Muffin's Muffins

New Concept, New Year (almost)... Plus More

2010-12-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

I am currently hurtling through the air at 10,000 square feet heading for Dublin, Ireland, via Atlanta. I am setting out on a very exciting European adventure that I cannot wait to share! I suppose that ending up in Dublin tomorrow morning at 6:45am local time will be worth being picked up by a super shuttle at 3:30am this morning (ack). But traveling I am and I am so excited to not only experience a day in the American South, but spend a dozen days in the Old World learning about James Joyce, Irish history, the making of Jameson and Guinness and much much more. This will be a documentation of all of that, plus all the tasty food and drink that I manage to consume to fuel my journey. Keep checking and I will keep updating. See you in Atlanta!

Big Dinner!!

2010-05-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Six courses of amazing homemade goodness.
- Blue Point Oysters with Mignonette
- Kabocha Squash Soup with White Sweet Miso and White Truffle Oil Essence
- Butter Lettuce Salad with Cara Cara Oranges, Tangerines, and Pistachios, dressed with Tangerine and Champagne Vinaigrette
- Seared Himachi with Coconut & Lemongrass Broth, Oven-Roasted Tomatoes- Blanched Asparagus and Citrus Salsa
- Rib-eye cap with Mushroom Demiglace, Spring Onion Puree and Baby Nantes Carrots
- Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

It was AMAZING!

Balut

2009-08-25T16:58:00.000-07:00

So I was just reading about balut. Hmmmm. I hate to be judgmental when it comes to world foods, as many of the delicacies in the world, especially third world countries, came from necessity, but this sort of turns my stomach. Balut is a duck egg that carries a fertilized duck in it, somewhere between 17 and 20 weeks in gestation. This means that inside the innocuous looking egg is a duck, or chicken at times, that is about to hatch. The eggs are then boiled and served with salt, pepper and vinegar. They are supposedly so popular in the Philipines that they have been equated to the American hot dog. Now, I am not one who is going to go to great lengths to defend the hot dog. It is essentially lips and assholes and that is not in any way better than eating a baby duck in one foul swoop. But the grinding of the meat, and perhaps the addition of ketchup and relish if you so choose, make this a much more palatable choice for us squeamish Americans.

I mean what could the texture of this creature (it really is a creature, it looks like something you might find in the Black Lagoon) possibly be? Is it slimy and crunchy all at the same time? Mushy and buttery? I imagine things would squirt into your mouth and throat when taking a bite. On Wikipedia they say they are commonly served with beer. I am going to have to start drinking beer right now and not let up if I am going to taste these. They have called them feathered eggs as well because, well, there could possibly be feathers involved. I am actually scowling as I write this. Well now I am laughing because I'm thinking about what my face must have just looked like. Even Chris Cosentino of Incanto and offal fame has said he can't eat it. One writer called it the culinary Heart of Darkness. I think Joseph Conrad would agree. I sort of feel like it is the equivalent of eating an abortion, actually it might be the equivalent of performing one and eating it all at the same time. Alright, I have now managed to disgust myself. Until next time...

Salad Made Interesting

2009-07-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

I know I've been absentee. It's been part laziness and part lack of inspiration. There have been some changes and heartbreak and therefore I haven't been cooking as much, haven't been eating as much (leading to a phantom 6 pound weight loss, huh?) and haven't been taking pictures.

But today my friend Chris asked me what I use to dress the salads that I bring to work with me almost daily and I thought, why waste an email telling him my ideas when I can blog about it and send him the link?

I am usually an olive oil and vinegar girl. I love red wine vinegar and champagne vinegar and typically use balsamic only occasionally. I think that salad can have a bad rap because often times it is made with unhealthy dressing and tasteless boring vegetables. There's nothing weirder than eating a salad made with tomatoes and carrots and the only thing it tastes like is water. (Does anyone else have this experience? Personally I think that Subway sandwiches also taste like water. I have no idea if I am right on or everyone thinks I am crazy. Don't answer that part).

Today, for example, my salad was made up of the following:
spinach
romaine
heirloom tomatoes (incredibly sweet and in season)
radishes
red bell pepper
celery
tiny slivers of red onion
mozzarella
a couple amazingly salty kalamata olives

I dressed it with a few drizzles of organic extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and a few dashes of Frank's red hot sauce, just to add that kick.

This salad has tons of crunch from the veggies and then the softness of the mozzarella and the salty bite of the 4-5 olives I added in. It wasn't planned out, more like a cross-section of what I currently happen to have in my kitchen. I also never use bottled salad dressing. It is so easy to make my own, and why would I put any chemicals on all my lovely produce?

A few things that I believe are completely underutilized in salads:

fresh herbs- I made a tuna salad once (lettuce, veggies, tuna, olive oil and vinegar dressing) and I added tons of chopped Italian parsley that I didn't want to go bad. It absolutely 100% changed the salad and made it. It was amazing. I really cannot tell you how much of a difference this made, but you must try it. So chop in some chives, add basil or dill or whatever you have on hand. But it really makes a difference. Imagine a salad with hidden sage, sauteed mushrooms, slivers of parmesan and walnuts. Oooh, I need to make that, that sounds amazing.

Fresh fruit- a chopped apple, pear or peach can really change the entire composure of a salad. One of my faves in this vein is
Butter lettuce
cubed Granny Smith apple(taste your apple before you add it to make sure it's not mealy, nothing worse than that)
chopped prunes
ricotta salata
With a champagne vinegar, shallot and olive oil dressing, add a pinch of sugar and s& p to taste. Trust me, it works. And it's worth finding ricotta salata for, one of my all time favorite cheeses.

Roasted veggies- a sliced beet, some caramelized broccoli and cauliflower will add an extra oomph, not to mention nutrition, to any boring salad.

Cheese- and no, I'm not talking about cheddar. Grated parmesan can do wonders for a salad, as can ricotta salata, a little feta, goat cheese. I used all these sparingly as strangely as much of a cheese lover I am, I have never loved cheese in a salad. But some cannot soar to the heights that they are meant to be without the addition of these cheeses. Go to a cheese store and taste. Try a Tasmanian blue cheese, trust me on this one, or my beloved Fromage d'Affinois.

But experiment, there's really no going wrong. And if you mess up or don't like it, well try it differently next time.

Coming up: my favorite easy vinaigrettes.

What's For Dinner? Some SPICE!

2009-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Not the best picture, but I made some spicy food because of the addition of Sriracha in everything! I made my fave teriyaki chicken which has made many appearances on the blog, as well as zucchini, bok choy, and Trader Joe's Israeli couscous and lentil mix. MMMMMmmmm good. This meal was super simple to make and I had all the ingredients on hand.
The first thing I did was marinate some chicken thighs for about half an hour. Prep on the zucchs and bok choy was easy (rinse and cut in half). I baked the zucchini with some olive oil, salt and pepper and soy sauce for about 10 minutes then added the bok choy for the last 5, it needs very little cooking time. The Israeli couscous was simple, boil a small amount of water, add couscous, cover. Now I happen to be terrible at making things like this, aka, rice. I think it's because I don't read directions and I fuss with it too much. But even when i think I'm doing it perfectly the bottom layer of the rice is usually burned. What's that about? Maybe I should just buy a rice cooker. One day, when I have a bigger/nicer kitchen I will. And a blender... and a microwave. (I know, WHO doesn't have a microwave?? Well, me, but because it broke.) And to be honest the ONLY thing I miss it for is heating up leftovers. Most stuff I can do on the stove or in the oven, but heating up pasta or chicken is really the best to do in a microwave. I'll replace it again. It's in the "death" pile along with two DVRs. Maybe this should teach me that even though a dvr is a bargain at $49.99, it adds up when you practically have to buy two a year. Oh well. Where was I?
Sriracha! There was actually an article in the NY Times all about sriracha recently. I really like it, a lot more than Tabasco. There's something about the taste of Tabasco that turns me off. But Sriracha is Delisha. Ok, I'm a nerd. I think my favorite use is mixing it with honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger and marinating chicken or veggies with it. A little salty, a little sweet, and as spicy as you want it!

Picnic in the Park

2009-05-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh, Saturday was so so lovely. It was warm, perfectly warm, and my friends and I headed to the park for some fun in the sun. Yes, I live one block from that park. Many might recognize it from the intro to Full House, and it is also the famous Painted Ladies in Alamo Square. So we hoofed it up the hill, cooler in hand, and had the most amazing picnic/sunbathing session/lie about.
Before the park I went to Cheese Plus on Polk St and bought some amazing cheese and salami. Of course I spent too much money there, but everything was amazing, especially the Tasmanian blue cheese. Mmmmmm.
John's favorite orzo salad also made an appearance, as well as the crunchiest grapes of the season.
I decided after that day that it is the Summer of the Picnic, not to be confused with the Year of the Dog, or the Hair of the Dog for that matter. I live one block from an amazing park, I have a cooler with wheels and a picnic blanket that's actually named picnic time. What else could I need?! And look how happy I am! And how relaxed everyone looks!

SPQR

2009-05-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

I sadly did not photograph my dinner last night, but it was a-mazing. Two syllables A-MAZING. (That is a joke because some girl once said that to my friend Emily and her response was "even if you emphasize the first syllable, the word still has three syllables"). SPQR is a relatively new restaurant on Fillmore St. and when it was first opened I was actually quite sad because it took over the space of one of my old favorite restaurants, Chez Nous. But last night we went there to celebrate Alyssa's birthday and everything was to do for. And it was Fried Chicken Tuesday!!!! I'll take pictures and elaborate more soon!

Chicken Marsala

2009-04-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

I don't think I actually grew up eating chicken marsala. Strange to some people, I suppose, but I cannot think of a single time I had it until one night 2 years ago at my friend Rob's house. He made dinner and it was delicious and I thought, well why hasn't this been in my repertoire? And since then I have been reading recipes and experimenting with good old chicken marsala.
This time was not without slight mistakes, I should have made more sauce for the amount of pasta I cooked, but it was still delicious. And John loved it, even though I think he loves everything I make (except brussel sprouts).

This time i made some steamed broccoli on the side, a real departure for me since all I ever seem to do is roast my veggies, and the meal was complete. It was delicious. I actually think that I might add some sundried tomatoes into the sauce next time, and perhaps some capers. The reason I say this is because there's a restaurant in Hayes Valley, in San Francisco, called Il Borgo and every time I go I get the Fettucine del Borgo, yes not very imaginative. It is homemade fettucine (something I'll probably never venture upon) and chicken, sundried tomatoes, capers and a lovely sauce that I am sure contains more butter than I would like to think. But it is just so yummy. Ok, I have completely changed the subject. Actually that makes me want to go to Il Borgo for dinner tonight. I'll let you know tomorrow if I get there!

American Wife

2009-04-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

Oh, by the way, I am reading the best book. Amazing actually. I am so completely absorbed by it I wish i could just stay home and read it all day. Ok, full disclosure, I wish I could stay home and read every day, but this is particularly enjoyable. It is "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld. It is one of those long, old fashioned, readable novels, the type I just love. I have about 100 pages left, it's long, almost 600 pages, and I can't decide whether I want to sit and read it all in one sitting or draw it out longer. i know I'll be at a loss as to what to read when I am finished. Actually that reminds me of "Marjorie Morningstar" by Herman Wouk. I actually felt like I was in mourning when I finished. How did I move on??

I'm Baaacckk

2009-04-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have been the worst blogger ever. I won't make excuses, but I am back and hopefully won't go away for that long again!
What have I been eating and cooking? Well, lots of tasty treats, but I only have a few to share. The other night I made a lovely dinner for John and myself. Sometimes meals are absolutely delicious, and sometimes you learn from them. This was more of a learning meal.

I took chicken tenders and wrapped them in in prosciutto and a sage leaf. Now I almost never buy boneless, skinless chicken. It is more expensive, but more importantly, I think that when you cook chicken with the skin and bones it comes out soooo much moister and more flavorful. I think I could have cooked these for a few less minutes and then perhaps they wouldn't have been quite as dry. Oh well, I'll try next time. I think this might be better with chicken thighs, since the meat is darker and less likely to dry out. On the side I made roasted brussel sprouts and some wild rice from Trader Joe's. For some reason I sort of suck at rice. Huh?? you say? How can one suck at rice? Well perhaps it has something to do with my inability to follow instructions. I am sure that the rice wouldn't have burned if I had actually read what to do with it instead of sticking it into a pot of boiling water and then jumping in the shower. Oh well, better luck next time.

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Miso Soup Face Off

2009-03-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Many mornings, and afternoons, at work I like to have miso soup. It warms me up and fills me up with very little effort and calories. Recently I bought the Kikkoman brand as well as Trader Joe's to have a little contest between the two.
Each of them come in a little packet that I pour into my coffee cup and then add hot water to. I don't measure the water, simply add enough so the salt isn't too overpowering. I then let it sit for a minute so the tofu, seaweed and scallions can reconstitute a bit. I happen to love and adore miso soup and have read many times that it is a breakfast staple in Japan, and they seem to be healthy, so I have added it to my morning routine. Well I never really eat breakfast and just much on what's around if I'm hungry (carrots, an apple, string cheese, jelly beans, depends on what I have in my office. You know that they say- jelly beans, the breakfast of champions!) The first miso I tried was the Kikkoman. It was full of authentic miso flavor, as well as soft disks of tofu and the seaweed that I adore. This was just lovely. And for under $3.00 for 3 packets, not so bad a deal.

Next up was the Trader Joe's, pictured above. I was excited about this because my roommate hoards this stuff because it is apparently hard to find. Sort of like the TJ's couscous. WTF happened to that stuff? I used to get it and now it has disappeared. I asked once when I was shopping and they said it had something to do with the distributor. Whatever, I want my couscous back. Ok, back to Miso. TJ's came with little squares of tofu that never really softened up. They had the consistency of astronaut ice cream or something. NOT a good thing. And the flavor of the soup was just meh. It was grainy and too salty even though I added a crap load of water.
This is a no brainer, but the winner is...

Chinese Food

2009-03-24T15:07:00.001-07:00

Hawaii- Part II: Dream Cake

2009-03-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Oooh, Dream Cake. I must say that it is perfectly named. Dream Cake is this light and fluffy air filled mildly chocolate cake that is from my favorite bakery in Honolulu. They also make Haupia cake which I think that I would swim in if I got the chance. Layers of coconut pudding between thin mattresses of fluffy cake (there's that word again, fluffy. But there really isn't a better word to describe these creations.) We were lucky enough to celebrate Maggie's birthday while on vacation. She turned 7 1/4. Huh? you ask. Well she was born on Leap Year, February 29, so she only gets to celebrate her real birthday every 4 years. But around midnight on February 28th, we brought out this lovely cake to surprise Miss Maggie with.
Mmm, I dream about these cakes. And I don't even have a sweet tooth!
I'll leave you with another lovely photo of Waikiki. It really is "just another day in Paradise" every day there, as my mom always says. It's hard to have a bad day in Hawaii.

HAWAII!!!!

2009-03-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Sunset from my grandparent's porch. That's the Waikiki Harbor and the Hawaii Yacht Club is there too. Where I had the best lasagne I may have ever eaten. I should have taken a picture.

