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A Bolinas Herbal Sunset
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Blog Posts Cocktails, Mocktails, Bitters & Mixers Fall Herbal Nibbles USA

A Bolinas Herbal Sunset

August 6, 2019

A Bolinas Herbal Sunset

AUGUST 6th 2019

Join me for special evening at the Peace Barn in Bolinas on September 7th, 2019. The 27th Annual Benefit Art Auction & Party is one of West Marin’s most coveted events.  The event, which benefits the Bolinas Museum, is the largest and most important fundraiser of the year for the museum and attracts some of the most generous and caring members of our community, all of whom appreciate the importance of art and supporting the local art scene.

The evening begins with a social cocktail hour followed by a live auction featuring artwork generously donated by a diverse section of coastal Marin and Bay Area artists and galleries.  A fully catered and lively party follows the auction.

The mission of the Bolinas Museum is to collect, preserve, and exhibit the art and history of coastal Marin and to present exhibitions and events that provide inspiration and cultural enrichment to residents and visitors alike.

Get Tickets to the Event
27th Annual Benefit Art Auction & Party
Peace Barn
Saturday September 7th, 2019
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bolinas, California

I will be donating some of my own culinary art in the form of a special cocktail soiree for 12 adults. The magical event will happen at my home on the big mesa, just above the cliffs of Agate Beach at sunset. The event will unfold during this upcoming late fall or early winter, when the magical sunsets are abundant and most vibrant.  The menu will feature a bevy of herbaceously forward libations and a buffet of tantalizing nibbles, all of which will use local, organic, sustainable and fairly traded good and products, as is my signature style.

Depending on the timing various local farms and food artisans will be featured in the menu development.

All guests will leave satiated and accompanied by a small pouch of my signature seasonal herb finishing salt.

Guests are allowed to bring their own wine to accompany the cocktails and mocktails if they desire. Most food allergies and preferences can be accommodated if known well in advance. Purchaser must inform me at time of booking of dietary choices.

Date: Dates to be determined (in advance by 3 weeks) between purchaser and Nissa as scheduling permits, any Friday, Saturday or Sunday between September 27th and December 14th.

Time: 3 hours – Date will determine time for sunset hours.

Sample Menu:

Herbal Libations
Non-alcoholic
Verbena Lemon Fizz
Winter Herb Pear Cider
Satsuma Cranberry Sage Punch

With booze
Meyer Lemon & California Bay Leaf Prosecco
Apple Thyme Side Car
Pomegranate Sage Manhattan
Grapefruit Lavender Paloma with Salt

Herbal Nibbles
Local vegetable Crudité Plate with Nissa’s Red Dandelion Goddess Dip
Blue Cheese Pear Crostini with Rosemary Honey
Lamb Meatballs- Mint Chimichurri
Wild Mushrooms with Pesto Butter and Toast
Chard, Feta & Herb Phyllo Parcels
Winter Beet Tart with Goat Cheese, Herbs and Thyme Salt
Meyer Lemon Lavender Pound Cake
Rustic Pear Tart with Riesling Winter Herb Syrup
California Red Walnut Tart with Sage Crust, Crème Fresh and Thyme Grape Honey Drizzle

About the Bolinas Museum

Founded in 1983, the Bolinas Museum is the premier fine arts museum in Marin County. Stimulating the appreciation of visitors from all over the world, the museum reflects regional history and interests and presents the rich talent pool of artists from Coastal Marin as well as nationally acclaimed contemporary art. Admission to the Bolinas Museum is free to all, as are many of our cultural events. Special fundraising events occur throughout the year including the annual Art Auction and the holiday benefit exhibition, both offering for sale exceptional work from well-known Bay Area artists.

The Museum is composed of five galleries and the Wintersteen Courtyard. The Main Gallery offers exhibitions of contemporary art and history. The Helene Sturdivant Mayne Photography Gallery presents exhibitions of diverse fine art photography, and regional artists are featured in the Coastal Marin Artists Gallery. The Margaret Duncan Greene Gallery hosts selections from the museum’s permanent fine art collection from the 1800s to the present. The Floyd Russell Family History Room details the history of the area with photographs, documents and objects from the extensive collections in the Museum’s archive. One wall is reserved for changing displays of regional interest.

Nissa Pierson is a cooking teacher, recipe developer, and small business consultant specializing in local, organic, sustainable, and fairly traded produce. She has worked in organic agricultural and the fresh herb industry on both the agricultural and culinary sectors for over 20 years. She is a noted herb expert and founder of Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center and Herbal Roots. Her years of herb knowledge and passion for fresh herbs makes her an excellent teacher and source of herb inspiration. She travels the globe in her agricultural work and spends a lot of time eating in the kitchens/homes of everyday people in places like Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Tunisia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and more.

