Website Launched: November 9th, 2009
Welcome to the Rustic Garden Bistro! We’re Kim and Barry; a couple of epicureans, aspiring entrepreneurs, and most recently… recipe bloggers (gasp! another one?!).
Yes.
For now, the RGB is where we live; a cinder block bungalow tucked into the shady side of a hill and surrounded by overgrown edibles; perhaps a less glorious version of The Hobbit.
While we’re blogging about a) what we had for lunch, b) something we dreamt up, and/or c) hopeful experiments, we’re not-so-secretly arming ourselves with a pile of recipes we’re saving for our community restaurant.
We do have a few parameters: we like fresh food, prefer local ingredients and let the season guide us. We’re also influenced by our garden, the weather, and our travels. That’s not to say we don’t enjoy the occasional deep-dish pepperoni pizza. To paraphrase Russ Parsons, we pursue a moderate approach so we don’t have a guilty conscience.
Thus far, our blog posts have been a mixture of…
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extracting our memories;
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suggesting leftovers;
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proving the worth of homegrown edibles;
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documenting that sometimes, we just haven’t figured it out, yet…
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establishing that wild guesses do work.
To reiterate; we’re still new. Over time, we suspect we’ll polish up like the rest of you.
For finalized recipes, we’re also posting approximate nutritional values and cost per serving. This is mostly for our benefit: we like to see how nutritiously balanced or unbalanced some of these items are, as well as knowing how much a serving costs.
We suspect that more and more, we’ll be waving the flag; looking for suggestions and asking for feedback. Would you be so kind as to point us in the right direction?
A little more about us…
Most (okay, all but one so far) of the blog entries are written by Kim; Barry’s main function is to purchase the proteins, maintain the garden, partake in the experiments and proofread the recipes.
Our humble abode isn’t complete without Britta, our obnoxious but lovable weimaraner. Kudos to Brit, she eats more of our apples than we do. While she gives us a lot of grief, we couldn’t imagine life without her. Don’t let the cute factor fool you; this little lady is a professional thief! Her target; anything and everything that comes out of the kitchen. So far, she hasn’t turned her nose at anything we’ve made.
We also have two cats… they’re around here… somewhere.
And some more about us…
We depend on our morning lattes. We’re suckers for jazz and fond of the ballet. We stretch our dollar and our penny. We enjoy good company, and love to share. Friday’s reserved for date-nites, and pancakes conquer weekends. Last, but not least, real butter rules.
Lastly…
We apologize for lack of content; we’re working on it. Until our recipe box is a little more established, feel free to peruse our photo-journal to peek inside the bistro.
In the meantime, thank you for visiting, and…
Bon appétit!
[K] & |b|
Orange County, California
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Contact us at: RusticGardenBistro@gmail.com
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To subscribe to our blog, please click here.
We’re also using Twitter to solicit recipe ideas and send out varying RGB-related announcements. If you’re member of the blogging community, please click here to follow us on Twitter.
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We’ll leave you with some recent snapshots around the Rustic Garden Bistro…
This is a winter salad with apples and lettuce from the garden. The lemon and herbs for the baked chicken were also from the garden.
A winter rose bud in the garden.
Leftover brie from a holiday party, spare leeks from another recipe and sweet garden peppers make a nice breakfast omelet.
A cloudy winter afternoon.
Rainy morning at the RGB. Here’s a winter pot of arugula and red lettuce.
Our herbs grow where they want. This one likes the edge of the pathway. 
A lot of garden, a lot of green.
January 18, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Howdy Kim: Was cool having you up here, glad you had a good time! I’m not much of a cooking dude but wish I would have followed you back to Orange County for some of the chukar!
Your blog is very colorful and caught my interest! Fine cooking is certainly quite an art! Hope it all comes true for you guys!
All my best, Graydog (Steve) Reynolds
January 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Hello Kim! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the 2 suggested books! I’m excited about both, and promptly reserved them at the Boston Public Library. Your blog is lovely. Once I settle down (maybe moving back closer to family in northern California), I may venture into gardening! Your above picture of the breakfast omelet looks so good! keep up the great blogging and cooking!
February 2, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Hey Kim-
Awesome site! If approach cooking with as much drive and passion as you did Planning, you should be a spectacular success. Good Luck on the new adventure.
February 10, 2010 at 11:16 pm
I’m writing to ask you for permission to post your Baked Chicken with Lemon and Garden Herbs (and corresponding links back to your site) in our Lemon LoveFest Library. Please check out the links below for more specific info on the Library and to see what Lemon LoveFest is all about.
http://www.wineimbiber.com/index.php/lemon-lovefest-library-2010/
http://www.wineimbiber.com/index.php/2010/01/lemon-lovefest-2010/
If you’d rather make the submissions yourself, please let me know. We are conducting a Meyer lemon giveaway in conjunction with Lemon LoveFest, and anyone who submits lemon recipes or posts about lemon recipes and then makes a submission becomes eligible to win Meyer lemons from one of two California growers. It’s a weekly random drawing through February 21st; I hope you’ll consider making a submission!
Even if you are not interested in making a submission yourself, I hope you will still allow us to post your lemon recipe photo/link in the Library anyway. We are slowly building up a nice collection of recipes, photos and websites for other lemon-lovers to view, and yours would make a nice addition. We aren’t doing this for profit or anything like that (we don’t even accept advertising on our site). We just thought it would be nice to create a source for people who are always on the hunt for lemon recipes (like me) and also appreciate discovering new websites in the process. People who aren’t as fortunate as me to own a Meyer lemon tree (or have access to Meyer lemons) will have the opportunity to win some Meyers, and hopefully the growers who are supplying the lemon prizes will benefit from the exposure as well. That’s pretty much our motivation for doing this project.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Regards…
Leah