Ok- I admit it, I've been a bad blogger. Well, perhaps just a lazy one. Part of the reason is that I went on vacation for a week. To beautiful Hawaii. I found a good price on a ticket and then jetted off to Honolulu to stay with my grandparents for a week. I am quite the lucky girl because I have lovely grandparents who live in Waikiki and like it when I visit them, so going to Hawaii is not that unusual of an occurrence for me, but it's not like I don't appreciate and love it! there's just something about the air there, or maybe it's the weather. It's everything. I love visiting my grandparents because they live in walking distance of three things, The Ala Moana Center (quite possibly the world's best shopping center), Waikiki Beach (self-explanatory), and the Outrigger Canoe Club. What's the Outrigger? Well I guess you could say it's like a golf club for canoes! And they have a snack hut where I love to get grilled cheese sandwiches.
But back to the food. I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend Maggie with me on this trip. I say lucky because not only is she one of my best friends and favorite people, but she's also an amazing chef. She went to the CCA (California Culinary Academy) and worked at Cyrus in Healdsburg, CA for the past 2 years. She's now starting her own non-profit called Koolinary. And she made us a lovely dinner one night in Waikiki!
We started out with a delicious salad of mixed greens, mango, crushed macadamia nut, bean sprouts and a gingery avocado vinaigrette (I think). The above photo is another photo from Tutu and Kane's lanai. That's what I call my grandparents by the way. Tutu means grandmother in Hawaiian, and Kane (sounds like Connie) means Man. this is because Hawaii is a matriarchal society and there is no word for grandpa, so they call them Tutu Kane, which means grandma man. This was too confusing to my brother when he was a kid, so they became Tutu and Kane. Or "Toot & Cane" as my dad calls them!
After our refreshing salad we were served the main course: breaded shrimp with rice and sauteed mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions. Once again, I couldn't get enough. And we topped this with a little of the avocado vinaigrette. YUM. Double yum. The shrimp were so good warm, and equally as good cold the next day eaten straight out of a tupperware in the fridge.

It was a very satisfying meal. Light enough to feel good in my bikini the next day, but so flavorful and yummy. Kudos Mags! And thanks!!!!

Italian Tacos?

2009-03-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

Q:What do you have when you sautee carrots, onions, zucchini, and garlic, add some Trader Joe's portobello mushroom chicken sausage, and decide that as a carb you'll add some tortillas with melted parmesan on them?
A:Something delicious, and also perhaps the first Mexi-italian fusion meal I have made.
I know it doesn't look too exciting, but it really was just scrumptious. I'll have to make it again soon, as it was Johnny approved!

Everyone Has to Be Addicted to Something

2009-03-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

So- it's time to come clean. I think that I am addicted to something and I don't know how to stop. I think about it all the time, crave it when I don't have it, overindulge to the point of sickness. What can I possibly be talking about? Well, namely this. I am addicted to Cheez-its. I don't know how it happened. I hadn't had Cheez-its for years. I don't even recall liking them as a child, but then one day someone offered me some and it's been downhill from there. I try not to buy them because I can't control my portion size. I eat handfuls upon handfuls to the point that I feel nauseous, like I do right now as I am writing this! Last time I bought a box I ate it in 3 days. That's too many Cheez-its!

I'm not sure what to do about my love/hate relationship with this small square shaped creature. I love them, but sometimes I think that they hate me. They run around my stomach expanding it and making me feel overstuffed and tired. Hmmm, perhaps I should keep the box elsewhere (co-workers office maybe?) and only dole out little portions to myself from time to time. All I know is that I must be stopped. Do they have a 12 step program for crunchy, crispy, cheezy addictions? And switching to the lower fat kind is not an option. They just aren't the same.

On A Different Note...

2009-02-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

I must say that before I loved cooking, i loved reading. i still do. And I love to read food lit to combine the two things I adore. But I decided to take the BBC test below. They say that most will only have read 6 of the 100 books below. Let's see how I do...

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Tally your total at the bottom.
2) Put in a note with your total in the subject

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read a good chunk of them, so I'm counting it) X
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy X
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (darn, movie don't count)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini X
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving X
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan X
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon X
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (1st page a dozen times, guess it doesn't count)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov X
63 The Secret History - Donna Tart
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath X
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro X
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert X
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry X
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupéry X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

HEY!! I got 49! Not bad I must say myself. Some of them I read in school, others as a child (The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, Little Women, Charlotte's Web) but I read a bunch on my own as well. This makes me realize I need to read more Dickens. I don't think seeing Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke a hundred times counts. Copy and paste the quiz and check it out for yourself.

Valentine's Day Spinach Lasagne Bolognese

2009-02-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

John and I decided that for Valentine's Day we would stay home and cook together. Well, originally he was going to cook for me, then we decided we would do something together. On the rainy Saturday that was V Day I sat on my couch and looked through a bunch of cooking magazines for ideas. I decided on a recipe in Gourmet for Spinach Bolognese Lasagne. Valentine's was cold and rainy in San Francisco, so I didn't change out of my sweats all day. I had a notion to shower and put on a pretty dress but John told me he didn't care, and I was sooo comfortable, so sweats it was.

Cooking together was a really nice change from me being in the kitchen alone most of the time. We chopped and stirred together, John did all the spinach defrosting and ringing out plus all the ricotta filling. Actually, how goofy is this, when we were at the store we grabbed what we thought was 2 boxes of chopped frozen spinach. Upon returning home we discovered one was actually chopped frozen broccoli. We used it anyway. I have no idea if the lasagne would have been better or worse without the broccoli, but too bad. I thought it was still tasty, and broccoli is green and good for you, I doubt I would have noticed if I hadn't seen the package.

Part of the proposed menu was a Brownie Pudding that I saw Ina make on the Food Network. we searched high and low for Framboise and bought all the ingredients even1 In the end we bought some raspberry extract. But after cooking the lasagne, which I made the mistake of not noticing that the bolognese was supposed to simmer for one hour before putting it in the oven for another hour plus!, we were tired and I was not in the mood to dirty the kitchen again. Champagne and lasagne on the couch was our Valentine's meal and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I must admit I think I kept the bolognese on the stove for too long. Because we used the no-cook noodles they suck up a ton of liquid, leaving our lasagne a bit dry. It was solved by adding a splash of olive oil, which really brightened up the flavors too, but next I will make sure my bolognese looser before I add it. Check out how close my lasagne looks to the picture on the recipe!

Green Pea, Leek & Potato Soup

2009-02-17T13:02:00.000-08:00

Mmm, there's nothing more comforting or inexpensive than my green pea vichyssoise. I got a bunch of leeks in my organic delivery and was excited about making it. basically, all I do is chop up some leeks (and clean them of course, never forget to clean your leeks) and chop some potatoes. Stick in large pot with some butter. Cook for a few, add a bunch of chicken stock and water, and garlic if you want with the leeks, and cook. Add a bag of frozen peas after 20 minutes, cook more, and puree. Boom, done. Nothing more to it. Season to taste of course and this time I served it with some heavy whipping cream, chives, and bay shrimp on top. Lovely. The soup is very healthy so there need not be any guilt involved with the cream. I hadn't added shrimp before, but John's one of those protein guys, so I was trying to be creative.

Johnny likes his soup warm, I like it cold, it really doesn't matter, whatever your taste buds are craving. Traditionally vichyssoise does not have green peas, but I love the addition. The peas add such a vibrant color, nutrition, and a lovely taste. But to each his own. I am not a traditional girl like that. Oh, and there are real recipes out there for vichyssoise, ones that include actual measurements and not "add as many leeks and potatoes as you have on hand, use up half package of chicken stock before it goes bad." That's just the way I happen to cook!

Mercedes- Hair of the Dog Cantina

2009-02-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

No, I didn't need or have the hair of the dog during a work lunch, that's just the name of the restaurant we went to! It's right around the corner from my office and sort of a hidden gem. My only complaint about my chicken tacos was that they were sort of expensive. Eleven bucks for tacos?! I live in San Francisco which basically means you can find dirt cheap Mexican food that's really good all over the place. Ok, or maybe in the Mission, but I was shocked. All the lunch entrees, burritos, etc, were over 10 bucks. Yeah, the portions were big, but I don't know if I'll return. Maybe if I am in desperate need for the hair of the dog I might, but other than that, I'll save my pesos for $4 jumbo burritos.

New Look

2009-02-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Tell me what you think about my new header! I've changed things a bit. Do you like it?

Man vs. Food

2009-02-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

I think I have a new show. It's on the Travel Channel. I stayed up the other night til almost 3 in the morning watching what must have been a marathon of them.
MAN VS. FOOD
It is just great. Adam Richman is so funny and charming and yes, it is mildly disgusting what he puts in his body, but for some reason it is incredibly entertaining. In the episodes I saw he ate about 15 dozen oysters in New Orleans,Atomic hot wings in Philly (apparently higher than high on the Skoville scale), ate the Carnivore Pizza Challenge in Atlanta, well you get the gist. The guy is nuts, but in the most endearing way. I think I may have developed a bit of a crush.
Check out the show. it's amusing at worst and amazing at best. And check out the show here.

Dark Greens are Good For You

2009-02-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

Most people probably don't think, mmmm, kale. But that's exactly what I have been thinking recently. So I made some, easy solution, right? In a pan I sauteed some shallots and mushrooms in olive oil. When they were pretty soft I added the kale, stuck a little water in the pan, and placed a lid on it. Steam city! A voila, dunzo. I had told Johnny that I wanted a light and healthy dinner, and boy did we get one! I added a salad with my new favorite dressing. I make a faux French dressing.

Squirt about a tablespoon of ketchup in a small glass jar with a lid or in a bowl. Add 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder, a big pinch of sugar, a tablespoon of vinegar (or more) and 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.
Add salt and pepper to taste and either shake or whisk.

It is really good, sweet and vinegary, just like I like. I like to make a jar of this and bring it with me to work to add to my salads. Adding some chopped shallots makes it even more divine. Bon Appetit!

Something's Fishy

2009-01-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

What would be fishy? My house- for days after I actually cooked fish. But it was worth it. John and I bought some lovely cod at Molly Stone's and went home to make a quick and tasty dinner. I turned on the pan, stuck some zucchini in the oven, grabbed my salad stuff and went about quick coating the fish. Instead of using buttermilk or eggs, I simply sprinkled salt and pepper over the fish and then coated it with breadcrumbs. Did they coat it perfectly? No, but it was fine.

I did the fish on the stove top at first and then stuck the pan in the oven to finish its cooking. Here's a great cooking tip. When you take the crazy hot pan out of the oven and place it on the stove again, the handle is STILL HOT. Don't grab it with your bare hand. Because that HURTS. And sadly, yes, I am speaking from experience. Wise words from a klutz. Following the sad burning hand, I stuck ice all over it but it insisted on throbbing all evening. Oh, my other tip is don't take a hot shower after burning yourself. Even if you think it feels better. And even if you think you need to because you are in gross sweaty gym clothes. Do NOT take a shower. Because every time the water hits that sad red mark on the side of your hadn ti burns. Badly. I am glad that everyone can learn from my mistakes. So sad.

Sometimes A Girl Just Wants Crab

2009-01-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

The other night John and I were discussing what to eat for dinner. Something healthy was my main criteria, and not too heavy. I threw out chicken but he said no and I agreed that I make too much chicken. Fish? Hmm, I could go for some salmon. and then it struck us... CRAB!
Off we went to Molly Stone's to pick up some crabbies and sourdough bread. The crab was good price, I can't remember exactly but I think about $8.99/pound. I had tons fo salad fixings at home plus cocktail sauce and mayonnaise (yes, I like to dip my crab in mayo. Some people may not, but I do.) John melted some butter and squeezed a lemon into it. While I made the salad Johnny fixed up the crab and set the table with all the additions that I love with my crab.

And dinner was perfect. Fresh, delicious crab, a large green salad loaded with raw veggies and my favorite Semifreddi's seeded sourdough baguette. To die for. We sat at my nice round table in the alcove of the house and had a lovely and romantic meal. It felt pretty good to be able to have a delicious and good for you meal for under $20 and 15 minutes of prep. Always remember to take your trash out that night though. I think the house was stinky just having all the crab in there for a few hours! I can't wait until our next crab meal. Next time I'll steam some artichokes to go along with it.

Moroccan Chicken with Stewed Prunes and Tomatoes

2009-01-22T17:17:00.000-08:00

This is one of my all time favorite chicken recipes. You stew this chicken with a bunch of spices like cinnamon and then add the sweet prunes. Ok or you can call them dried plums. Apparently the prune industry is trying to change the name from prune to dried plums to escape the apparent bad reputation that prunes have. I suppose that prune does bring up the negative connotation of grandparents and an attempt at being "regular" but I think that a prune is delicious no matter what you call it.
While I cooked the chicken I also made some egg noodles which I added a little butter and some poppy seeds too. This was a lovely base for the chicken and all the sweet and yummy pan juices to run over. I had a drumstick with my noodles on the first night and kept the breasts for the following evening.

Happy New Years!

2008-12-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

Have a wonderful new years! If I ever leave work, and stop eating jelly beans, then I am going to go out and celebrate!! Happy 2009 and au revoir 2008!

Christmas!

2008-12-31T11:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas dinner was delicious. My mom cooked a ton of food. I made some roasted carrots and brussel sprouts. We also had salad, beef, and cheese grits. Everyone came over, we all had some wine and a nice evening. Santa would have been proud.

Beretta

2008-12-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

John and I finally got to go on our much anticipated date. We don't manage to go and eat out a lot just the two of us, we're always so busy on the weekends and on the weekdays if we aren't busy we usually just want to go home and crash, so this was a real treat. Ok, we aren't that busy on the weekends, we tend to go out with our friends and sort of bypass any official dinner. And John has to spend time with his other great love, football, these days, so sometimes I fall to the wayside. Fortunately football season is almost over- YAY! I had been nagging him (his word) about taking me on a "real date" and he finally did. He even called the restaurant ahead of time! I was so impressed with him. We chose to go to Beretta, a restaurant that was opened this year in the Mission, and I knew that it was meant to be as soon as we arrived because we found a parking spot instantly! It was amazing (for those who don't live in San Francisco, this NEVER happens). And then we walked into the restaurant and instantly got a table (Beretta does not take reservations). I thought this was a wonderfully auspicious start. Unfortunately I have to admit that the food did not keep in line with what started out to be a very lucky evening.

John and I started our meal with the warm radicchio and escarole with pancetta tesa. I was excited for a warm salad on this very chilly evening, but felt that the Italian bitter greens were simply too bitter. Unfortunately this became what I considered the theme of the meal. I like bitter greens, I feel as though they are a very "adult" taste but one that I have gotten used to. But this salad was cringe worthy bitter.
We followed it up with the bruschetta with crescenza and broccoli rabe. Once again I was attacked with the bitter greens. Crescenza is a very soft and lovely italian like cream cheese. I actually had one bite, realized that the taste of the cheese was completely hidden by the pungent broccoli rabe flavor, and so I ate it off so I could eat the cheesy toast on its own. Sadly, I know that this was not the chef's intention, but why would you place such a strong vegetable on top of such a mild cheese? I couldn't understand it. John agreed as well. I told him to eat the broccoli rabe first and he thanked me for the tip.

Our main courses arrived shortly after and I will give a preview and say that things went up from the starters. John ordered the saffron risotto with osso buco. The risotto was cooked nicely and the osso buco was perfectly flaky and tender. I may have had a few more bites that he would have liked because of this fact. I was surprised that I liked the osso buco on top of the risotto, when he ordered it I thought it would be too rich, but the flavors were not overbearing whatsoever.

