If you follow me on Instagram you’ve probably seen the picture I took in front of my house with all the lovely snow. Summer isn’t even over and yet here it’s snowing. It really feels like Christmas, almost makes me get my Christmas tree from the garage and put it up. Almost cancer chinese medicine!

That’s sarcasm, my web friends, because it’s just not right. It’s still summer. I guess the weather fooled us. However, it is pretty when you look out the window.

Anyway, on to today’s yummy recipe. I’m simply in love with these Udon noodles. They’re sweet and they’re spicy and they’re loaded with chicken and mushrooms. Now I know some of you peeps out there don’t love mushrooms, so replace them with broccoli and they’ll be just as yummy. In case you’ve never bought Hoisin sauce before, you can find hoisin sauce in the Asian aisle in your grocery store property mortgage.

Ever since I’ve discovered these Udon Noodles, I’ve been obsessed with them. Everytime I go to the grocery store and pass by them, I have to pick some up, and love coming up with different ideas to serve them. Well to serve them to myself, since hubs isn’t a fan of noodles, but more for me. The leftovers make a yummy lunch the next day, so it’s all good.

This recipe is so simple and I just love this dish. In 20 or 25 minutes you can have lunch or dinner on the table, and you’ll be enjoying a delicious plate of sweet yet a bit spicy steaming hot noodles. You can’t go wrong bvi company registration!

On a recent California Ripe Olive Tour, I enjoyed a whirlwind 2 days of meeting farmers and visiting olive orchards, snapping pics at [olive] plants and eating chef-inspired, olive-themed meals. We not only took in sites and bites, we filled our brain to the brim with olive facts and figures, took note of olive pairings and stood in line for blue-cheese stuffed black olive martinis Day Trip to Hong Kong & Macau.

On any farm tour or food press trip, there are key points and highlights (check out ALL the photos).

A group of media writers, bloggers, and nutritionists landed on a Wed afternoon, where we were shuttled to a memorable dinner at School House Restaurant and Tavern. When my son texted me mid-meal asking about my trip, my return text said: ‘amazing menu in random tucked away city.’ This speaks volumes. First, as a trained chef I am a tad snobby and rarely deal full accolades. Second, I mean no disrespect by ‘random city.’ Coming from Seattle we are rather spoiled with divine cuisine from a line-up of talented chefs. But even high expectations [in the city] doesn’t always yield a memorable meal. In this case, our olive-studded menu from drink to dessert was divine, memorable and worth the drive You beauty.

Beyond those memorable bites of fig olive tapenade quenelles on fresh goat cheese, the most moist olive cake I have ever laid my tongue on, and an olive blue cheese compound butter that gave my grass-fed beef the topping it deserved…

… we visited the two plants that process nearly all those green and black table olives you are familiar with. California processes 95% of all the table olives you enjoy – the olives come from 1000+ farms that range in size from 5 – 1000 acres.

As a food snob I normally skip over table olives and scoop bulk European olives from the olive bar. Sometimes being snobby means you buy brands based on perception instead of understanding. What I came to appreciate is that these olives – gorgeous on the tree – are cured and processed in a fashion similar to my home [pressure] canning but on a grander scale. In fact they aren’t inundated with chemicals or over-processed to death. They are picked often by hand, cured for 7 days, pitted and ‘canned’.  They are briny, healthy, salty and quite lovely. (A recent and now regular substitute for my salty chip and popcorn cravings vintage tube).