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
I've been obsessing about a few things lately and I thought I'd share since (GASP!) gift giving holiday season really, honestly, is right around the corner!!!
1. I saw this fantastic little set the other day and I can't stop craving it:
Seriously.... is it possible to have a cuter tea set?
2. Ever since I got my copy I've been cooking from it. It's not flashy, glossy or celebrity-chef-y. It's just simple and fantastic. The recipes are easy to follow, easy to understand and undeniably French.
You really can judge this book by its cover.
3. My apron obsession has recently been rekindled by a purchase I made at a local street fair. While you may not be able to get your hands on the awesome vintage tea-towel, reversible half-apron I picked up...
Etsy has some truly fabulous one of a kind aprons.
4. I have always had a soft spot for the original Alice in Wonderland drawings and these pieces by Fishes Eddy make me want to imbibe everything that has a "drink me" tag on it!
5. I know coupe's are "not great for champagne"... but really who lets it sit long enough for the bubbles to escape?
There are an amazing array of these on Ebay, I prefer the multi-colored myself.
Here's to the holidays!
EB
I picked up “The Most For Your Money Cookbook” one day while
waiting for a dentist appt. I went to The Great Overland Book Co. on
As I paid for my purchase, the clerk chided me “You understand this is in 1930’s money right?” Apparently he thought I was trying to use this book for current day money savers. Not that it isn’t a great resource. This kind of info never becomes obsolete really. I assured him that yes I understood and absconded with my purchase.
On the dentist’s couch I flipped through my new find. The inside has the name of it’s previous owner: Annie J Mc Crohan (I found a few possible matches on Google, all of whom were born in the late 1880’s which would fit). The name is written in the script of women of my grandmother’s generation.
The Foreword is all about “Stretching the Food Dollar” which includes really practical advice like advocating whole grain cereals at breakfast because they “stretch the dollar like rubber”. The reason I so quickly fell in love with this book though was not only the authors’ sense of humor, apparently new tomatoes “bred to convenient size to suit the shipper, not the consumer” are “only good for kids to throw at cops”, but also their candor. They warn against “the siren call of radio experts who sell us foodless food,” offering a much needed reminder that the concern over food industrialization is nothing new.
The recipe I went to was one I remember from my childhood, when my mom was trying to stretch our family’s food dollar, Beef Stroganoff. The recipe is exactly the one I grew up with. It’s uncanny. The taste brought me right back to my family dinner table where I would be scolded for rocking back in my chair, my brother would stuff his cheeks like a chipmunk and my dad would try to make us laugh until the milk spilled. It’s simple, comforting and yes, economical… in the very best way.
1 lb tender beef
2 tbs butter
1 small onion minced
¼ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbs flour
1 parsley sprig
Salt and pepper
1 cup sour cream
Cut meat into narrow strips. Slowly fry onion and garlic in butter, add steak and brown. Add parsley and the mushrooms. Cover and let cook for 20 minutes. Add flour, simmer until thick. Add sour cream and heat through.
That’s it. Total. It’s best, and most nostalgic, on top of wide egg noodles.
Enjoy!
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
Do you have your copy of A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg yet? No? Get thee to a bookstore! Molly weaves recipes into wonderful, lyrical stories about her life. It reads much like Orangette but there is that rainy day, snuggled in the couch, tactile book in hand feeling about it that you just can't get from a computer screen.
Now, as a teacher, I rarely get the time to read something fun cover to cover, books stack up next to my bed in a neglected fashion. But the second I got this book in my hands I knew I had to take the time. It was well worth it (with apologies to students who will not get those midterms graded on time).
The stories are lovely, the recipes more than just well-thought out, they are well thought of. They are as meaningful to the book as the prose is.
It really is delightful and worth savoring over a hot beverage, in the window box on a wet wintry day.
EB
The other day I was down. Not wallowing in bed under the covers with sad songs on the radio down, just a bit bummed out. In order to cheer me up, Designated Eater Mimi picked me up a little gift. Folks.... check it out:
Yes people... that's birthday cake ice cream flavored lip gloss!!!
Mmm hmm.
This is the box that started it all. It was this box, dug
out of a dollar bin at the flea market, that got me into collecting recipe
boxes. It’s a very simple box and it’s different from all my others. It’s
wooden, homemade and self painted and decorated with decoupage.Cut out pictures of bell peppers, salad, radishes, pears?
Why not?
It was this bright yellow box that got me to thinking about the recipes that might have been in it at one point. Where were they now? How old was the woman who owned this? Did she make it for herself? Did one of her kids make it for her in woodshop? Was it a mother’s day gift? Did she cook for fun, or just for the family? I have no idea.
Happy Friday!
EB
Why oh why do I love Ichiban Kan? Is it because you can get handmade ramen noodles at Sapporo-Ya down the street? Maybe... but really.... it's these:
These are erasers people. Erasers! To a dorky-ass teacher like me.... nirvana.
