Crabby Birthday

I love crab. And every time John is out of town, and the Dungeness is in season, Grace and I have our own little crab fest. See, he doesn't like the hacking and poking for little morsels of crab flesh. He'd eat it if you put a big pile in front of him but he doesn't like the work. Me and Grace - we relish getting all buttery and slippery, poking into knuckles and breaking open claws, moaning aloud and proudly showing each other an exceptional find before making it disappear. Which brings me to the birthday crab fest. John out of town, Kate not available (doesn't eat anything that swims or walks sideways.) So I went on Epicurious to see if I could crank up the crabfest by a notch and oh boy was I successful.

I bought the crab at Safeway. It is already cooked. The guy behind the counter will then clean it and crack it a little for you. This time the guy at Safeway was pretty heavy with the cracking. He didn't look upset when I gave him the order but he must of been venting at someone because our crabs were in small pieces, with not much left whole. I took them home and turned the oven to 500. I melted a stick of butter, yes a stick, get over it, this is a birthday splurge, along with some olive oil in an oven proof pan. When this was melted, I threw in two cloves of chopped garlic and let that cook just a little. I didn't want it to burn, just flavor the oil. I added all the crab and a tablespoon of flat leaf parsley and some fresh thyme from the garden, toss the whole mess to coat it and mix it and threw it in the hot oven and set the timer for 12 minutes. Tick. Tick. I couldn't wait twelve minutes, besides it is no fun to have crab that is too hot to eat! So I pulled it out after about 6 minutes. Removed it from the pan. Now this is the part of the recipe I had my doubts about. So far we had butter and herbs - wasn't that enough? This was going on perfectly good crab that would have been fine with just a fork and a lobster bib! But I decided to follow through with the recipe. I squeezed the juice of a whole navel orange into the pan along with a teaspoon full of orange zest. I let it reduce a little, stirring. I had to watch it. I didn't want all the buttery, herby, orangey goodness to reduce to nothing and disappear. I pulled it from the heat and poured it over my crab on the platter. I added some more fresh parsley. Now for the sad part. I did not take a picture of the beautiful mess and a few minutes later I was too buttery to handle a camera.

The orange in the navel added a sweetness to the butter that matched the crab. The garlic was not heavy, the herbs were a side note. We fought for every morsel, occasionally sopping the platter with bread. Soon there was a empty platter, wiped clean with bread and a bowl of crab shards. We decided we could have gone for 3 crabs with no problem. I am still smiling thinking about it this morning! This recipe gets added to Mastercook.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Oven-Roasted-Dungeness-Crab-231591

McEvoy Olive Oil

Nan McEvoy bought 500 acres so her grand kids would have someplace to play. She bought olive trees because everyone else was planting grapes. Now 18,000 trees later they produce a high end olive oil, they call a fruit juice. The ranch is in a beautiful valley west of Petaluma. The scenery is outstanding. I think more beautiful than most wineries - not a road in site from the main house and factory and nothing but beautiful rolling hills planted with silvery olive trees, broken up by the occasional pond. The tour was pricey - $35. Someone else paid for me, thank God. But it was a lot fun and very interesting. Ask me a question about olive growing - the fruit only occurs on last year's new growth.

They trim the trees so there is no center branch. The four remaining branches aim outwards for easy picking. Easy picking by the 100 pickers who come to pick the 18,000 trees at harvest time in November. The fancy mill reminded me of an Italian sports car, maybe because it's the Italian Ferrari of pressing equipment. I was impressed by how shiny, clean and pleasant the building was where the pressing occurs, white tiles walls, big sunny windows and immaculate machinery, including the stone wheels were some of the pressing is done. The clean room where all the oil is bottled was not on the tour. But the guide said because of the square bottle which Nan insists on because she likes it, each bottle must be filled and labeled by hand. The tour ended with a tasting in the tasting room. first a sip from a cup with a noisy slurp at the same time to appreciate the fresh green and bitter notes. Then we tried it drizzled over some toasts spread with goat cheese, then greens from their garden. This is not a glug glug into the pan olive oil. It is a finishing oil, one where you want the taste of the oil to be a component of the final dish. A drizzle over a grilled steak or field green salad, like a quality vinegar. After the tour you can see why it is not a cheap olive oil - all those hands pruning, picking and labeling in place of machinery and because like a fine wine it is grown and produced for its distinctive flavor, specific to McEvoy. The smallest bottle goes for about $22. You can taste it for free at the Ferry Building at the McEvoy store and maybe buy some produce from their huge gardens. Would I do the tour again? Sure if someone else paid. Will I buy another bottle when the one I have is gone? Most definately.

Dynamo Donuts

2760 24th Street (at Hampshire)
San Francisco, CA

I have been away from my blog for quite some time. I am making a commitment to keep track of my culinary travels. So here are my latest food adventures:

I am always on the lookout for some new and interesting food in the Bay area and every now and then I will do an Internet search on a food to see what the SF area has to offer. I had heard about Voodoo Donuts in Portland and the outlandish flavors they had to offer so I looked into what was available here. At the time I did the search I heard the rumor that Dynamo Donuts was in the works with some crazy flavors but not yet open. I tucked it away to a little food corner of my mind and forgot about it. Well recently I needed a food adventure and someone brought up Portland which reminded me about Dynamo. I googled it, found it and the adventure began. It is in a part of the Mission I don't often get too. You turn on a quiet, small street with trees, kind of shady, not much to speak of going on. A counter juts out on the street, the menu consists of Polaroids with the beverages and beverage pricing and then glass domes with a variety of doughnuts on display.

