel idea!!!!  Half an hour later we did have a bit of blackberry fool.  But it really paled by comparison to the other dishes.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!  Let's all take a little time this weekend to remember our troops!  

Oh, and stay tuned.  BBQ Chicken and Corn tonight!

Ranch #2....Ed Saves the Day

Babers is an outdoor cat that lives on Chris' ranch.  Maybe Babers is going to miss the ranch more than any of us.  Miss Babers is a good mouser and a good birder (unfortunately). And she seems completely comfortable in the "wild" where the coyotes prowl.  But she did some wandering while I was visiting.

Chris: "I haven't seen the cat in two days."
Me: "Maybe she's just hiding in the garage."
Chris: "No.  She hasn't touched her food or used her cat box."
Ed: "Hmmph."
Chris: "I'm really worried that she's hurt."
Me: "C'mon, let's go find her."

So, Chris and I wander all around the ranch, calling out for Baby.  Well, Chris calls, I stay silent because as Chris says, Babers is very shy and won't come to anyone but her.  We search.  We look in the blackberry patch, the meadow, down by the creek, the skunk hill.  No Babers.  We come back up toward the house and the deck out back.  I am looking under the deck, next to the pool.  No Babers.  But then, Chris stops.

Chris: "You don't suppose she could get stuck down this post, do you?"

Me: "Down this skinny post?  Did she like to climb on the gazebo?

Chris: "I don't think so.  But listen.  There's definitely something stuck in this post......ED!!!!"

And twenty minutes later, after Ed took the gazebo apart, the bird was free.  Yes, I got a picture of the bird.  It flew right past me on the right and then on the left and then fluttered right in front of me, confused as it was. When it got its bearings it dashed off to the almond tree in the picture below.

I know, I know.  You can't see it?   In all my excitement, I was madly trying to get the picture as the bird flew first one way and then the other.  Photography will never be my forte.  But trust me he's there.....and Ed is a hero.

Oh, and the cat?  Chris found her sleeping soundly in the garage the next morning. Ed: 5;  Babers: 1; Chris and Sallee: 0.

Goodbye, Ranch.....#1

My sister and brother-in-law bought a beautiful 10 acre parcel in the Sierra Foothills over 15 years ago.  It had always been their dream to live in the country.  I remember that the whole family loved that land even before their house was built.  We used to go up for picnics.  Our dad pulled his camping trailer up there and parked it under a lovely stand of oaks right on the edge of the creek and for the first few years, Chris, my sister and her husband Ed, would camp out there.  We all had dreams of eventually building cabins on the property and having a place where we could "get away from it all".  Chris and Ed did build their house and moved up there a few years later.  But we are all getting older and this year they decided to leave the ranch and move back into a smaller, more manageable home. So I took one last trip up to the ranch to visit it the last time and say "goodbye". 

The photo on the left is their driveway.  It curves up to the left and if you look carefully you can see the cars parked in front of the garage.  A six car garage, by the way, that housed Ed's shop and tractors as well as Chris' framing business.  The photo on the right side gives you an idea of the view from their kitchen windows.  They wisely built a kitchen that was all windows and a view all the way to the Sierras in the distance. 

 Our dad liked to sit under this big black oak tree.  The land has many live oaks and a lot of almond trees from an old orchard.  But only a few black oaks.  This big old tree is next to the creek on one side and a large blackberry thicket on the other side.  All kinds of birds and other critters (some might call them varmints) live in that thicket.  At one point, Chris and Ed had a picnic table sitting under that tree.  In the summer, when the weather is hot, hot, hot, that is the coolest place on the ranch.  The deep shade, along with the gentle sound of the creek bubbling by, just made you feel cooler.  When I took this picture, yesterday, I could still see Daddy sitting there.  And then a family of quails scurried out of the thicket and added to the  happy memories.

Sometime after Dad died, Mom's health started failing.  Toward the end, she dreamed of building a house up on this hill.  From up on top, you can see for miles in all directions.  She never lived to see the house built, but the dream kept her going for many months.

This is a really special place and I will truly miss it.  The land is beautiful, the wildlife plentiful.  Deer, turkeys, skunks, squirrels,  hundreds of species of birds.  The neighbors have horses and cattle that you can see from Chris' kitchen window.  We always loved watching the new calves' first adventure into the fields in the spring.  Melissa, my niece, used to name them.  Last night, my last night ever on the ranch, we heard a coyote that couldn't have been more than thirty or forty yards from the house.  I took a ton of pictures and will share in future posts some of the other memories and stories about the ranch, including the most recent one, which happened yesterday, when Ed saved a trapped bird.  Stay tuned!!

And Speaking of Dinner....

Well, not really dinner....Lunch.  Big lunch.  The last couple of days have been very hot.  "September" hot.  Not at all like the end of April.  When it's hot in the valley, we often head for the ocean.  Yesterday my husband suggested we go to one of our new favorites for lunch.  Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing.

Moss Landing is a really small town about half-way between Santa Cruz and Monterey.  It is the gateway to the Monterey Canyon which is one of the deepest undersea canyons in the Pacific.  Unmanned submarines, funded jointly by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, explore the canyon. The town itself has a population of only 200 people.  It's most famous landmark is the power plant which is really quite an eyesore.  But it has a beautiful marina and wide, sandy beaches.

I've driven by Moss Landing a hundred times on my painting trips to Carmel and have even painted at the marina in Moss Landing a couple of times (One of them below).  What's really remarkable is that I just "discovered" Phil's Fish Market a couple of weeks ago.  It has won numerous awards, has been featured on many restaurant shows and Phil actually beat Bobby Flay in a Cioppino throwdown.

The menu is huge.  The portions are big.  The seafood is fresh and delicious.  Oh, and it's a real fish market as well, so you can stop and get really fresh fish to take home.  On your way out of town, stop at the Whole Enchilada Market Place.  It's a deli, wine shop, a coffee shop, and produce stand.  It's right off Highway One.  Or just go and sit on the uncrowded, peaceful beach.  It's a short drive south from Santa Cruz or north from Monterey.  Don't miss it.