Bringing Some Southern Comfort to San Francisco

Dinner parties are a great way to spend some quality time with your friends, as well as try new cuisine and new recipes. Since I have moved to San Francisco, my girl friends and I started throwing themed dinner parties. The first was a Vegetarian dinner. The next was a Valentine's Day red themed dinner, then a San Francisco food themed party. This week our theme was food from the last vacation we have been on. Well kudos to my friend Pauline who thought up the theme. The meal consisted of a pumpkin coconut soup to start, in honor of my friend Pavitra's trip to Africa. Then we moved on to Hawaiin Poke courtesy of my friends' Andrea and Catherine last vacation. Pauline also visited Hawaii recently, so she made baked talapia with a mango avacado salsa, quinoa and fruit salad.

My last vacation was a family trip to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. So in honor of the south I baked a Sweet Potato Pie. The recipe was simple, but I tweeked it slightly in order to make it my own.

Sweet Potato Pie Recipe:

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
• 1 sticks butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• Dash of cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• 1/4 can evaporated milk
• 1 store bought pie crust, thawed (I used a whole wheat crust)
• pecans for decorating
• whipped cream (optional)

PREPARATION:

Peel and dice potatoes. Cook potatoes until done in boiling water until fork tender. Strain and then put back into pot. Slice butter over them and mash. The transfer to a large bowl and beat with rotary beaters at high speed. When smooth, rinse beaters and continue beating at high speed, adding sugar gradually. When dissolved, add eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Beat a few more minutes. Stir in milk gently.

Pour mixture into 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until firm in center. Decorate with pecans. Serve with whipped cream.

It was a fabulous dessert that brought a little bit of Southern Comfort to our dinner party.

Food Tourin' from East to West

Since my move to San Francisco back in November, I have been bouncing back and forth between the two coasts a lot. I have the benefit living out West and enjoying all that the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer, while still being able to go back East and spend time with my family and friends whom I love so dearly. Oh and of course, enjoying the amazing food that both coasts have to offer.

On a recent trip back East, my family and I traveled down the coast from New Jersey to Kiawah Island, South Carolina.  Located on a beautiful barrier island just a few miles from historic Charleston Kiawah Island was a great location for a long awaited family vacation. We sat on the beach, rode bikes around the island, visited a plantation, and most importantly, went food touring in Charleston. This was the first food tour I had ever been on, and it's definitely a great way to learn a city, meet new people and eat some great food. As part of the Charleston Culinary Tours, our tour guide Glenn took us to 4 different restaurants in the city. Due to my excitement and initial hunger, I didn't get photos from our first stop, but was able to get most of the rest. Here is what we ate:

Chicken Pot Pie Soup & Duck Confit Wrap @ Leaf

 

Grilled Ceasar Salad @ Leaf



Boccadillo Sandwich with Parmesan Truffle Fries @ Leaf



Chicken Parm @ Eli's Table


 

Banana Spice Caramel Cake @ Kaminsky's



Chocolate Martini @ Kaminsky's



Needless to say we left South Carolina very relaxed and about 10 pounds heavier! 

I returned to San Francisco the week before Memorial Day weekend. With a 3 day weekend approaching, I wanted to make sure I had some fun things planned. In lue of the Charleston food tour, I decided that taking a food tour of San Francisco might be a perfect way to fill a day. I texted my friend Kris (also a lover of great food), googled away, and booked our Mission Food tour. Thanks to our amazing tour guide, Chris Milano and his company Foodie Adventures Kris and I embarked on a 4 hour eating and walking tour. We made 7 stops, taking in the Latin food and culture that the Mission has to offer. Here are some photos of the food and the fun we had along the way:

 

Kings Bakery where we enjoyed amazing Coconut Rolls

  

Murals in the Mission

 

Pupusa

 

This was my favorite!



 

Of course Kris (left) won a prize at the end



Yeah that's a Pork Brain Crispy Taco!



So the moral of the story is this, no matter where you are, no matter who you're with, take some time and go on a food tour. Your tummy will thank you. 

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

A lot of my friends have come to recognize me as the resident baker of the group. With this recognition, they constantly send me blogs, recipes, articles, etc all relating to food and things I should bake (or better yet hint to things I should bake for them).

