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This one will be short and sweet – food postings to resume shortly 
23 years ago, he was born and I got the best baby brother in the world. Of course, I always liked to say that you were sent from heaven because they wanted it quiet up there. It must have been too quiet for them.
7 years ago, they tried to bring America to its knees. Instead, America came together and showed the rest of the world what it means to be an American.
Quietly on that day, he mentioned to me that he’d never be able to celebrate his birthday properly out of respect for those who lost their lives on this day. Not a selfish comment, just more of an observation.
6 years ago and every year since, I’m remembering those words of his. Today, I think of those who suffered and their families. But for me, I’ll be just a little bit selfish and mostly, I’ll remember you and wish you a very Happy Birthday.
Happy Birthday, little bro. <3
There are a handful of foods that I’ve always avoided not because I have bad childhood memories of them myself, but instead based on stories of friends’ childhood memories. Beets, brussel sprouts, lima beans…foods that I didn’t really eat (or was forced to eat) growing up, but that many people remember as being the foods that forced them to sit at the dinner table until they cleared their plate. I’m really thankful that my parents never really pushed us into eating foods that we didn’t care for, other than the obilgatory “just try a little” bite.
Recently, I seem to have lost a lot of my motivation and desire to cook, so instead, I’ve been resorting to sad, yet delicious, acts such as eating a wedge of Humboldt Fog or Brillat Savarin with a little fruit for dinner while working on whittling down the list of “to try” restaurants in the Bay Area. But then came the swift kick in the pants when I attended a dinner by a friend’s boss. Inadequate, jealous, awe-struck could all be words used to describe that night. Walking in, I first noticed the hanging pots. This wasn’t a pretty, shiny set of All-Clad, but instead some serious cookware whose wear and tear spoke volumes about the number of delicious meals they had been used to cook. I turned around in the small kitchen to see the counter covered in containers holding dozens of wooden spoons and spatulas, whisks, and ladles. The stove looked to be straight out of a restaurant kitchen; I was a little intimated even looking it up and down. Then, we were ushered outside. First, I saw the smoker – one that you would use if you regularly competed in bbq cookoffs. To it’s right, was an oversized large bowl (big enough that you could have used it to sled) filled with, literally, a campfire…to make his own charcol, of course. As I covered my wine glass to avoid the random pieces of ash from the wood, I saw a monstrocity of a grill, although the word grill couldn’t be more of an understatement. And the deep fryer – an industrial size, two basket deep fryer that stood about waist tall and looked something like this. Oh, and I didn’t even mention the meat slicer, french fry maker, meat heat lamps, or wine storage. Then…there was the meal. Double fried potato wedges, broccoli soup, a beet and cranberry appetizer (that motivated the recipe later described), shrimp skewers, veal chops, filet mignon, zucchini, mushrooms and poutine, all from scratch of course. I think I had to nearly be carted out of their dining room.
Did I mention I’m competitive? Having had such an amazing meal, it made me start thinking….I want to have dinner parties that people pathetically blog about later! Or, that dish was great…but could I, and how would I, make it even better? Oddly enough, having beets and cranberry beans on hand from my Mystery Box, I set out to cook. My cooking mojo was returning.
So, beets stain. Badly. I knew this before cooking this dish, but previously, I might have learned this the hard way. Hands, clothes, cutting boards…you name it, they stain it. So, a couple of hints if you are preparing beets for the first time –
1. Use gloves
2. Wash cutting boards/counter tops/dishes immediately after using
3. Roast beets whole. Leave a few inches of the greens before you cut. Scrub them a little in the sink to remove any dirt. The skin peels right off after they are roasted (again, gloves advised).
The original dish was much more beet focused, consisting of cooked beets, raw shaved beets, a tad bit of lemon, and homemade vinegar marinated cranberry beans and onions. Keeping the dish relatively simple to avoid over-powering the beet and cranberry flavors, I started with the beets and beans, adding a few of my favorite flavors – goat cheese and nuts (in this case, pistachios).