Enjoy!
Erin
What do good friends do instead of letting you wallow in
pink-slip induced self pity? They take you on an ‘adventure’ and remind you
that while you may be unemployed… you live in one of the best cities on earth.
My good friend Christopher picked me up with no particular plan in mind. The new Aquarium? Maybe. Dumplings in the Richmond? Possible. Go to the beach? Why not?
We found ourselves heading out towards Golden Gate park. It turned out to be a little too busy for our liking though. The new aquarium has just reopened and there was a swarm of families. The city was also sponsoring Family Field Trip Day at the Botanical Gardens. The beach sounded good too… but nope. Nike was sponsoring a marathon. Undaunted, we parked anyway and decided to sit out back in the sunshine and have a few nibbles at Park Chalet. The sun was amazing, dogs and kids ran amok, and I was treated to one of the best burgers I’ve eaten in a looong time (moist grilled beef, caramelized onions, and a rustic bun). From there we decided to trudge up to the Cliff House, but we made it only as far as the windmills before the fog rolled in.
Back to the car and off, aimlessly again. We realized that
we were heading through the Clement corridor and we decided to shop. This part
of the Richmond neighborhood is an amazing amalgam of almost every Asian culture. The food
possibilities are mind boggling. We popped into Kamei Restaurant Supply first
though. I LOVE this store.
I’ve mentioned it before here. This time around I picked up cheese cloth, a small mandolin, plastic covers, a ceramic mug, bamboo sticks and a few other goodies for under 20$. Seriously.
From there we scooted into one of about 50 dim sum shops and ordered up two extra-huge baked pork buns and we each got a sweet treat. I got an eggy, angel-food like cake and he got a sweet cake stuffed with coconut. Needless to say… we ate the cakes first. After a stop for Vietnamese coffee, because we were shivering now, we headed over the hill and back to my neighborhood where not only was it 75* and sunny, but Red Bull was throwing drunks down a hill in soap box racers.
Thanks Chris.
Erin
Yup obsessed. I know it too. After going 2 whole days without making any ice cream... I had to make 3. Well... two frozen desserts and one sauce to put on top. The impetus? On Thursday I went to my beloved Crocker Galleria Farmer's Market where I picked up a mixed basket of locally grown, organic strawberries and raspberries. I basically ran home to throw them in the mixer.
Gettin' Juicy
I decided that the berries had to be made into something as simple as possible-- sorbet. Strawberry Sorbet. And the raspberries? Chunky Raspberry Sauce of course. I was going to want to put that sauce on something decadent so Vanilla Ice Cream it was to be. This was going to be amazing vanilla ice cream-- the whole cooked egg custard kind. I began with macerating the berries for the sorbet and the sauce. While they sat and stirred in their juices (and a little brandy) I got started on the custard. As the vanilla bean was infusing it's rich, velvety flavor into some warmed milk-- I began processing the strawberries. The recipe for Strawberry sorbet is very similar to the pear or melon. Fruit, sugar, blitz, & freeze. After I blitzed the berries, I strained them for an extra smooth sorbet. I put the strawberry 'soup' in the fridge to hang out overnight and I turned my attention to the custard... which came together beautifully.
Cream. Sugar. More Cream? Check!
However, i was here that I had my first "Oh Crap" ice cream making moment. Everything was going along swimmingly. I made the custard, flipped on the machine and poured the mixture in. I figured, for once, I actually get the dishes done. As I scrubbed the machine whirred along. I snuck a peak after about 15 minutes. It wasn't fluffing up! It was dense, and not frozen! I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I mean... the bowl was frozen, and I knew it wasn't the recipe. I mean it's David's!! I scraped the sides with a rubber spatula... the sides were solid.... OH CRAP. I forgot to put in the friggin' paddle!!! I put it in hoping it would at least fluff up the mixture a little. It did. But very little. The result was a super-dense, ridiculously intense, frozen vanilla custard.
Raspberry Soup
I was a bit disheartened, but I cleaned the bowl and put it in the freezer so that I could make the straw berry sorbet as soon as possible. I focused on the Chunky Raspberry sauce, which is ridiculously easy, and fantastically delicious. Basically it's berries, sugar & blitz. The sauce did those raspberries proud. I poured some sauce over the decadent custard and served it to Designated Eater Mimi who declared (rightly so) "This tastes like raspberry shortcake... but you don't need cake." It did....and you didn't.
Raspberry Shortcake
The next day after work I set to making the sorbet-- which didn't take me any more effort than pouring the soup into the mixer. After 15 minutes it was done! It was as if I was bathing in fresh strawberries. I honestly can't tell you how BIG the strawberry flavor is. I can tell you though... we're ruined on store bought ice cream around these parts. Never again.
Have you ever seen anything so pretty?
Enjoy!
Erin
