Fresh in The City

A few weekends ago, I had an out of town guest visit me & San Francisco for the FIRST time.  No pressure to show her a good time....  So we took the ferry from Sausalito to San Francisco. 

The picture above was not changed in any way... this is REALLY what Alcatraz looked like from the ferry!

When we got to the ferry building, we went to the extravagant farmer's market.  First Stop: bakery 

Check out the colors of these veggies - amazing!

some organic dried fruit

I tasted these pears... they were delicious!

This picture actually got taken by accident, but didn't it turn out cool?

weighing the fruit 

Sometimes you feel like a nut... 

I just love the way these squash look

I actually really hate the way this lettuce tastes, but it looks cool 

Ready for fall 

More baked goods - I just cannot resist

These sandwiches caught my eye - my favorite!  lox & cream cheese

Boyfriend's favorite: artichoke & brussel sprouts

Who knew this is actually how brussel sprouts grow?  so cool

More pumpkins

Ginger settles your stomach :)  YUMM

The pretty Ferry Building.  but check out how grey that sky is!

Edible Flowers

Can you tell it's fall yet?

I call these edible weeds...

For some reason, I love taking pictures of pomegranates.

yummy looking persimmons 

my favorite smell - lavender 

Circled back to buy a lox & cream cheese sandwich.  SO DELICIOUS!!!

Lox, cream cheese, onion, capers, & heirloom tomato on a slice of sourdough - DELICIOUS 

We ventured into the ferry building and visited Blue Bottle Coffee.  As you can see, each cup is prepared individually so it takes a while, but it is SO worth it!!!!!!

The one in the middle is mine.

After all the tasting at the farmer's market and the delicious sandwich, it was time to move our butts up to Union Square to do some shopping before taking the ferry back to Marin.  

Just another wonderful fall day shopping & eating around the city with good friends.  What else could a girl ask for?

Lasagna

My favorite lasagna comes from New Hampshire.  It's made in a cozy kitchen in New London by an amazing lady.  

The cold weather has spurred an early craving for her delicious, cheesy lasagna.  Due to the fact that I now live on the "wrong" coast, I had to try my skills to re-create boyfriend's mother's specialty.  For the purpose of this blog, lets call the lasagna master "D".  

Now, I can make pasta and sauce NO problem, in fact, I think I could even call it my specialty.  So I figured lasagna would be no problem. Right? Wrong!!  I e-mailed D for her recipe.  She sent back  instructions  like I knew what I was doing... Also WRONG!  In fact, because the e-mail didn't say so, I didn't know I needed to cook the noodles before I layered and baked them.  After a little insight from boyfriend, I headed out to the grocery to pick up the necessary supplies.  

My mom made home-made sauce with tomatoes from dad's garden (not something readily available in NH).  I defrosted the sauce and browned turkey.  I combined the meat into the sauce to make an easy meat sauce. Check!

D's e mail said to mix the ricotta cheese with an egg.  I was a little put off by this, so I looked it up.  Turns out everyone mixes an egg with ricotta cheese to make it easier to spread.... okkkk. 

I bought fresh mozzarella and sliced it up.  

I then put down the first layer of tomato sauce

Step #2: the noodles 

I stuck a dollop of ricotta cheese on each side of the noodles  

  

and added a bit of sauce to spread the ricotta cheese out evenly.  

Then, as if laying bricks, I filled in the cracks with mozzarella.

I repeated the layering process until I reached the top of the pan and then added the remaining mozzarella to the top. 

I put the lasagna in the oven to bake for about an hour.

Boyfriend came home from basketball a VERY hungry boy.  He was so anxious to try the lasagna, he refused to let it finish baking, and removed it from the oven after about 45 minutes.  Since everything was cooked before it went into the oven, I didn't see any food safety issues with taking it out early.  

I personally like my lasagna a little crunchier on top and at the edges.  Since this one didn't get to bake the full time, it was a  waterier and more runny that I would have liked.  