My pizza came at the same time and I was excited about the smells that were emanating from the pan. It was the Funghi misti, tomato, fontina and thyme pizza. Beretta is apparently known for their pizzas and they make up a large chunk of the menu, and I can see why. When I lived in Florence, Italy when I was in college I might say I was addicted to the fresh very thin crust pizzas that are in so many restaurants. They are meant to be eaten with a knife and fork because they tomato sauce there is very thin and liquidy, therefore the pizza cannot stand up on its own in the center. This had that sweet and light tomato sauce that I adore in Florence, and I am excited to go back and try some more of them.
I wanted to absolutely love Beretta. I was so excited about going there and I used to really like the Last Supper Club, its previous incarnation. Unfortunately some of the dishes missed for me, but I think I would be willing to give it another shot in the future. I think the heirloom tomato and pesto pizza might redeem it for me.

Trader Joe's Pad Thai

2008-12-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

A while ago I bought this box of pad thai at Trader Joe's. I figure that it was the perfect thing to bring to work to eat and I love pad thai, so what could be better? Well, this could be better. It looked a bit odd from the get go, the noodles were all smooshed and vacuum packed and the sauce came in a silver space age looking package. Sexy food this was not. I believe I would give them a D on packaging. The cute blue box was nice, but it should be about the food.

I emptied both packets into the redeeming blue box, mix it up and separated the sad white noodles and stuck it in the nuker for the 2 specified minutes. Doo doo doo, wait wait wait. Ok, I removed the box and instantly burned my hand on the steam coming out of the top of the box, an auspicious start. First taste: meh. It just wasn't very good. The noodles were fine, I was actually surprised at the consistency. But the sauce was just bad. It tasted fake. I sort of felt like I was eating a version of pad thai that looks like pad thai but actually has not one ingredient that is actually found in pad thai. It was quite odd. And I was quite disappointed for this was my lunch and it was like a was a little bit cheated. I usually love Trader Joe's food. I use their tomato sauce all the time which is both cheap and fresh tasting. But I thing that Trader Ming should take some lessons from Trader Giotto and Trader Jose, for they are doing a better job supporting their culinary cultures than poor Ming.

A Dinner Date at Beretta

2008-12-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

OOoh, am I excited. John and I are going to Beretta for dinner tonight and I have been dying to go there. I was originally bummed when I heard that the Last Supper Club was closing down, I always liked that restaurant and I have had some really lovely evenings there. But the Beretta replaced it and started getting stellar reviews. Check out what Michael Bauer says in the Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/06/CMTJ119VD6.DTL&type=food
I am just so excited about having a nice dinner with John. We cook at home mostly and rarely go out just the two of us, so this will be a treat. I'll take pictures and update tomorrow for everyone!
http://www.berettasf.com/menu.html
Here's the menu, what would you order?

Split Pea Soup- Forever

2008-12-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

I made a crap load of soup last night. Seriously. I made so much. It is sort of ridiculous. I don't even know what to do with it all! And I bet you I have at least 10 servings still in my fridge at home. And I froze some. And I sent some with John to work. I have some in my fridge at work. This is getting crazy. Here's how it all started.
In the spirit of the recession and my own pathetic checkbook, I decided to make a ton of soup and feed myself and John for the week. Unfortunately I always forget that I don't want to eat the same thing every day for lunch and dinner. That's a lot of split peas! And don't get me wrong, I love the things, but already I feel like I am turning a bit green.
I went to the store last night and got groceries for the week. $67. Not bad, not good, but what can i say, there are certain things that I won't pay less for. Like I am not going to buy the cheapo eggs, I like my organic, free-range Judy's eggs. Hopefully the chickens will thank me one day. And I am addicted to string cheese, I just love the stuff. It doesn't run cheap either.
Earlier in the day I sat on the couch and read through a bunch of cookbooks and decided to go with an old favorite- Ina Garten's Split Pea Soup. I've made this many times and directly recall that it makes a lot, so I considered halving the recipe. But then I decided I wanted enough to freeze and for lunches, so I went with it. 6 large (mine were HUGE) carrots, 6 new potatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, 16 cups of chicken broth, two pounds of split peas, this was a hefty soup! I also decided to throw in some brown rice during the cooking, I thought this could add a little more texture and nutrition. What I didn't count on was how much more liquid I had to add, as the rice soaked up a lot of it. The good thing is that the rice worked! It added a really great texture to the soup that wouldn't have been there without it. So I am officially adding it to the recipe, but perhaps only using 1.5 pounds of lentils now.
To top off my endless pot of soup I made Ina's parmesan croutons. This is no more then thinly slicing a baguette, I bought a sourdough one, and laying it on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, some salt and pepper, and grated parmesan and you're done! Well, after 10 or so minutes in a 400 degree oven. These are delicious with the soup. My other little crispy treat was prosciutto. I stuck some slices in the oven with the croutons so they would be nice and crispy.
My bowl ended up quite pretty if you ask me! Lovely thick and chunky soup, prosciutto bits, crisp parmesan bread and some chopped parsley. It is delicious, but do I really have to eat it for a week?

Romaine Spears with Blue Cheese and Cherry Tomatoes

2008-12-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

For the past few months I have been compiling a cookbook. No, not one that I have actually written (although I always tweak my recipes and I do make sure that I take notes on this) but I have been taking all those scraps of paper with recipes scrawled on them, recipe print outs, and the stack of about 30 issues of Food & Wine, Gourmet, and Bon Appetit and transcribed or pasted them into a large binder. I will talk more about this soon, maybe when the project is complete, but it seems endless. Technically I suppose it could last forever, as there will always be a new issue coming out and it seems that recipes are endless. But it has been really fun so far and a lot less expensive than buying all the cookbooks I want. I dove into my new book the other night and decided I would make a delicious romaine and blue cheese salad. This was a lighter take on blue cheese, it has an oil and vinegar vinaigrette mixed with chunks of bleu. Delicious!
I took my romaine spears and artfully (ha!) placed them on two plates. Then I followed the recipes to make the vinaigrette, white wine vinegar, olive oil, shallot, garlic, a smidge of anchovy paste (right? I know!), salt and tons of fresh cracked pepper, and a large chunk of blue cheese crumbled. You can't really get better than that! The actual recipe called for red onion and no tomatoes, but I had shallots and I thought that the tomatoes would add color, sweetness, more vitamins. I poured the dressing all over the spears, then added on the tomatoes and some chopped shallots. It was delicious!
The garlic, pepper, and cheese really gave it a bite. Actually I was pleased with my addition of cherry tomatoes because the tartness really helped mellow and cut those stronger flavors. This was originally going to be our starter for dinner, but after making these and eating them, John and I were completely full! Glad I didn't go ahead and make the planned meal. I simply pushed it to the next day.
Also, this is a wonderful dish but I wouldn't make it for a first date! Garlic, onions, and pungent cheese is best for two people know each other quite well. In my opinion.

Thanksgiving- A Pictorial

2008-12-05T14:28:00.014-08:00

I figure that since a picture is worth a thousand words, I would let my photos do the talking. Here goes!
TURKEY

Pumpkin Turkey

2008-12-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

My grandmother, Tutu, gave my mom a "turkey" for Thanksgiving. I think it is the funniest thing ever. Behold the Almighty Pumpkin Turkey. Oh, and getting those posts in there was HARD WORK! Here's another image in case the first wasn't enough. Mom with her creation. I think he's cute!

My Muni Hell- An Non-Cooking But Funny Story

2008-12-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is not food related but funny nonetheless. I take the Muni to work every morning. This means that I typically arrive to work late, annoyed, flustered, or all of the above. There is a book being written in San Francisco with Muni stories and I decided to submit mine. Here it is!

A few months ago I was waiting to ride the 5-Fulton to work. I have the pleasure of living near the Western Addition so there are always lots of interesting characters hanging out on the bus. I was waiting at the crowded bus stop and I saw this seemingly crazy older woman muttering to herself. Oh wonderful, another loon to share the bus with. We all pile on the bus and it is crowded. The 5 is usually packed in the mornings, but this morning it was so crowded you literally could not move an inch. I had to find a space for my feet and hold tight. I was near the front of the bus standing facing the people that were seated. This is always awkward because it close quarters, but you sort of hold your breath and deal. Next to me was a small, young Asian woman who looked dressed for work, and the crazy old bird from outside comes and sits down right in front of her.
There we are, moving along, when all of a sudden the old coot yells very loudly “Bitch, if you don’t get your pussy out of my face I am gonna slap the shit out of you.”
The bus goes silent, everyone is shocked, the poor woman sort of whispers “I can’t really move right now, there’s no place to go.”
Then from across the bus you hear “sheesh, somebody always gotta cause trouble.” Crazy then yells at her “when this bitch gets her pussy out of my face I am gonna slap the shit out of who said that.” And again she yells again at the poor lady next to me “you heard me bitch, I will slap the shit out of you if you don’t move your pussy.”
At this point we are all shocked. I was ready to call it a day and go home, but only after being evil and thinking, thank God that’s not me. I am so glad it was someone else. After that we stopped at VanNess which always loosens the bus up a bit so the poor victim of this whole thing could move farther down the bus where her pussy could be in peace. I have seen and heard a lot of things on the Muni but this was probably the most shocking. Perhaps because I also wouldn’t have put it past this woman to stand up and start slapping people. It’s hard when you get to work and you already feel exhausted from the trip there!

Carrot Pudding- A Thanksgiving Treat

2008-12-01T17:06:00.000-08:00

I was asked to make Carrot Pudding for this year's Thanksgiving and I was happy to oblige! My mom gave me the recipe (and bought the ingredients, score!) and I went to work. I began by dicing the clean and trimmed carrots and then simmering them for about 20 minutes. Easy enough, right? While they simmered I hung out and chatted with my mom and cleaned even more carrots that eventually went into her Turkey Soup. My mother raves about her turkey soup every year but I have to be honest, I don't love the stuff. I'm not sure why, maybe it's never salty enough for me? (I am a salt fiend). And I love barley, one of the main ingredients, so it really doesn't make too much sense. Oh well.
After straining the carrots I allowed them to cool for a while and then pureed them in the Cuisinart with some onion until they were smooth as silk. Or as pureed carrots. This is the part of the recipe that would hold me back fro making it too often. Too many dirty dishes! You have the original sauce pan which simmers the carrots, then the Cuisinart, then you have to take out the electric egg beaters to beat the butter with the spices, and add the carrot. Following all that you place it in a baking dish. That is a lot of wreckage in the kitchen just for carrot pudding. I made it at my mom's house so it wasn't as bad, her kitchen is quite large and she has a dishwasher. But in my apartment I have limited counter space, so who knows if I'll make it again. There's a picture with the butter and all the spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pepper, sugar, flour etc (I just spelled that "flower" a second ago, wow!) Beat that up, add the carrots and then beat in milk and eggs. It's an orangey goopy mess! But it gets good after you bake it for 1 hour. Basically this is a total Holiday recipe because it takes forever to cook. I don't have an hour of prep and an hour of baking time when I make dinner after work. Well if I did there would be some grumpy and hungry campers. But the finished product was delicious. It's just sweet enough and savory enough, and the carrots are so good. We've never been a sweet potato family so I think that this took the place. It looks like it could be sweet potatoes at least! It was finished off by the next day, partially by me. I even liked it cold. But I like everything cold and out of the container, one of those bad habits. I don't know why I can't just sit down and heat up a plate. It all tastes better from the serving bowl.

Black Tie Pasta- Nah, Just Bowties

2008-12-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Dinner was a mish mash of leftovers and pantry items that I am still trying to get rid of. I had extra chicken from the enormous chicken breasts I made the other night and I also had zucchini and a large tomato I needed to use. So I made a delicious pasta that John and I were both really impressed with. While I was heating up the water and cooking the farfalle I cubed up some mozzarella that needed to be used and placed it in a large bowl. I added one clove of minced garlic, the tomato cubed, lots of grated Parmesan, and a large spoonful of pesto sauce. After I drained the pasta I added it to the bowl along with some of the cooking water to lube everything up. As I tossed it together all the mozzarella melted and the pesto coated the noodles. This was so delicious. Definitely something I plan on doing again. Plus I love a no cook pasta sauce, makes life so much easier.
Once again I also tried to find a balance with my plate. I had a ton of zucchini and less chicken and pasta. I didn't actually finish everything on my plate! I wrapped it up for lunch the next day. I took the leftover zucchini but John snatched up the pasta. Lucky boy!

More Turkey Burgers

2008-12-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

Upon john's request, I made more turkey burgers the other day. These were pretty similar to the original ones I made. I added basil, shallot, garlic, one egg, some breadcrumbs, spinach, and grill seasoning to the meat and then mixed it all up. Toast some whole wheat bread, lay on some pepper jack and we were done. These are John's absolute favorites and I like them too. They're healthy, fast, and not very expensive. I am thinking about making a Thanksgiving burger next, maybe some sage in there and cranberry sauce. Hmmm, yum. Ooh, and melted gruyere! I could even cube it and add it to the actual burgers. Now I am excited!

Chinese Food

2008-11-25T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is all pretty self-explanatory. Foodbuzz, my company, went on another field trip for chinese food. As our new offices are located about one block from Chinatown, our options are pretty much endless. This time is was Oriental Pearl that struck our fancy. We all wanted to do Chinese again because two weeks ago we went to R&G and it was delicious, plus our table had this huge lazy susan which really helped the 14 of us share a family style meal.The meal came rolling out starting with dumplings, shown above. These were ok, a bit greasy, but not terrible especially when dressed up with some chili sauce and soy sauce.
Sweet and Sour (Hot and Sour??) soup was up next. This was nice on a cold day. It was very spicy but I really enjoyed it, I would say that this was the best part of the meal. Fried Rice and sweet and sour prawns arrived after this. I picked most of the pork out of the fried rice, but it was pretty basic.
They were good in that "I know this is terrible for me and full of crap" way. Oh well, I can eat veggies tomorrow. Some sweet and sour chicken and Cashew chicken finished off my meal. These were also sub par. I don't know what was so much better than R&G compared to Oriental Pearl, but they really were different. Maybe it was the greasiness factor. Same with the cashew chicken, it had the elements it was supposed to but lacked something. There was Mogolian beef as well but I didn't eat it. Still not there with the red meat yet. Actually I am going back and forth about whether or not cut it out completely again. I'm not sure. We'll see. Maybe for a month and then I can reassess. See how I feel, how John feels, etc. That is my main problem right now. He isn't content eating some veggies and a few bites of cottage cheese for dinner like I am. And I don't know how I feel about making us separate meals. Actually I do know how I feel, I would hate it. Something to ponder...

I Made Steak

2008-11-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

Most typical Americans have probably made and eaten countless steaks in their life and it does not warrant a blog entry or a pat on the back. But I am a novice, to say the least, at both making and consuming steak. But John wanted steak, is anyone else noticing a theme here, and I said okay. Off we went to Trader Joe's to pick up a week's worth of groceries. After waiting in the incessant line on Masonic Ave. we finally got into the parking lot. Now I love Trader Joe's as much as the next person, but they really need to widen their aisles a bit. It is no longer the little local market, it is always packed and I get so annoyed dodging people and carts and small children as I try to grab the last box of whole wheat couscous and load up on Two Buck Chuck.
We also grabbed some steaks for that night. I was a little nervous, but I found a package that had 2 medium size steaks and a baby steak for me, so I thought that I could handle that. We got home and I went to work. I cooked the steaks on my cast iron grill pan on the stove after covering them with salt and pepper. While they were cooking I started on my wine sauce. Simmer one cup of wine, I used a nice Zinfandel, for about 6-8 minutes, then remove it from the heat and slowly stir in 2 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, in small pieces. I then actually placed the sauce back over the heat in hopes to thicken it up a little more.I made some couscous and sauteed some veggies on the side too. I always keep frozen stir veggies in the freezer and I am trying to actually use the food that I have stored in my pantry and freezer. So out came the TJ's stir fry veggies, a combo of carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, red bell pepper, and onions. I like these and they are simple, healthy and easy. Plus I really love cooked carrots and water chestnuts. I like the softness of the carrots and the crunch of the chestnuts. Yum!While this meal was quite tasty, I must admit it was not the beautiful thing I have ever created. The wine sauce bled all over the plate and into the couscous, which made everything taste good but look like a murder scene. Oh well. Maybe I will try it another time but plate the steak over mashed potatoes so the sauce goes all over that, it might look a little like a volcano! Nice. Dinner was great though. John was impressed with my steak making skills (wow!) and it was actually pretty healthy. If you look at my plate you see that my steak is actually quite small and the majority of the plate is the veggies and couscous. I guess I am in tune with what all the nutritionists and dieticians tell everyone about how to plate their plates (half veggies and one quarter protein, the other quarter carbs, I think). Anyway, dinner was tasty, that's the most important part!

