All About Food- Sometimes cooking- Always eating- (Take 4)

I suppose it is my turn to chime in on this food series primarily because I made a good bit of this meal myself. Our dinner at Mamacita (see food post # 2) posed the question: "Why not make some of these dishes ourselves at home?" What a good idea, we thought, or at least I thought it was a we. As it turned out the plan was made to make our own upscale southwestern meal on Saturday, the weekend that Max had to work. So on Friday evening the menu was developed and a grocery list was drawn up. Now it was my responsibility to shop for all of the ingredients and then get this meal started before Max got home from work. The first objective was to make the sangria so it could mellow all afternoon in the refrigerator.

Next was the ceviche. For those of you who have never had ceviche, it is a cold dish of some kind of raw fish marinated usually in a lime vinaigrette. I remember the very first time I had ceviche- it was with Don (or course)- he was on a business trip to San Diego and I tagged along. We went to this restaurant by the bay on a pier- Wow- I couldn't believe that food that sounded kind of yuck could taste so fantastic. But you don't go back to Cinti and order Ceviche- So all I had were faint memories. But now- now I'm in San Fran- and we've found two restaurants that make great ceviche- And even better- I know that Don can make this for me whenever I get an urge- and I do believe I'm going to be getting some urges! This one was tuna in a lime juice, olive oil, chiles, and garlic marinate to which was added chopped tomatoes, avocado, red onion, and cilantro. We ate it on blue corn chips. It was so good!!!

This last picture was right after Don tasted the first bit of ceviche- he was too quick or I would have gotten the trip of the chip into the mouth- But I'm rather fond of the shot I got- though Don wasn't enthusiastic about including this picture- and insisted that some sort of explanation must be included- so you have it- I rather like the action shot!

Next was a spicy mango salad. The dressing was another lime juice, olive oil, minced shallot vinaigrette. The salad was a mixture of shredded red cabbage, slices of jicama, jalapeno chiles, red onions, cubed mangos and cilantro. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to get the jicama, so while Max finished this dish, I set off to our local grocery to get the jicama.

Finally our main dish (as though we actually needed one) was sauteed shrimp tacos. Max put these together while I was shopping for the jicama. The shrimp were sauteed in with olive oil onion, japapenos, garlic, butter, and parsley. Oh my, were they wonderful.

For those of you who have spent all of your days in the midwest, most of the tacos served here are made with soft corn tortillas that you just wrap around them, pick them up and eat them.

So we just stuffed ourselves on this wonderful feast. Now we know that we can do it ourselves and make it just as good as these great restaurants.

PS: The recipes we used are from the cookbook "Dona Tomas"- written by Thomas Schnetz and Dona Savitsky- chefs who own a quite famous restaurant called- you got it- Dona Tomas. over in Oakland. We haven't been to the restaurant yet- I understand there is often a wait- but I now have the book. But I am most excited because we have been unable to find a really good Mexican Restaurant in Cinti - we've tried- But now the search is over- we'll just make it ourselves at home.
PSS: I'm still working on the fish tacos- more on that later.

All About Food- Sometimes cooking- Always eating- (Take 3)

When our good friend Linda Wise was here visiting from Ohio I fixed from scratch biscuits one morning. She rather liked them and asked if I would send the recipe- she thinks Katie- the youngest daughter who is studying theater in NYC- might like to try when she visits this summer. Well here is a stab at recreating a recipe that is still rather fluid.

But first for some background. Up until I married Don and moved to Cinti most of my baking- biscuits or pie crusts came from the refrigerator section of the grocery store.