As you can see in the picture above, the whole thing was kind of watery.  I'm unsure if it's because of the short baking time or because I used home-made sauce from fresh tomatoes.  I will have to try again the next time I want lasagna.  OR I will hop on an airplane to New Hampshire and have the REAL thing with some REALLY great company!  


Boyfriend and I have to plan our trip back east soon... I definitely cannot make it through winter without lasagna! 

Some of my My Favorite Foods

On a recent outing with my mother, she took me to one of her favorite resautants in Sonoma, The Red Grape.   After odering a nice cold glass of wine, I opened the menu and this entree immediately caught my eye.  Once I read all of the ingredients, I could not tear my attention away to even glance at the other menu options.  So I guess I decided what I wanted for lunch pretty quickly...

YES! The Farmer's Market white pizza!!  It's a pecorino romano base with roasted red beets, grilled corn and goat cheese, topped with fresh avocado slices. 
For those of you who don't know me well, goat cheese, beets, avocado, and corn are four of my all time favorite foods.  I cannot even begin to explain how excited I was when I realized that all of these foods came TOGETHER on a PIZZA!!  And all this time I thought I was weird for eating avocado, beets, and goat cheese on an English muffin - seems like whoever created this pizza has the same taste buds.  So exciting. 


The best part is that the restaurant had whole wheat dough as a substitution.  It made the RD in me smile even more.  The crust was pretty thin and light which made for a totally satisfying, yet not too filling lunch.  I wasn't able to finish the whole thing at lunch and took the rest to go.  This wonderful pizza was just as tasty - if not even better - the next day, cold, for lunch!  I'm not sure what it is about these flavors that makes them blend so beautifully, but I was in heaven the entire time I was eating this pizza. 

I cannot wait to visit the Red Grape and enjoy this pizza again.  I may even have to try something new (doubt it though!)

My Adventures Eating Out

I started a new job at the beginning of June with has left me with little no time to blog or cook.  Due to my new time crunch, I have found myself eating out more and more - great food... bad for my waist line!

► My good friend Kitchen M invited me to be her guest at the Cookbook Release Party at Domaine Chandon in Yountville, CA to taste some of the cook book recipes paired with delicious wines. 

The vineyards are beautiful and the grapes are growing big in preparation to be picked in the fall.

Domaine Chandon is known for their sparkling wines, so they had mostly green grapes in these vineyards.

The event was spectacular and the food and wine pairings were delicious.  Every bite I took sent a rush of tastes to my mouth - I could not get enough!  The best (most unexpected) part of the evening was that I got to take a cookbook home signed by the head chef of Etoile and the author of the cookbook! I doubt my culinary skills allow me to actually cook any of the fabulous recipes, but the pictures in the book are very pretty!

My Favorite dish of the night - Braised pork with beans and couscous

► In the same week, my friend 'CAL' and I decided to try out the new Morimoto restaurant in Napa.  The service was absolutely terrible and their excuse was that they "just opened" - not impressed!  The food was pretty BLAH overall, but we did have a great appetizer and drink (and company!). 

Hamachi Tartare appetizer

White lily - shirayuri: shochu, calpico, yuzu juice and lemon juice

These two items were noteworthy, but the sushi we ordered was nothing special, and definitely not worth the higher price of eating a Morimoto's restaurant.  Unfortunately I do not think I will be visiting this restaurant again any time soon!


► In search of some good sushi, 'CAL' and I visited Mas Sake in San Francisco.  We began our meal with some edamame and a delicious cocktail. 

 Mas Tini: Nigori, peach schnapps, pomegranate juice, and fresh lime juice.. YUM!

We then enjoyed an appetizer and some sushi rolls.  The combination was simply divine and every bite was just as delicious as the first... definitely got our sushi fix from this restaurant.  I will absolutely be visiting this sushi restaurant again!!! No words to describe how much I enjoyed the ecstasy roll. I think I could eat it for dinner every single night from now on!

Sushi cupcakes

From left to right: shana roll, ecstasy roll, and three amigos

Close up of the ecstasy roll - no rice!