I cannot vouch for the coffee. I don't drink coffee. they had a nice shiny coffee machine. It looked like it could make good coffee. But I am here to talk about the donuts. We ended up buying 7 donuts for $19 a little step for donuts so i expected great things. I don't actually know the price of the donuts because I wasn't paying attention to that. I was too busy staring at the donuts in their pretty glass domes. We bought one of everything they had to offer. He began gathering them up. The young guy asked if I wanted some donut bread pudding as well but I declined, saving that for another adventure. He put a Saffron with Chocolate Glaze in the box, then a Lemon Glazed Ginger, a Caramel Banana (against my better judgement) a vanilla glazed, a Pistachio encrusted something and then said "Oh we have some Maple Glazed with Bacon - do you want one of those?" OMG - The sign said they were only available on Fridays and Saturdays. This was Thursday. You are damn right I want one of those - I want TWO of those! John would never forgive me if I was at a place that had Maple Bacon Donuts and did not bring one home to share! The food gods were smiling on me. Grace and I got two glasses of water from a pitcher (no coffee for me remember?) and settled down in the Scion to eat our donuts. No tables, no chairs at Dynamo and we were headed on a two hour drive to Santa Cruz so what could we do but sit in the car and eat. Unfortunately, we started with the Banana donut. I do not like fresh banana. I like banana taffy, banana bread, banana Popsicle but not real banana. Well this donut had to be filled with real banana. It was the only filled donut that day. I handed it to Grace to finish. You will have to ask her opinion. I hated it. I don't like banana. I was hoping it might be banana flavored cake -no such luck. We moved on to the Chocolate Saffron. It was a saffron yellow donut with a nice semisweet chocolate ganache glaze.

The saffron did not do anything for me but the glaze was enough to erase the banana donut from memory. The lemon/ginger donut was great - a little too much zest in the glaze so it left a little bit of a zesty bitterness but in general quite tasty. We had been stalling up till now. It was the moment of truth. Time for the Maple Glazed donut with bacon. Okay - a nice fried donut with a maple glaze, sprinkled with real bacon. I broke it in half and gave Grace her half. I paused. I bit into Sunday morning. The syrup taste of the glaze, the fried donut, like a giant pancake, and the bacon drenched in mapley goodness. It did not disappoint. It was worth the trip. I will go back to Dynamo Donuts. I will go back to see what new and fun flavors I haven't tried and I will always ask for a Maple Bacon.

The Stinking Rose, North Beach

For Christmas Eve dinner, we ended up at the Stinking Rose. A lot of places weren't open and it seemed like the kind of resturaunt all four of us would enjoy. We arrived a little after our reservation time and were seated a few minutes later. The Stinking Rose is one of those places that have hidden rooms everywhere. We walked pass the kitchen and up the stairs to a crowded room and our table.

The first thing we ordered was the famous Bagna Cauda (or garlic soaking in a hot tub) along with Garlic Swiss Chard Fontina Fondue. A little warmer sits on the table waiting for the garlic when it arrives in it's little skillet. 20-30 garlic cloves float in olive oil and butter. A couple of anchovies that have lost their anchoviness and now tast of garlic swim along with the cloves. Garlic has to be one of the few flavors that could overwhelm anchovies. The skillet is served with some soft garlic rolls. I found the rolls a little too soft, I prefer something a little more rustic and hearty. The garlic was fine though and we ate most of it. The fondue was very good although a small portion. We scraped the pan clean. It was served with a few very thin crostini. A few more would have been nice.

For our entrees, John got the steak, highly recomended by the waiter. I had a bite of it and I have to say it was pretty tasty. Grace had the Gnocchi in a garlic cream sauce. She was supposed to trade with Kate who got the meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes. I am not sure either dish was very well recieved or maybe they were both to full of bread and garlic but a lot remained on both plates when they were cleared. I had the garlic roasted whole dungeness crab. I have been dying for dungeness since the season started and here was my chance. It was dry and not very flavorful. It did not cure my urge for dungeness crab but increased it because it was so lacking.

Although the food was not exceptional, we did have a nice time. It was fun to be in the city for our first California Christmas Eve and the four of use enjoyed the adventure and each others company more that anything else.

Sol Food, San Rafael

Last night John and I had dinner at Sol Food, the new eat-in version of the take out stand on 4th. We had enjoyed a meal a few months ago at the take-out stand and wanted to visit the new eat-in restuarant. The building is painted bright green and easy to spot. The interior is very clean and nice. Communal tables along with individual tables share the space with window counters and a long counter along the food prep area. One wall is cleverly created with old doors. Drums sit high along a shelf high up on the walls and a plantain holds the napkins down on each table next to some very flavorful hot sauce.

I ordered the evening special of pork chops. 2 thinly sliced pork chops were nicely seasoned, served along side a pile of white rice covered in red beans and green olives. I had my choice of plantains - sweet or garlic and got both. My only complaint would have been that I could have eaten a few more of the pork chops - they were that thin!

John got the Bisteca Encebollado, which was thinly sliced grilled steak with onions. I am not sure he would order it again. The steak was very thin with not much flavor. He got the same side dishes as I did. He licked his plate clean, I might add and wouldn't let them clear it until he had eaten his last two bites of plantain.

My friend Bishlan has recommended the fish but they were out last night. Apparently it is not on the menu and you have to ask for it. We asked the host about it. One dish was a whole tilapia and the other was cod. I would like to try that next time.

We shared our table with some strangers who pretty much kept to themselves. The man had the shrimp in tomato sauce that looked pretty tasty but he didn't offer me any!