Cranberry Bean and Beet Salad
I haven’t listed measurements below because this really can be (and should be) done to your own personal taste. I had some fun making it look pretty, but I think you could easily chop the beets into bite-size salad pieces instead of slices and make this more of a tossed salad to serves many people, family style. Also, you could try some shredded raw beets on top for a play with texture like I originally ate. For a more substantial meal, put this mix of ingredients on top a bed of spinach or arugula.
Beets
Cranberry beans
Pistachios, crushed
Goat cheese, crumbled
Fleur de sel
Freshly ground pepper
Good quality olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 400. Leaving a few inches on the beet, cut the beet greens off. You can save these for sauteeing later. Scrub beets and place on a foil covered baking tray. Coat lightly in olive oil. Cover in foil and place in heated oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until easily pierced with knife.
2. Meanwhile, shell cranberry beans. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook beans for approximately 15 minutes or until tender. Drain.
3. When beets are tender, remove skins and slice thinly.
4. Lay out beets on plate. Place cranberry beans in center. Sprinkle crushed pistachios and goat cheese. Drizzle olive oil and top with salt and pepper.
Link love: Other beet dishes
Arugula salad with beets and goat cheese from Simply Recipes
Roasted beet salad from Serious Eats
Carmelized beets with garlic from Farmgirl Fare
Roasted beet and blood orange salad from 101 Cookbooks
Disclaimer: My favoritest blogs are ones that I feel like I have a friend on the other side of the Internet in addition to all of their pretty food pictures, stories and recipes. These are the ones that keep me coming back time and time again as I wonder how people are doing, even though I’ve clearly never met or spoken to most. While I do still prefer to keep this blog semi-anonymous for practical reasons and I have occassionally written a non-food post, I was recently inspired by a recent posting from one of my favorite bloggers to share something a little more than food adventures. If you are here just for the food, please forgive my intrusion and skip today’s post. I’ll have a recipe for you shortly Otherwise, I’d like to share a very important part of my life in the words forthcoming and part of my motivation for cooking.
It’s September. It’s the start of fall (proof offered by the arrival of pumpkin loaf and lattes in Starbucks today) and the beginning of the gorgeous months in San Francisco. For many, it’s the start of school. And for me, while I clearly not starting a new school year, it marks a very important day of the year.
Six years ago on the first day of the new school year, my brother was killed in a car accident. I remember that day like it was yesterday, but it’s been a long, empty six years without my best friend. I miss him like none other.
By no means do I want to use this to recount all of the memories of my brother; there are entirely too many and I think I already have plans to share some of the best in a later post. Sure, there are the fights over who got the bigger or better < insert childhood toy or food here > and finger pointing to say “I didn’t do it; he/she did!” But what childhood would be complete without those? I remember always thinking I couldn’t imagine having a best friend as part of the family. I felt pretty darn lucky.
The summer between my freshman year and sophomore year of college was our last summer together. At the time, my family had relocated to a different part of the country from where I grew up, so I knew few people. That summer was devoted to knocking a couple of courses out at the local college, spending time with my brother, and my first forays into cooking.
He was a fantastic swimmer, a true delight to watch, and when he wasn’t eating, sleeping, or geeking out, he was in the pool that summer. While he’s no Michael Phelps and certainly didn’t consume 12,000 calories a day, he WAS a growing boy and those numerous swim practices a day certainly worked up an appetite. His willingness to eat just about anything put before him and his trademark smile and appreciation when it was something new and delicious motivated me to experiment in the kitchen and really learn how to cook. It diminished the feeling of failure when something doesn’t turn out that great that I still had someone willing to fork down the food; it must not have been that bad after all! I can’t imagine how different things would be without that jump start into cooking.
One of the last memories I have of my brother was a meal, just the two of us, of Pho. He even paid. So today, I had pho for lunch and the smell brought a small smile to my face when I reminisce about our last dinner. Perhaps, I’ll one day learn to make my own pho in his memory.
