A few weeks ago I celebrated a birthday. I invited only a small group of people, two of whom happen to be married. One ended up being legitimately exhausted, and she sent in her stead an amazing little backup cake. K works at a bakery, and does work on cakes, so this was quite an [...]

The original plan was to throw my stuff in storage while evacuating a home of disbanding roommates, to buy the bare essentials from ikea, from east bay restaurant supply, from the dollar store–make do in the studio together for a couple of months, save some money, move out and back into the world of roommates.
But [...]

I’ve been procrastinating on this one, which was probably not the best idea since it is painfully difficult to remember the details of 10 courses the same night, let alone weeks later, delightful as they were.
We had the opportunity to dine at Quince (Yelp) with a friend who once worked there making pasta and other [...]

I had the lovely chance to discover and attend an event at 18 reasons, an art gallery and gathering place for those interested in the production and consumption of (good) food, which is owned by BiRite (Creamery & Market) in the Mission District of San Francisco. I even ran into a co-worker…
There was an exhibit [...]

He made his way home from India. I’d asked him to bring me something, anything, preferably not malaria or bedbugs. He can’t be named because he’s now an international food smuggler: I received a beautiful silk scarf and even more exciting the following:

Star anise

Cardamom

I have no idea what this is. Please help me. I got [...]

This morning started out really well. A friend came to be my running partner, another showed up for the breakfast we were to make afterwards. We enjoyed the back yard for a sunny, late morning breakfast, and followed it with bellini’s for most of the rest of the day.
Serves 3:
6 large eggs
2 oz chevre (fresh, [...]

In my quest to find the word “Palet” when thinking of chocolate disks used for melting, I came across an incredible chocolate resource for information on the process, terminology, and styles of chocolate.

So as you know from my last entry, Thanksgiving this year was a big, cooperative event. What follows is a photo entry of the action and dishes. I don’t have all of the recipes, but will follow this post with 2-3 of them. If there’s a specific recipe you’d like, please post a comment and [...]

Roast Vegetable Ragout
2 large heirloom tomatoes, preferably green/purple variety or other rich color
2 large carrots, peeled & trimmed
1/2 medium onion
6+ garlic cloves, peeled & trimmed
1/2 red bell pepper
Cut all vegetables into chunks; carrots diagonally. Put into baking dish, toss with 1/4-1/3 C olive oil, pleanty of sea salt & cracked pepper. Cook for 45-90min until [...]

Updates have been slow lately, despite that I’ve been cooking lots of super-fresh pasta primavera, pestos, grilling, and making fresh lemonade just about every day. I’ve been traveling, and there’s more ahead.
I took a trip to the south and ate, and ate, and ate. I only managed to grab pictures of the last day, so [...]