Everyone from the underage busboy to the hostess and bussers were very friendly. The place had a good crowd with almost every table filled. I will definately go back and try some other dishes, just not the beef!

www.solfoodrestaurant.com

Mother's Day Brunch

I love a good brunch and if I had my druthers I would spend Mother's Day at the fanciest brunch in town, repeatedly filling my plate with small tastes, sipping champagne mimosa's, pondering an afternoon nap and debating whether to save room for dessert or go back for another waffle.

I have never had a Mother's Day like that. Since being a daughter trumps being a mother, I usually end up cooking for my mother and mother-in-law and family. My parents would never pay that kind of money for brunch! Sometimes my girls help in the kitchen and usually I am excused from dishes. I am sure there are other mother's that find themselves in a similar situation. In the past, I usually make Eggs Benedict. I love Eggs Benedict and since I never get out for brunch the only way I am going to get it is to make it. It is somewhat time consuming, although sometimes I poach the eggs ahead of time, place them in ice water and heat them in simmering water just before serving. I also have a blender hollandaise recipe which is no fail and delicious. This year I want something easy. I haven't decided yet but here are a couple of ideas if I’ve had. Overnight French Toast casserole - get a loaf of bakery brioche or a soft french loaf and slice it in thicker than usual slices. Stack it in a 9 x 13 pan standing up and overlapping a little side ti side - you want the crust on top. You soak it overnight in an eggy mixture, add a pecan brown sugar top (the best part) and throw it in the oven. Serve with real maple syrup, heated in the microwave with a pat or two of butter thrown in and some more pecans. Serve in a gravy boat. A grapefruit half broiled with some brown sugar on top makes a nice partner.

>Another easy brunch that requires very little work and is for those crowds that are picky and don't want "strange" stuff for breakfast is Baked Eggs in Ham Crisps. Pick up some good Black Forest Ham. Butter or grease 2 holes in a muffin pan, per person. Tuck the ham in each cup, like a little bowl, kind of creasing a little if necessary to make enough room for an egg. For a little “oomph”, you could brush the ham with some maple syrup before adding the egg. Preheat the oven to 400. Crack an egg into each ham cup. Bake these for 15-18 minutes, depending on how done you like your eggs. Voila! Use a tablespoon to remove the ham cup intact. Buy some cantaloupe halves from the grocery store and use them as fruit bowls. Cut off a little flat slice on the bottom, if needed, to stand up and then fill with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. Add a store bought croissant (Bread Co. is worth the stop.) Then make a “fancy” butter by mixing your favorite jam with softened butter along side.

I still wish I was going out to brunch but at least I won’t be a slave to the stove! And I do get to skip the dishes!

Quatro De Mayo

I had an early Cinco De Mayo party last night. Mexican is not one of my favorites cuisines. Some of my guests were big fans of those flavors and some weren't so I had to tame the menu to fit all tastes. My main entree was Chicken Enchiladas in a sour cream and monterey jack sauce, with chilies and celery and onions in the filling. I cooked some chicken breasts in my pressure cooker -my favorite way to cook chicken when I need just the meat for chicken salad or a filling. It always comes out moist and perfect. To compliment the enchiladas, I made a Spanish style rice in the rice cooker by sauteing some onions and then the rice and substituting some diced tomatoes with chilies for some of the water. My final side was a cool black bean and corn salad, using frozen corn (uncooked and still frozen), chopped red pepper and black beans and flavoring it with cumin and lime juice and a little olive oil. It was very fresh tasting and a nice compliment to the creamy enchiladas and rice.

For dessert, I knew I had to make flan. Ihave neveer made flan. I am not a big flan fan so I looked for a recipe that I thought I might enjoy as well as my guests and ended up combining two. I made a vanilla bean lime flan in individual ramekins the night before and chilled them. At serving time, I sprinkled some fresh pineapple slices with brown sugar and a little lime juice. I broiled the fruit until the brown sugar was melted and light brown. I served it alongside the flan. The lime peel and vanilla seeds had settled into a pool on the bottom of the flan which was now the top for an interesting effect. The combination of the creamy lime flan and the pineapple worked out great. Plates were licked clean and I lost my fear of flan!

Appetizer Party for 20

Appetizers are my favorite food and nothing excites me more than planning an exciting appetizer buffet. Especially if I can sneak in a few new things among the requested standards. I was particularly pleased with the shot glass desserts. Everyone loves miniatures. The Key Lime Pie in a sho glass was a favorite. The Dark Roast Gelee scared people a little.




MENU

Key Lime Parfait served in shot glasses
Expresso Gelee & whipped cream served in a shot glass
2 Cheeses and Grapes
Roast Beef Crostini with Caper Mayo
Chicken Satay with a peanut dipping sauce



Pasta Shells Stuffed with Chopped Salad
Crab Rangoon Cups
Thai Crab Tartlets

Sugar Rush Part 2

I gave homemade marshmallows another try. I used a highly rated recipe from Epicurious.com. I read through all the reviews and chose which alterations I would make. Everything went great. It wasn't as messy as some of the reviewers said. I flipped over the pan after letting them sit and they popped out nicely. They cut easily and did not stick to the knife as I expected. I could even use a cookie cutter to make heart shaped ones. The marshmallows turned out perfect. They were big and fluffy and square. I was able to hand coat them in bittersweet chocolate which was my goal all along. My only problem was - they tasted just like marshmallows! I think I expected a loftier, grander, oh-my-God version of marshmallows when really all I got was a really fresh, nicely large marshmallow. The marshamllows dipped coated in really good bittersweet chocolate were pretty good. And the experience was fun, don't get me wrong, patting a large pan of soft white fluff and sprinkling with powdered sugar was very satisfying, especially after the earlier debacle (entitled Sugar Rush.)

