Posted on October 30, 2008 by bayareafoodie
When the weather starts to get cooler I like to bust out my trusty dutch oven and make one-pot meals. We had a bag of potatoes from our produce delivery to use so I decide to make a pot roast. I found an interesting recipe online from Dave Lieberman. It was remarkably easy to prepare and tasted magnificent. The hint o’ honey and the wine (Santa Cruz Zin) made the dish sing. The veggies and beef sucked up all the flavors and were tender and sweet.
This was my first Lieberman recipe and I was impressed with the results.
Recipe link
Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: cooking, Dave Lieberman, dutch oven, food, one pot meal, RECIPES, Red Wine Pot Roast with Honey and Thyme | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 28, 2008 by bayareafoodie
To get in the election spirit we made Obama Pizza burgers. This was an online bonus recipe in the new Food Network magazine.
It’s a burger in between two pieces of garlic bread…what’s not to like?
Recipe link
Mike and I have already mailed in our ballets. Get out and vote Nov 4th!
Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: burger, cooking, election, food, food network magazine, obama, RECIPES, vote | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 27, 2008 by bayareafoodie
check out those vanilla beans!
You all know I purchased Giada De Laurentiis’ new cookbook “Giada’s Kitchen” in order to attend the signing event. Well, the book is actually really nice. The pictures are beautiful and the recipes are inventive. The first recipe we decided to make was the “Butternut Squash and Vanilla Risotto” (we used acorn squash). Mike “the king of risotto” was intrigued by the use of vanilla in the stock*. I was super surprised to find out a single vanilla bean was $12 ($8 on sale)!!! The dish turned out fabulous. The vanilla was not at all overpowering. It just sits in the background adding a bit of sweetness. The modifications we made to the recipe included using 1.5 cups of wine (a santa lucia highlands chardonnay worked perfectly) and we puréed some of the squash and added it in along with the chunks. I would suggest serving this as a side or starter since it is a bit heavy.
Recipe:Buy the book or grab the recipe from Serious Eats.
*this was the subject of Mike’s chit chat session with Giada.🙄
Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES, Starters & Soups | Tagged: acorn squash, Butternut Squash and Vanilla Risotto, cooking, food, Giada De Laurentiis, giada's kitchen, RECIPES | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 24, 2008 by bayareafoodie
You’ve heard me discuss my Sprinkles obsession in the past. Now I’m taking it to a whole new level. There are 23 regularly featured Sprinkles cupcakes plus 17 seasonal and I am on a mission to try them all! My plan is to go once a month to the Palo Alto store and buy no more than 6 flavors at a time. By my calculation it will take me 12 months to accomplish the task of eating all 40. Are you up for the challenge? Join me! MISSION COMPLETED SEPT 2009 but when new flavors are introduced I add them to the list.
I adore these cupcakes but all are not created equal. Here is how I rank them…
- Red Velvet – super moist, the light chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting are perfect complements
- Banana – very moist, bananalicious!
- Brown Sugar Praline* – best seasonal cake, fantastically crunchy and sweet, should be a regular flavor
- S’more* – simply genius… the graham cracker bottom is divine & the gooey marshmallow finger lickin’ good, pls make it a regular flavor!
- “The King” (banana cake/peanut butter frosting)* – I’m all shook up… the peanut butter was like skippy, needs to be a regular flavor
- Strawberry – hint o’ strawberry is lovely
- Peanut butter chocolate – soft chips, moist cake, flavors remind me of a See’s Milk chocolate Bordeaux candy
- Maple bacon* – they didn’t skimp on the bacon and it’s real not that fake bac-0 bits stuff
- Lemon – yummy light lemon flavor, dense cake
- Lemon meringue* – like S’more subtract chocolate add lemon
- Pumpkin – awesome cinnamon frosting
- Eggnog spice* – eggnog frosting rocks
- Cuban coffee* – just enough spice and great coffee flavor
- Salty caramel* – good caramel flavor frosting, salt on top is nice
- Lemon blueberry* – think blueberry muffin w/ lemon frosting – another good morning treat
- Triple cinnamon – advertised as a cinnamon roll, tasted more like a snickerdoodle cookie
- Almond dark chocolate* – flavor of a poppyseed muffin minus the seeds. I wish it didn’t have sliced almonds in it.