But then Don's Mom was coming to visit over Thanksgiving- And just in case you don't know already- my mother-in-law makes the BEST pie crust in the whole world! Her pie crusts are so incredibly good if you get too full before you finish you must might scrape off the filling and just eat the crust. Well you don't serve this Mom a "store bought crust"- not when you're still trying to impress- both the husband and the mother-in-law. I'm so over that now- what they see is what they get!
Anyway- it was at that moment I ventured just a bit into the pie crust- and now the biscuit recipes. So I bought books- and read and read- and practiced. Pie crust- and biscuits- are delicate. And if you overwork they get tough- and not flaky. Meanwhile, on a trip to Oklahoma we stayed with our dear, dear friends Kathy and TH- and TH makes the BEST biscuits in the world. Well Kathy gave me the recipe- but since they demanded a day before start I only got around to baking them only once (I'm toooooooo tired at night to tackle something so difficult as biscuits- thats for sure). But I remembered.
And this long winded story gets even more longs winded (by now my kids would really be rolling their eyes- and Don glazed over- with the snore that he denies is a snore)- But in a blog you can just scroll down to the ending. Anyway I move to San Fran and decide I want to bake sour dough bread- and order the starter from Vermont (go figure that) and begin. But I can't bake bread as often as you need to use the starter so I started looking for other alternatives- pizza crusts- and then biscuits. I even took starter to Clint and Marianne's so Reeder and I could make sour dough biscuits- from scratch.
Then when I got back from San Clemente I find a very disgusting sour dough starter and I'm so over sour dough.

But maybe I could adapt- And I learned about Bigas (to the Italian's), Poolish (to the French), and the Sponge (to the English). Well I use the Bigas (a thicker substance). Anyway, a Bigas is a "starter" for bread. Now to the recipe:

BISCUITS:
1. Mix 1/2 cup of water (slightly warm) and 1 tsp of yeast in a container- I use a crock
And then when yeast is dissolved add 1 cup of flour. Mix and cover and let sit on the counter over night (or over day if you're doing biscuits in the evening). The Bigas will gurgle and puff up in a "magic" yeast way.


You don't do anything but let the Bigas (I also use a Bigas to start bread as well- a Poolish or Sponge is "wetter" than a Bigas- so you don't add as much flour as for a Bigas- Maybe I'll try that sometime).

But in the morning when you're ready for the next step you first...
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl- 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp of salt, 3 tsps of baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda.

Notice the BIG FORK- this is what I like to "cut" in the butter/shortening. It works better for me than a pastry blender or food processor- but you could use those tools if you prefer.

3. Cut in 2-3 tablespoons of butter and 2-3 tablespoons of shortening. You don't want to use all butter (the biscuits- or pie crust if that's what you're making) won't be flaky- and you do want to use some butter- because that gives the biscuits (or pie crust) the wonderful buttery taste.
Cut (some people even use their fingers) the butter/shortening in until the butter/shortening are about small pea size.
4. Cut in the Bigas- and here I did use my fingers some to break up the Bigas so it would be well mixed with the flour mixture.

5. Mix in 7/8 cup of buttermilk. The 7/8 is approximate- this is the most difficult part- if you over mix at this point the biscuits will be tough- and not flaky- so you have to be gentle- and just mix the buttermilk in so everything sticks together- if it gets too wet just sprinkle with flour.

Now I have to regress a bit. When we went to Clint and Marianne's I left my perfect size biscuit cutter- So of course I decided this particular day that we just had to have the right size- not the one that was too small or too large- so we walked down to the Marina to my favorite Hardware store and bought new biscuit cutters.

I guess this is my one chance to say something in this "cooking blog". This hardware store is one of the best I have seen. It takes the word "hardware" to a new level. They have just about anything in the way of hardware you could want. The picture below is one of the two aisles that has kitchen stuff. There are another 6 aisles with guy hardware stuff. By the way, Max didn't mention that we still had the whole set biscuit cutters except the one she wanted. So now we have two of everyone and only one of the perfect one.

6. Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter - 2-2 1/2 inch- don't twist the cutter or it will seal the edges and interfere with the "rise" of the biscuit. Set the biscuits aside and cover with kitchen towel to rise a bit (30-60 minutes). When you're ready to bake preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

By the way- the reason our biscuits have green specks is because I added chives- and also white cheddar cheese that you can't see.

But you can't just have biscuits- so to go with the biscuits we had a sausage, fried beans, and swiss chard skillet.


I found this recipe in the NYTimes- though I had to adapt a bit. First of all it was just the beans- large precooked- Swiss chard- and onions and garlic. Well I'm not sure what Don would say if I ever served JUST beans and greens- but I really didn't want to try- so we used a Cajun chicken sausage.
Don applied the heat...