She is an extremist in proving that the art of eating & cooking well is a relatively simple process and just takes enthusiasm and some tidbits of knowledge and of course good farmers. She started Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center, in Brooklyn, NY, back in 2010 where she taught educational and lecture-style hands-on cooking classes for adults & kids, promoting healthy eating, living, and cooking with ease & joy.  The center became a premier source of inspiration in the sustainable and local food world and has garnered success with special events, food collaborations, social outings, and local get-togethers nationwide. In addition to her full-time agricultural work with small global organic farmers that she continues to do since her relocation to west Marin,she continues to teach occasionally from her home in Bolinas, celebrating food and community. She hosts seasonal super clubs and teaches the Bolinas After School Cooking Program. Besides being a passionate teacher of fresh herbs and organics, in her free time she enjoys good conversation & debates, yoga, the ocean, and her dog, Inca. She is happiest when submersing herself in the food and culture of the world.

She writes seasonally for Edible Marin and writes weekly about fresh herbs on her blog www.MyHerbalRoots.com You can also find her www.UnderTheMangoTree.CrespoOrganic.com

Blog Posts Cocktails, Mocktails, Bitters & Mixers Fall Herbal Nibbles USA

A Bolinas Herbal Sunset

August 6, 2019
August 6, 2019
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About Me

Noted herb expert, culinary educator and recipe developer. Small business consultant traveling the globe in search of food and cultural knowledge, while working with small, local, organic, sustainable, and fairtrade farmers.

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A year ago today I put my sweet Inca to sleep in heaven. My heart has been completely broken ever since. 

For anyone that ever loved him. Thank you. 

I hope another dog of such energy comes into me and Sapas life soon.
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Vietnamese Orange Chocolate Coffee Cake White chocolate whipped cream and orange balsamic macerated strawberry layers

@myherbalroots Vietnamese Cinnamon Basil Cocoa Marscapone Frosting 

It may not look like it will win awards but it will if you taste it. I like the same qualities in a cake and a man- artistic, ruggedly disheveled, lots going on and a love of cultural and culinary exploration.
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@freshkillsbar 

With my fresh kill friend @prism84
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Back in Brooklyn!!!! And what Ila view I get!

The ladies at the front desk upgraded me- they felt sorry for me that I booked a flight that landed in NYC at #BenitoBowl kick off.
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Special project for @loandbeholdhealdsburg  by @myherbalroots 

Winter-Sweet
Herbal Chrysopoeia Salt 


Fresh Herbs: Fennel Fronds, Parsley, Celery Leaf, Wild Arugula, Coriander, Red Dandelion, Calendula Petals, Violets Produce:  Whole Lemons & Tango Tangerines, Turnip Greens, Carrot Tops, Spigarello Broccoli Greens Spices: Sumac, Purple Shallow Powder, Fermented White Peppercorns, Yellow Mustard Seed, Fennel Seed, Juniper Berries  Citrus Zest: Lemon Zest Other: Maldon Salt

Description
Chrysopoeia is the ancient alchemical act of turning base matter into gold. A hard freeze did exactly that in my garden — starches converting to sugar, and what was bitter and stubborn became something unexpectedly sweet and concentrated. This bright, herbaceous salt is the result of that cold snap. Carrot tops, turnip greens, and spigarello yield earthy, subterranean, dug-up flavor — the depth before light, on the way to bright. Frost-kissed red dandelion, bolted wild arugula, and coriander display pleasant bitterness, minerality, and sharpness as they move from cold into early spring sun. Celery leaf reedy and clean. Parsley the green electricity, dancing with whole bright lemons and spicy Tango tangerines — slurried like hail and slushed into the salt. Calendula petals lend a buttery, faintly resinous warmth while violets flicker color like dancing light off frost. A subtle mix of spice keeps this citrus-forward salt firmly on the savory side. Sumac offers a minuscule tinge of tart. Fermented white peppercorns heat like our warmer pre-spring days. Juniper adds a quiet forested depth beneath everything. Yellow mustard and fennel seed swirl in further complexity — the savory undercurrent that keeps the brightness honest. All of it engulfed in winter-sweet fennel fronds threading anise freshness throughout. The result is urgent, alive, bright winter/spring herbaceousness. It tastes of the cusp we lie on.

Unlike the fraudulent practitioners who chased chrysopoeia for wealth, this salt returns to the ancient truth at its heart — the gold was never the goal. It was the practice. 

This  is my herbal alchemy.
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Lemony Rosemary White Beans and Broccoli & a Fried Egg
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I’m making my Passion Fruit Pork Mole this year - but regardless what the “flavor is” I love making Christmas Mole and Tamales… 

Link in my story for my Mango version, which I think is amazing. Mole and tamales are a fun project for a full house and feeds en masse. 