I’ve mentioned it before, and it really hasn’t changed. I apparently like self inflicted stress because we found ourselves in a time crunch yet again before dinner on Day 2 of our NYC trip. Thanks to extra innings to an already long game, we nervously kept peeking at our watches wondering if we’d have to risk losing our reservation at Eleven Madison Park to see the outcome of the game. While I’d rather the A’s have pulled off a win, the Yankees sent us running towards the subway just barely in time for our dinner at Eleven Madison Park. Eleven Madison Park is one of many fantastic restaurants that along with Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Tabla, Shake Shack, etc., etc. make up the Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. In 2006, along came Daniel Humm (I really didn’t PLAN on going to former Bay Area chef run restaurants), previously of Campton Place in San Francisco’s Union Square. While I hadn’t been to the restaurant prior to Humm’s arrival, from the many articles I’ve read, he’s really taken the restaurant to another level.
After being seated, we were handed our menus, which AB didn’t even open. He looked at me and asked if he even had a choice in ordering, a well made point since the Gourmand tasting menu had to be selected by the entire table. It’s nice to dine with people that know you well.
Before we even had waters or drinks on the table, the waiter presented a long oval plate of Hors d’oeuvres. Both of us eyed the plate as it was placed on the table and were delighted to find that there were two of each so we wouldn’t have to fight over them. I would have won anyway. Nothing comes between me and food. Especially good little morsels like these:
 Sadly, I can’t remeber exactly what was in each. My best guess, clockwise on the bottom: rabbit; tuna; asparagus and fois gras on cracker; parmesan, tomato and basil with cracker.
And then the fun continued…
 These savory types of ice cream always make me a bit nervous. I ADORE ice cream, actually obsess over it, and baked potato ice cream just doesn’t do it for me like mint chocolate chip does. But this dish was great. The little crispy potato crisp with the creamy ice cream, sour cream and chive tasted like one of the best baked potatos I’ve had. And royal sterling caviar…I would eat this out of the little jar with a spoon if I could afford it, so paired well only makes it that much better. Great start to the dinner…
 Part of the reason I love my Mystery Thursdays from Mariquita Farms is because it makes me try, and often times makes me loves, new foods. I’ve mentioned before that I’m on a quest to remove all my food dislikes and beets were a newly removed item, thanks to some freshy fresh beets from the farm. Even if you don’t like beets, you’d like these beets (the yellow, pink and dark purple squares). Then the little beet gelee placed on top of a goat cheese panna cotta. Cheese and beets can’t be beat. Oh, the cheese(ness)…
 A friend of my complained about a recent fine dining experience where he felt that the dish was just “vegetables thrown on a plate.” While this dish was certainly not “vegetables just thrown on a plate,” the tomatoes were so amazing, I would have been equally pleased with “tomatoes just thrown on a plate.” While the tomatoes may have outshadowed the tuna on this dish, the basil gelee really tied it all together and made us go “wow.” Gelees seem to be so hit or miss, but when it hits, the intense flavors sure do make mouth happy. I wish I could make this.
  The one “eh” dish of the night was this three part fois gras course. I love fois gras as much as the next person and the cherry+fois gras combination is something like Remy’s mushroom revelation in Ratatouille. My favorite part of the dish was the cherry in the first picture was stuffed with a delicious fois gras mixture. But, the cherry mousse with a fois gras liquid in the bottom and cherry brioche left me wishing they left these two out of the dish. The texture reminded me of toothpaste foam and the brioche was dry and almost flavorless. Perhaps the let down though made the next dish all the better.
 You really can’t go wrong with bacon. Or corn. Or lobster. So throw all three together, and I’m one happy happy girl. I loved this dish if you can’t tell. I don’t even have words. Just enjoy the picture.
 Speaking of pictures, this is the one picture I really screwed up. This was my absolute favorite dish of the night and one of their signature dishes according to the waiter. On the right, the most delicious slow cooked piece of skinless turbot. On top, what looks like scales is actually little pieces of zucchini. A marvelous saffron sauce (although the fish didn’t really need it in my opinon, but it added a nice dimension) and then…the zucchini blossom.
