Bay Area Foodie

With summer comes homemade ice cream. Our ice cream machine is super easy to use. No ice or hand churning necessary…just set it and forget it.
This weekend Mike made Peanut butter ice cream to go with the Barefoot Contessa brownies I made. Chocolate and peanut butter is a classic combination. I found the ice [...]

Filed under: Dessert, RECIPES | Tagged: food, dessert, chocolate brownie, peanut butter ice cream, barefoot contessa, homemade ice cream | No Comments »

Mike and I stopped at Thea Mediterranean in Santana Row for a bite to eat after we went to see the Iron Man movie. It was a lovely night and they have a great comfortable outdoor seating area. Thea serves Mediterranean food with Greek influences. We started off with the fried calamari plate. It was [...]

Filed under: San Jose/Silicon Valley | Tagged: food, greek, review, san jose, santana row, Thea, Thea Mediterranean | No Comments »

Have you ever seen a cookbook or a kitchen tool on Bay Area Foodie and wanted to purchase it for yourself or a friend? Now you can! Check out the Bay Area Foodie online store powered by Amazon. Inside individual posts when an item is mentioned there will be a link to the [...]

Filed under: VERY RANDOM THOUGHTS | Tagged: food, bay area foodie online store, cookbooks, amazon, kitchen tools, magazines, shopping, shop | No Comments »

Mike and I hosted a get together last Friday night. Since we both had to work during the day I came up with the idea to make a lasagna because we could make it in advance. I ended up using a recipe I found in the December 07 Food & Wine Magazine. It was a [...]

Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: food, food and wine magazine, Lasagna-Style Baked Pennette with Meat Sauce, pasta, recipe | No Comments »

The mailman just delivered my 2008 Food & Wine Annual Cookbook. It includes all the recipes (670) that were in the magazine over the last 12 months, nicely organized and indexed. What a wonderful idea. Now I can toss out all those magazines I have lying around the house with the tagged pages. I absolutely [...]

Filed under: VERY RANDOM THOUGHTS | Tagged: Food & Wine, Food & Wine Annual Cookbook 2008, magazine, recipes | No Comments »

Last weekend it was again time to get my benedict on so Mike and I ventured out at 8:30am to Lou’s coffee shop in Los Gatos. When we arrived to the old school diner it was surprisingly empty. Usually in LG you have to be up at the crack of dawn to get seated in [...]

Filed under: Los Gatos | Tagged: food, breakfast, eggs benedict, Los Gatos, Lou's coffee shop, Lou's Restaurant, bearnaise, Lou's | No Comments »

A couple times a year we have a wine & food night with friends. The evening consists of decadent food and many bottles of fantastic wine. This time Mike and I were assigned the salad course.
I attempted to make the Caprese Salad Mike and I ate at Enoteca San Marco last month. I had found [...]

Filed under: RECIPES, Starters & Soups | Tagged: caprese salad, enoteca san marco, food, mario batali, mozzarella, pesto, recipe, salad, tomatoes, wine | No Comments »

The Sprinkles cupcake shop is still not open in Palo Alto so I had to bake up a batch myself to hold me over. I picked up the red velvet mix from Williams-Sonoma. They turned out terrific… If I say so myself!

Get yourself some!

Filed under: Dessert, RECIPES | Tagged: food, williams sonoma, sprinkles cupcakes, cupcakes, red velvet, baking | No Comments »

I have been watching Rachael Ray hammer out her 30 minute meals for the past 3 years and not once have I actually been motivated to try to recreate her dishes. That is until now…
Last weekend on an episode called “Believe in Bacon” she made American-Italian all’Amatriciana and for some reason I was moved. I [...]

Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: 30 minute meals, American-Italian all'Amatriciana, bacon, Believe in Bacon, fire roasted tomatoes, food, food network, pasta, Rachael Ray | 2 Comments »

Ad Hoc is a fairly new restaurant in Yountville from the famous chef Thomas Keller (the French laundry/Bouchon). When you enter the building you will feel as though you stepped into a Pottery Barn catalog. The decor is casual and homey yet hip and fun. Ad Hoc is billed as a family style restaurant which [...]