I couldn't catch the picture as he turned but tossing the sausage in the skillet was impressive...
Then you take out the sausage out and add the beans to the hot skillet that still has the grease from the sausage. you "brown" the beans- you want this crispy- and then you add the onion and garlic- cook til onion is transparent- return the sausage to the skillet and then add the swiss chard till wilted.
7. Bake the biscuits for 7-10 minutes in the 450 degree oven while you're cooking "whatever".

And dinner is served!
But I had to have just one more buttered biscuit!

Yum!

All About Food- Sometimes cooking- Always eating- (Take 2)

Thursday evening was "Friday" for me since I'm off on Friday and then work the weekend. A perfect night to walk down to the Marina for dinner at an upscale (translate- more expensive), trendy (translate- noisy) Mexican (chef run) restaurant. We were the second people at Mamacita last night. If the restaurant is "trendy" we know to get there early or we won't be able to hear anything after the crowds arrives and the noise climbs and climbs and climbs.


The waitress explained that this is a "small plates meant to share" restaurant- and that we'd probably need 3-4 plates. She was cute and friendly as she explained how the menu worked- guess we looked like we needed a little more help than their usual crowd- well below 40, not almost 60!

We began with the ceviche- and it was fantastic- and we did share!



From this small plate we went to two small plates of tacos- fish and then carnitas. And they were terrific. I didn't get any pictures. If you're sharing "small plates" you want to be careful that by the time you're starting there is still something "small" left to eat. And the tacos were great. And did I mention we shared a pitcher of sangria- and I do love the sangria!

Max did look at the dessert menu and was considering it, but although the several choices all looked very good, they were just too much for Max to go ahead and commit to a full dessert. So we passed.

We felt pleasantly satisfied- not stuffed- just satisfied. So we paid the bill and began the walk up the hill. Regardless of where we eat out, the after dinner chore is to walk up a hill. When you live at the top of the hill and all the restaurants are all down the hill, you have to walk back up.

Well about a block later we (Max) weren't completely satisfied so we stumbled into a chocolate cafe... We don't have these little chocolate shops in Cincinnati, but there is one every couple of blocks in the commercial districts here in San Francisco. And these aren't little cheap chocolates. Each of these little delicacies cost about what a small box of decent chocolates costs else where.


And had just a bit of a nibble....



Now Max picked up the lady bug chocolate because it was so cute. She just couldn't bite off the head, so she started at the other end and ate forward. The smiling head was the last to go, but go it did.

As we were strolling down one of the streets I very casually mentioned- "Have you noticed how many really pretty young girls are out and about on these streets?" Well there was no reflective pause- no space to indicate he hadn't ever thought about it, but if I mentioned it he would consider the idea- no- there was no pause- as he explained- "'WELL, YEAH!". I did gently, timidly suggest that he had been just a bit too quick with his response- and then he went on that asking him if he'd noticed the pretty girls in San Fran was rather like asking his if he'd noticed the redwoods when we walk through Muir Woods. Good thing I feel secure in this relationship- what with all these pretty girls about- though I'm not sure that they're noticing my "metrosexual" all man- who maybe needs to trim the eyebrows just a little bit -husband!

And by now "we" were just pretty "finished" for this night on the town- so we caught the bus to the top of the hill! Well, not exactly to the top of the hill, but rather a little ways up the hill. As I said before we are at the top and none of the buses actually go up that high. So regardless of what we eat, we always get some cardiovascular exercise climbing up a couple of pretty good hills before we get home. But I have to say that riding this bus up part of the way is always a gift.

All About Food- Sometimes cooking- Always eating- (Take 1)

I spend hours (broken into very short bursts of minutes) pouring over cooking magazines. Now I've always liked to read cookbooks- particularly the "chatty" ones that talk about the food as well as list ingredients and give instructions. And of course my favorite paper of the week is the NYTimes Wednesday edition with the "Dining In/Dining Out" section. And here in San Francisco I've read even more cooking magazines than ever. Probably potentiated by the fact that there are scores of them always at the grocery checkout (I bought 2 more today) and little bursts of time is all the extra time I have- perfect to flip through a magazine about food.