Cut open the zucchini blossom and see what happens!
I forgot to get a picture of the finely minced ratatouille contained in the zucchini blossom, thus the link above. Perfectly executed. I’d eat this daily.
 This is the dish for my dad. The pork had a perfectly crispy top with juicy pork beneath. I noticed a lot of people that ordered off the regular menu had ordered the bigger version of this dish, so I suppose it must be popular. The onion was amazing…I know, an onion? Talk about intense flavors.
 Again, I think the accompainments to this dish outshined the main attraction. While the lamb was perfectly cooked, the fried sweetbreads and the creamy eggplant and cumin sauces would have been enough to satisfy my palette.
 There might be one thing that beats my love of ice cream and it’s cheese. Having missed out on the cheese cart at Gary Danko, I can’t make a comparison, but we enjoyed our cheese selection that night.
 Oh no, we were getting close to the end of our meal. Can’t we extend this a bit? This was a relatively simple dessert dish, but a nice refreshing begining to the end of the meal.
 I’m always hesitant to mention bananas when they ask about dietary restrictions. No, I’m technically not allergic to them, but they will cause me to lose my entire meal at the table if I eat them. I dislike them THAT much, despite how much I want to like them. Thankfully I brought them up (though almost ducked under the table as I said it out of sheer embaressment) since this dessert featured bananas. So I can’t tell you how this dish is, other than I wanted to eat the caramelized sugar off the banana.
 Instead, they gave me caramel ice cream! You couldn’t have done a better job of substituting dessert…ice cream and caramel as you know are at the top of my love affair list. And no, I wasn’t just being overly sentimental in my description because AB kept sneaking bites of my dessert.
 We were stuffed. And then they brought these out…again, with one each so we didn’t have to argue. I wish we had thought to take these home because we were stuffed. But, even in our stuffedness, these were delicious tasty snacks to end our meal.
Overall, I’d easily go back and do another tasting menu during a different part of the year (for variety). The service was pretty unpretentious, although there were a few awkward “why are you standing there” moments. On the other hand, once the sunlight had faded and the darkness made it impossible to get good photographs, the waiter did facilitate my trigger happy finger by shining his little flashlight on the food to get the cool lighting effect that you see in the second half of the post. And any decent restaurant that will do little things that make my dining experience complete like that certainly wins my affection.
Link Love – Read about other visits to Eleven Madison Park.
The Amateur Gourmet
Hungry Hedonist
 Day 2, Brunch – Again, we found ourselves waiting patiently outdoors for the restaurant to open. And by patiently waited outdoors, I mean, we eagerly, yet awkwardly, opened the unlocked door to stumble in on the wait staff’s pre-service meetings, got shot looks like we had just walked in on someone in the restroom and then feeblishly waited outdoors until a hostess came to inform us that they were now open. What can I say? I had read online that the place gets packed, we were attempting to make it to the ballpark in time for the first pitch, and skipping the restaurant all together was not an option. So please, Spotted Pig, forgive us for our over-eagerness and only take it as a compliment.
Chef April Bloomfield (Chez Panisee alum – go Bay Area!) has been on Iron Chef America and The Spotted Pig has been featured on Rachael Ray and Anthony Bourdain’s shows, so when there wasn’t a line of people behind us, it frankly surprised me and made me wonder, “Is this the right restaurant?” Perhaps people were still recovering from Friday night antics though, since about 20 minutes into our meal, the place really began to fill up. Not to mention, it’s probably more of a dinner/late night snack scene with chefs and other food industry personnel dining after their shifts.
The restaurant serves seasonal British and Italian fare, using local ingredients when possible. We found ourselves in a cozy pub atmosphere that I could feel myself being a regular at (Picture above is of the first floor only since I forgot to check out the upstairs) and the wait staff was relatively attentive and friendly. Being the first meal of the day, we decided to forgo the menu items that I’d heard so much about (gnudi and burger) and instead ordered more typical brunch fare.