John is the Birthday Boy

2008-11-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

We started John's birthday celebration earlier than the actual day with a somewhat surprise dinner at the Hyde Street Bistro. I mean somewhat surprise because John and his brother (John is an identical twin, hence the double birthday celebration) both knew that there was a dinner and some friends were coming, they just didn't know the extent of it. And then when they were at their most favorite place in the world Shanghai Kelly's getting a beer before dinner and a couple of their friends rolled in I believe that the suspicion became stronger.
They walked into the restaurant accompanied by my self and Jeff's girlfriend Natalie, who set the whole thing up (thanks Nat!), and I believe they were both blown away. There was an entire wall of tables filled by their friends. It was was really fun to see the reaction, and of course to see everyone there. The tables were filled with blown up laminated photos of the boys through the years, some of which were pretty funny (my favorite is the picture of the two of them dressed up as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for a New Year's Eve costume party. They look indescribably funny. Those girls are so tiny and John and Jeff are about 6'5" wearing these tiny baby doll shirts with the names on them).

Natalie had set up a prix fix menu (check out the personalization above!) and I wanted to eat everything that was on it, but fortunately John, Alyssa and I decided to split everything that we ordered, or at least give each other bites. I ordered the house smoked salmon with capers, red onion, tomato, lemon and olive oil on toast. It was delicious. I am a particularly large fan of smoked salmon, lox, and any other type of salmon, so I was in heaven. And it was delicious. The salmon was perfect, the toast was crispy yet chewy, and I got to make my own little sandwiches to eat. John doesn't love smoked salmon like this, he prefers when it is cured to the texture that you typically find smoked trout, but oh well, more for me. I took a few bites of John's warm goat cheese salad and Alyssa's beet salad and would get those again too. I was quite pleased with our appetizers if you can't tell. We had a lovely red wine to wash all of this down and I wish that I could remember for the life of me what it was. Perhaps a Tempranillo? But I also remember it being Italian, so that makes no sense. Oh well. I really need to write this stuff down because I stare at labels and say, that's good, I should remember it, and then blip, it's gone.

For our main courses I had the ling cod with lemon tapenade, saffron rice pilaf, ratatouille, and spinach. John naturally got the hangar steak with french fries and I would never expect anything else from him, my boy likes his steak! I may have had a few of his french fries. Or half. Whatever. This second fish course was not as good as the first. I'm not sure why not, something just missed. All the ingredients seemed fresh and I know that that the food there is usually wonderful, so who knows. Sometimes people just have an off night, or maybe the recipe was lacking. But it was good enough to eat most of. We finished it off with dessert, with a candle in it naturally! I had Il Flotante, Floating Islands, one of my favorite traditional French desserts. Basically I like anything in creme anglaise so I was a happy girl!
Here we are happily celebrating!

And here are Jeff and Natalie holding down the fort on the other end of the table.
Hyde Street Bistro
1521 Hyde Street (between Pacific and Jackson)
San Francisco, Ca 94109

Bocadillos- Little Bites

2008-11-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

My grandparents were in town and they were going to be a few blocks from my office, so I decided to meet them and my mom for lunch. Since they don't San Francisco as well as I do, I chose the restaurant and was i excited to do so. I went to Bocadillos once a few years ago and I have been eager to return ever since. We plopped down at one of their communal tables and went about ordering from their delicious menu. It is a tapas restaurant so you get to choose one of two sandwiches. This was the hardest part of I ultimately chose the tuna melt and the double cheese tomato and basil. We started out with the beet salad with harissa vinaigrette.

As per the usual, I forgot to take a picture before I dove into the salad, so I will defend Chef Hirigoyen and say that his presentation was much lovelier than my photo shows. And the dressing was really interesting. It included all those warm Middle Eastern flavors that are so often in Spanish cuisine that I typically don't cook with. The four of us pretty much devoured it in just a few minutes. Then I was off to my sandwiches.
They were both warm and toasty and actually quite a lot of food, that did not stop me from finishing every bite! The tuna was that great Spanish tuna canned in oil that everyone should always use to make tuna sandwiches (that or the Italian tonno). And I've never met a warm cheese and tomato sandwich that I don't like, so I was in heaven. My grandparents and my mom enjoyed their meals as well, my grandfather Kane got a soup that was particularly tasty. I plan on returning to the restaurant soon. My only complaint would be that it was a bit noisy for my grandparents, but I don't care as much about that sort of thing.

Here we are after a nice meal, three generations of girls!

Napa

2008-11-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

I rarely make posts about the wine we drink in Napa because, honestly, I am not a wine snob but more of an appreciator. I am terrible at remembering what I drank but I am attempting to pay more attention. But I actually took some photos this time in an attempt to motivate a blog and entry and, well, he we are!
Johnny and I went to Calistoga to meet up with his roommate from law school and his wife who were in town visiting the wine country. We left the city early Saturday morning and made the lovely drive into the Napa Valley. Now Napa never ceases to dazzle my senses with its beauty, but John and I have gone up there literally at least twice a month for the last 5 months, so it isn't a very big deal and it can be a nuisance. But we went to two wineries I had never been to, so that was a nice change.
We started out at Schramsberg which makes delicious sparkling wine. John and I were late, much to his chagrin (I am a sort of grin and bear it girl when it comes to being late. I figured we're just going wine tasting and there is nothing we can do about it right now, so we might as well enjoy the drive and even the traffic in St. Helena and relax. But John was incensed at our tardiness and in a bad mood. Oh well). We roll up to Schramsberg and race to find his friends Matt and Kate within the caves of the place, which was not an easy feat. I am always amazed when running around these wine caves. They are so cool inside and hidden from the outside of the buildings. But we finally found them in one of the inner cave rooms in the middle of the tasting. We tasted two sparkling wines in this room, one which was 25% chardonnay and 75% pinot noir, and the other was 25% pinot noir and 75% chard. I liked the latter (I think). The room we were standing in was amazing and it really is incredible to be in these huge cask rooms with low hanging chandeliers and enormous casks of wine surrounding you.
The wine was perfect, not only because it helped us unwind from a stressing car trip, but also because it was just light and bubbly enough. I soon found out why this was, of course.
John and I walked into the store at Schramsberg and I was all geared up to buy a few bottles, until I saw the prices. The sparkling wine I liked, the Reserve, was $100 a bottle. Too much for my little checkbook. Oh well. It was a lovely time spent, so I can't really complain.

Next we drove over the Chateau Montelena, pictured above. It really is quite beautiful. John and I indulged ourselves with the library tasting which his friends already had reservations for. Unfortunately I didn't know it was $80 for the two of us until after I paid. I was very glad I didn't spend $100 on a bottle of champagne after that!
The tasting was great. Very informative, and I had no idea that the movie Bottle Shock, which I want to see but haven't yet, is all about Montelena. That added and extra motivation to rent it when it comes out. We tasted about 5 wines (I think) and John and I took a nice tour of the grounds.
I think our favorite part of the day came next though. The four of us went over to Kate's family friend's shop, the Calistoga Wine Shop, and had more tastings.

La Mar

2008-11-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

When my dad offered to take me out to lunch the other day I instantly blurted out "La Mar."
"What?" he inquired, then offering up his suggestion of Il Fornaio.
I said "Dad, there's this new restaurant that just opened up at Pier 1 1/2 and it is supposed to be amazing. It's by this Peruvian superstar and it's his first restaurant in North America."
Dad took the bait and the next day we were off to La Mar.
We walked into the cavernous space along the Bay and I was immediately struck by the bright colors of the place. The theme is obviously turquoise and bright green, as the color motif ran along the menus, the placemats, and even the blue lights that ran along the bottom side of the bar. The main dining room was jammed so Dad and I grabbed a seat along the large and empty bar. Immediately we were brought out the following:The basket is filled with plantain, potato, and sweet potato chips. They were lightly fried and delicious, perfect to dip in the three sauces that were offered. My pretty chips. I definitely ate too many of these.

For starters Dad and I ordered a ceviche. They have a whole list of them on the menu and I have no idea what the others taste like, but this was incredible. I have had ceviche a number of times in my life and typically it's just some raw fish covered with acid (lemon or some other citrus) and has some cilantro, onions and tomatoes along side. I have no idea what is in this or why the sauce was such a brilliant shade of yellow, but whatever they did, they did it right. I wanted to drink the bowl!
Following was another starter of crab atop a bed of potatoes. Sounds pretty simple, right? I have never in my life tasted potatoes that melted in my mouth quite like these. It was incredible, amazing, awesome. This was part of a section called causas. Apparently there are a variety of fishes you can get atop the potatoes, I saw blue potatoes served as well.
I am not sure how to describe the velvety texture and taste that can do these justice, but I could eat these every day (if I could afford it).
Next came the mussels. These were really the only disappointment in my mind. The salsa on top was too much for a mouth full and the flavor just didn't measure up to the earlier dishes. The white on top are HUGE kernels of corn only found in Peru. They were very pretty and tasty, but didn't exactly blend with the other flavors.
My dad ordered this amazing main course which I ate about half of. It was a sea food medley called the Macho, one of many classic Peruvian dishes and stews. Honestly, nothing I would have probably have ordered on my own. But the flavors here were also out of this world. I tasted tastes I have never tasted before! The menu described it as Roasted grouper with Manila clams, calamari, ají panca stew and green tamale cream.
For the finalmente dad insisted on dessert. My stomach went ugh but my mind and mouth said "yes please." We ordered a dessert with pumpkin and sweet potato which was drizzled with, what tasted to me, a molasses type sauce.
On a whole I would absolutely return to La Mar. It was one of the best dining experiences I have had in a long time. It was expensive, but worth it. Thanks Dad! Check them out!
http://www.lamarcebicheria.com

President Obama!

2008-11-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

This is not a food or cooking post and I have been a delinquent blogger, but I have to express my joy that Obama has been elected. The people have spoken!!!

FallFest- A Belated Post

2008-10-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Magazine held an amazing event that I was lucky enough to attend. Located on the Embarcadero with the Blue Angels zooming overhead, we got to enjoy lots of amazing food and wine courtesy of a ton of local restaurants! Walking in I was handed a plate and a Reidel wine glass, one I got to keep, and free reign of the place. Below are photos of the food I tasted.First off was RNM: a bite of Grimaud Farms Duck with Knoll Farms Black Mission Figs. This was delicious,a bit rich, but tasty. It's funny because last time I went to RNM I really enjoyed my meal but ended up with a belly ache. Maybe the food is just too heavy for my sensitive gullet.

Rose Pistola offered Curli Endive from County Line Harvest with Ahi Tuna, fresh horseradish and caper berries.
Asia de Cuba also had an ahi tartare of sorts. This one was covered with coconut and I recall it being quite tasty! Not the best photo I have ever taken but I was trying to juggle a plate, the wine glass and take photos!
Above is Kuleto's, a local favorite, and it didn't disappoint with Sonoma Duck Liver with California Mission Figs and Arugula. It's funny, duck liver, foie gras, whatever you want to call it, doesn't really bother me. I know it should considering what I a bleeding heart I typically am for animals, but for some reason I have shoved foie gras into the "isn't really an animal product" category. Vegans everywhere are gathering their pitch forks to come roast me (hey, I'm an animal too guys!). The funniest thing is John didn't taste this one because he has self declared "issues" with it. He never ceases to surprise me!
Sam's Chowder House, which is located in Half Moon Bay (I think, don't hold me to it) offered and interesting little bowl of Sweet Shrimp and Chickpea salad with Daylight Farms Mint, Smoked Paprika, creme fraiche, and picholine olives. A tasty bite I must say.
Foreign Cinema offered up a small crostini that I came back to a number of times. It was local Ling Cod with creme fraiche, chile and lime and Steven Singer olive oil. The tiny sweet one hundreds on the top added just the right amount of sweetness. Those are tomatoes in case you are unfamiliar.
Have you ever had venison? Especially jerkied or dried or whatever treatment Ducca gave it?? Neither had I. But this was served on a chocolate tortilla and had the most interesting combo of sweet and savory. It was fascinating, and I have to have two to make sure I got all the flavors!
At the Betelnut stand I had this small bite of pork with some kind of sweet reduction over it. I forgot to photograph the description but this was tasty. It was cooked right and reinitiated me into the land of pork. Hmmm, not sure how long I'll stay, we'll see.
Bocadillos, one of my favorite restaurants from the people who do another one of my faves, Piperade, disappointed me with this bite of Monterey Sardines and California Quince. I love sardines, I really do, but this was way too much flavor for the quince. It just didn't really go together and I almost wanted to spit it out, not a good thing.
Paragon had Bay Shrimp, Piquillo peppers, tarragon and olive oil. It was ok, but hard to compete with all the other tasty things that were going into my mouth that day.
Prawns and shrimp were a very popular choice on this sunny fall day. I am not sure why, perhaps because they can be served at many temperatures, I cannot fathom how difficult it is to cook for an event like this. All you have is a tent and some hot plates, so anything that needs a perfect temperature or cannot sit for a while is out. But that said, shrimp, in my opinion, just isn't all that exciting. Sent Sovi offered a Arbequina olive oil poached prawn with celery root salad. I recall that this didn't taste like much. It's pretty, but the taste was missing.
Level III, a restaurant I had never even hear of fed me my second favorite of the day! Harris Ranch braised shirt rib with Coke Farms organic cauliflower risotto and Brussel Sprouts. Mmmmmm. Really, mmmm. I yelled at the boys to come take these, actually I think I asked the chef for 2 more so I could bring this little dish of heaven over to them. We all loved it. Mmmmm, again, for lack of imagination. One Market gave a Dungeness crab cake with Saffron aioli. It was perfect. I mean, perfect if you like basic crab cakes. It wasn't inventive, it wasn't something I had never tasted before, but it was simply a delicious, satisfying crab cake. I had multiple!