Now I must admit- I do a lot more reading about food than I do actually cooking food- and gratefully much more than actually eating food- But I do cook from time to time, for Don, to keep him from complaining. Complaining about always eating out- about all of the myriad of kitchen equipment- about all the cookbooks we own.

Max is a collector of cook books and kitchen stuff. She just knew that she wouldn't need her mixer here, so we left it in Cincinnati. It turns out we didn't really need it, but we apparently did need a new bigger one. And we didn't need some of our pots from Cincinnati, but we did need some new rather expensive ones once we got here. How many of you have a red tajine pot or even know what one looks like? We have one and have used it once now.

But I do have to admit that we have had some wonderful meals that came from all of the recipes from the magazines. And I suppose Max couldn't have made some it without the proper equipment. She did use the tagine pot to make a chicken tajine dish once, and it was very good.
And for what ever reason, Max has gotten really involved with breads. But I suspect she will focus on that in a future blog because she has really gotten good at it. There have been a few minor failures, but the successes far out number the failures.

So on a Friday night after a lazy day off we cooked- from scratch- using as many of our tools as we could fit into one meal.

But first the beginning. We are committed enthusiasts for the "eating locally"- that is as long as what we have a yen for is "local". But we were in luck on this day-

We started with the Rosemary...

Don harvested rosemary from a neighbor's shrub- pretty smart huh? And we're not in farm country at all- but in the middle of some of the priciest real estate in San Fran.

It is really amazing to look at the plant life that grows here in San Francisco. These are all just rosemary plants, but here in San Francisco they grow year around and become large bushes and hanging plants. They are just everywhere. There are lots of other small bedding plants that we grow in the Midwest that turn into major landscape plants here in the bay area, but further talk about that is the subject of a future blog.

Because of course we were going to have homemade bread- homemade rosemary bread. But this was to be artisan bread (more about that on a later blog-maybe- but suffice it to say it required the purchase of MORE EQUIPMENT).


To make this bread we used my new larger size KitchenAid counter top mixer (thanks Am for finding a use in Chicago for my old KitchenAid counter top mixer that I was absolutely sure I wouldn't need in San Fran- because after all, I didn't plan on cooking that much!) And then the bread machine for the rise- and then my new heavy dutch oven to create just the right oven conditions for Artisan bread- in order to get the hard crust and soft inside of Italian bread.


And of course there is homemade pasta- also using the KitchenAid counter top mixer- with the pasta attachments- my oh my!


And then Don harvests the Basil from the plant by the bedroom window...


For the tomato, mozzarella ball salad (the olive oil and balsamic vinegar were local- from the Farmer's Market downtown)-

Max is used to my herb garden that we always planted in Cincinnati. It supplied all the basil, mint, chives, thyme, and sage that we needed. Here all we have a a few south windows, so I was encouraged to plant some pots of herbs. All we really have is mint and basil, but as you can see from above, we have plenty of rosemary available.

And then Bay scallops and peas - the peas are from not sure where but I bought them in the freezer section of the local store- for the pasta...


And finally it is DINNER!


Perfect Day! Perfect Meal!

Go Fly a Kite

In our 7 months of living in San Francisco, one of the real constants that we have found is that every day sometime around 2:00 in the afternoon the wind will start blowing in off of the Pacific. If you happen to be near the bay in the Marina District or at Fisherman's Wharf, the wind is quite obvious and sometimes down right cold, even in the summer. Given the consistency of this daily occurrence, it creates an ideal time to fly a kite. And since the Marina has an open area with no trees that is about the size of about 6 football fields, it becomes a great place to fly a kite. So with an ideal time and a great place, how could we not go fly our own kite?

I was supposed to find a kite that I wanted and order it on line. Unfortunately, I just never got around to it. I was getting down right naggy about the kite. When I first thought of it I was just thinking it would be a fun outing when Reeder comes to visit (I love planning outings for grandchildren that are only a thin excuse for doing something I want to do- but wouldn't because I'm "not a kid anymore"), but the more I thought about the kite the more excited I became- so I'd bring it up- and bring it up- and bring it up. But somehow I couldn't get a fire lit under Don's butt to actually order the kite! So Max planned our Saturday to include a drive in the Smart Car (so we could find a place to park) down to Chinatown where there is a kite store.