- Vanilla milk chocolate – a classic cupcake
- Cinnamon sugar – a cupcake with NO frosting, great for breakfast
- Green tea* – very flavorful NEW
- German chocolate* – cool chunky frosting, wish it tasted more coco-nutty
- Flourless chocolate*- dense yet moist, similar to a super rich chocolate brownie
- Orange – similar to lemon but with orange flavor
- Vanilla peppermint* – great combo,very festive
- Peanut butter chip – creamy cake, like a mouthful of peanut butter
- Key Lime* – very subtle lime flavor initially but has a zesty finish
- Orange cranberry* – tasty combo
- Raspberry* – solid cupcake, nice raspberry flavor
- Milk chocolate – not overly chocolaty
- Dark chocolate – didn’t think I was going to like this since I prefer milk chocolate but it was good w/ a glass of milk
- Caramel apple* – didn’t get any real caramel apple flavors, just spice
- Gingerbread* – tis the season NEW
- Irish Chocolate* – wish the frosting had more Baileys flavor
- Vanilla hazelnut chocolate* – if you think this is going to taste like nutella…you’re wrong
- Chocolate marshmallow – like a ding dong but needs more marshmallow
- Sprinkle – for 10 yrs I expected more. NEW
- Vegan red velvet – if u want a coconut cupcake get this- if u want red velvet …don’t
- Pistachio* – bland NEW
- Coconut – great coconut frosting, cake a bit dry though
- Raspberry chocolate chip* – nice combo but cake was dry
- Vanilla- sprinkles on top were too sweet
- Ginger maple* – nice frosting, too much ginger
- Chai latte – herbal flavor with spice frosting
- Chocolate coconut- dry cake, didn’t like dark chocolate frosting
- Carrot- if you like carrot cake, you’ll like this (I’m not a fan)
- Ginger lemon – good on their own but a weird combo
- Mocha – had high hopes for this – very good mocha flavor but with the choc cake was just bla
- Apple cinnamon* – apple chunks…no bueno NEW
- Banana chocolate – the chocolate frosting masks the banana cake
- Neapolitan* – just tastes like chocolate
- Lemon coconut – dry,dry,dry
- Chocolate peppermint* – too much chocolate
- Choco loco* – cinnamon and chocolate is not my favorite combo
- Black & White – really bland
-
Margarita* – tasted like salt
- Summer Cherry* – tasted like cough syrup
- Red Hot Velvet* – frosting tasted/smelled like Dentyne gum (which I despise) & overpowered the cake
*seasonal/ limited edition flavors / secret menu
How about you? Which flavors make you drool? Leave a comment or two…
Continue reading →
Filed under: Peninsula, PLACES TO EAT/DRINK, REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS, Sprinkles (Palo Alto) | Tagged: baking, best, cakes, challenge, cupcakes, flavors, food, Peninsula, rankings, sprinkles cupcakes, the original cupcake bakery, top | 16 Comments »
Posted on October 22, 2008 by bayareafoodie
I’m not really a salad person. I will have one as a starter but never as a main course. The salads we eat at home are not usually worthy of a post. That is until now. This salad was the bomb! The dill dressing went perfectly with the spicy radish, sweet onions and tart apples. We continued to use the leftover dressing throughout the week on any piece of lettuce we could get our hands on.
Rachael Ray, I don’t care what others say about you, I have yet to try a recipe of yours that I didn’t like…
Recipe link
The only thing I left out was the poppy seeds (didn’t have any).
Filed under: RECIPES, Starters & Soups | Tagged: cooking, dill dressing, food, Rachael Ray, Radish Apple and Onion Salad, RECIPES | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 20, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Mike and I spent Sunday afternoon with celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis. Actually we stood in line for 2.5 hours and talked to her for about 30 seconds.
