Luke was recently in Abu Dhabi and brought back the most beautiful Iranian dates. He knows me well enough that a) when he travels without me, he must bring me back presents as a form of restitution and b) it always has to be food. So in an effort to make up for the fact he went on an exotic vacation without me, he brought me some beautiful dates. And boy are they yummy. Someone said to me recently that dates are going to be the next hot food. You heard it here first folks. The next hot food. They are great natural sweeteners and might be the best appetizer ever with you stuff them with cheese and wrap them in bacon. But today I am sharing my new favorite way to eat dates - a date milkshake.

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California has been in a major drought recently and thankfully over the past couple of weeks we have gotten some serious rain. Although I love when it pours here, because it rarely does (not like it does in Florida) I get a little stir crazy when stuck inside. So last weekend during another downpour I decided to try a cake that I have wanted to experiment with for a while - a lemon olive oil cake. I know olive oil sounds like a weird ingredient to put in a cake but it made the cake light, delicious and moist.  Plus the grassy flavor of the oil matched perfectly with the tart sweetness of the Meyer lemons.

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