Max had already staked it out during one of her trips to Chinatown to visit one of her patients. I am absolutely all over this city visiting patients. So I couldn't help just "driving by" the kite store. So by now I was so obsessed (Marianne thinks Clint "inherited" this "determination" from me- Clint is now "obsessed" or "determined" to watch a ballgame in every ball park in the country- a much harder task than lighting a fire under Don to buy a kite- Clint is just more ambitious than me.)

This place was packed with kites. They were hanging from the ceiling, stacked on shelves and covering the walls.


I didn't want a trick kite, the kind with several strings that you can make fly in figure 8's. But then again, I also didn't want the old diamond shaped kite that we used to make out of newspaper when I was young. So I picked out a colorful butterfly kite and 500 feet of string on a winder. These new kites are made out of light weight ripstop nylon with flexible plastic rods to provide the vertical and horizontal supports. They are so much better than the thin balsa wood cross with paper stapled to it that we used to use. I cared not a bit which kite we got- though I do love the butterfly- I just wanted a kite- And this was definitely the place to buy a kite!

We were late getting down to the Marina and didn't arrive there until about 4:30. The wind was moving at a pretty stiff clip by then and there were at least 12 other kites already in the air. But this is a big grassy area and has plenty of room for kite flying.

At first I didn't have it put together right and the wind just blew it to the ground. Once I figured it out and had the rods in the right place, it almost flew by itself.

So Max and I spent nearly an hour flying this kite against an absolutely clear blue sky.



I had sooooooooo much fun! I think the last time I even tried to fly a kite was probably with Clint and Brandy in Norman- I can't remember now if there was enough wind to catch the kite in the sky. But our butterfly floated in the clear blue sky above us on this lazy Sunday afternoon. I had thought we might fly the kite for 15 or so minutes- I think we stared up into the beautiful sky and our kite for close to 60!


Who would have thought that flying a kite could still be so much fun. The answer is Max, the person who planned and executed this whole afternoon.

Cincinnati Reds in SF

The Reds only came to SF once this season and it was last week. So of course Max and I got our tickets to go on Saturday night. Now the Reds haven't had a stellar season thus far this year. In fact, I believe they had lost 12 of their last 15 games before this one including two loses to SF. This was the third game of the 4 game series. We took the bus down to the Embarcadero and walked the two miles to AT&T park. This is a really nice baseball park. Imagine the new Cincinnati Reds Great American Park, except as a backdrop you have the San Francisco Bay instead of the Ohio River. It is a little different.
I love going to ball games- it always screams the coming of summer- and such a lazy way to spend an evening- it's not much work- and baseball fans don't do that up and down and up and down and up and down of some other spectator events- just sit and soak up the evening mood. I do love THE GREAT AMERICAN PARK in Cinti- always welcoming- and when you don't want to watch the game you can watch the river go by. And the ball park here is so like the Cinti park- just bigger- And of course I must admit watching the boats here in the Bay is quite an experience.

We had great seats, up a little high, but right behind home plate. I did see another person quite a ways away from us with a reds hat on, but other than that, it was a sea (or a bay) of the SF Giants orange and black. Max and I wore our red shirts and we each had on a Reds baseball hat.

Max and I do enjoy going to a baseball game, but it's not just the game that we enjoy. What can be better than also enjoying a Giant hot dog with sauerkraut and mustard. We each had one and just called it dinner.

It is usually our habit that Max always does the hot dog buying at the ball game, which is something that I don't mind a bit. But she also knows that mustard has a great affinity for parts of my body other than my mouth. Consequently, I think she sometimes tries to see how much mustard she can get onto a hot dog and then how much of it gets transferred to my nose, my chin, and my clothes. As you can see from the above picture and the one below, taking a bite out of this dog covered with mustard can include some occasional misplacement of the yellow stuff. At least I had lots of napkins to get it off of my nose before she took another picture.

