Category Archives: San Francisco

Material developed in San Francisco

05.17.06
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Quick Roast Chicken Dinner

asparagus_soldiers.JPGI hadn’t intended to write about dinner yesterday (5/16), so I just went ahead and cooked and didn’t take any dinner specific pictures. But the dinner was so damned easy and good that I have to share it with you.

I saw this recipe in the NY Times for Roast Chicken with Fennel and it made me hungry, so I went out and got the ingredients and cooked it for dinner, accompanied by roasted asparagus and a cauliflower and pickled beet salad. It smelled so good and looked so good that I broke out the Retzlaff Sauvignon Blanc that I’d been saving for a special meal. My expectations were high, but it didn’t disappoint. Marvelous.
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05.15.06
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Mother’s Day Quiche

outta_th_oven.JPGCarol said, “You know what I want for Mother’s Day? A Quiche.”

The first time I remember eating Quiche Lorraine was at Pat’s house in Roanoke, prepared by Pat’s wife Pat for a Super Bowl III Party. If memory serves, I took the Colts, giving 19 points, and was devastated that the upstart AFL and the Jets loudmouth quarterback from hated Alabama, beat the mighty NFL.

At the same time, I harbored no love for the Colts. In Roanoke we got the Colts and Redskins—one or the other—on Sundays, and Sonny Jurgensen’s ‘Skins were my team of choice. I cursed when the hyper-babble of the fast talking Chuck Smith, the Colts broadcaster, came on CBS. We never knew which team we would get until the broadcast started, the TV listings were unreliable.
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05.12.06
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Artichoke Season

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Baby Artichokes at the Market

I don’t know when I “learned to like” artichokes. It was before 1977 when we took a three-week family trip from Boston to explore California. Driving on the Route 1, along the Pacific, we marveled at the artichoke fields around Castroville, the Artichoke Capital of the World.

All we knew then was the big ol’ Globe Artichoke that we boiled and ate, leaf by leaf dipped in a butter sauce, until we got to the “choke,” which we carefully removed with a spoon to attack the heart or bottom of the artichoke. Of course, we naively overcooked them, but they were good eatin’, nonetheless. Far superior to the only other artichokes we knew, which came in a jar.
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04.28.06
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Pizza Redux

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I bought a container of pizza dough from Whole Food as the Wednesday Chef said I should. $1.99 Rolled out about half of it on a floured cutting board. Put the dough on parchment paper on a peel, as Emeril said I should. This is so it will slide easily off of the peel onto the pizza stone in the oven. I’ve always used corn meal on the peel, the little grains kind of roll the dough off the peel. This is not just Pizza Again, but a whole new exploration.
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04.26.06
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Beets Redux + Creamed Potatoes

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Good Eatin’ iv

This is the fourth in an occasional series of Good Eatin’, kind of a sidebar usually involving leftovers (LO), where I will describe an easily put together meal that we enjoyed very recently, maybe yesterday.

After praising the virtues of red beets, it’s time to give a little love to the golden variety. We took home a Golden Beet and Asparagus Salad from Cowgirl Creamery for dinner, after our Funky Foodie Getaway. At dinner I remarked, “I can do that!” So I got some golden beets and asparagus at the Market.
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04.18.06
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Meat ‘n’ Two


Good Eatin’ iii

This is the third in an occasional series of Good Eatin’, kind of a sidebar usually involving leftovers (LO), where I will describe an easily put together meal that we enjoyed very recently, maybe yesterday.

