Scenes of San Francisco

Oh, how much I enjoyed our trip to SF. It couldn't have come at a better time! Here are some of my photos. Mike's editing his and some should be put on his blog and facebook.

love that sign!

sea lions... smelly

story of sourdough

mike's a ninja

are you lost?

chinatown

gelato

little italy

napa

streetcar

cute group of girls on the beach

Pasta with Parm and Pepper

With Mike working and a work trip looming, I didn't want to spend a lot (more) time in the kitchen. (The night before I made cinnamon rolls, both plain and chocolate, and sloppy joes.) I opted for a quick (chick) dinner of pasta plus a side of greens last weekend.

adapted from pioneer woman and smitten kitchen

(i basically scaled a mash-up of the two recipes down to serve just me and
fit the ingredients i had on hand: thin spaghetti, olive oil, pepper, parmesan)

Food of San Francisco

Its only fitting to start off depicting our San Francisco trip with food...

With some 3,489 places to eat, more per capita than any other major city in the United States, it’s no wonder that after scenery the second most popular reason for visiting this 47-square-mile culinary crossroads is “restaurants.” (source)

No shortage of food for sure. There wasn't enough time in the day to hit all the places we wanted (just an excuse to go back) but we made a pretty good dent in our list!

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(1) in & out (2) cherries (3) bbq pork rice noodle roll [not pictured], beef fried rice [maybe the best rice we've had] and kung pao chicken at sam wo (4) strawberry, vanilla bean and whiskey [not pictured] gelato at gelateria naia (5, 6, 7) honey bourbon sour, duck confit spring roll and vietnamese snapper sandwich at butterfly (8) meat cone at boccolone [we picked up peppered salami] (9, 10) [empty] clam chowder bread bowl and crab mac & cheese at boudin [delish sourdough bread also] (11) sweets at bouchon (12) caramel candy apple truffle pop at dean & deluca (13) rocket arugula pizza at calzone's (14, 15) green onion & cheddar biscuits with gravy and italian scramble at cafe divine where mike finally uttered "i just can't finish another plate of food" [if you know mike, you know that he is usually a bottomless pit so this was quite a moment]

Sloppy Joes

I made Mike a batch of sloppy joes this week since I was going to be away for a couple of nights working (boo!). No Manwich can here! Wanting to leave Mike with some man-food, I found this recipe described as "cowboy food" by Pioneer Woman. Great as always!

Here are some other sloppy joe recipes from the interwebs:

chili-cheese sloppy joes
turkey sloppy joes on cheddar buttermilk biscuits
throwdown sloppy joes
sloppy joes with maui onion straws

schnipper's very sloppy joe - featured on throwdown with bobby flay

Cinco de Mayo a la Gwyneth Paltrow

A few weeks ago I had to use a B&N gift card that was about to expire. Not that I am ever short on books I want, I waited til the last minute to use it so Mike & I took a trip to one of my favorite places. The first thing I see when I walk in is this:

from barnes & noble

How did I not know this existed? Clearly, I grabbed it on the spot. I should probably also say, I'm a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan. I do not really understand why people love to hate on her/her website Goop/the cookbook etc. (See the comments on this post for an example, people can be so mean!) I loved reading the stories of how cooking became important to her and what a family thing it is for her, I totally relate to some of the comments she has.

I've been trying to decide what to make first and with Cinco de Mayo approaching, I chose the recipe for fish tacos. She describes it as the perfect family meal. Also included is a recipe for pico de gallo.

Here's how I made it (adapted from My Father's Daughter):

ingredients
1 pint cherry tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
sea salt

directions
toss all ingredients in a bowl. adjust seasoning as needed. cover and keep refrigerated. (I let sit overnight before eating so the flavors could all come together.)



Fish tacos were made using a beer batter recipe from the cookbook. It was our first time using the mini-deep fryer Mike registered for. (I'm not one that likes to fry at home!) It came out really good though and a lot less scary than frying on the stovetop.



I also made a side of rice and black beans to make sure Mike gets enough to eat haha.

Green (Cilantro) Rice

ingredients
1 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, packed
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 cup long grain white rice
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
vegetable, canola or other neutral oil

Combine cilantro leaves, garlic and splash of broth in food processor. Process until smooth and set aside.