Filed under: Napa Valley, PLACES TO EAT, TOP RATED RESTAURANTS | Tagged: ad hoc, Bouchon, family style, food, french laundry, napa, review, thomas keller, wine, Yountville | No Comments »

I had heard rave reviews about Solbar the restaurant in the new Solage resort in Calistoga. A bit off the beaten path, Solbar is an interesting mix of hip Napa style and a tropical island. The dining area is split in two — indoor and outdoor. It’s very open and airy and when you are inside you still [...]

Filed under: Napa Valley | Tagged: ca, calistoga, food, Napa Valley, pork buns, review, sliders, solage, solbar, wine | No Comments »

For our first night in Napa we decided to check out Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena. The owner Cindy Pawlcyn, is the James Beard award-winning cookbook author, Chef and owner of Mustards Grill, so we knew it would be good. It was a beautiful evening so we chose to sit outside on the small [...]

Filed under: Napa Valley, TOP RATED RESTAURANTS | Tagged: Cindy Pawlcyn, cindy's backstreet kitchen, duck, food, James Beard, jazz, mustards grill, Napa Valley, review, St. Helena, wine | 1 Comment »

We have been going to Napa for many years. For the first time we decided to check out the Del Dotto Cave Experience & Barrel Tasting as it was recommended by a friend. The tour starts off with some history about the winery owner, some background about the caves and info on the different kinds [...]

Filed under: Napa Valley | Tagged: barrels, caves, Del Dotto, food, napa, tasting, tour, wine, winery | No Comments »

Mike & I took a trip to Napa May 8-11. Our weekend started off with a visit to the Oxbow Public Market. It is a new market in downtown Napa (very similar to the Ferry Building in SF). I had first heard about this establishment when reading the January 2008 Food & Wine Magazine 100 [...]

Filed under: Napa Valley | Tagged: napa, Oxbow public market, farmers market, vegetables, fruit, butcher, cheese, picnic | 1 Comment »

I don’t usually blog about chain restaurants but I’m going to make an exception for the Cheese Steak Shop in Pleasanton. I have been going to this place since high school– so over 18 years! I have never been able to find a restaurant without “cheesesteak” in the name that can do it like they [...]

Filed under: East Bay | Tagged: food, pleasanton, cheesesteak, the cheese steak shop | No Comments »

On our last night in Vegas we decided to have a light, casual meal at Mario Batali’s Enoteca San Marco at the Venetian. The restaurant is located in the Grand Canal Shoppes area of the hotel.

We started things off with a Caprese salad. It was the most interesting and tasty version of a caprese salad [...]

Filed under: Las Vegas, TOP RATED RESTAURANTS | Tagged: enoteca san marco, food, italian, Las Vegas, mario batali, venetian hotel | 1 Comment »

For our “Big” night out in Las Vegas we decided to dine at Picasso which is located in the Bellagio Hotel. Mike had always wanted to go. Picasso named after artist Pablo Picasso serves elegant French cuisine with a Spanish influence and is prepared by chef Julian Serrano. The award winning restaurant has paintings and [...]

Filed under: Las Vegas, TOP RATED RESTAURANTS | Tagged: art, bellagio, food, french, Julian Serrano, Las Vegas, picasso, spanish | No Comments »

As you may have guessed from the previous post Mike and I spent the weekend in Vegas. Since I am a food network fanatic I decided we would check out a couple of the iron chef restaurants while in town. We started things off with brunch at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. I [...]

Filed under: Las Vegas | Tagged: bobby flay, brunch, Caesars Palace, food, iron chef, Las Vegas, mesa grill, southwestern | No Comments »

If you’re in Las Vegas and looking for a wine bar, stop by Double Helix in the beautiful Palazzo Hotel. They offer VERY generous 2 and 5 oz. glasses of wine from around the world. Due to their unique preservation system they are able to offer highly sought-after wines not usually poured by the glass. Mike was impressed by [...]

Filed under: Las Vegas, PLACES TO EAT | Tagged: food, wine, Las Vegas, Double Helix Bar, palazzo hotel | No Comments »

Have you ever seen the mob of people on a Saturday or Sunday morning on the corner of Main & Maple in LG?
Well, they are waiting for a table at the Southern Kitchen, another small diner in Los Gatos. I had to venture in to see what all the fuss was about.
I of course had [...]

Filed under: Los Gatos | Tagged: food, breakfast, eggs benedict, Los Gatos, grits, southern kitchen | No Comments »