Watching Don eat a "dog" covered in mustard and sauerkraut is so much fun- and he always get mustard on something- this night it was all over his blue jeans. And I wasn't quick enough to get the picture with mustard on his nose- and he did look just a bit cranky when I scrambled for the camera rather than the napkins!

This game was certainly the one we wanted to see. By the 7th inning, the Reds were ahead 10-5 and the SF fans started leaving. We were lucky we were sitting among very good natured Giants fans- they didn't scowl when we cheered for the Reds- though we did clap when the Giants did something right- which wasn't too often actually. They did get a bit testy when the refs called all our runners safe (couldn't tell from our seats) but we tried to stay a bit quiet at these moments. We of course stayed until the end, and the end was more exciting than the rest of the game. In the bottom of the 9th, the Giants scored 4 runs to make the score 10-9. They had one man on base with two outs and the winning run at the plate, but Cincinnati's closer did just that and struck out the last batter to give Cincinnati the win.

We left the game and caught the trolley back to the Embarcadero and then the bus back to our neighborhood. The trolley was packed with Giants fans, but we proudly wore our Reds hats. I had to hold Don back- he was so proud that he rather wanted to rather gloat (that is so Don)- I was afraid for a minute that at this point in the evening these Giants fans might get a little surly- I will say they didn't look the least bit happy that's for sure. It was a great game and great fun. We may actually go to another Giants game just because it was lots of fun.

PS: Look closely in the last picture- and you'll see our reflection in the glass! What a great time we had.

"Next Year in Cincinnati"

Each year for the last oh so many years we have celebrated Passover with our wonderful friends, Fouad and Mary Ezra. But this year we aren't in Cincinnati for the celebration- we're far, far away from home. I rather thought I might ignore the whole event- nothing seems very real here in San Fran- as if the calender of the year is a bit off kilter (no falling leaves, no snow, no teasing of a spring that waits so very long to finally arrive)- so it's easier here to move from one day to another without so much a thought to season, to rhythm.

But then somehow the time just couldn't be ignored- and finally I decided that we would do a "symbol" of Passover- just to mark the day- and remember.

Further, our friend Linda Wise was here visiting us. Linda always comes to our house for Thanksgiving (at least when we are in Cincinnati). But this year she joined us for a short vacation visit to San Francisco and thus also for Passover.

I decided to cook Matzo Ball soup and Charoses (a mixture of apples, nuts and wine and cinnamon- a reminder of the mortar used by the Jews in the construction of buildings as slaves in Egypt). And of course you have to have Matzo crackers for the Charoses and horseradish.
BUT THERE WERE NO MATZO CRACKERS IN THE WHOLE OF SAN FRANCISCO! Honest- the story even got reported in the New York Times- Now this is big news- Passover in the San Fran- and no Matzo crackers- I couldn't decide from the article if the blame is on the manufacturers back east- or Costco or Trader Joe- But somebody has to be the fall guy in this travesty. So Passover went on without Matzo crackers in the homes (except those willing to drive literally hours away)- But there was the soup.

Max did buy some Matzo flour, something just made for making Matzo balls. So we mixed up the dough and then made the Matzo balls to cook in the soup. Now no one told us that Matzo balls swell up when you cook them, so we made Matzo balls that were about the right size for us to eat. Once cooked in the soup, these Matzo balls turned into Matzo giant balls, more the size of a large eggs. Consequently, we had plenty of Matzo balls in the soup.

But first things first- The surprise was the call from Fouad and Mary from Cincinnati-
So we toasted the day together...

And there was Matzo Ball Soup and Charoses and wine and eggs and bitter herbs....


The ceremony always ends with "Next year in Jerusalem"- that plaintive from the heart for one's homeland. For us we ended with the toast "Next year in Cincinnati!"


Shalom!

PS: Today (4-28-08) we got the most absolutely wonderful surprise when we returned from dinner. Mary sent us Passover cookies- not the bland Manichevitz macaroons that still haven't been eaten- but the real deal.



So we're going to divide them into two containers to make absolutely sure that Don doesn't get more than his share (he actually had eaten one before I had time to remove my jacket!)