Cover the bottom of a frying pan (that has a lid) with a thin layer of oil. Heat over medium-high heat. When oil shimmers, add onion and cook 2 minutes or until softened. Add rice and salt, stirring to coat in oil, and cook about 2 minutes more. Pour the cilantro mixture and remaining broth into the pan and stir to combine. (A good amount of steam will come off pan when you add the mixture and liquid.) Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer until rice is tender (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and let rice rest, covered, for a few minutes before serving.

And let's not forget the margs! YUM! I love me some Bethenny & some SkinnyGirl!

Breakfast & Brunch Parties

I've seen several posts on breakfast parties in the recent/not so recent past. Whether it be an actual brunch, breakfast or just a party involving morning food, I'm all about it. I'm more of a morning person anyway so its no surprise that I love a good breakfast/brunch!

I also love having people over for these kinds of things. While doing this brings with it unwanted issues at times, which we won't get into here, its still something I really enjoy doing. Catching up with friends with good food has to be one of my ultimate favorite things to do.

Some lovely pictures of stuff I would love to do (for me or for someone else of course!) from Hostess with the Mostess and Eat Drink Pretty blogs.

coffee & donut tasting table


champagne bar

bubbly brunch

farmhouse brunch

Accidental Date Night - The Common Table

Mike and I hardly ever go out on dates during the week because of our work schedules and locations. However, he had to be in the Design District one Tuesday afternoon so we met for dinner at The Common Table.

Dinner was so yummy! We each got a great drink, I had 'The Splendid Splinter' (which had
raspberries, mint, crown black, cranberry juice, simple syrup - awesome) and Mike had some sort of fancy beer that I can't remember the name of. We then devoured pulled pork spring rolls, baby back ribs and mac & cheese.

Turkey-Ricotta Meatballs

I love the Cooking Light Way to Cook cookbook. Its got great everyday recipes and also gives the nutritional information (like the fact that these have 63 calories a piece). Its really visual with lots of pictures and explanations of different cooking techniques, what the benefits are of different meats, grains, vegetables, best tools to use in the kitchen and lots of other tips.

I make turkey meatballs for spaghetti on a regular basis and this is one of the recipes I use:

turkey-ricotta meatballs (adapted from cooking light)

ingredients
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp salt & 1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb lean ground turkey

directions
Combine all ingredients, do not over mix. Shape mixture into 18 meatballs (I got closer to 2 dozen). Bake in a 375 degree oven (I use a Pam coated pyrex) until golden brown and cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes depending on meatball size.

These can also be frozen and stored in the freezer for another day! Just thaw in the refrigerator, bake at 375 for 20 minutes of until heated.

Note: the amount of breadcumbs/ricotta/egg may need to be adjusted depending on the moisture in your turkey.

Mother's Day (Early!)

Mother's Day is Sunday! While Mike and I won't be seeing our moms this weekend, we still hope they have a great day!

Happy Mother's Day MOMS! We love you both!

Cornmeal Pancakes

Easter is one of basically 3 days that Mike's work is closed... I like to make the most of these days!

I have had this recipe from Epicurious laying around for a while and finally had a chance to try it Easter Sunday. I made half the recipe... there were some reviews indicating it made a lot of batter. I also substituted whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour. (Both the whole wheat flour and the cornmeal give the pancakes a lot of texture.) I skipped the pecan butter this time but might go ahead and make it next time. There were also some reviews that said they put the pecans into the pancake batter... not so sure how I feel about that.

Anywho. The pancakes were so good! AND fluffy. Finally, I made fluffy pancakes. Success!

Pork & Rice

For our second grill dinner, I put together pork tenderloin crusted with green onion, jalapeno and ginger from Bobby Flay via Envie. I totally forgot to reserve any of the marinade to pour over the cooked pork! This mistake probably explains why the flavor wasn't quite enough. The pork was cooked well but the flavor was really too mild. I like the ingredients and the idea though so I'll have to try this one again!

As a side, I made Tijuana kitchen rice from Guy Fieri. Really good. I have always looked for good Mexican rice recipes and this one is pretty on point. I'll definitely keep this recipe around!