So, I hear about a Q&A and book signing with Giada at Santana Row for her new cookbook Giada’s Kitchen. It sounded like fun so I purchased a book from Sur La Table and with it came a ticket to the event (I had #6). This was our first book signing so we had no idea what to expect. We arrived 45 minutes early to scope things out. Since it was a ticketed event I thought there would be no more than 50-100 people allowed to see her. I WAS SO, SO WRONG! When we walked up to Sur la Table there was already a line around the corner and into the 2nd section of the parking lot (at least 150 people). So what did we do? We got in line of course. Then I sent Mike on a recon mission to see why the heck the line was so long and what happened to the Q&A. He returned to tell me that the line was for the signing and that the Q&A was at the stage set up in the center of the row and that if I wanted to see it I would have to lose my place in line. The person in line before us had ticket number 395 which she had purchased the day before so there was potentially going to be 500 + people waiting with their bag-o-books. We decided not to leave the line and take turns going to hear Giada speak. She promptly arrived at noon and did a 10 minute Q&A which wasn’t super informative because I assume her die hard fans were standing in line. We heard about her new baby, taping of the upcoming shows … typical questions. Flash forward two hours and we had our signed book and a moment with Giada. If you know Mike he wasn’t gonna just say “Hi” and take his book he needed a little chit chit time (which he took 😆). She was nice and we were ushered to the side where you are allowed to take a photo.
The day didn’t go as expected but we can scratch this off our bucket list. I will think long and hard before going to another Sur La Table signing. I really think the function could have been run better. I was happy to hear that Giada was going to stay until the very last book was signed otherwise I’m sure you would have read about a pot & pan riot in the SJ Mercury news the next day.
Filed under: REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS | Tagged: book signing, ca, cookbook, Giada De Laurentiis, giada's kitchen, san jose, santana row, sur la table | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 17, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Roux is a Louisiana style restaurant on the row. I’ve never had the pleasure of traveling to “The Big Easy” to try out the delicacies (possibly next year!) so I can’t tell you if it’s authentic, but I can tell you it’s enjoyable.
The lunch combo is the way to go if you want to sample a bunch of the restaurant’s cuisine for an affordable price. I ordered 1/2 the pulled pork Po’Boy with a side of mac & cheese as well as the etouffe. The mac & cheese is not your standard fare. It has breadcrumbs and tastes more like parmesan cheese noodles. They were good but don’t expect your mama’s mac & cheese. The etouffe with crawfish was tasty but the highlight of the meal was the Po’Boy. The sandwich was really delicious. Tender pork covered in bbq sauce AND a yummy rémoulade on a toasted french roll with lettuce, tomato and red onion. My taste buds were happy. The portions are large so be prepared to overeat or get a doggie bag.
After reading the not-so-positive reviews on Yelp, I wasn’t expecting much. I left pleasantly surprised and eager to come back to try some more.
BTW – Whoever invented the fried pickle is a genius!
Tasty Tip: M-F from 4-7pm they have a happy hour at the bar where they have a bunch of cheap eats.
Website: www.rouxkitchen.com
UPDATE – 2nd visit: I sampled the sweet potato fries and the fried catfish both were great. I tried the gumbo and was not impressed. Maybe I’m not a gumbo girl but I found the gravy/sauce to be overly fishy tasting. Also, the fried oysters were as big as my fist. Just not appetizing…
Filed under: San Jose, Silicon Valley (all cities) | Tagged: food, Louisiana cuisine, Po'Boy, review, Roux Louisiana Kitchen, santana row | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 15, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Mike picked this recipe because we had a bunch of arugula and mozzarella to use up. This was our first attempt at a stuffed burger. I was a bit worried that the pesto would ooze out all over the grill but it remained in tact. The pesto did not use a lot of oil so the consistency was more like a paste. We chose to nix the buns and go with naan since we already had it in the fridge. I fell in love with naan ever since we made lamb burgers. It makes the meal much less heavy.
We both found the burgers to be marvelous. They were j-u-i-c-y and flavorful. Looking at those photos makes me want to fire up the grill. You must try this.
Recipe link
Tasty Tip: a blue or swiss cheese would probably also go nicely.
Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: burger, cooking, food, Gourmet magazine, grill, RECIPES, Sundried Tomato and Arugula Pesto | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 13, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Foodbuzz.com officially launched today! What is Foodbuzz?
It’s the first-ever community site devoted exclusively to food and dining content—an unparalleled resource for searching, surfing and sharing with fellow foodies everywhere.
