I met Dakota Witzenburg a few years ago at a friend's store. He is a wonderful cabinet and furniture maker (co-owner of todosomething, based in Los Angeles) with an incredible eye for design! And I just found out that he loves to bake, especially his grandmother's secret pie recipes. He has my dream kitchen, a kitchen which he built himself. It's a beautiful blend of modern and traditional — with unexpected green cabinets!

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Recently we toured the Los Angeles home of Alison Williams who, while running a full business working from home and taking care of her two girls, especially enjoys the many benefits of her lovely bright kitchen! Perfect for family dinners and entertaining, there are lots of seating options, wonderful cooking tools, and perfect lighting. Here's a more in-depth peek at this modern, pretty kitchen.

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I am home in Los Angeles for some meetings and a little early Thanksgiving with my family. I grew up in this town and the four generations before me grew up in Santa Barbara barely two hours north of here.

This is the house my parents bought the year before I was born, so I'm lucky to return to the stability of walls that held me as a child. The one room that is gone, though, is the kitchen. When I was about eight years old, my mom and her team of worker bees took an axe to the original kitchen — small, chopped up into kitchen, breakfast nook, washroom and dining room — and built the room that now serves as the larger, brighter hearth of the home.

Arguably it is warmer and more comfortable, certainly for cooking. But that little girl in the photo above didn't need much space to learn to cook, nor did the generations of cooks before her. With her rear perched on the scratched Mexican tile counter, she learned how to mix and chop and fall in love with kitchen chemistry. More

What do our fellow bloggers, writers, and online friends eat, first thing in the morning? We are asking some friends to share their favorite morning nourishment with us. I will cook and eat it too, and bring you their thoughts on what to eat first thing in the morning. Here's Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere.

Emily passed along her favorite way to tuck into a bagel, for me one of the ultimate comfort foods. Delicious any time of day, they are the perfect vehicle for classic or inventive toppings. Join Emily and I for this scrumptious combination of satisfying flavors. More

Deep purple plums, dusky red pluots, and luscious green and black figs are just a few of the colorful offerings at Southern California's farmers' markets this season. And there are stripes, too, in the form of green zebra tomatoes, summer melons, heirloom eggplants, and zephyr squash. We feel so blessed to have these beautiful gems at our markets and on our plates! More

With all the talk of delicious, refreshing tea concoctions, we wanted to highlight one of our favorite spots for picking up loose leaf and hard to find teas locally in Los Angeles. Bird Pick, named for the birds that in Chinese folklore could pick out only the best tea leaves to feast on, not only imports tons of tea but also offers a tea bar for some pretty amazing tea drinks. More

Here in Los Angeles, we usually spend our Sunday mornings at the big, bustling Hollywood Farmers' Market. But sometimes we crave a change of pace; we want something a little less crowded, a little more intimate. On those occasions, we head to the Atwater Village Farmers' Market. More

From tiny turnips to edible blossoms, we've had lots of fun discovering new ingredients at our farmers' markets lately. Yesterday we came across something truly unusual: bi-colored potatoes! More

Edible spring blossoms continue to adorn the stands at the Hollywood farmers' market. We found a new one this weekend; do you know what it is? Hint: this delicate white flower sprouts from a controversial, love-it-or-hate-it herb… More

We are endlessly delighted by the seasonally-evolving mix of citrus at our farmers' markets. Last week, we became acquainted with the citrumelo, an orange-grapefruit hybrid. Another hybrid popping up at our late winter-early spring markets is the juicy tangelo, a cross between a mandarin and grapefruit. More