Will I make them again? I will probably make them next December - they would make a nice gift packaged with some hot chocolate and people certainly ohh and ahh when you say they are homemade. Part of me i toying with the idea of making a batch of caramel and pouring it in a large pan then making a batch of marshmallow and pouring it over that, then cutting and coating with bittersweet. Sugar Rush Part 3?

Prosperity Sandwich

I got a craving for a Prosperity Sandwich. They used to serve one at the Sheraton WestPort when I worked there as a waitress one million years ago. As I remember, it involved toast layered with ham and turkey, smothered with a mellow, creamy cheese sauce, topped with 2 slices of bacon and then heated. I looked online, and even though I went several pages into the search, I found only fond reminisces. It must be a St. Louis sandwich because the only references I found to it where about restuarants here. My daughter Grace has been on an "out of the ordinary" sandwich kick lately (she has been taking a fluffer nutter in her lunch) so she encouraged me to make it. I took two oven proof dishes and lined them with toasted bread. I used a whole grain wheat because that is what I had. I then layered Honey Roasted turkey from the Deli and some leftover Easter ham. I made a cheese sauce by cooking some flour and butter. I then added about a cup of evaporated milk. I let that cook and thicken a few minutes. I tossed in some cheese from the cheese drawer - some shredded cheddar and then a handful of mozzarella. I ladled the cheese sauce over the meats and toasts and sprinkled it with a couple strips of bacon I had chopped and thrown in the microwave to cook. I heated it in a 350 degree over for 15 minutes. It turned out very tasty. It was not the creamy smooth sauce that I remember but my guess is the original version may have been made with Velveeta or American. It was very smooth, not stringy and clingy like the cheddar suace.

April 2006 Wine Club

Saturday night we had the first meeting of the Wine Club. We chose Cabernet Sauvignon for our first gathering. The weather cooperated for most of the meeting. We sat at one long table and spread out the wines and the delicious food everyone one brought through out the evening.

We had seven wines ranging from $10 to $30 dollars. They definitely all improved by uncorking and decanting. We uncorked the next in the line and decanted it while we drank the previous wine. Next time, we will probably open all the reds at the beginning of the evening. I can't imagine we would have enough pitchers to decant all.

Here is a list of the wines followed by the foods with links to the recipes as they come in:

WINES

Wellington Vineyards 2001 Cabernet Savignion

1998 Hess Collection Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Albertina Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 Waddington Ranch Vineyards Medocino

Rutherford Hill Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2002

2002 Franciscan Oakville Estate Napa Valley Cavernet Sauvignon

Robert Mondavi Winery 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Stonegate Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 Napa Valley

Field Stone 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley

FOOD

Eggplant and Artichoke Pasta - Jen
Cheese Platter - Don
Baked Mushroom and Emmenthaler Crostini – Lisa and Shane
Lamb chops with Maytag and Walnuts – Lisa W.
Carpaccio of Beef – Marilyn
Blue Cheese Tarts– Kathie and Bill
Chocolate Truffles and Rasberries – Catherine and Pete
Field Greens with warm goat cheese – Sharon

Everything was delicious. I think all the wines were enjoyed by everyone. The Hess and the Franciscan were two favorites. I liked the Albertina.

Can't wait for the May Wine club!

SF - Photos

Lunch at Scharfenberger's Cafe Cacoa


Crab sauteed in ginger and scallions from Bow HunA steaming bowl of Claypot with Fish Dumplings

A bowl of Mocha as big as your head

Boudin Bakery on Fisherman's Wharf

A bakery showing off his wares.

Sugar Rush

Chocolate and candy making has been my latest passion. I have been obsessed with cookbooks about chocolate and candy. I have bought a tempering machine. I have taken a class on truffles by a reknowned pastry chef who worked at Le Cirque with Jacque Torres. And still I am making candy. Unlike most of the food I cook, candy does not always turn out. And it is hard to rescue a screwed up batch of candy, especially if it cooked. I recently made my first batch of homemade marshmallows. It was out of a really old candy cookbook. The woman on the cover looked like she knew her stuff, in a friendly, Betty Crocker sort of way. So I made her no cook marshamallow recipe, which she recomended was good for dipping. My eyes lit up! Homemade marshmallows dipped in a quality bittersweet chocolate! Yum! Perfect for Easter too! I followed the directions and let the finished product sit over night. The next afternoon I cut it into slices and rolled my nice cubes in corn starch and sugar. They looked great. It said to let them dry on a rack. So I got out a rack and placed them on it to dry out even more. I went about setting up my chocolate to temper. When I checked back on my marshmallows, they had all gently settled through the rack onto the wax paper beneath, neatly sliced by the rack and then reformed into pools of marshmallow fluff. I suppose at that point I should have scooped them into a jar and saved it for ice cream sundaes but I had chocolate tempered and I needed to dip something in it. Luckily I had some raspberry truffle ganache left from a class I took. The instructor said it had to much raspberry filling so we had cut the mixture in half and added more chocolate to one half to make trufles and I took home the over rasberried other half. I had put it into a ziplock bag and flattened it out and put it in the fridge. I had this pound of perfectly tempered chocolate, so I took it out of the fridge and slided it and cut and trimmed the slices into squares and dipped the squares in the cholocate. They came out great! And they filling is really smoth and creamy. It is tricky though because you have to let it warm up enough from the fridge so that is doesn't break the temper of the chocolate you are dipping it in.

I ran out of ganache so made a quick batch of Honeycomb (know as molasses puffs at my house even though there is no molasses in it.) I dipped a few chunks of that but Icould tell the chocolate and had lost its temper.