 Ricotta and Lemon Pancakes with Maple Syrup ($16)
These actually beat my previously favorite pumpkin pie pancakes from The Griddle. They had a nice little crispiness on the outside with a light and fluffy inside from the ricotta. Blueberries and lemon always taste delicious together and the sprinkling of almonds added that extra touch. Portion-wise, when I first saw the pancakes, I worried about not having enough to eat. By the time I was licking my plate, my tummy was just right.
 Cubano Sandwich with Arugula Salad ($15)
Research had turned up a lot on this little sandwich, so we decided it was worth the extra 15 minutes of preparation – and worth the wait it was, although it was certainly fun to make fun of Mr. A for his sandwich being the reason why we didn’t yet have our food.
I don’t think my review of the sandwich quite does it justice, so I’m turning to the help of Serious Eats here, who declares the Cubano at The Spotted Pig one of the best. “Chef-partner April Bloomfield uses heritage pork shoulder to sublime effect by brining it for three days, slow-roasting it, and then cooking it in duck and pork fat; the pickled jalapeno peppers add just the right amount of heat; Prosciutto de Parma or speck (smoked prosciutto) is a better quality ham than you will find in any other Cubano around the city; and the aged gruyere lends the whole thing a deeply funky flavor.” We found the bread to be perfectly fresh, a little crunch and a little chewy. The meat had fantastic deep flavors and the pickles really added the perfect little spice kick. Oh, and the cheese. But then again, good cheese on just about anything makes me a little weak in the knees. Overall, though delicious, it was a tad on the salty side for us (another reason to order the pancakes to balance out that salt with sweet!).
Speaking of cheese, here lies our biggest qualm with our visit – our initial waitress didn’t mention the specials! When we later overheard the other waitress mention a special including a glorious sounding grilled cheese, we were both quite disappointed…although we did end up order a grilled cheese to go that sure does beat any ball park food!
Next time I’m in NYC, I’ll be sure to check out the late night dining scene here. Meanwhile, if you’re in NYC, I’d recommend giving this place a try.
The Spotted Pig
314 W. 11th Street
@ Greenwich St.
New York, NY 10014
Tel: (212) 620-0393
 Chicken skin, gizzard, chicken bones – these are usually parts of the chicken that I’d toss into the trash. Yet, our first meal in NYC found us at Yakitori Totto, contemplating between ordering these very items.
With a 7pm first pitch looming over our heads, we arrived at Yakitori Totto a good 15 minutes before it opened at 5:30. Surprisingly, we weren’t the only ones with 3 or 4 other parties lining up behind us. Promptly at 5:30, the hostess came down to flip the “Closed” sign to “Open” and usher the growing crowd up the dark stairs and into the second story restaurant. Without any reservations, we were seated quickly at the bar and watched as the restaurant quickly filled up within the first ten minutes of opening.
Yakitori is a type of Japanese street food – “grilled” chicken, to be specific. Thanks to Yelp, I picked this restaurant as something relatively nearby the hotel, on the way to the ball park, and something different than the rest of the itinerary. At Yakitori Totto food is elevated beyond it’s usual street status (although they do serve every imaginable part of the chicken), with menu offerings such as prawns, kobe beef, asparagus, etc. Service was quick, yet friendly, allowing us to walk out the door in less than an hour.
While I’ll be the first to admit that we could have been more adventurous in our menu selections, we had a pretty decent sampling of the extensive menu:
Gyoza
Enoki bacon – enoki mushroom wrapped in a slice of bacon
Satsuma Age – homemade fried fish cakes mixed with vegetables
Kawa – chicken skin
Shitake – japanese shitake mushroom with salt and pepper
Harami – skirt steak
Hokuhoku – grilled garlic
Kuro Buta Negi Pon – organic pork with scallion and ponzu (our favorite)
Reba – chicken liver
Overall, taking the food, price, and (speedy) service, this was one of our favorite meals of the trip. I’d definitely recommend stopping by to mix things up as long as you get there pre-opening or have a reservation.
