Current Flame: Dahlias

My mother always has fresh flowers in the house, a goal to which I aspire but often fall short. When we were up visiting for her birthday over Labor Day Weekend, she had vases of flame orange and pink dahlias everywhere. I can’t stop thinking about them.

She gets hers from a local grower, Aztec Dahlias, at the St. Helena Farmers Market on Friday mornings. While visiting, I also spotted him at the Oxbow Farmers Market in Napa on a Saturday morning. The good news for the rest of us is that we can order bulbs for the 2012 season now online. Or zip up to Napa for the weekend…

A Model English Muffin

The English muffins at the Model Bakery in St. Helena are what I crave most when I come home to visit my parents and sister. They’re made from Ciabatta dough and then griddled in cornmeal. Yeah, real, real good. This morning, we met my sister for a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Model. The breakfast sandwich is made on one of these heavenly English muffins with scrambled egg, sliced ham and cheddar cheese. And thus begins my sympathy-carbo-loading for her marathon run tomorrow. Breakfast of champions!

Rumor is that Model might shut down its original St. Helena location, and just keep their new bakery open at Oxbow Market in Napa. I think I would throw myself into traffic if this happened. Model has been around for more than 80 years; bread is still baked in ovens from the 1920s, and it has been my neighborhood bakery since I was a kid.