So tonight is round 2 on making Marshmallows, a highly rated recipe from Epicurious, and I will dip the rest of the puffs.

Recipe: Flank Steak with Cherry Tomatos and Olives

This is one of my favorite recipes for Flank Steak. Every now and then I get a hankering for it. I made it the other night and it was just as good as I remembered it. And I got beef with broccoli out of it for the next night! So don;t be afraid to cook more than you can eat.

Get a flank steak from your butcher. Have him score it for you or when you get it home make a criss cross pattern on both sides of shallow cuts to keep it from curling and to let the marinade really soak in. Rub both sides with olive oil. Make a paste in a bowl of 4-5 tablespoons of fresh herbs, 2 finely minced or pressed cloves of garlic, 2 teaspoons of salt a teaspoon of pepper. I usually have thyme and rosemary on hand so I use those. Spread the paste on both sides of the flank steak and place in a gallon zip and throw it in the fridge for awhile. An hour is good, overnight works, if you only have 15 minutes then leave it at room temp till you are ready to go.

Meanwhile, cut in half a carton of grape tomatoes and a cup of chopped flat leaf parsley and place in a bowl. Add some pitted kalamata olives, chopped coarsely, 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar. Toss it all loosely. I think the sherry vinegar is an important part of the blend of these flavors so I recomend buying a bottle for this recipe. If you don't have it use another vinegar that is fairly mild in flavor. White distilled vinegar should be used for washing windows and dying easter eggs!

Toss the flank steak on the grill or grill pan until cooked to the way you like it. Let it rest 5 minutes on the cutting board. Then slice into thin slices starting at either short end.

If you have any leftover, and I do now that I am cooking for 2, save it for the next night for a stir fry. In a bowl, mix together some oyster sauce or hoisin suace, some soy sauce, sugar and a little sesame oil. Through in some Mirin if you have it. This is not rocket science. Just use what you have. Taste it and adjust accordingly. Add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch and stir to mix.

Slice your leftover flank steak slices into 2 inch pieces and put it next to the pan.

Cut broccoli into small flowerets. I also had some pea pods so I put that with the broccoli. Heat oil in a pan or wok and add 2 teaspons of fresh ginger and then the veggies. Stir over high heat until crisp/tender. If still not tender and starting to brown, add a couple of tablespoons of water and steam it a little to get it tender enough to your liking. When the broccoli is ready, through in the meat and sauce. Let it cook for a few minutes, stirring. The sauce will go from cloudy to clear and start coating the meat and veggies. Serve with with rice.

SF Day 6 & 7: Scharfenberger, Moroccan Feast & Monterey

Berkely

Wednesday, thanks to John's sister, we had a car to use to go adventuring. We jumped in and headed to Berkeley with an afternoon goal of a 2:30 tour of Scharfenberger Chocolates. We started at the factory even though it was long before our tour just to make sure we could find it and then convinced ourselves to have lunch there at Cafe Cacoa. John went for the all chocolate lunch while Grace and I had quiche and a ham and gruyere pannini. He started with a bowl of Scharfenberger Mocha as big as your head. Then he proceeded on to a grilled pannini filled with chocolate, pulled from one of the factory vats. He finished off his all chocolate lunch with a triple chocolate cake that we shared. They must warm the top before it comes to the table because the smooth ganache frosting shone like patent leather. We fit in a visit to the Berkeley Bowl, which is a large, amazing produce and grocery store. I have to say I have never seen so many varieties of one thing. They must carry 20 kinds of oranges, from tiny honey tangerines and fresh mandarins, to blood oranges and red navels. We bought some citrus and some muscat grapes that taste great. I have never seen Muscat grapes in the Midwest. One of the culinary, legends of the restuarant world is in Berkely - Chez Panisse. I wish I could say I ate there but I have to save that for another day. I did a drive by though. It looks very inviting and it is across from a really great cheese store and bakery called The Cheese Board that we did venture into. The cheese case there is full of hundreds of kinds of cheese. As we stared at the cheeses, a baker came by with a hot tray of cheese baguettes, followed by some fresh from the griddle english muffins. We knew we couldn't keep any cheese cold so we settled on english muffins for the next day's breakfast and some great scones.

The factory tour was more chocolate lecture than tour. It started with an entertaining lecture on the production of chocolate, including tasting different percentages of dark chocolate and including passing around cacoa beans before and after roasting and tasting of the nibs from inside the bean. You'll have to go on the tour to get the rest of the story. We ended with a walk through the factory, and then with some chocolate tasting back in the retail store.

I really enjoyed Berkely and would like to go back and check out more of it.

AZIZA

We ended the day with a fabulous meal at a Moroccan restuarant called Aziza http://www.aziza-sf.com/. Everything we had was delicious. We met my friend Tom there. The setting is just what you would want in a Moroccan restuarant - dark walls, secluded booths. We started with beef and grape skewers, a trio of mediteranean spreads and a salad of cardoons. Cardoons are kind of like really large celery stalks, with a taste that is a cross between celery and artichokes. All the appetizers were great. For our entrees, we shared Couccous with Seasonal Vegetables and raisins and nuts, Prawn Tangine with house-made Preserved Meyer Lemons, Devils Gulch Ranch Rabbit over a parsnip puree with dried cherries. All three were excellent. The dessert menu was as tasty and intriguing as the rest. We shared 3 desserts starting with Ruby Red 3 Ways - a sorbet of grapefruit juice, brûléed house made zest jam with fresh fruit segments. It was not an inexpensive evening but it was worth every penny!

