new favorite

Do you guys read or have ever read Sunset Magazine? It's like the magazine whose lifestyle I'd love to have. Growing my own food, biking everywhere, doing outdoorsy things, eating at great restaurants with all local grown ingredients, having an eco home... 

Anyway it's brilliant and they reviewed a certain olive oil very highly. I once dragged a few friends olive oil tasting and, as you should be well aware, I am very proud of my home state so I had high hopes. Then Splendid Table had on a guest that wrote a book about olive oil and he recommended it! So, after our errands, we stopped at Vons and picked up a few bottles of this (which was on sale!): 

It's fabulous. How do I know? Because I tasted it. I can't tell you what canola oil tastes like, or vegetable oil, or peanut oil, I just use the types that the recipes tell me and now that I've mentioned it I'll be tasting them next time I use them, thanks internet guilt. BUT, I do taste all the olive oils I buy and when I bought my first bottle of Olio Santo, her majesty's preferred oil I opened it up, smelled it and poured some into a little cup and tasted it. That crap is delicious and buttery and expensive as all get out so I save it for special recipes but thankfully this California Olive Ranch is very reasonably priced so it's my new day to day olive oil. I can't recommend it enough and like I said EXPERT olive oil guy that wrote a book and a fabulous magazine both recommended it so as Levar Burton would say: you don't have to take my word for it.