Up Next: The Spotted Pig
Yakitori Totto
251 West 55th Street
212-245-4555
Link Love:
In New York’s Best Cheap Eats
Ruhlman declares it the best chicken ever.
I’m back from NYC with my pockets lighter and my tummy quite a bit heavier.
With consulting, I’ve done a fair share of regular traveling. Fly out Monday, fly back Thursday or Friday for the weekend. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. And lucky for me, I’ve maybe been delayed three or four times in the three years I’ve been consulting. So of course luck has it that when I’m finally traveling for pleasure, we get delayed. Every single flight. Three flights in four days delayed.
But enough complaining, because really, the trip was wonderful and I really couldn’t have asked for more. Despite the plane delay, we managed to still make it to Yankee Stadium in time to buy stadium tour tickets. We had created a pretty tight schedule between baseball games, meals all around town and Avenue Q – plus, we hadn’t factored in our need to constantly trek back to the hotel to refresh in between events since I’ve managed to lose all immunity to hot, humid weather after living in California for several years, and gosh darn, it’s hot and humid in NYC! I fully expected something to go awry, yet somehow, everything fell into place. I’ll admit, when Game 2 went into extra innings, I was eyeing the clock nervously as my 7:30 reservation at Eleven Madison Park approached and was preparing my “food is more important than extra innings of baseball” argument in my head. Luckily, I didn’t need it. Unluckily, the A’s lost.
On the baseball side, we managed to score amazing tickets at the last minute to all the games AND I caught a ball! Most importantly, of course, we made it to all the restaurants on the plan and had enjoyable meals at each and every one.
Because several people have asked about my thoughts on the restaurants we visited and to avoid putting you to sleep with an extra long post, I’ll spend the next week or so reliving the trip, posting each restaurant separately with pictures, food descriptions, etc.
In less than two days, I will board a plane headed to the Big Apple for 3.5 days of no work, baseball watching, and most importantly, FOOD. I have a little agreement with my Atheletic’s fan traveling companion that I’ll pick up the food tab in exchange for him picking up the baseball. Now, if you didn’t know me, you might think he’s getting the short end of the deal. After all, Subway three times a day can’t add up to THAT much, can it?
If I could stomach that much food monotony, no doubt that ChuThis would never have been created. Three days is hardly enough time to even scratch the surface of all the restaurants and food related places I want to visit. My list of places to try in NYC that I’ve collected over the years is so overwhelming that it’s been agonizing to eliminate them one by one to determine our eating itinerary (although the difficulty of getting a reservation at some of these places certainly trimmed the list down quickly). Yes, this trip revolves around food (and baseball).
I must admit that I’m a little hesitant to post my dining choices for the whole blogosphere to critique and comment on since I’m sure everyone has their favorites and not-so-favorites and I’m bound to hit some disagreement, but why else have a food blog?
A couple disclaimers before getting to the list – 1. Many of my top choices were almost impossible to get reservations (i.e. Per Se, Babbo, etc.) 2. 7pm and 1pm baseball games eliminate several meals
So, without further babbling, I’ll be dining at…
Friday dinner – Yakitori Totto
Saturday brunch – The Spotted Pig
Saturday dinner – Eleven Madison Park
Sunday brunch – Prune
Sunday dinner – Union Square Cafe
Monday lunch – Hop Kee (My parents went on a date here many, many years ago. How can I not drop by?)
Here’s your opportunity to chime in! What are your favorite go-to restaurants in NYC? If you haven’t been to NYC, where have you always wanted to go?
10 people + 6 wineries + 2 cabins + 1 Mystery Box + 1 watermelon + Lots of wine = Russian River 2008
For the past two years, I’ve managed to miss out on my friends’ annual visit to a friend’s cabin that his grandfather built on the Russian River. Luckily, this year, I managed to free up the weekend for a fabulous weekend of good food, wine and company, which left me wishing I made the trip in previous years.
