When it's mushroom season, you'll know it by the abundance of them at your local farmers market. If you manage to get your hands on some great high-country mushrooms and are wondering how to get the most out of them using items (such as garlic, shallots, basil, lavender and rosemary) from your garden, here’s a great recipe from Chef Michael O’Dowd (pictured right) of the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass – and its acclaimed Kai restaurant, who says these high-country mushrooms are one of his favorite seasonal items to use.

Northern Arizona Mushrooms
4 oz wild local high country mushrooms
1 tbsp roasted & minced garlic cloves
1 tbsp minced shallots
1 tbsp chopped Ms. Burns basil (substitute normal fresh basil)
1 tsp chopped fresh lavender
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 oz extra virgin olive oil
1/2 aged sherry vinegar
1 pat of plugra butter
Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

First brush the dirt off all of your mushrooms with a brush (do not rinse or get wet). Take the stems off if they are tough. In a saute pan heat olive oil on high heat. Once the pan is extremely hot add you mushrooms, garlic, shallots and half of your herbs. Sear until you see the mushrooms caramelizing. Add the sherry vineger and toss and then finish with the butter, remaining herbs & s&p to taste.

Looking for a new way to show off seasonal fruits and vegetables (in something other than a salad)? How about using them to top off a yummy (yes, I tried it) flatbread. Here's a great recipe from the Chef de Cuisine Conor Favre at the new Frank & Albert's restaurant at the Arizona Biltmore. The restaurant was named after the resort's two great architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and Albert Chase MacArthur, and focuses on using seasonal, indigenous and (wherever possible) organic ingredients from local sources.

Serves 1
1 Flatbread
½ cup Onion Marmalade (see recipe below)
½ cup Goat Cheese (broken in pieces)
½ cup Chicken, shredded
3 Mission Figs, diced (fresh or dry)
¼ cup Watercress
6 Mandarin Orange segments
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Onion Marmalade
Enough marmalade for 4 flatbreads
3 onions, diced
¾ cup Port Wine
½ cup Grenadine
1/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar
½ cup sugar

Directions:
Prepare the onion marmalade first.  Saute onions on low heat; add all next three liquid ingredients and cook on medium heat for approximately 30 minutes until liquid almost completely reduced. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat and cool to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Smother flatbread with onion marmalade and place chicken and goat cheese on top.
In a bowl, toss watercress, oranges and figs with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Set bowl aside.
Place flatbread in oven and bake for 3 to 4 minutes.  Top off with the watercress mixture, cut in small squares and serve.

Located on 1,200 acres in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Predator Ridge (left) is blessed with a spectacular location – and, in Janice Stephens, a pastry chef who knows how to make the most of the orchards surrounding the property. Here is her recipe (and tips) for preserving peaches in a barbecue sauce sure to come in handy as we head into the summer months.

Sterilize jars and lids in the dishwasher if it has a sterilize cycle or submerge the jars and lids in a large pot of water and bring to a boil. (For recipe, click "read more.")

I caught up recently with Craig Strong, executive chef at Studio restaurant at the Montage Laguna Beach, and asked if he had any recipes to share using the spring produce we might be seeing in our own gardens or at the farmers market -- and here's what he had to say:

One thing that I am working with is spring garlic. I made a “salsa verde.” I’m serving this with olive-oil poached halibut and spring vegetables like fava beans, morel mushrooms and pati pan squash.

Salsa Verde
6 spring garlic
2 cups picked parsley leaves
½ cup basil leaves
2 tbsp. capers
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
¼ cup olive oil

Blanch the garlic and herbs for 20 sec. in boiling salted water and cool in ice water. Squeeze out water and in blender puree all ingredients.