Namu, another unfamiliar restaurant to me, served a very savory bite of line caught Bodega Bay Black Cod with grilled scallions and avocado wrapped in Konbu. It was served in what reminded me of a ponzu sauce. I actually liked it a lot.
There were many other bites I had throughout the day, I couldn't take pictures of everything. The most disappointing picture I missed was a photo of my favorite of the day! It was from Ryan Scott's, of Top Chef infamy one might say, new restaurant Mission Bay Cafe. It was a crostini with roasted pork, white bean puree, and some kind of roasted red pepper. It was absolutely delicious. I mean, wow. Incredible. I think I ate 5. And he was nice and I didn't ask if he finally learned what a chicken scallopini or whatever dish he totally screwed up and denied doing so on Top Chef, but he was a way more pleasant figure than he gave off on tv. (Which actually totally sucks, because who cares if a few dozen people have a really good impression of you when the majority of the country thinks you're a huge douche! I mean, this guy got roasted on the message boards, absolutely skewered. Poor guy, really.) But look how happy I am with all the eating!!
FallFest was a total success. I think I probably tasted about 80% of the main courses, there were oysters that you didn't see amongst other things, but I didn't have any of the desserts. And there were a lot of other products around too. Something called Rabbit Bars, I think, oh and some amazing cheese which I loitered around for a while! There were some good wines as well. And I love my glass. So, whew, FallFest '08, conquered and now finally blogged about!

Sam's Anchor Cafe- Tiburon- Another Foodbuzz Voyage

2008-10-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

Working at Foodbuzz has its perks- food namely. To celebrate our upcoming launch and the hard work that everyone put into it, the whole group of us took the Ferry over the Sam's in Tiburon for lunch and fun. We ordered a ton of food and enjoyed the slightly overcast day. Sam's is such a classic spot for anyone who grew up around here. In high school you go and try to see if your fake id/friend with fake id can buy some drinks to enjoy in the sun. Any sunny weekend day the place is absolutely packed with people. Anyone who comes to San Francisco during the summer should take the ferry to Sam's and check out the scene, it really is indescribable. Since this was a work field trip and it was a dark and almost stormy day, this was a completely different Sam's experience than I have ever had. The first order of business was to look at the sea lions as we passed by Fisherman's Wharf. I always forget how goofy these guys are, with their huge bodies and funny bark. When we arrived at Sam's it was time to order some food. Calamari was first on the order. A HUGE basket full of the fried up squid with a lovely dipping sauce. Sam's, which is more known for its view and pink lemonade than its food, really impressed me with this one. It was delicious. Mussels were another starter that the table enjoyed. These were okay but nothing to write home about.
I was excited when the crab cakes were dropped off. Big pieces of yummy crab dipped into a mayonnaise based sauce, it's pretty hard to screw that up! I think that the two main complaints that people have about crab cakes are 1) if they are too stingy on the crab and overloaded with filler and 2) if the cakes are too dry. This was not the case for these so we were in luck.
My main course was the Halibut Salad on a bed of couscous, arugula, avocado and grapefruit. It was very pretty but the taste was, meh. The fish was a little too dry for my taste (I typically like very rare fish. With white fish I always cook it through, but just barely. This could have come off the grill about 2 minutes earlier). The vegetable part of the salad was nice though, lightly dressed and I pretty much like anything that has couscous on it.
Other orders were the Cioppino:

Grilled Shrimp:

Linguine and Clams:

And here's part of the Foodbuzz team, enjoying their ferry ride back to San Francisco:

Jake's Birthday Dinner- What Does a 2 year Old Like?

2008-10-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

I spent Sunday night doing things to corn. Sounds strange but it is true. I shucked it, I washed it, I cut all the corn off the cob, I warmed it through and then I made creamed corn. Mmmmm. Because what more does a 2 year old want than creamed corn? Really? My mom made lamb, roasted asparagus, a large green salad and a Caprese, and then we had the corn.
Jake looked over the table and thought, hmmm, what should I eat first? Obviously he ate the corn, especially because his Auntie made it for him. And considering the fact that I used about 16 ears of corn, the few tablespoons of butter and cream really don't amount to much (except I doubled them, shhhh). The result was sweet goodness. And it isn't overtly creamy like the canned stuff. The texture is still authentically kernel-y ( new word, you like?) the corn is so sweet still that it needs nothing more than some shakes of salt and a few grinds of pepper (not too many because the baby doesn't really like it). And don't forget the cupcakes!

Mock Meat Sauce- I Played A Trick!

2008-10-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

John and I have been having a little food conflict: he wants more meat than I do. Most nights I am content to eat a large salad, have a piece of toast and call it a night. But John wants "protein" and thinks that flesh is the only way to get that. So I bought ground turkey at the market (see above turkey burgers) and I also bought soy crumbles. With my simple tomato sauce (which I doctored up with zucchini, fresh onions, garlic and some red wine) I added the soy crumbles. I tossed it all with whole wheat linguine and a parmesan and fresh basil garnish.

So, what happened? Well...
John dove into the steaming bowl of pasta and said, "this is really good babe."
Me: Thanks, I have something I want to tell you though.
John: What?!
Me: I'll tell you in a minute, hold on a sec, let me grab something from the kitchen.
J: Is it a good surprise?
M: Sure, just a sec.
J: Are you pregnant?
M: Um, huh? No, I'm not pregnant. The surprise is I used soy crumbles instead of ground turkey.
J: Oh, really? I could tell. I knew it wasn't turkey.
M: Suuuuuure.

So apparently when I try to trick John he thinks I am pregnant. Well, I guess we both learned our lesson. But he actually really liked the pasta, so there might be more soy crumbles in our future!

The World's Best Turkey Burgers

2008-10-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

I made the world's best turkey burgers.
Yes, you read that correctly. How, one might ask, do I KNOW that I made the world's best turkey burgers? Well, maybe I don't know, but if John and I were to make an educated guess then we would both come up with the same result. I made the world's best turkey burgers.
The turkey burgers were not even actually supposed to be made. I bought ground turkey with the intent to make either turkey meatballs or simply add it to a red sauce for extra protein. But I made the red sauce with soy crumbles in an attempt to trick John into realizing that he does not actually need flesh to have a filling meal.

So on a Saturday night we came home from a day of way too much college football (in my opinion) and I set to work on the burgers. I added the turkey to a bowl and mixed it with an egg, chopped onion and garlic, parsley, grill seasoning, and breadcrumbs. A little salt and pepper and some red pepper flakes were the finishing touch. I stuck them on the grill pan and added a slice of pepperjack when they were almost done. and the result was incredible. So tasty. Serving them on english muffins added a bit of crunch and they didn't make them too thick (personal pet peeve, when you are served a food item, often times a sandwich, that is so incredibly thick you cannot possibly get your mouth around it). They were just so incredibly moist and flavorful. I had never used grill seasoning before and the addition was perfect. John claims to have eaten dozens and dozens of turkey burgers in his life and said that these were by far the best ever taken. Even better than a hamburger!

On a side note, I had not bought english muffins for years and I forgot how much I like them. I had one for breakfast and it was delicious, all those buttery nooks and crannies. I bought the sandwich size ones so they were perfect for egg sandwiches too.

Yoyo's- Hole in the Wall Japanese

2008-09-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

Eating lunch on downtown San Francisco can be a dicey expedition. Often places are over priced and crowded. I don't have the time or money to spend 2o minutes in a line for a $10 salad. So I almost always bring my lunch (and rarely post it because it is typically boring. There are plenty of blogs you can read that record every single turkey sandwich, green salad, yogurt, string cheese, apple, or handful of pistachios that one eats, but I think that I don't need to bring quite that much voyeurism into my everyday life. Plus it would get pretty boring. Ooh, leftovers again, or, and then I ate a banana.) But I chose to post about Yoyo's because I like it so much. The above meal, a half order of chicken teriyaki, was $3.50 (seriously) and it is so good. And they have seaweed salad for $1.50 or edamame for $1.75. You just run in and grab it form the counter, it really cannot be beat. So maybe it isn't the most nutritious choice out there, but sometimes it just hits the spot in the perfect way. And I ate my orange, so that helped me rid off scurvy for another day!

Wedding Food

2008-09-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

Most weddings that I attend are great fun, you enjoy the time with friends and family and the food is an afterthought. I have always been okay with this. But at the wedding of my friends Allyson and Mike the food really struck me! Here is our salad course. The beets over shaved fennel were so bright and summery, as was the little Caprese salad. The beans added some texture and more vitamins to the plate, I was really impressed with this combination as opposed to the more typical "dinner salad" one usually gets.

For the main course I had requested the vegetarian entree. I know I've been dabbling but I still always ask for the vegetarian choice at these type of things because I do not want to be stuck with something I won't eat. So I was given a medium sized ramekin of lasagne. It was... amazing. One of the best lasagnas I have ever eaten. Seriously. It was light and fresh, there was a layer of pesto in there that a whole new dimension to the dish. It was so good that John kept ignoring his steak so as to take more bites of my dish. I think he ate about a quarter of it. I was wholly impressed though and I wish that I could bring this recipe to other caterers/restaurants who seem to think that a "vegetarian option" translates into poorly grilled zucchini and eggplant on top of a portobello mushroom cap."

The coconut cupcakes from Comfort's (San Anselmo) cemented this into the "best wedding food ever. And here are the two of us enjoying the lovely weather.

Taylor's Refresher- A New Staple

2008-09-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

Of all the many things that St. Helena, Ca has to offer I believe that Taylor's Refresher might be one of the best! I am embarrassed to say that John and I ended up here on both days we were in St. Helena. On Friday night we drove up to the Napa Valley for (another) wedding. The rehearsal dinner at Tra Vigne was great, but the real treat was the next day when John and I drove over to Taylor's. Not only did we see Tommy Hilfiger and Pat Riley (apparently he's the coach for the Miami Heat, I think? I had no clue who he was, but John was excited. He also wanted to go over to Tommy Hilfiger and tell him that his pants don't fit him right and see if they can come to some solution, but I stopped him from that one). But we ate such good food. Above are the fish tacos. Not the best I have ever had but i think I am beginning to realize that I don't much like corn tortillas. Something about the texture, I don't know. But they always double wrap the tacos and I took a tortilla off each, which improved the prospect a bit.

The real hit of the lunch was the chili cheese fries. Now this would not be something that I would typically consume, but Taylor's is different, and I guess with the great ingredients they use they might be a teensy bit better for you than elsewhere. All that matters is that they were amazing. And this is the best chili I have ever had, and I don't really like chili. It was full of tomatoes and kidney beans, the flavor was incredible.

The boys had burgers, which I took rather unappetizing photos of.
There was a bacon cheeseburger that John ate:

I had a bite and it was okay. Still only flirting with the red meat, which is fine by me. And Dylan had the Blue Ring Burger. Or something along those lines. It's a burger topped with blue cheese and onion rings. I was told it was epic.
All said, Taylor's was good, once again. And I think that it's a good thing I only eat at the one in St. Helena,even though there is one within a 10 minute walk from my office. Even their amazing Ahi Sandwich overfills me to discomfort. Oh well. I can't wait to go again! I guess it might start up next year, as wedding season has, finally, come to an end!

More Homemade Peanut Sauce

2008-09-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

I think I might have improved the original peanut sauce that I made last month. I didn't add any extra sugar to it. It could have used some fresh ginger, but oh well, I had ginger powder so I sprinkled that in. It was spicy and sweet and wonderful over the eggplant and chicken thighs. For the eggplant I sliced it into circles and roasted it in the oven after drizzling olive oil and salt and pepper over it. I flipped them all half way through. The chicken thighs were stuck in the oven with the eggplant and along with the marinade.
Then I stirfried the whole thing along with soba noodles. I should have topped it with the scallions instead of stirring them in for a bright color punch, but oh well, live and learn. I love this little meal in a bowl and can't wait to put new things in it. Last time I used tofu, so I might go back to that another time. But the vegetable possibilities are endless.

Taco Pie

2008-09-25T10:10:00.001-07:00

I made a meal the other day that was very different than anything I usually make. I made an old fashioned taco pie. I sauteed ground turkey with mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes and taco seasoning, stuck it in a pie pan, and covered it with a mix of bisquick, eggs, milk, etc. When it was about 5 minutes from ready I layered grated cheddar and jack cheese over it. I thought it was pretty good, not sophisticated in any way, but it was fast and easy and made some good leftovers. Also, besides the cheese, it was fairly healthy. I buy the leanest ground turkey and sauteed it all in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

On the side was a bit of purple cabbage, salsa, scallions, and avocado slices. Yum!

Bagels and Childhood Food Memories

2008-09-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite way to eat a bagel. Just in case there is any curiosity out there in the world, I like it with lots of cream cheese and a sliced tomato on top, dusted with a touch of salt and pepper. I also love a bagel with cream cheese and lox. It reminds me of childhood for some reason, I think that was one of the meals my mom would make when my dad was out of town. There were definitely "Dad in Town" meals and then "Dad is Out of Town" meals.

When my father was in Southern California on business, which was about 2 weeks out of every month as a kid, we would have bratwurst, omelettes, tuna melts. Hmmm, what else, I know there is more. Actually, I remember the tuna melt dinner very clearly because one time my mom made them when my dad was around. It was probably my brother and my fifth tuna melt of the month (always on an english muffin mind you) and my dad says, "Kristine, this is delicious, you should make these more often." Of course my brother and I laughed and said, "Dad, she makes these all the time, you're just never around for them." Which then began a conversation about the different dinner choices we had.

Does anyone else have memories of different meals that surrounded different circumstances? Oooh, babysitting meals, that's another one. Boiled hot dogs was a favorite, as were those Celeste frozen pizzas. And fruit cocktail! The kind that came out the can with maraschino cherries and little balls of peaches and pears. I loved those, the canned mandarin oranges as well. Ok, enough nostalgia over here for the moment.

Caprese 2.0

2008-09-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to get enough tomatoes this summer. I just want them at every single meal. This salad was another take on a Caprese. The main elements are there, tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, but I also added some extra oomph to it. Underneath is a bed of spinach and field greens tossed with basil, Italian parsley, olive oil and a lovely balsamic vinegar I bought recently. This new bottle of vinegar is much more fruity and stronger than my previous bottle. I like it but it is such a distinct taste that I need to make sure I don't use in any recipes that just call for vinegar. I also have to learn how to temper the flavor. Maybe with a little sugar. Hmmm, I think I will start experimenting. I think it would be great with some garlic though. I usually do the simplest vinaigrettes, just olive oil and vinegar mixed with salt and pepper. But more recently I have been adding shallots and dijon mustard. Perhaps I should be less lazy and do this more often!

To the salad I also added some sliced red onion for crunch and spice. I am not a huge fan of onions, but I like the essence of them. Often times I will make a salad with onions and simply not eat the actual pieces of it, the juices give me enough flavor. John and I sat on the couch and shared this large plate of goodness. Healthy, tons of flavor, I really can't ask for any more!

Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir- Wine Review

2008-09-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

After a lovely dinner last night John and I ran out of the house to run an errand. Said errand brought us by Bar Johnny http://www.barjohnny.com on Polk St and we decided to duck in and grab a glass of wine. Bar Johnny is this cool loungy restaurant/bar that is close by John's house and is more my style than the sports bar that we typically frequent, (not that I don't love Shanghai Kelly's, but a change is always nice). We ordered a bottle of the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir. It was a 2007 from Australia and I loved it. It was a lovely wine, not too fruity or sweet, which is a quality I have been sensitive to in wines recently. I was just surprised by how much I liked it.
So I looked it up online today and it is reasonably priced online as well. Bar Johnny was selling it for $30/bottle, and I found it priced online for anywhere from $18.99-$26.99. Which was nice to know, that means that we didn't pay a hugely inflated price for our wine last night.
It comes with an interesting label with a twist off cap as well, which is my new favorite convenience.
So if anyone is looking for a nice, light Pinot Noir to enjoy, my money is on the Innocent Bystander. I might even buy a case today!

Becks & Posh & ... ME!

2008-09-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

No, not THOSE Becks and Posh. THESE Becks&Posh http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com
Sam was nice enough to add Muffin's Muffins to her blog! How excited am I! I love this blog and find it endlessly entertaining.
Check it out if you haven't already. Thanks Sam!