This third annual event lived up to all the good stories I’d heard, though I missed the Friday night festivities (which were QUITE the festivities judging by the still sleeping people when we arrived at 10am ready to go wine tasting) for a dinner at Range with some friends. Saturday morning consisted of a quick nap on the front patio to make up for the early start, followed by visits to Rochioli (warmup stop), Ridge (my personal favorite that did the worst damage to the wallet) and Papapietro Perry (loved the 777). Slight starving, we made a quick detour to Hamburger Ranch and Pasta Farm. One of the group asked the clueless server if they served “free range” pasta, since they are a Pasta Farm – I think the humor was lost on her. For a place that touts the best burgers, I was lefting wanting more…and more they gave us when they encouraged us to taste the freshly made ribs on the way out. Now stuffed and food comatose, we randomly selected Stonestreet (one of the prettiest wineries, but definitely the stuffiest attitude) Alexander Valley Vineyards (for the prices, I REALLY wanted to like the wines) and Stryker (we stopped here just because I liked the name) to round out the afternoon.
Back at the cabin, many napped while others relived their childhood’s playing a couple vicious games of go-fish. Meanwhile, I plotted away how to use the Mystery Box from Thursday to supplement the massive amounts of steaks we had for supper. Oh yes, it was yet another Mystery Thursday and here’s our newest box:
Greek Basil. Fennel. Potatoes. Torpedo Onions. Frisee. Portuguese Kale. Cilantro. Baby Carrots. French Breakfast Radishes. Chantenay Carrots. Scallions. Baby Spinach. Chioggia Beets.
Not to mention the 15 pounds of avocados and 10 bunches of basil that we separately pre-ordered…
Dinner that night was scrumptious, thanks to many helping hands!
Baby Spinach salad with roasted chioggia beets, sauteed onions, prosciutto, and grilled peaches
Roasted chantenay carrots and rosemary garlic potatoes
Grilled steaks
S’mores
Oh, and what’s the watermelon for, you ask? I suppose you’ll have to come along to find out…
The housewarming party has come and gone, and I suppose I’m now officially moved in. Thanks everyone who came (or sent their best wishes) and for letting me pretend to be a chef for a day!
I had this perfect plan to start party prep a week in advance, but plans are meant to be broken, right? When Saturday arrived and I still hadn’t bought everything I needed, you’d think a reasonable person would lock themselves in the kitchen and get to work. But perfect San Francisco weather just doesn’t come around that often and the warm sun was just teasing me all day long, so I spent most of Saturday outside soaking up the rays. Didn’t you know basking in the sun gives you super cooking powers so that you cook with twice the speed of light? 😛
I have to give a big shout out to my last minute “sous chef” friend, HL. The extra set of hands for those last couple of critical hours (and the reminders to breathe and eat) were priceless.
Unfortunately for the blogsphere world, I don’t have many good pictures of the feast; I didn’t even manage a picture of the entire spread. Part of the drawback of still being in cooking mode when guests arrive is that having 20 hungry people attempting to be patient before digging in makes you take really quick, not well thought out pictures.
It’s nothing compared to the 70 person party that the White on Rice Couple threw a couple of weeks ago, but here’s a quick peek at my housewarming party! (Recipes to come when I’m not quite so exhausted.)
Not pictured: Crabcakes with mango salsa, Lemon bars, Ribs, Salami pepperoncini rollups
The Healthy Side of the Spread – fruit salad, cucumber salad, green bean and tomato salad, orange and mint sugar snap peas, corn and black bean salsa, shrimp ceviche, bbq meatballs (ok, so those are quite so healthy)
Cucumber Salad
Shrimp Ceviche
Corn and Black Bean Salsa
Orange Mint Sugar Snap Peas
The Obligatory Munchies
Pesto Potato Salad and Tortellini Salad
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Orange Carrot Cupcakes
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