Chef Val al fresco

We got the idea from a cooking show, New Scandinavian Cooking, in which host Andreas Viestad makes all his food — from complex gourmet recipes to simple drinks — on a portable outdoor kitchen set. We thought, why couldn’t we do some real cooking outdoors on our trip, finding fresh local ingredients and cooking them simply all along our journey. So we got ourselves a classic Coleman dual-fuel stove and a collapsible sink and packed up some of our nice All Clad pots and a variety of other equipment. Tonight we debuted the portable kitchen and Val made a delicious Farmers Market Eggplant in Tomato Sauce right here in the picnic area of the Adelaide Inn. Paired up with a grapey local Syrah, peppery olives, olive oil and bread, it really came off beautifully. It was fun. The sunset was cool and breezy. The food was fresh, hot and hearty.

^ Val with the outdoor kitchen

^ Dinner al fresco

Earlier in the day, a nice avocado sandwich lunch and a walk along moonstone beach in Cambria — fun time picking up just the right stones from the uncountable thousands of tide-polished pebbles that make up the beach. I concentrated on greens. And great pelican watching as groups of 10 and 20 caught the lift along the beach bluffs to glide south in big v-shaped phalanxes.

After lunch, a stop at Fermentations for a quick tasting. (Bought a sangiovese and a port.) And then one of my favorite scenic drives, up the winding Santa Rosa Creek Road, through the incredibly bountiful central coast countryside. From the car we saw stone fruit, apple and citrus orchards, grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, butternut squash, corn, cattle, bee hives, wild turkeys and many other birds all along 20 miles of road. And idyllic views around every turn.

A plus: about one third the way along the road is Linn’s, home of the famous Olallieberry pie. We stopped in and got a petit cherry pie and after a little negotiation with the scruffy farm peacock (apparently, he likes pie — but who doesn’t?), we sat safely in the car to eat the pie in big yummy bites.

^ Kate and her moonstones

^ At Moonstone Beach, pelicans catch a lift.