Check it out if you want to have access to tons of food blogs from around the world. You can share recipes, restaurant reviews, food videos, news and photos. I have been a member since February and I love connecting with other food minded individuals.
To join you don’t need to have a food blog, but if you do I highly recommend becoming a Featured Publisher. FoodBuzz provides some great benefits like free passes to food events, advertising opportunities, sponsored dinners and every once in a while you get surprise goodies in the mail. Go here to sign up and in the referral spot please write: Bay Area Foodie http://www.bayareafoodieblog.com
Filed under: REVIEWS OF PRODUCTS | Tagged: cooking, food blogs, foodbuzz, foodie community, launch | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 12, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Bon Appétit “Classic” vs. “New” Chicken Parm battle
I found two chicken parmesan recipes from Bon Appétit. The Sept 2008 cover featured a classic version by Mario Batali’s Otto restaurant and the June 2008 issue featured a new somewhat healthier version. Mike and I made both to see… which recipe reigned supreme.
The “classic” version was pretty time consuming to make but worth it. The sauce was tangy and the chicken ooey gooey. Many dishes benefit from some time in the fridge –this is not one of them. Starve yourself for the day and tuck-in! This is best pipin’ hot out the oven.
Modifications to sauce : Mike added fresh oregano plus 1/2 can of tomato paste to thicken. Classic Recipe link
Classic
The “new” recipe was fast and easy to prepare. The garlic chicken covered in cheese was super juicy, and the roasted tomatoes burst in your mouth and were a perfect complement to the chicken. It was a fresh and light dish but when all was said and done I didn’t really feel like I was eating chicken parmesan.
Modifications: I added Italian seasoning and fresh basil to the dish to punch up the flavors. New Recipe link
New
THE VERDICT: both were good in their own ways but if I had to pick a winner it would be… the Classic … you can’t beat crispy chicken slathered with tomato sauce & bubblin’ mozzarella!
Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: Bon Appétit, Chicken Parmesan, cooking, food, mario batali, otto, RECIPES | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 9, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Lamb Souvlaki
Mike wanted to go “somewhere new.” So I did a Yelp search and decided on a highly rated Mediterranean restaurant called Cafe Artemis located in the Campbell Pruneyard. I didn’t recall seeing this place before. It’s situated next to Trudys and is only a couple years old.
It was a sultry night so we, of course decided to eat outside on their large patio. We started things off with the Saganaki. It’s pan fried cheese. Nuff said! I ordered the Lamb Souvlaki which was marinated lamb grilled with peppers & tomatoes over rice pilaf. Mike had the Lamb Kofte – traditional ground lamb patties with toasted cumin, grilled and served with rice pilaf. Both dishes were very nice with classic Greek flavors. My only complaint was that I would have liked a real steak knife. The butter knife I had was not cuttin’ it.
The portions were large so that left no room for dessert. I hear the chocolate torte is awesome. The service was good even though we did end up with 3 different waiters throughout the night… but it didn’t bother me. I rather be served than made to wait. It was a tasty affordable meal. I will return.
FYI – Wednesday nights they have a belly dancer if you’re into that sort of thing…
Rating: 
Website: http://www.cafeartemis.com/
Filed under: Silicon Valley (all cities) | Tagged: belly dancer, cafe artemis, campbell, food, greek, lamb, Mediterranean, pruneyard, review | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 7, 2008 by bayareafoodie
It’s been exactly 2 years and 7 months since I had my first Sprinkles cupcake in Beverly Hills. The event was life changing. Ever since I have been waiting for a store to open in the Bay Area. That day has come. On October 4th I woke Mike up at the crack of dawn and we made the trek to the new Palo Alto store. It had been open for 2 weeks and I was hoping the novelty would have worn off for the newbies. We rolled into the parking lot at 9am just as the doors were opening and there were already 20 people in line (by the way it was cold and drizzling). 