Day 7: ROAD TO MONTEREY

We took a road trip toMonterey to see the aquarium. The food was uneventful - lunch in the aquaium cafe, except for the garlic fries, which were a big, hot, freshly cooked pile of fries, smothered in raw garlic and chopped parsley. The aquarium was huge and fabulous. We spent many hours wandering back and forth. Just whenwe thought we had seen it all we would stumble on another exhibit.

The drive to Monterey was one of the big reasons to go and I was rewarded by seeing the artichoke crop at it's peak in fields close to Monterey. I made the mistake at not stopping at any road side stands on the way there. They were all closed on the way back. But it was quite a site to see, with the misty mountains off in the distance out one window and the ocean and dunes out the other.

SF Day 5: Gnocchi and North Beach Pizza

Another rainy day in San Francisco did not dampen our adventurous spirit at lunchtime. On an earlier jaunt through North Beach, we had passed a restuarant that had the phrase "house of gnocchi" over the door. No one could remember the exact name though so we picked another italian place we knew the name of and met John there, luckily Figaro's, "house of gnocchi" was right across the street. We settled in to a fairly empty restuarant staffed by italians, the beautiful kind. We shared a Insalata Caprese and then our entree came. In a frozenmoment, that will now be mentioned every time we order gnocchi, John's Gnocchi Basilico came to the table, literally. The pretty italian waitress upended the entire bowl onto the table in front of him. When the replacment dish came we tucked in to some excellent gnocchi, all made fresh. One was a basil gnocchi in a creamy mushroom sauce, the other was a spinach gnocchi in a tomato sauce. We also shared a steaming bowls of mussels in a wine and cream sauce that had us asking for more bread to sop up the sauce.

We sent John back to work and wandered North Beach, stopping in at Stella's bakery for some almondina and almond with pine nuts. We wandered a little farther up Columbus to XOX Truffles. The only place I know of where you can get 20 chocolate truffles for $7! We got an assortment and since they all look alot alike, each one is a mystery bite sure to please those chocolate cravings.

We finished the evening off with watching Harry Potter and ordering in from North Beach Pizza while John had an evening out with some friends.

SF Day 4: Quick Tropical Salmon Dinner - To Go!

I was munching on my bacon wrapped prawn salad at Scott's Seafood in Walnut Creek with Gra ce and my friend Peggy, when I found out what that I was preparing dinner for friends that evening out of my husband's malfunctioning corporate apartment kitchen. I had to decide here and now what to make so that Peggy could take us to Andronico's (think fancy schmancy grocery store) and we would take it back with us to the city via BART and trolley and 4 block walk, prepare it in that kitchen and convey over a 30 minute car trip to San Rafeal. The request for something light and low fat added to the challenge. After throwing ideas back and forth with Peggy (it doesn't hurt to have another personal chef with you!) I decided on Salmon on greens with a lime ginger dressing and tropical fruit.

The schlep back to the city was a lot longer than anticipated due to BART malfunctions so I was really glad that the butcher at Andronico's had given me a frozen gel pack to keep the food cool. Back at the apartment I chopped the mango, papaya and bagged them. I had also bought Muscat grapes and mandarin oranges in a light juice. Two bags of spring mix field greens completed the salad portion. A simple dressing of fresh lime, ginger and honey completed the dressing. We packed up and went. I broiled the salmon at the Marx's house drizzling with dressing, started on the skin side and turning over and basting again. The greens were piled on the plate, drizzled with dressing. The warm salmon were placed on top and surrounded with the tropical fruit - viola! no cooking in the apartment - and a low fat delicious dinner on the table in minutes. A Trader Joe's Key Lime pie with fresh whipped cream was an easy finish and kept with the tropical theme.

SF Day 2 & 3: Ferry Building, Gourmet Club, Golden Gate Park

SATURDAY

Saturday morning, we did my favorite San Francisco activity. My goal was to buy the ingredients for a salad for dinner for Sunday night at John's sister. It was like being in salad heaven! And to make matters worse, my PC friend Tom involved in the decision. Every stall brought on a new idea - "look at these field greens - we could get dried fruit from that other stand and sugar some pecans and make a fig balsamic vinegrette! look over there - what about there!" The decision was clinched when we went to Tom's friend's farm stand and she let us taste some peppery arugula blossoms with a hint of flowery sweetness. It looked like a wildflower bouquet, with long stems with small forsythia like blossoms of pale yellow and brown. We ended up buying arugula blossoms and field greens planning on tossing in large pieces of crisp bacon, shards of parmesan and a meyer lemon vinaigrette. We served melted herbed chevre croutons alongside.

Grace and John and I spent quite a few minutes tasting honey at the honey stand. Each kind had its own unique flavors and characteristics. We ended up choosing the CIA honey - the hives are in the herb garden at the culinary institute - it had a very strong flavor with lots of different notes. We plan on drizzling it over fresh riccotta, along with some lime oil. This was Tom's idea. We brought it to Joan's sunday night. He piled it in the middle of a large plate, drizzled the honey and lime oil over it and then surrounded it with crackers. We also brought a Cowgirl Creamert Triple Cream Cheese caller Mt Tam and some Humboldt Fog - a creamy cheese with a ribbon of blue. The outer edge gets runny like a Brie the longer it sits out.

