You Know it's Christmas in San Francisco When:
1. You're watching men frolic in tights.
2. You're dodging drunken Santas.
3. You're trying to figure out just how many NYE house parties you can hit before you will be too drunk to go on.
4. You're listening to SomaFm's Xmas in Frisko.
by MooHaHa
5. You're asking your father to buy you a month's garage parking as your big Christmas gift.
Happy Holidays!
EB
Photo by DNAMichaud
This is a holiday ice cream recipe I came up with when I was invited to a friend's house for Thanksgiving. It was a good thing I brought ice cream, because it was no less than 79* that day. Ahhh California living. Now that there's snow on the ground, and a chill in the air, this recipe still screams out 'holiday'! It's creamy, laced with booze and spiced up with gingerbread. This is one of the most well-received ice creams I've ever created. Give it a shot yourself this holiday. You will not regret it.
Bourbon-Gingerbread Ice Cream
3 cups half & half
5 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground clove
3 tbs bourbon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup broken gingerbread cake or ½ cup gingerbread cookie pieces
Warm 2 cups of the ½ & ½ , sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Pour the remaining ½ & ½ into a large bowl and put a mesh strainer over the bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yolks. Slowly add some of the warmed mixture into the yolks and whisk vigorously. Slowly combine the two mixtures until completely combined, then return the mixture to the saucepan.
Constantly stir the mixture as it warms over medium heat. Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan, until the mixture coats your spoon. Pour the cooked mixture through the strainer, into the remaining ½ & ½. Mix in the spices, bourbon, and vanilla. Cool over ice.
Enjoy!
EB
Last Sunday was cold and grey. A few friends of mine were in town
for Outside Lands and were a little worse for wear. I dragged them out
to the boonies of SF (hey the don't call it Outside Lands for nothing!)
to grab a much needed 'next morning' breakfast. We stepped into the
Copper Kettle "bakery" and were greeted by a sympathetic waitress with
a full on brogue who brought us water and coffee before I think we
could even mumble an order. I had the "mini-Irish" a scaled down
version of a gut busting Irish breakfast of beans, sausage, tomato,
fried egg, toast, bacon and I'm sure a few other things. The out of
towners loved the fact that they could order huevos rancheros and
breakfast burritos full of Irish bacon. D.E.M. ordered herself a
corned beef sandwich... which honestly... was the best I've ever eaten.
Ever. Big thick slices of homemade corned beef that had been tossed on
the grill like bacon.... this wasn't just the hangover talking. This
was brilliant.
That's a mini!!
Fortified by our Irish provisions we stepped back out in to the fog, dropped the guests off at the park for another day full of San Francisco style fun and headed back to bed to sleep of the food 'lude.
This place is out of the way, way out of the way, but it honestly is Irish (with an SF twist) and worth a trek. Especially on a foggy, cold San Francisco weekend.
Enjoy!
The Copper Kettle
2240 Taraval Street
I'm back from my whirlwind trip and thought I'd share a few of my most memorable food moments with you all:
Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road. Delicious cupcakes. Delicious.
Napoleon's Dining Room. Man he knew how to eat.
And then there's these. Most 'memorable' because I can still taste them. Unfortunately.
There's a million more memories. Wine cheaper than water? Vive la France! Korean BBQ in late night London? Love it. Salted caramel yogurt in Paris? A revelation.
Thanks Europe (well except for that exchange rate thing...)
EB
My new favorite thing? The print by artist Nikki McClure titled "Share Your Table" that I picked up at Little Otsu on Valencia. It really embodies everything I believe about food.
Enjoy
EB
Contigo oh how I love you. How can one not love a gorgeous little space filled with adorable Spanish servers who claim that the pork belly bocadillos changed their lives? How could a person resist sitting on a warm patio surrounded by a fresh herb garden while eating some of the most amazing flavor combinations in the city. And really…. is there a single individual that can resist fingerling potato chips? I didn’t think so.
My dining cohort Bibi and I were a little unsure what to expect. We had both heard great things about Contigo and judging by the line out the door at 5:30 on a Wednesday... so had many others. We were a little overwhelmed by the menu. We wanted one of everything, so we relied on our server for our selections, including wine, and each was exactly what we were looking for. It turned out to be one of the most casual, completely fulfilling, and utterly joyous eating experiences I've had in a long time.
If you haven't been... simply.... go.
Contigo |1320 Castro St.| 415.285.0250
Enjoy!
EB
It was a grey morning today. My hair was dripping wet from my morning
swim and the cold wind was chilling my brain to the bone. My
optometrist appointment was 30 minutes off and I needed a warm cup of
coffee and some comfort food. West Portal is what I call an 'old lady'
neighborhood. There is a plethora of hair boutiques, doctor's offices,
fruit stands, two drugstores a movie theater, Old Krakow restaurant and
not much else. Except... Manor Coffee Shop. To say that this place is a
throwback would not do it justice. This is a true coffee counter diner
without the irony. There's a few Marilyn posters up for that 50's diner
look, but they don't mean anything by them. Doris Day and Dean Martin
are on the jukebox, not to be cute, but because that's the clientele's
tunes. This is not a kitschy, novelty food, joint. The patty melts are
greasy,
the eggs are runny, the waffles have burnt edges and the bacon is
perfect. There is nothing better.
I saddled up on a red bar stool and was given hot diner coffee, a glass of water and a hearty "good morning" by the uniformed waitress. I ordered a #2 (yes by the number), read the paper, eavesdropped a bit and waited for my perfectly crispy hashbrowns.
Sated by my breakfast and warmed by a few cups of promptly refilled
coffee, I paid in cash (no cards of course since their register is from
1940), bundled up and headed back out into the modern world.
Manor Coffee Shop
321 W Portal Ave # A
San Francisco, CA 94127
Enjoy!
EB
Okay. Yes I’m a teacher. When people find out they
invariably say “ooh you’re so lucky to have summers off!” Yeah. No. I don’t get
summers off. I’m a newbie on the professorial circuit and I’m still paying my crappy
schedule-summer session-not getting paid dues. However, I do get a day or two
off a week during the summer. Which yes, is awesome (although a paycheck would
be awesomer!)
Photo by pedrosimoes7
1. Go to PARIS!
3. Catch up on This American Life at the gym.
4. Go organic in the garden.
6. Explore my city with Mundane Journeys.
7.Read. For fun. Honestly. Just one book!
8. Drink beer and go for the brass ring.
10. Go to the park. Manshelf?
What will you be doing with your summer?
EB
Mail is a good thing right? I mean, when it's not a bill? Like when it's a postcard from someone nice? Someone nice who really likes ice cream? Would you like some nice, not bill-related, but ice cream offering mail? The real kind? In your actual, attached to your house mailbox kind? Yes, I thought you would....
Join the Ice Cream Recipe Postcard Swap from Scoopalicious!
Have Fun (and send me mail :)
EB
Ok so I don't want to offend anybody but I really have a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles. On the pro side? The Getty, the weather, the ocean, the farmers market and Bennett's. I mean it's hard not to love the old-school market full of people who are happy to be surrounded by food goodness.
Unfortunately there are many more reasons why LA and I just don't get along. The traffic, the fact that I'm a San Franciscan (it's a rivalry thing), the soul sucking nature of the 'city', and well...
I rest my case.
Sorry LA... I'm just really glad to be home.
EB