This turkey has been taking up a huge amount of space in our undercounter freezer for months. (Yet another reason why the term “turkey” is a derogatory appelation.) We bought the freezer two summers ago when I changed 60 pounds of fresh tomatoes—Early Girl and San Marzano—into tomato sauce. Now, besides tomato sauce, we use it for various stocks, and stuff we buy frozen on the cheap, bags of shrimp and yes, White Castle Hamburgers in an 8 pack box. I guess the turkey falls into that category; frozen, on-the-cheap. Carol bought it on sale just after Christmas, a good buy, but it’s been there ever since. Last week, I’m looking for fish stock and all I can see is this massive turkey (okay, its only 12 pounds, but the freezer has only 3 shelves, and its taking up the middle one).
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04.17.06
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Squid Fried Rice

Big Squid

This is the second in an occasional series of Good Eatin’, kind of a sidebar usually involving leftovers (LO), where I will describe an easily put together meal that we enjoyed very recently, maybe yesterday.

Good Eatin’ ii

Friday for dinner, I cooked a really simple squid dish that I saw in the New York Times a couple weeks ago: Squid with Black Pepper, Vietnamese Style, by Mark Bittman. It sounded so appealing, that I went looking for squid right away. At Bryant’s, maybe the best fish store in town, they’re out of squid. I went to Cal Mart just down the block. They had no squid; the guy said he could order it for me and have it tomorrow. But I want it today, so he said to go to the big Chinese fish market on Clement Street. I did, and found that they had the big squid—what I call “steak squid”—so I settled for that.
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04.12.06
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Funky Foodie Getaway

North CoastFood Adventures in Sonoma County and West Marin

The rain in San Francisco in March is unceasing and Carol’s Spring Break is approaching. We wanted and needed a getaway.

On Wednesday, April 5, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco and drove out of the rain. We didn’t see sunshine for a few more miles, but out of the rain is a good start. Our immediate destination is the Anderson Valley Wine Country, particularly the Navarro Vineyards, northwest of Boonville. I like Navarro wines a lot and they’re mostly under $20, but they only sell to the public at the winery or by mail order. Otherwise they sell to restaurants. Frank J. Prial wrote in his NY Times Blog about how pleased he is to now be able to get them delivered to New York. Navarro is a little too far from San Francisco for a day trip, so we must plan for our occasional visits.
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04.07.06
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Cowgirl Creamery

Mt_Tam_ii.JPGCarol and I visited Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes,California, this morning. Cowgirl makes brie like cheeses, triple creme Mt. Tam, washed rind Red Hawk, St. Pat (wrapped in Nettles, spring and summer) and Pierce Point (crusted with herbs for fall and winter).

They also make Clabbord Cottage Cheese, Fromage Blanc and Creme Fresh.

From the Cowgirl Creamery catalog: “COWGIRL CREAMERY thrives in the coastal Marin Pastoral Zone because of the work of two innovative organizations that provide an infrastructure for farming in our county: Marin Agricultural Land Trust and Marin Organic.”

We’ve been loving their cheeses for some time and finally got a chance to go visit and enjoy a tasting.

I took some pictures to share with you:
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03.30.06
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Spareribs, Carrots and Romaine

This is the first in an occasional series of Good Eatin’, kind of a sidebar usually involving leftovers (LO), where I will describe an easily put together meal that we enjoyed very recently, maybe yesterday.

Good Eatin’
The spareribs have been wrapped in foil in the refrigerator for over a week. I got the Winter Ribs recipe from Mark Bittman in the New York Times recently, planned for leftovers and now they await.

Spareribs
Pop into preheated Toaster Oven at 350 ° for 15 minutes. About halfway through warming, slather with bottled BBQ sauce of choice.

Carrots
I have a bunch of baby carrots. Trim and wash. These are way too little to peel. In a saucepan, put in juice of a small orange, (actually, I had a tangelo) some white wine (or vermouth or water), a teaspoon of Honey Dijon, and a pat of butter. Bring to a boil, add the carrots and simmer, covered for about 4 minutes—until carrots are tender, but not mushy. Plate the ribs and carrots, reduce the remaining pan liquid to 2 or 3 tablespoons and pour over carrots.

Romaine
Split and trim a head of romaine. Slather on creamy dressing (I had Marie’s Chunky Blue Cheese in the refrigerator).

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Now, that’s Good Eatin’.