Why Much Chicken Muffin?

2008-09-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

I made chicken another night last week as well. Why so much chicken does one ask? Hmm, there are a variety of reasons. First off, I am good at making chicken. I have a ton of recipes and I enjoy making them. Also, chicken is a compromise that John and I have. I prefer to eat mostly veggie meals, but I know that those won't really satisfy him. I still don't really make or enjoy red meat, a bite or two is really all I need, so we have a lot of chicken. I try my absolute best to buy free range/organic birds whenever possible. One way i save money is by buying chicken pieces with the bone in/skin on which are organic as opposed to the boneless skinless chicken breasts. It is a great way to save money and if you roast chicken, which is what I ordinarily do, they taste way better when cooked with the bones and skin.
This time I made a mustard chicken. I chopped up 2 shallots, some fresh rosemary and thyme, and mixed it with dijon mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. I think I added a bit of white wine vinegar as well. Layer this all over the chicken in a roasting pan and you are pretty much done. I had some new potatoes and some red onions, so I chopped these up and stuck them on the side of the chicken. Roast at 425F for about an hour (check periodically) and you have a very tasty and nutritious dinner.
On the side I made green beans and mushrooms. Naturally I was so excited about eating I completely forgot to take any "after" photos. So these are all the "before" pics of the raw chicken. I will definitely make this again and remember to photograph it in all it's cooked glory!

My New Fave- Chicken Teriyaki

2008-09-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

Now, I am not going to claim that this is my recipe. I stole it from a blog, and for the life of me I cannot remember which one, so I apologize. But this chicken is so good! You take a combo of soy sauce, honey, ground ginger and garlic, spicy chili sauce (I use Sriracha) and mix it all together over some chicken pieces (I love using thighs and drumsticks for this one. Eating a sticky drumstick reminds me of being a kid!) Let it sit for about 30 minutes, then bake it in the oven. The chicken comes out so tender and moist and the sauce is the perfect spicy/sweet combo. I could honestly make this every week, I think that John would be happy with that as well. I will post the real recipe tonight when I actually look at it. I suppose not everyone is as piecemeal as I am when it comes to throwing ingredients together!
Oooh, I also served this with the last of the summer corn and a salad. Perfection.

The Omnivore's 100

2008-09-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

I am finally doing this list. I have seen it a million times and here is my take on it.
Bold are items I have eaten. Starred* are ones that I would never try. The others are simply things I have yet to discover!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding*
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese*
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects*
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu*
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal*
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads*
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst*
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill*
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse*
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam*
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
Wow, I have tried a lot of things in my life. I think it is funny that one thing I have never had is a Big Mac, nor do I think I will ever had one. I have had cheeseburgers and hamburgers from McDonald's but I don't think I have ever actually tasted the Big Mac. I am fairly certain it is not a big loss!

Foodbuzz Went to Zuni

2008-09-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

Where does a foodie website go when they want to celebrate and munch? Zuni Cafe of course. The whole gang geared up and went on the party bus over to Zuni. And what did we order? Well, everything! For the record, I did not consume everything in these photos. I shared the Little Gem salad and the Serrano Ham appetizers, then had a piece of pizza and some of the Chicken. Oops, and some shoestring fries.
Zuni's Classic Caesar

Serrano Ham and Figs

Little Gem Salad

Chicken for Two: My Favorite Pick from the whole menu. This just has the best flavors. The acidity of the vinegar in the bread salad, the sweetness of the currants, the juicy chicken. It's something that everyone should be able to experience just once. I think that if people shared this chicken it could mend wars. If Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin sat down and shared the bonding experience of this chicken maybe there would have been peace between Palestine and Israel. Ok, maybe not, but they would have been happily full by the end, that much I am sure of.
Classic Zuni Burger
Pizza with Ricotta Salata: so delicious. The tomatoes are sweet, the crust was chewy and perfection!
Shoestring Fries: Oh My!

Not pictured, the espresso granita. Not the best but then again I am not a huge dessert fan. It sort of tasted like a fresh coffee nip, does that make sense?
The meal was a success (how could it not be) and I think I will probably have a piece of fruit for dinner and call it a night!

Amy's Pizza- Good Stuff!

2008-09-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a story many other have probably experienced. It's Sunday afternoon. You are tired (re: lazy) and hungry but don't feel like doing anything. And I mean anything. You are on your fourth episode of Bridezilla (just pretend, I know I would never watch it either) and then it occurs to you that a pizza might be in order. That said, pizza is sort of pricey right now and not that great for you. So, what does one do? They make an Amy's frozen pizza.
Now, I never eat frozen food. It's just not my thing. But if I ever do it is always Amy's brand. They are all natural, organic, and not filled with a bunch of preservatives and other crap. I actually couldn't help myself but had to add some fresh ingredients to the pizza. So I chopped up scallions and added some yummy Cow Girl Creamery cheese I had on hand. I added these about 3/4 of the way through the cooking process.
The pizza was surprisingly good. The sauce tasted fresh and the crust was not the crust one might expect when making a frozen pizza. I grew up with the Celeste pizzas that my mom would make when she was going out to dinner. I loved them as a kid, including that funny little silver plate that you would have to cook it on. I remember eating the frozen cheese that came out of the packet a well. But the crust really did taste a bit chalky and cardboardy and I think the only reason I like them is for the nostalgia factor.
My new purchase will always be Amy's from now on though. Actually, I picked up 2 at Whole Foods last night so I can be prepared for the next lazy Sunday. I got the personal Margarita to try as well! I'm excited. My friend Casey told me it's her go-to when her husband works late. I'll tell everyone about it when I eat it!

Another Day Another Lunch

2008-09-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Another day another lunch. This time I used a whole wheat tortilla and stuck in a laughing cow cheese, some turkey, a tomato, spinach, avocado and some mustard. Yum yum. Too bad this was consumed at about 10:30am. Oops!
I am improving my food photography I must say so myself. I am not about to quit my day job, but I think it's getting better. But it's easier to get better when you start out as poorly as I did!

I also had some corn. Cold and plain, the best kind. It's just so sweet and good! I wish there were no seasons and corn and heirloom tomatoes never went out of the stores.

Salmon Salad Leftovers

2008-09-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

I didn;t finish my dinner last night so I stuck it in a tupperware for lunch the next day. I love cold salmon and veggies on a salad. It has been so warm here that it is really refreshing to eat a cold lunch. I have to say I love salad. I know it seems like too much of a cliche, but I really do.
I also had a juicy peach!

Food Information Abounds

2008-09-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me just the sheer volume of articles and information there is out there on food, eating, health, dining etc. Major newspapers have incredible food sections that push out articles daily on what to eat, from whether or not we really need more protein, to answering if grass-fed beef is actually superior to grain-fed. The idea that there is still a national ignorance regarding fast food and if it really makes you fat is incredible to me. Now, I will preface this with the fact that I have a desk job, which means I am online all the time. And a small part of said job is really keeping up with what is going on in the food world. (I work for Foodbuzz.com, check it out if you haven't). But I cannot imagine that people do not know what it takes to keep themselves healthy. That said, I read and hear the most amazing things that people believe.

Recently a friend told me that she stopped eating cooked spinach because someone told her that toxins are released during the cooking process. Um?! Ok, so I did some research and found this:
Spinach is one of the vegetables which may accumulate appreciable amounts of nitrate from the soil during the growing season. Nitrate is not harmful for our health. If raw spinach is cut and left for a long period of time or if cooked spinach is stored, nitrate is converted into toxic nitrite by bacterial activity. While the concentration of nitrite in re-heated spinach does not pose any problem for adults, babies and toddlers are much more sensitive to nitrite. Therefore, small children should not be fed cooked spinach that has been stored and reheated. Sterilized spinach filled in small glass jars as baby food should be used up directly after opening the jar.
Basically during WWII people, especially in the military, were reusing cooked spinach over and over again, thus creating the nitrates which people deemed as dangerous. But why would someone take tat information and not do the necessary research to see that it is not something to worry about? I have no idea.

Americans seem to be scared of more and more foods these days, carbohydrates, fats, wheat, gluten, etc. But unless you happen to suffer from Celiac disease and cannot eat gluten, there is no reason to be frightened. I am much more scared about the 45 ingredients in a Snackwell's reduced fat cookie than I am about the butter that I will add to my homemade cookies.

So why are Americans still in the dark about good nutrition? And are we or are we simply too stuck in our ways to put energy into making good choices?

My Favorite Salmon

2008-09-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

After going to the gym and running along Crissy Field at 8:00pm last night I was hungry for a nice dinner. I love salmon because it is so easy, good for you, and takes very little time to cook. What I do, while I am preheating the oven, is make some large slits in the filet with a butcher's knife and drizzle honey and soy sauce into the slits and onto the salmon. Add a dash of cracked black pepper and you are good to go! Once the oven is around 425F, or 450F stick her in for about 12 minutes. My oven is so old that I never know how warm it actually is. It has that ancient dial, so I turn it on, wait 15 minutes, and hope for the best. I don't bake too often so most of the food I make is easy to adapt whether it is 15 degrees too cool or what have you. You just have to keep an eye on it. Actually I took the salmon out after about 9 minutes, drizzled some of the marinade over it that had fallen to the sides, and then finished the cooking.
On the side I added a few vegetables. I steamed some broccoli and yellow squash, and I roasted cauliflower at the same time as cooking the salmon. I put the cauliflower in before the salmon, as it takes about 20-25 minutes. Roasted cauliflower is one of my all time favorites. It is amazing how the taste becomes so much more interesting which a bit of charring on the edges. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and some lemon or lime juice and it is just the best. Yum!
A side salad completed this healthy meal. Just some spinach and romaine, bell pepper, radishes, cabbage, cucumber and tomatoes. A great meal.
I even had enough left on my plate to add to my salad for lunch the next day!

Pesto Farfalle with Peas

2008-09-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

I made pesto last week. Why do you ask? Well, I had a ton of basil and thought I could make it and freeze it for the winter, so I went ahead and did it. I rarely follow recipes when it comes to something like pesto. I know the basic ingredients, basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, olive oil, and then I usually add some lemon juice and lemon zest, which I did. I think that the lemon freshens the dish and you cannot really taste the actual flavor of the citrus, just the brightness. (Damn, now I am talking like Rachael Ray again with her ridiculous food descriptions. Parsley is verdant, um, well yes, it is a green herb, and therefore it is verdant. Or she could just say, "parsley tastes like parsley.")

With a dash of salt and pepper I must say that my pesto was good enough to eat with a spoon, which I had to do numerous times to make sure it tasted right. I froze the sucker up and didn't think about it. But on Monday night John and I were starving and I really didn't feel like going to the store. This is when the pantry comes in handy. I always have a ton of pasta on hand (he got to choose between whole wheat linguine, spaghetti, farfalle (bowties), rigatoni, and orzo) and I also wanted to add some extra nutrition and texture, so I remembered a bag of frozen peas in the freezer. Frozen peas remind me of being a kid, and I usually have them so I can make my favorite green pea vicchysoisse without running to the market.

The peas went into the boiling water for the last minute with the pasta. I stuck it back in the pan with some of the defrosted pesto and shook a few red pepper flakes on top, as well as a bit of basil chiffonade. A plate of goodness I tell you. The peas were really good. I think that pesto peas could be a side dish all on its own one of these days.

Steak with Black Beans and Tomatillo Salsa

2008-09-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

I read this recipe on some food blog I can not remember the name of and I decided to wing it the other night. I bought some buffalo steaks (supposedly lower in fat and much healthier than beef) and went to town. I grilled the steaks on my grill pan and while those were heating up I added a rinsed can of black beans to a pan with some olive oil. Then I added about half a jar of tomatillo salsa. This was heating to perfection while I sliced up an avocado.
For the plating I placed the warm and spicy beans on the bottom of a shallow bowl, placed the buffalo on top, and then the avocado, sprinkled with sea salt, and some scallions. The picture is not the best and honestly it didn't look the best. The color of the meat with the beans is too similar. Perhaps if I had made it with steak and then sliced the steak so the red juicy innards were exposed it would have had a more interesting look. Oh well, I am not a food stylist so I suppose it doesn't matter. I ate all of my beans and avocado, which was delicious, and maybe half the meat. I don't really enjoy consuming too much of the stuff. Oh well, better luck next time. Actually I think that this would be really nice with some sliced flank steak on top. Hmmm...

HUGE Portions in Laguna Beach

2008-09-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went down to Orange County for a wedding and to see my dad. On Friday we went to lunch at the Montage Resort, this super fancy place on the beach right off PCH (Pacific Coast Highway-1). We sat outside on the patio at their restaurant Mosaic and enjoyed a lovely, and pricey, lunch.

I ordered the gazpacho with crab and my dad and I shared the fish tacos. The most incredible part of this meal was the huge and completely bizarre, in my opinion, choice of dishes the restaurant used. My gazpacho came in a bowl that was nestled in another larger bowl filled with ice.
The gazpacho was good but missing something. Perhaps a little acid, or a little zing. My dad on the other hand made the right order. He got their clam chowder which was absolutely incredible. I mean, the best clam chowder I've ever had.
It was full of chunks and not too heavy or fake cream tasting. I think that there is so much bad clam chowder out there that I don't even consider ordering it anymore. I figure it's not worth the calories, and the prospective belly ache for the lactose intolerant me. But I changed my mind with one, or ten, sorry Dad, bites of this.
We also shared fish tacos.

One for each of us. These were delicious as well, I thought I would miss out on the salsa, but the flavors of the beans and guacamole really made the taco. The meal was a success I would say, but I cannot imagine ever spending $75 on lunch again. Yes, the restaurant's lunch options were more expensive than most places' dinner entrees. Welcome to touristville. And the bowls were ridiculous. You can't see the size vey well in the pictures, but I do not enjoy eating at a restaurant where I am embarrassed by my portion size. Chevy's always does this as well, they lay out this huge platter and you feel a bit sheepish at the amount of food that you might consume. I suppose this is the American way though.
Another photo of Laguna.

I am So Excited For This!

2008-09-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.spainontheroadagain.com/
I can't wait to watch this show! I am not sure how to attach a movie to my blog, but here is the link so you can watch the sneak preview.
Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Claudia someone another, a Spanish actress, go on a road trip through Spain eating. Awesome. I am so jealous because that sounds amazing!

Does Rachael Ray Annoy Herself?

2008-08-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

Why do i still watch 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray? It's my mindless entertainment before I go to bed but she annoys me, so why do I do it? Last night I sat there pondering whether or not she annoys herself. She was making "ice cream sammies" and I kept wondering what adult, who is not being condescending to a young child, calls a sandwich a sammy?? And WHY? What is wrong with the word sandwich? It's treated me well all my life. And that's just the beginning of my frustration with Rachael and her bizarre lexicon.
Yum-O: she likes this so much she named her FOUNDATION after it. Seriously?!
EVOO: no explanation necessary
spoonula: is this the actually name for this tool? I thought it was a spatula. You know the plastic ones that are good for scraping the sides of a bowl.
Moppina: Another word I assume is made up. Why can't she say kitchen towel?

I'll add more grievances when they come. This blog is no where near over...