Recently one of my friends sent me this article from Bon Appetit, "10 Ways to Make Better Brownies." The end result was the following:

Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies. And it was as simple as making boxed brownie mix, and adding 2 tablespoons of slightly melted peanut butter (microwave for approximately 20 seconds) and bake per the box directions. 

And I always make sure to share with as many of my friends as possible.

'Red' is in the Air

Since I moved to San Francisco I have met some wonderful ladies who have become great friends. Not only are they great women, smart, funny, gorgeous, and down to earth, they are also single (as am I). So for Valentine's Day we decided to celebrate our love for one another by having an all red dinner party. Everyone had to bring something red for us to eat or drink. The ladies executed the task with perfection. We had red wine to drink, tomato tarts and pigs in a blanket for appetizers; stuffed red peppers, mashed red skin potatoes and beet salad for dinner; strawberry pie and red velvet brownies for dessert. My contribution - the stuffed red peppers and the red velvet brownies. I didn't get to photograph the peppers, but I did get to photograph the brownies. Needless to say there was lots of love, and red, in the air

Keeping it Short and Sweet

For this post I am going to keep things short and sweet. The goal of my latest baking experience was simple, make a kick ass carrot cake cupcake. With this objective in mind I searched the web to find a great carrot cake recipe. I succeeded. Smitten Kitchen's blog was the recipe of choice http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/carrot-cake-with-maple-cream-cheese-frosting/

Here are the images of my baking process:

I think the photos speak for themselves. 

When Life Gives You Ripe Bananas...Make Banana Bread!

Having a (guy) roommate has allotted me a few new joys. There is always someone to talk to. There is always someone to clean up after (not truly a joy but you know what I mean). And most importantly, there is always someone to bake for!

Two weeks ago my roommate bought a bunch of bananas. However, before he could eat them all, he had to leave for 9 day business trip. We are very considerate roommates when it comes to food. I don't eat any of his without permission, and the same goes for him. Not that either of us would really mind if we ate the other's food, but we try to be polite and considerate of each other's things. So needless to say, the bunch of bananas that he had bought continued to ripen and go uneaten, until he returned.

However, even upon his return, he realized there was no way he could eat all these bananas. So the question became "What are we going to do with a bunch of ripe bananas?" MY solution: make banana bread!

A day and a half later this was what had become of the banana bread

I think my roommate is enjoying my solution.

*For the recipe check out Banana-Bread-Recipe.com

MIA but still baking, cooking, eating away!

Ok, ok so I have been extremely MIA. If my old boss and friend, Mark, were here right now he would be shaking his head in disappointment, since I have not kept my promise to blog once a week every week. My sincerest apologies Mark...and anyone else who reads this and has missed me (I know you're out there).

What can I say? Life has been busy. My move from NJ to San Fran has been a huge success. It took a while for me to get settled in, but I am finally in my apartment, making friends, and eating, baking and cooking like no other. San Francisco is a foodies paradise. There are a million different restaurants to try, lots of fresh and healthy produce and food options to cook with, and lots of dinner parties with friends. So needless to say, I have been in food overload...in a good way.

Here are a few things that I have been cooking, baking, eating, just to bring you up to speed.

Halloween: My friends out in Palo Alto had a Halloween party. I was asked to partake in devising the menu as well as cook and bake some things. The end baking result were the following cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting decorated to look like garve stones and pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to look like, well,  pumpkins.

Dinner with Friends: Some of my new friends and I decided to make dinner one night. We worked up a menu and each took one dish to buy the groceries for and cook. We decided on baked cod, a mixed green persimmon salad and a warm couscous salad with roasted butternut squash. The salads were a thing of beauty

The rest of my experiences I, unfortunately, don't have photos of but I'll give you a run down and try to provide you with as many links as possible so you can get the best possible idea of what I have been doing.

For "Friends"giving I made an oatmeal nut crunch apple pie

Also at that Halloween party I made "Hungry Girl's" pulled pork sliders

I made spaghetti squash for the first time, with sundried tomatoes and garlic. Just whipped that up on my own.

I have eaten at The Plant, Marlowe, Super Duper Burger, Susie Cakes, Kara's Cupcakes, Bar Bocce, Tacolicious.

So you can see, I have been busy. I will try not to stay away for so long from now on, but if I am please know that I am still baking, cooking, and eating away!