Saturday night was Southern Gourmet Club at the Marx's house. Southern? Doesn't sound so appealing or gourmet but oh my goodness - what a feast! Perfectly fried chicken, seasoned with onion powder, garlic powder, paaprika and cayenne then drizzled with honey! Chicken Fried Steak sandwiches on tender, buttery biscuits served with gravy alongside. Pulled pork in a sweet but mustardy sauce was especially tasty. A huge pot of Farmer's Market greens - chard, dandelion and more were served cooked up with pork fat in a big pot of "likker". A fabulous salad of frisee, beets and pears with candied walnuts may not have been too southern but no one complained. A black eyed pea salad, blue cheese mashed potoatos, cornbread speckled with bacon, served with freshly made butter and honey, and corn pudding spiked with more bacon and japepenos rounded out the menu. To top off the evening, sweet potato souffle came to the table fresh from the oven, served along with pecan pie and a lovely light coconut cream cake, layered with fruit and a whipped cream icing. Several wines were served throughout the evening and explained by Nick who had the chore of pairing wines with almost every dish containing bacon! It was a food lover's feast and Ihope to be in town for the next theme of Persian!

SUNDAY

Sunday was a glorius sunny day. We ran through several ideas of how to spend our day but cancelled several because they ended up indoors. Finally we just hopped a cab to Golden Gate park. We were dropped off in front of the De Young and even though the stark rusty exterior was really tempting us to go in, the rare sunshine insisted we stay out. First stop was the japanese garder. The minute we walked in the gates we were attracted by the peaceful wooden builind serving japanese tea. We beat the crowds and sat at a table in the sunshine. We were served oolong and jasmine pots of tea by a lovely woman in a pink kimona, alongside a plate of japanese sesame and alond cookies and various japanese snack bits. The setting was so peaceful and sunny and beautiful, it was hard to leave but the rest of the japanese garden beckoned us. A lot is compacted in a small space but every where you look is beautifully manicured and tended as only a japanese garden can be.

The sunshine was still tempting us to stay outdoors so our next stop was the free botanical garden. Needless to say we weren't the only ones out on a beautiful sunday in San Francisco. We wander down concrete trails then veered off onto mulch paths winding through the gardens. Colorful bushes and flowers, none to be seen in the Midwest, were there to be explored, smelled and enjoyed.

We ducked into the De Young cafe for a quick lunch with promises to come back soon to check out the museum.

The evening was spent at John's sister's Joan for a fabulous family dinner. Tom and I served up the ricotta appetizer and the cheeses. Dinner was a fabulous butterflied leg of lamb, marinated and tehn grilled. The other meat was a spooky blackc tri tip. At first glance it looked like Mitch had left it on the grill for about 24 hours - the whole thing was an uninterupted solid black. Turns out it comes this way from a special marinade at the butchers. I think the only way anyone would every buy it would be on a strong recomendation because it did not look particulary appetizing. But when cut super thin, the black became just a thing edge. The meat was very tender and flavorful and with a little horseradish sauce - truly amazing! Our salad made it to the buffet with a vinaigrette of meyer lemon juice, olive oil, dijon mustard and a smidge of honey. The flowers sprinkled over the top looked really lovely and added a nice arugula bite. Joan made rosemary potatoes, lemon orzo, bread and butter and oven rosted asparagus. Dessert was a dense creamy bread pudding served with a toffee sauce and orange scented whipped cream served with dense chocolate brownies speckled with cranberries. I was temporarily distracted from dessert by cuddling my new great niece and rocking her to sleep, but I eventually gave her up and had my share. It was a fun evening with family and friends and delicious food - what more could you ask for!

SF Day 1: Bow Hun

Another great day in San Francisco. Grace and I played tourist today and walked to Fisherman's Wharf. We pondered our options for breakfast and ended up having scrambled eggs and home fries in a sourdough bowl at Boudin Bakery. The building that houses the bakery is less than a year old. The first floor has a gourmet food store and bakery and a Peet's coffee stand. You can order food there and then find an empty table inside or out to sit down and enjoy your purchase. We sat at a little table inside because of the rain (that continued all day.) Watching the overhead baskets of bread circle through the whole bakery intrigued us enough to go upstairs and take the tour. It was $3 and children were free. It starts with a typical museum display on the history of the family bakery, mirroring San Francisco's. We went through that pretty briskly, more attracted by the the bakery through the second story window. We were particularly intrigued by a baker that was measuring out flour and other ingredients into large stainless steel vats on rollers. They could roll up to a flour machine that measured an exact amount of flour into the vat, then the vat could be rolled to a kneading machine. We watched as he unhooked one vat and removed it from the kneader. He rolled it over to a railing that looked over the first floor. Using a large knife he cut off huge chunks of dough and dropped them over the railing. I assume there were gentlemen there catching the dough but we couldn't see. He then rolled the rest of the dough to a chute that shot it down to the first floor where it went into a machine that formed the dough into perfect balls. We continued our tour ending in the Tasting Room that had wonderful fresh bread, with a variety of condiments to try. We certainly got our three dollars worth. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing touristy Fisherman's Wharf activities - Ripley's Museum, Hot Fudge Sundae at Ghirardelli (get the dark chocolate hot fudge sauce!) and ended with a hot tea at Barnes & Noble and then a trip to Trader Joe's.

Friday evening we were in search of Chinese in Chinatown. With the help of Chowhound PC Tom and the Gourmet Guide to SF we ended up at a small restaurant called Bow Hun, known for it's Claypots. We ordered pot stickers and eggrolls for appetizers. Both were very tasty and fresh. They came piping hot to the table. Our entrees came next. John ordered the Bow Hun Special Clay Pot. It came to the table in a clay pot and the liquid was actually boiling. Chuncks of tender BBQ pork were floating in a bubbling brown gravy. Floating on top were delicious dumplings. Under the dumplings were cabbage and large black mushrooms, quite a flavorful dish. Grace's order came next - Prawns in lobster sauce. This was the least appetizing looking entree we got but Grace seemed to enjoy it. My entree was a seasonal special of fresh dungeness (John saw her fish the live crab out of a fish tank.) It was cooked in a scallion and ginger sauce. The whole crab came chopped up on a platter, slathered with sauce. I have to say I have never had a fresher crab. Grace and I polished off every bit. It cost around $18 and was worth every penny.