Sometimes You Just Want What You Want

2008-08-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

The other day I came home from work very tired and a little crabby. I was exhausted and hungry and I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to eat. Then it dawned on me. I wanted eggs. Eggs and toast. So I made a side dish of kale and mushrooms (which I added some wine to and I shouldn't have. It overpowered the natural taste of the food and it was too alcoholy for me. I didn't want a glass of wine and therefore I definitely didn't want to eat one either.)
But the greens were good and the eggs and whole wheat toast hit the spot of exactly what I wanted. I love fried eggs and I make a pretty good one even if they aren't always pretty.
I put on some sweats and sat in front of the tv while mopping up the oozy egg yolk. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

My Salads are Getting Stranger and Stranger

2008-08-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

Lunchtime salad was an oddity this time!
It included:
spinach
romaine
red cabbage
fennel
basil
cucumber
sprouts
radishes
tomatoes
nectarine
slivered almonds
feta

I think that was it. And you know what? It tasted really good! Amazing.

Planet Organics Delivers Again

2008-08-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Another lvoely box was waiting for me at the office. This one full of fruits and veggies for the next week or so. I received:
cauliflower
kale
peaches
nectarines
sprouts
romaine lettuce
lemons
lime
cantaloupe
radishes
snap peas

I made the most ridiculous salad with some of the ingredients for lunch today. That will be a surprise that comes next...
But I am making a pasta with cauliflower and some kale for dinner tonight. Should be good and healthy. Slowly but surely the meat is disappearing again!

Salad Salad Everywhere

2008-08-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

I've been eating a lot of salad. There are a few reasons for this. First off, I like salad. That's the simple reason. But it is summer time in California and teh produce is SO good, I can't figure out why I wouldn't take advantage of that. So I had a bunch of chicken leftover from my roasted chicken from last week that needed to be eaten. I placed that in a bowl and added purple cabbage, spinach, mixed greens, red bell peppers, tomatoes, avocado, and a balsamic vinaigrette I made. It was delicious. I also made some garlic bread on the side. I had a leftover seeded baguette that was a bit stale and wanted to use it though. So I slathered on some butter and some minced garlic I found in John's fridge and stuck it under the broiler. It was really good!

To make a more complete meal I also steamed some zucchini and yellow squash. Yum Yum. When you have good produce I find that there is no need to add additional flavor. Just some salt and pepper made these sweet and tasty.
I need to get away from the "European" dining hours that we have been keeping (that was the comment that John's roommate made the other night). It just takes so long to get everything together after work. If i am going to squeeze in the gym and a shower and get dinner together etc, plus the 30 minute bus ride home from downtown we don't end up eating til after 9:30pm. Oh well, I am usually not too hungry by this time anyway, I couldn't even finish my salad and I put the rest of the squash in a tupperware to eat for lunch the next day.

Opera In the Park

2008-08-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing picnic at Stern Grove yesterday. The annual Opera in the Park is one of my favorite events and we were lucky enough to have a good spot (thanks for saving it Lys) and an even better picnic. We had four really lovely cheeses, the salami and prosciutto, I made more of my now ubiquitous orzo, and there were four salads from Whole Foods.

We drank mimosas and enjoyed the music and company. The music was a celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 90th birthday, so it was really fun to hear parts of Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, and Oklahoma amongst others. It was also nice because I think that music is probably more palatable for beginning opera attendees.
The only downside of the weekend was eating way too much. I have felt gross all day and it's been 24 hours since the gorgefest. Yuck. My pants feel tight, partially probably because of the amount of sodium I consumed and also because of the time of the month. But it is light eating for the next two weeks, as I am in a wedding 2 weekends from now.

Enjoying the San Francisco Opera Co.

Chicken Salad for Dinner

2008-08-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

I roasted a chicken the other night (before I had my change of heart about the poor feathered creatures) and so I feel like we need to eat it. so I made a salad. Some steamed squash, yellow carrots, radishes, half and heirloom tomato, avocado, and the chicken with lettuce and spinach. It was actually pretty good. This was another late night meal which I simply sort of snacked on.

Still working on my close-ups.

More Orzo in the Sun

2008-08-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

I made another batch of orzo last night. John just LOVES it and asks for it all the time, and I like it too. It's yummy and easy, so there you are. I made it for dinner last night and then packed it up for lunch today too. This one was slightly different than the previous one I made. Instead of pine nuts i put in sliced almonds, and dried cherries replaced the cranberries. I switched feta for ricotta salata and added a chiffonade of spinach instead of basil. Now, I will say I think I preferred the original. The basil added a ton of flavor that the spinach is missing, and the cherries are slightly sweeter and more tart than the cranberries, overpowering the dish a bit more. There's also minced shallot and red onion for a little heat/complexity. I had all these ingredients on hand which is why I threw it together, but I also like to eat different things (although it looks like I constantly eat the same thing, I know).

I placed my salad on top of a bed of cabbage and carrots I had leftover from last night. We had orzo and a green salad and some delicious Basque cheese with our favorite seeded sourdough baguette. But I just wasn't hungry so I had about two bites of dinner before packing it up for lunch (this is VERY unusual by the way). But lunch was delicious. I ate sitting in MacArthur Park with some friends. I love getting out on a work day and getting 30 minutes of sunshine. Really improves my day, I'll say that. And yes, the above picture is my tupperware perched on top of legs. Trying to get a tan!

PuPu Platter

2008-08-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you are just hungry and want a simple snack. This happened on Sunday. After my whirlwind weekend of running up and down Northern California, up to Hopland, then off to Calistoga, a little traipsing around St. Helena and Rutherford, and then to my mom's house in Ross, John and I collapsed on her new couch in front of the Olympics. It was an absolutely beautiful day on Sunday. We watched the Olympics but I spent half of the time laying in the sun in my bikini. I know the sun is bad for me, but I have to say nothing feels better than sweating outside. I love it.

Anyway, we had brunch that day at Taylor's Refresher in St. Helena. I know it is odd to eat a cheeseburger at 10:45am, but we both didn't want to pass up the opportunity to sit at Taylor's when we could. Also we were coming from a wedding and some greasy food is what we both needed to hit the spot. The funniest part is that I work about 6 blocks from the Ferry Building in San Francisco where the other Taylor's is, but I rarely go. I think that diner food is best kept as treat and shouldn't become part of my daily lunchtime routine.

I ordered the Ahi Burger, a large piece of rare ahi with an asian slaw on top. Amazing as always. John got a bacon cheeseburger, of which I had a bite, and we shared both garlic and regular fries.

But late in the afternoon we got munchy, which is amazing considering how full I was for hours after my ahi burger, so I raided my mother's fridge for some snacks. I put together a little pupu platter that wouldn't ruin our appetites for dinner and was mildly healthy. Yeah, maybe a little high in fat, but there was not very much on the plate. Cold asparagus is one of my favorites, so I ate most of that!

I also have attempted to improve my photography skills this weekend. I am simply not a good photographer. Why, I have no idea. But I am not. I think it must be like cooking. I am a good cook. Somehow it always works out for me when I am in the kitchen. But photography, not so much. So here are some test shots that I took in an attempt to improve my ability to take close up shots, mostly of food, of course!

Off the Wagon- The Meat Wagon That Is

2008-08-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

So, I ordered my first steak. I was at Izzy's Steakhouse with Kiki (www.baguetteocroissant.blogspot.com) and we decided to share the BACON wrapped fillet mignon. And the creamed spinach and potatoes au gratin. HUH? The weirdest thing is I never ate this stuff when I DID eat meat. Granted I was 12 and it is totally normal for tastebuds to change, but part of my decision to go mostly meatless was that is was easy for me. I didn't struggle. I never craved a hamburger, I never couldn't help myself to the bacon. It just was simple. So I don't know what has changed. My mother asked me if I was pregnant, apparently that changes tastes, cravings etc (the answer is NO) so I do not have an explanation for it. But I am pondering going back to the veggie side.

This has been a fun few months, dabbling with the meats, taking a bite of a burger, but I think that this isn't a lifestyle that is going to remain permanent. I don't know how staunch I will be about meat in the future, but I really want to go back to a lifestyle where it is a rare treat, perhaps once or twice a year. This weekend i was going through some of my mom's old Gourmet magazines, and I read a long article about chicken production in the United States. The article was basically about the tactics that the American plants use when killing the chickens and that it could be less painful than it currently is. Now, mind you, this article was from July 2007, so things could possibly have changed in the last thirteen months, but for some reason I doubt it. Included was an interview with a Norwegian chicken farmer and how he spent a ton of money changing his facilities so the chickens died a more peaceful death. Naturally I sat there reading this and kept saying, I will never eat chicken again. Or any other meat.
Is this going to be true? That remains to be seen. But I would like to think so.

Salads Galore!

2008-08-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

For some strange reason I decided to make 3 salads for dinner. Now, one might find this odd, perhaps because it is, but all three of the salads were quite different. I chose to make the three because I wanted to use up what I had on hand, tons of produce, chicken legs, etc. So i set to work, starting with a lovely Caprese. Nothing beyond the norm of lovely heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil from the plant I have, and some olive oil. I added salt and pepper and a touch of balsamic to my serving. I absolutely love mozzarella, I think I could live off caprese salad (with lots of olive oil and vinegar soaked bread) for the rest of my life.

In addition to the Caprese I made another chicken caesar salad. Similar to the week before. I raosted two chicken legs with rosemary over a bed of ripped up bread, and I made a twist on the dressing. I used creme fraiche and garlic and parmesan and lemon and oil, but added a tablespoon of dijon mustard and anchovy paste instead of minced anchovies. I thought it was better than before.

I also didn't add prosciutto or anything, I didn't find it necessary.

The third salad, our "regular" one, was mixed greens with radishes, avocado, yellow carrots, and beets. By the time I was ready to serve everything I realized I had made way too much, so I packed the green salad away for lunch the next day.

Dinner was really nice. I even set the table as opposed to my normal lazy coffee table eating self. Does that make sense?

A Mexican Pasta Salad

2008-08-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

This was one of my first attempts to make a Rachael Ray dish. Technically it's called Mac & Jack salad or something atrocious like that. I took her main recipe and made it my own. Hers called for the following:
1 pound macaroni elbows or cavatappi, corkscrew-shaped hollow pasta
Salt
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
Black pepper
1 8-ounce brick pepper Jack cheese, diced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (eyeball it)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 cup store-bought tomatillo salsa (mild, green) or chipotle salsa (hot, smoky red)
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves or flat leaf parsley, chopped

I used half macaroni and half campanelle, because I had half a box left and wanted to finish it. I also added a can of pinto beans (more protein) and used canned corn. I had a leftover jar of tomatillo salsa to use up as well, which was the main impetus for this meal. I am trying to save money and use what I already have in my pantry as well as use cheaper ingredients. This means more pasta, beans and rice, etc.
It also means that I had this meal stretch for two dinners and two lunches for both myself and John. Not too shabby!
I honestly didn't like it much the night I originally made it, but the longer it sat the better it got! I was surprised.

Pasta Puttanesca- Not What I Thought It Would Be, But They Never Are

2008-08-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

Puttanesca is a pasta sauce that I have been reading about for years. I like the folklore that comes with it. The idea of the Italian prostitutes cooking this incredible sauce that smells so good the men cannot help themselves but enter the whorehouse. Puttanesca comes from the word puttana which means, well, lady parts. And it is also the name for a prostitute or "lady of the night" as many cookbooks refer to it. I think that they say that because it is easier to use a euphamism then say you are cooking a sauce that was originated by whores. Just my two cents.

The ingredients have always enthrall me and I had never made it. So this past Saturday, my lazy Saturday where I sat around in my pajamas all day (seriously, it was kind of gross)I decided that it was time to finally try the stuff. I have plenty of pasta on hand, and I had a can of diced tomatoes, olives, basil, garlic, onions, etc etc.
I also had a ton of squash so I added that as well to make it even healthier. And the special ingredient that I actually needed to use up was anchovies. But this might be where I went astray. The recipe (Silver Palate) called for I believe 3 anchovies. Well, I had about 1/2 a tin worth of them, leftover from Proper Chicken Caesar Salad, and so I used about 6. Maybe more. This was not a good idea.

The sauce and pasta cooking away
I really don't actually feel like elaborating on this because I just didn't like it that much. I should have drained the tomatoes before adding them to the pan. And I should haev chilled out on the anchovies. My roomie liked it, but I just didn't. It's always disappointing when you make something and it turns out mediocre.

Oh well, there are more meals to have!

Mitchell's Ice Cream and La Taqueria- San Francisco Classics

2008-08-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

Following my large Perbacco dinner, I went to La Taqueria and Mitchell's in the Mission District of San Francisco. I planned a company outing and since we live in such an amazing food city, I thought it would be fun to get back to the roots of San Francisco. Go to some old establishments. La Taqueria on Mission and 25th St fit the bill! The food there is so good. I had a chicken burrito, moist pieces of chicken and juice in a burrito. La Taqueria is old school and they don't fill the burritos up with a lot of filler. They don't even offer rice! I don't have a photo because I was way too busy consuming.
Following up my burrito belly all the Foodbuzzers climbed back onto our awesome bus I rented and drove to Mitchell's. Now Mitchell's (http://www.mitchellsicecream.com)has been around forever (technically 1953) and makes all their own ice cream. The ice cream of the month was canteloupe and the whole company got a variety of Mitchell's creamy creations.
Avocado ice cream!!!

Perbacco- Featured Publishers Dinner

2008-08-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was very excited to try Perbacco last Thursday night. I have hear about it and I was also anxious to try a new restaurant, I feel like I have been frequenting the same ones over and over as opposed to venturing out to new establishments. The first thing I dove into was the bread sticks and herb dip/tapenade that they had one the table. Apparently the entire staff makes over a thousand of these crunchy snackers every day. At least that is what someone at my table said. I can imagine that it would take the entire staff to handroll all these sticks. But it is well worth it. They were not at all similar to the tough/brittle and tasteless breadsticks of my youth. The ones I particularly remember are from Perry's in Tiburon (now the Piatti space). We used to dip the sticks into the ramekin of saltless butter. I would always try to convince my parents to let me order a Roy Rodgers or a Shirley Temple as well, a rare treat for the ten year old me. Anyway, back to 2008.

After I had sufficiently demolished 4 too many breadsticks and the majority of the herb/olive oil mix in front of me (definitely eating more than my share!) we were served my new favorite dish. Raviolo all'uovo. This was incredible. A warm raviolo (ravioli is plural, since there was only one, it is a raviolo) stuffed with ricotta, spinach and a perfectly cooked egg. And I absolutely love a runny yolk. I should have taken a picture of it when I cut into it and the yolk drizzled out, but I was too busy consuming at that point. Oh, and it was topped with truffle oil. Mmmmm, hungry just thinking about it.

We were then served a roasted red and gold beet and arugula salad. It was served with a Castelmagno cheese, which is a semi hard cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy. It reminded me a bit of a ricotta salata, but it's been a few days, so maybe I am off on this. The salad was nice, nothing to rave about. But this could also be because I had just eaten one of the best appetizers ever, so anything would be a bit of a disappointment after that.

There were two options for the main course. A seafood risotto, which I did not choose, and a pan roasted chicken with mushroom jus and herb roasted gnocchi.

I had a bite of the risotto and I will admit, it looks a lot prettier than it tasted. I think if it had been executed properly perhaps my review might be different, but it was undercooked so it was a bit crunchy almost. Not the correct texture for risotto.

The chicken was lovely. It was moist and tender and the gnocchi was out of this world. I don't think that it was traditional gnocchi, more like soft pillows of flavor. Magnifique! I thought I wouldn't have any room for dessert, but somehow I managed to consume an entire piece of the peach raspberry crostata. It was well worth it. Besides feeling like I weighed 500 pounds for the rest of the evening and the next day, Perbacco was absolutely wonderful and I am looking forward to my return visit.