My reasoning for going this early was to avoid the 45 minute wait that had been reported on Yelp the past few days, and to make sure my cupcakes were fresh and in-stock. The cakes are made daily and when they are gone, they’re gone. The store layout is similar to LA. Although this is larger they still only allow ~ 6 people inside at once to order, the rest are kicked to the curb (at least they have a bench here). So it’s pretty much a guarantee that there will be people waiting outside when you arrive –pretty good marketing scheme. We were in and out in 20 minutes. We picked out 6 cupcakes ($3.25 each) and 2 dog cupcakes ($2.50 each). They have certain cupcake flavors each day so check the schedule before you go to make sure they have what you are craving. Well, was it worth the wait? You Betcha! I’m not going to go into any details on how things tasted here because in an upcoming ongoing post I will rate all the cupcakes in order of my preference. I invite you to give your opinions on the subject. 6 down 31 to go — I am determined to try them all!
I will leave you with this Warning: Do not attempt to eat the dots on top of the cupcakes. THEY ARE DECORATION and solid as a rock so if you don’t want to break a tooth…lick them and then dispose.
See you in line…
Hours: M-Sat 9-7pm, Sun 10-6pm
Address: 393 Stanford Shopping Center
Filed under: Peninsula | Tagged: baking, dessert, food, grand opening, sprinkles cupcakes | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 6, 2008 by bayareafoodie
After making that pumpkin soup you didn’t think we were going to trash these did you?
Mmmm…salty
(Click image to enlarge)
Recipe link
Filed under: RECIPES | Tagged: cooking, food, pumpkin seeds, RECIPES, roasted, snack, toasted | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 5, 2008 by bayareafoodie
We received a Sugerpie pumpkin in our produce shipment from Farm Fresh to You. I really didn’t know what to do with it. My plan was to stick it by the front door and see if it would make it to Halloween but Mike had other ideas. He wanted to make soup and that’s exactly what he did (with a little help from me….).
spiced pumpkin soup garnished w/ heavy cream, cilantro & roasted pumpkin seeds
The ingredients used in this dish were pretty unique for a pumpkin soup (banana, coconut and curry) but they all melded perfectly. The flavor was not overly sweet and the spice was subtle. I actually added a little extra condensed milk because I prefer the sweetness. When we make this again I might even use regular coconut milk instead of unsweetened. I wish I had smell-o-vision because this had a wonderful aroma. If you want an early taste of the holidays try this sumptuous soup. I’m glad Mike saved the pumpkin from its Halloween demise…
Recipe source: Bon Appétit Magazine – November 2002
Recipe link
Need instructions for cooking a pumpkin? Look here
Note: This is my entry for the First Thursday: Color orange event (Hey, it started out orange!) held by Michelle @ Thursday Night Smackdown
Filed under: RECIPES, Starters & Soups | Tagged: bon appetit magazine, cooking, food, halloween, pumpkin soup | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 4, 2008 by bayareafoodie
Have you ever made pasta in the same manner as a risotto? Well, here’s your chance. It’s the same concept except you substitute small pasta for the rice. The result is a slow cooked masterpiece and well worth the time it takes to prepare. The sauce was so rich and creamy I actually felt guilty eating it. It tasted as though I would put on 5 pounds once I finished. Mike and I probably should have eaten smaller portions with a salad instead of devouring the entire pan. Next time, oh yes, there will be a next time, I think I will use 1/2 the amount of cheese and add a little more tomato. I’m sure it will turn out just as good and I will have a clear conscience 😀.
Step 1 - make Tomato Confit
Step 2,3 - brown the pasta and start adding stock
Step 4 - add tomatoes, cheese & herbs
Note: After checking the Chavrie Goat cheese label I see it’s not super high in fat but it sure tastes like it is…
Recipe link
Filed under: Main Dish, RECIPES | Tagged: cooking, Creamy Pasta with Tomato Confit and Fresh Goat Cheese, food, food and wine magazine, RECIPES, risotto | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 1, 2008 by bayareafoodie
What to do with a huge ripe melon? Make sorbet! Summer is supposed to be over, but the last 2 weeks we had some fiery days down here in the South Bay. Beat the heat with this…
We looked to Emeril for the recipe.
BTW – this melon was from our first shipment of organic produce from Farm Fresh to You.
Filed under: Dessert / Baked Goods, RECIPES | Tagged: cooking, dessert, Emeril Lagasse, food, Honeydew Melon, RECIPES, sorbet | Leave a comment »
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