A reminder that a long list of ingredients isn’t a bad thing- especially for those of you who have spice stocked kitchens which you all should! (@curiospice has last minute sales I’m sure for gifting yourself or loved ones if your kitchen isn’t stocked)
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WINTER 2025 

Illuminated Juxtapositions & Enlightening Travel

Contradiction | Refraction | Shape-Shifting | Wandering | Mingling | Illumination | Coalescence

www.shop.herbal-roots.com
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Impromptu healthy quick garden meal. 

Beet green and shaved fennel chicken meatballs over a little gem radicchio parsley mint salad with pomegranate, grapefruit and oranges (also from the garden) 

Feta. (@mt.eitan.cheese obviously)
Orange olive oil vinaigrette- and my Kefalonia Black Olive Sheepherders Herb Salt @myherbalroots winter collection out Thursday.
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If you ask me there are two essential tail components to an exceptional cranberry sauce. Herbs and liquor. This one I’m making is rather simple (not per my usual)it’s got like a French orange and thyme vibe - although it’s rather inviting which isn’t stereotypically French. lol.
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Chicory season……
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Leftover hers laying around? 

Italian salsa verde.
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If you received my Cinnamon Basil Vanilla Pie Spice from the Fall Collection - use it in a Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake. 

#Recipe link in story
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WHISKEY CARAMEL UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Makes 1 9-inch cake

A few years back, while writing a whiskey article and recipes for Edible Marin & Wine Country, @sonomawhiskey 
Sonoma Distilling Company gifted me with a bottle of Black Truffle Whiskey which I was immediately enamored with and turned into a caramel sauce which I used for this cake 

I incorporate rosemary and warming spices into the cake and keep it more on the savory side since caramel is so sweet, I thought it the perfect combination, especially when dolloped with tangy vanilla spice yogurt.

This is equally delicious with pears.

Ingredients

For the apples and sauce:
6 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons finely chopped sage leaves
1 teaspoon maldon salt
¾ cup raw sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup Sonoma Distilling Company Truffle Whiskey or whiskey of choice
2-3 apples, cored and sliced thin

For the cake:
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sprouted grain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon ground long pepper (optional)
¼ teaspoon ground cardamon or grains of paradise
1 ½ teaspoon finely chopped rosemary needles
2 teaspoons of orange zest
¾ cup softened butter (salted)
¾ cup raw sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup Greek yogurt, plus 1 cup

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment.

Melt the butter, crisp the sage for a few seconds, then add the salt and sugars. Cook a couple minutes until the sugar starts to melt and looks gritty. Add the whiskey and cook one more minute.

Spread the hot caramel over the parchment-lined pan. Arrange the apple slices on top in circles, starting outside and working inward.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, spices, rosemary, zest, and salt in a large bowl.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and yogurt and beat smooth. Add the dry ingredients gradually, beating between additions until the batter is smooth.

Spoon the batter evenly over the apples and smooth the top.

Bake about 45 minutes, until a knife tip comes out clean.
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Wild arugula…. Grown not in the wild.
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Making a sheet pan version of one of my favorite fall recipes that I developed for a story  a few years ago for @ediblemarinwc 
A Window Into Fall- 
FALL IN LOVE WITH APPLES’ SAVORY SIDE

First photo by @nat.cody 

( link in story)
Using my Cinnamon Basil Vanilla Pie Spice)

Roasted Apple and Squash Soup

The Red Kuri is my favorite squash varietal and is often passed by for the easier to peel Butternut or the sensationally sweet Delicata. The Red Kuri is nutty and sweet and it’s predominant flavor reminiscent of roasted chestnuts. When its roasted with apples and onions and some subtle spices, a rich, complex earthy flavor is born and once blended a decadent velvety texture emerges and tantalizes the tongue with a soft and warm airy quality. This soup is remarkably easy to make and clean up abd best of all the leftovers get turned into Velvety Apple & Squash Mac & Cheese.

1 2-pound Red Kuri squash
1 yellow onion, chopped large
1 shallot, peeled and quartered
3 tart apples, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons melted butter
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground mace
½ teaspoon cayenne powder
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups water
¼ cup heavy whipping cream (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut the squash in half using a larger and thicker bladed chef’s knife or a large cleaver by carefully pushing down on both ends of the blade slowly. Once the squash is cut in half, scoop out the seeds and set aside if you are making the spiced seed garnish. Place the cut side down on each half and cut it into 12 wedges, then carve off the peel of each wedge. Cut the peeled squash into roughly 2-inch pieces. Place the squash, onions, shallot and apples in a large glass baking dish (11” x 17” ideal) and toss together with the oil, melted butter, maple syrup, thyme and spices. Make sure everything is well combined and coated in the oil/butter mixture. Place the baking dish in the oven and roast for about 40 minutes, or until a slight char appears on the onions and shallots. Mix the vegetables once during the roasting process.
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