Late Night Cooking- Linguine Oh My!

2008-08-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

I attended a wedding Monday and night and ate a variety of appetizers and crudite etc. Unfortunately John was at work this entire time (he's been putting in loooong days) so I picked him up from work at around 8:30pm and we headed home. He hadn't eaten and I wanted to make lunch for the next day, so I quickly went to work on some pasta and sauce. I had a jar of store-bought tomato sauce but I never think those are very good, and I like to up my veggie intake, so I doctored it up. BUT I didn't keep it event hat simple, I made TWO sauces. Yes two.

John wanted some meat (shocker) so I placed some ground beef in a pan and started cooking it. In the other pan I added some olive oil and a sliced up zucchini and yellow squash. I added some garlic (would have loved to add an onion but this man's kitchen is barren. Huh, it has to have SOME stuff in it? Nope, not even a cheese grater! I used a serrated knife to make parmesan cheese flakes). The squash got nice and soft, the beef browned, and then I added half the jar to each pan. I also added about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, for brightness. Stick half the linguine in each pan along with a little cooking water, and we had a pretty nice late dinner/lunch. Not bad for cooking on the fly!

I didn't take a picture of the veggie spaghetti, just ate it for lunch and forgot!

Cous Cous Again!

2008-08-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Now that I have started making couscous I think I might be an addict. It is DEFINITELY a new staple in my kitchen. I made almost the same couscous that I made the other week, this one was just a little more dressed up. I used whole wheat couscous from Trader Joes (I haven't used regular couscous yet, but I see no reason too. The whole wheat is delicious, unlike some other whole wheat versions of every day foods. For example I just can't do whole wheat pasta. I simply do not care for the texture. And I like my pasta al dente, but for some reason the whole wheat never seems to cook quite enough and then it gets slimy. Gross).

This time I added kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, and feta, like before, but added a shallot, 1/3 a small red onion, and a bunch of basil chiffonade. I also used the sun dried tomato oil as my olive oil. Some black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes, and John and I had lunch two days in a row.

To serve it for lunch I did something slightly different. I placed the couscous in the bottom of a tupperware, and then added a bunch of spinach, a diced tomato, and a dollop of hummus on top. I sort of had two salads in one container! I ate the spinach and hummus etc first, but also mixed it all around, It was quite good. The fresh veggies brightened everything up. A perfect salad for a nice workday lunch in the park!

Peanut Butter and Jelly- Retro Lunch and a Dinner Recap

2008-07-25T10:24:00.001-07:00

I was running a few minutes late this morning so John made lunch for both of us! I was actually sort of craving a salad, but he made me a pb&j! So sweet. I found it in my gym bag along with a peach. Unfortunately my hunger has gotten the best of me and I ate half of it before 10am! Guess it is breakfast/lunch. Not to be confused with brunch. See brunch is one single meal, I am attempting to make my sandwich last for two meals. Hmmm. It shouldn't be too hard considering I made steak fillet with a blue cheese sauce last night for dinner. It was QUITE good, so good that there was no time for photographic evidence. It had to be eaten.
That said, I was quite impressed with what I made up on the fly. I sauteed red onions, then added cream, a little butter, white wine, and some blue cheese. This was drizzled all over the steaks and it was delish. I am officially off the vegetarian bandwagon. Not sure what happened. Maybe a change in my body chemistry or something. John likes to take credit for the change. Hmmm...

Lunchtime Salad

2008-07-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

I made one of my usual salads for lunch yesterday. It was a combo of spinach and romaine and stuffed with veggies. Celery, tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumber, feta, red bell pepper, and some sliced tofurkey. I stuff it all in a tupperware and I am off to work! At home I ALWAYS make my own salad dressing, but I get lazy before work. AND I bought these cute little containers perfect for salad dressing and they leak. So I have a bottle of Newman's Own Light Italian or something along those lines in the fridge at the office. Then I pour it in, put the top back on, and shake her up! Perfect salad.

Why Don't I Eat More CousCous?!

2008-07-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

I made couscous last night. I bought a box of whole wheat couscous at Trader Joe's a week or so ago and decided to dive into it. This stuff is the easiest stuff on the planet. I can't believe I don't do this more often. I cooked it in chicken stock to add more flavor, but I think that you can really just do it with some water.

It's all about the add-ins with couscous. So, I added some chopped Kalamata olives, chopped sundried tomatoes, feta, scallions, and some celery for crunch. I also added some olive oil, both from the jar of sun dried tomatoes and from a bottle. It was delicious. Oh, some red pepper flakes as well. I actually just kept throwing things in and John asked if I was ever going to be finished, because he was hungry.

I decided that couscous could be like artwork. I remember in art class I would just keep painting a painting. There's always another layer you can add, another color, another edge to smooth, until finally my teacher would say "you're finished. There's nothing more you can do." That was like my couscous last night. I finally had to say, ok, I'm done!

www.plaetorganics.com Rocks!

2008-07-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

So another Tuesday another organic delivery from the lovely Planet Organics. This time I got:
2 heirloom tomatoes
bananas
zucchini
yellow squash
peaches
nectarines
strawberries
new potatoes
beets
canteloupe
celery
avocado
oranges

Yum yum. I have already used some celery and tonight there will be a lot of squash being cooked. I like to cook it for dinner one night and then stick it in a salad for lunch the next day. Quite nice I must say my self!

Proper Chicken Caesar Salad- The Naked Chef Way

2008-07-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was watching the Food Network, as usual, and Jamie Oliver made a Chicken Caesar Salad. He was outside, as he always is with his new show, and he "chucked" some chicken legs in his outdoor fire pit that were dressed with olive oil and rosemary and laid over a bed of broken up bread.
About 40 minutes into the roasting process, at 400F, he laid some pancetta over the chicken legs and stuck it in the oven/outdoor heat box thingy for another 20 minutes. I decided on prosciutto, in my dabbling with the meats again prosciutto seems less scary than pancetta in a totally irrational way (I know!). I was giggling to myself while I was making this because when I took the chicken out of the oven to layer the prosciutto over it I had just jumped out of the shower. So i was literally the Naked Chef. Thank god no one can see inside my kitchen! Amateurs be warned, coking while naked can lead to pain. I have a little scar on my stomach from some errant oil that once jumped out of a pan while I was stirring between a shower and getting dressed.
\
As this was stirring about in the oven, I made a homemade Caesar dressing. Now I know that traditional Caesar begins with a raw egg yolk, but Jamie's called for Creme Fraiche, which I was happy to use. I mashed up 4 anchovies with a clove of garlic. Jamie used a mortar and pestle which would have been lovely since I attempted to scrape the two together on my cutting board to mediocre results. I stuck this in a jar that I use to shake up dressing and added the juice of one lemon, a heaping spoonful of creme fraiche, 3x the olive oil as there was lemon juice, a heap of parmesan cheese, and some salt and pepper. I shook it all up vigorously and... Eh, the creme fraiche was too apparent in the flavors. So I added a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and some dijon mustard. And then it was perfect!

I chopped up a ton of Romaine and then went to town on the chicken. Actually, what really happened was a bit more complex. At this point I needed to transfer this entire project over to John's house. He was working from home, putting in another 12 hour day, and I said I would bring over dinner, as well as organize it so we could have lunch the next day. So I placed enough Romaine in a large bowl to feed two dinners and two lunches, grabbed some Tupperware for lunches, and placed it all in a grocery bag. Then I grabbed my chicken dish with some pot holders and a kitchen towel and set the hot plate onto the floor of the passenger seat of the car. I kept it uncovered because I knew that it would be better if the chicken, croutons, and prosciutto were more warm instead of piping hot. I drove over to John's house, carefully, and then reset myself in his kitchen.
I shredded some of the chicken using two forks (but really mostly my hands) and crumbled up some of the prosciutto. The croutons were incredible as well. Almost TOO rich! Well, I suppose that they had sucked up olive oil and chicken drippings for about an hour in the oven.

John and I ate this for dinner on Monday night and then lunch on Tuesday. I liked it a little better warm than cold the next day, but it was tasty either way. We both laughed that our co-workers must have hated us with our anchovy/garlic breath. Oh well!

Lunch Time Yum

2008-07-23T11:43:00.001-07:00

I usually don't do lunch posts but I am trying to start. On Monday I did not bring a lunch so Kiki, my coworker and friend, and I ran down to a salad bar place called Wildflower on Sansome St. I love this place. It has two large salad bars, one with prepared food and one that is a regular salad bar. I try not to spend too much money when I am there though, they do everything by weight and I try to keep it under $10. I was about $6.50 this time and I was very proud of that!
I had some cellophane noodles, which I love, some broccoli, and a cabbage and chicken salad. I added some corn and pea salad, a seaweed salad which is delicious, and then piled my plate with spinach, tomatoes, sprouts, olives, red peppers, mandarin oranges and some avocado.
This totally filled me up for the rest of the afternoon, plus I thought that it was fairly healthy. I try to fill myself up with vegetables every day to curb my real cravings which are mainly for anything made from flour. Bread, pasta, etc. i could probably live on noodles and toast and be a happy girl for eternity. But then I would get scurvy which would be sad...
Kiki wanted me to show her salad as well. She said she did a less healthy version, which means she added lots of blue cheese etc. I thought it looked pretty good too. Plus this place is about 8 blocks away, so we get exercise by going there. Hmmm, not sure if that really works like that!

To Pig or Not to Pig- My Struggle with Vegetarianism

2008-07-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

At age 12 I gave up meat. I think that perhaps it was an overdose of "Charlotte's Web" at a young age, or perhaps it was the fact that I am a complete bleeding heart and would be physically incapable of ever killing an animal, but I told my mother I would not eat meat anymore. This was completely unacceptable to her. I lived in a house with four other meat eaters (my parents, brother and sister) and she was not going to cook a special meal for me every night (understandably). But I felt VERY passionate about my inability to eat Wilbur or any of his buddies and I held my ground. Eventually we came to a compromise, I would continue to eat fish and poultry but I would cut out the main barnyard creatures. No more pigs, cows, lambs, etc. I was never a huge meat lover to begin with so this was not a problem. I have always hated pepperoni pizza and preferred salad over steak, so the personal change was not as tough.

When I went to college I became a total vegetarian. No more chicken and fish. I even went through 9 months in Europe without tasting one bistecca Fiorentina or a authentic moussaka or souvlaki. I have never felt as though I was missing out on too much, but recently I have begun dabbling back into the meat world. The world of the Omnivores. Now, I have always been surrounded by said omnivores. I am friends with them, I date them, I am related to them, I even live with them. It never bothered me, it was more a "to each his own" kind of sentiment. But since I have started dabbling in the meats (there is now a bite about once a week. And I ate a strip of flank steak last night) I am beginning to feel guilty and have some remorse.

This morning John and I were driving through China town on our way to work and we saw a large truck. As we were nearing said vehicle, it became apparent that the contents of this 4-wheeled monstrosity were pig carcasses. Yes, they were filling it to the brim. I was shocked! Now, I know that bacon, pancetta, pork, and guanciale and all other funny words are actually a nice way to say "dead pig prepared in the manner of..." Yes, I am not naive. But somehow seeing an entire truck filled with the little guys makes it all more real. This is not one single strip of bacon that I am eating (I usually like to say I am just tasting it, for some reason the euphemism makes it less cruel)but I am a responsible party in the butchering of animals. I am an active consumer of animals and it made me feel awful. Now, I believe I am actually overestimating my meat consumption. I have yet to actually purchase any red meat (I know Pork is "the other white meat" but I put it in the same category). I buy fish and chicken, but I actually eat those in only small amounts as well.

So, what to do/ Do I continue my exploration into the dark world of the omnivores? Or do I rapidly remove myself and go back to my old ways? I have thought about going to complete vegetarianism again too. How long would it last? Well, the problem is John eats the meat, and I am a sucker for sushi. My brief foray into veganism made me realize that I am capable of eating that way and will try to eat a mainly vegan diet for many of my meals, but I cannot exclude cheese from my diet. I could probably never eat cream again, or milk, ice cream or even yogurt, but not the cheese. I am weak for it. I love it. It makes me smile/ I'll save my cheese love for another day. But what is a girl to do. When you starting walking down a path do you embrace it or not?

Well, I have yet to decide but I know this, I will never be a huge meat eater ever. I do not like it that much and I am TRULY dedicated to attempting to buy food that is GOOD for this earth. I try to shop at local markets, buy from local brands, and I am lucky that the Bay Area has some of the more incredible food producers in the country. I enjoy supporting places like the Cowgirl Creamery and the Acme Bread Company. So, am I going to purchase a steak one day? I have no idea. I still have huge issues with the slaughtering of animals and really don't want that in my body very often. So what should I do? I guess I will figure it out. Maybe it will just come to me organically...

What to Have in a Pantry at All Times

2008-07-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

According to Sara Moulton of "Sara's Secret's" on the Food Network and of Gourmet Magazine, these are her top picks for what every pantry needs. I agree with some of them (I can't tell you how many kitchens I have been in that are lacking simple things like vinegar or soy sauce) but there are others that seem arbitrary (roasted pimentos?!). I would have to add honey to this list. Hmmm, what else? A jar of pasta sauce, popcorn (snack attack), I always have bread at all times, and butter, but those aren't really pantry staples because they spoil more quickly. I do usually have a can of sardines in my pantry, as I love them on crackers with some mustard. Or between two pieces of (untoasted) fresh whole wheat bread with some lettuce, thinly sliced cucumber, dijon mustard and fresh cracked pepper. Trust me, this is one of the best sandwiches you can have. It is inexpensive and full or both protein and calcium.

Canned and Bottled Items:
Tuna, in oil or water
Anchovies
Beans-pinto, white, and black
Chicken broth
Plum tomatoes
artichoke hearts
Peanut butter
Roasted pimentos
Olives
Capers
Dijon mustard
Soy sauce

Pastas , Beans, Grains:
Various pastas
Couscous
Cornmeal
Rice-brown, arborio, basmati, long-grain
Lentils

Oils:
Vegetable
Extra-virgin Olive

Vinegars:
White or red wine
Cider
Balsamic
Sherry wine

Misc.:
Sun-dried tomatoes
Dry mushrooms
Onions, shallots and garlic
Potatoes

Various spices

Sunday Dinner- Courtesy of Mom

2008-07-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

We went over to my mom's house last night to eat a nice family dinner. She recently procured a French boy who showed up last night. He is now living at my parent's house, how very funny. The best past is they gave him the recently remodeled guest house, the only other option would have been the bedroom that I sleep in when I am there, which is located directly next door to the bedroom of my 18 year old sister. My mom thinks that he seems nice, but is smart enough to put the 19 year old boy out of the house and away from her!
So we had dinner celebrating Becky's birthday, my sister in law, and the arrival of Quentin (pronounced Kahn-tan in thick French accent. Stepdad began calling him "Q"). Jim grilled some flank steak with teriyaki marinade and my mom made a green salad, a Caprese salad, and a terrine of potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. Basil abounded as well.
Dinner was lovely as was the peach pie we had for dessert. I fed my baby nephew (21 months) lots of vanilla ice cream which he was very pleased to eat. He ate it and every time I went back to the plate to put more in the spoon he was waiting with his mouth wide open for some more. SO cute! He also growls like a tiger. But enough Jake stories...
Food was very nice. It was nice to get some veggies in as usual considering how few we got through the weekend. (Unless beer counts as a vegetable, in that case we had a bunch. And wine? One of your five a day as a grape perhaps? Martini olives too, do they count as a serving?!)