After dinner we walked to Yoogo Gelato, an asian gelato and bubble tea shop. A very patient young girl let us taste as many as we wanted. I was very proud of myself for tasting the Durian Gelato - especially after smelling it! Yikes! It had the smell of putrid eggs. It tasted very sweet and floral, with rotting egg overtones. I also tasted Black Sesame (good), Taro (very nice) and ended up with a small combo cup of Passion Fruit and Lychee. Grace got Lychee and Rose - we thought of our friend Arbi who is from Tunisia where rosewater is a common flavoring - he would have loved it. Grace really like it too.

And one of the nicest things about John's place is we could walk home. Chinatown runs into North Beach which is the Italian section. It reminded me of the transisiton between New York Chinatown and Little Italy, one minute chinese restaurants and then pasta house and cafes with outside seating. We took a very steep climb up Montgomery Street then down a really neat neighborhood street and then finally down the Filbert steps, so actually we were climbing up Telegraph Hill and then down the other side. The Filbert steps go past some really neat homes all nestled in a rain forest-like garden. I guess I thought of the rain forest because it was STILL raining! There are another set up steps, the Greenwich steps, we plan to take another day in daylight and search for the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill!

Boulevard Dinner

Boulevard Dinner

Tonight, I am preparing a dinner from the cookbook for Boulevard resturaunt in San Francisco. It has taken 2 days of prep and a trip back to the butcher to get the pork chop that I wanted.

Here is the menu:

Fried Calamari in a light basil infused batter, served with a fresh marinara sauce
bought fresh calamari from Whole foods

Warm Medjool Dates Stuffed with Goat Cheese Served over Field Greens with a Blood Orange Vinaigrette
Tweaked the vinaigrette, tasted too bitter - too much skin in the dressing. I added some of the juice from the oranges and a little sugar. Dates are from the bulk section of Whole Foods.

Cider Brined Pork Loin Chop with Cider Jus and a Braised Bacon Pomegranate Relish
Went back to Straubs because the first round of chops were to skimpy. Now, some of them are actually two bone chops with one bone cut off. They are at least 1 1/2 inches thick, if not more. I frenched them for presentation. The Pomegranate and bacon relish will really help make this special. The trick will be not onvercooking the pork.

Brussels Sprouts
shaved on the mandoline and cooked briefly with shallots and butter

Carrot Cake Triangles with Carrot Sherbert and Candied Carrots and a Warm Walnut Caramel Sauce
I don't do many desserts. This dessert was tricky. You cut the cake in half lengthwise, then cut each half into 3 layers of less than 1/4 inch. Very diffisult and not each layer perfect but it assemble allright and I think it will slice and present nicely. I thought I ruined the sauce. I added 3/4 cup more cream than the recipe called for. So I carmalized another cup of sugar and added the thin caramel mixture to that hot mixture and it worked and I saved myself a trip to the store! 9Which does not happen often.)

Warm Medjool Dates Stuffed with Goat Cheese Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette Recipe

Serves six

9 blood oranges
4 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups grape seed oil
3/4 cup pistachios
1 1/2 small head radicchio
3 cups loosely packed cleaned mizuna
3 cups loosely packed cleaned arugula
3 cups loosely packed torn cleaned frisee
18 Medjool dates
6 ounces fresh goat cheese
Pomegranate seeds
Pistachio oil

FOR THE BLOOD ORANGE VI N A I G R E T T E : With a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler remove the zest from the oranges, then peel away and discard all the white pith. Pull oranges apart into segments and put segments from 2 of the oranges into a blender w/ zest. (Note: I would not use all the zest - maybe from 1 orange? I also added a tablespoon of sugar and a couple tablespoons of juice from the bowl the segments were in.) Reserve the remaining segments for garnish. Add the corn syrup, rice vinegar, salt and puree. With the machine running slowly, gradually add the oil and blend until thickened. Set aside at room temperature for up to 6 hours or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

FOR THE PISTACHIOS: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the pistachios in a small pan and toast for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they take on color, stirring once or twice. Remove from the oven and put the nuts on a clean kitchen towel. Fold the towel over the nuts, rub the nuts together and roll them around to remove some of the skins. Set the nuts on a plate to cool.

FOR THE SALAD: Cut the radicchio in half and cut out the core. Cut the radicchio into 1/2-inch pieces and put into a large bowl. Add the rest of the greens and refrigerate loosely covered with a damp towel for up to 8 hours.

FOR THE DATES: Make a lengthwise slit in each date and pull out the pit. Roughly divide the goat cheese into 12 pieces, stuff into the dates, and press them closed. Place, seam side down, on a small sheet pan or baking pan. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, heat the dates in a 350°F oven for 1 to 2 minutes (if the dates have been refrigerated, they will take longer to reheat), or until warm.


TO SERVE
Toss the greens with some of the vinaigrette until lightly coated. Place a mound of greens on each of 4 plates and arange 3 warm dates around the salad with alternating piles of the reserved orange segments. Sprinkle with pistachios and pomegranite seeds aorund the plate and drizzle pistachio oil all over.

Boulevard -The Cookbook by Nancy Oakes and Pamela Mazzola

We will see how it goes. Thanks to Judy for all her help.