We are back from our Christmas visit to my family in Colorado! We had minimal travel issues, which was lucky given the blizzards bookending Christmas in the Front Range (one last week and one today and tomorrow). It was so nice spending time with my family, and our Christmas dinner was very well-received!

First, some pictures of snow (Patrick took the second and third pictures on his walk down by the river). Snow is so nice when you only have to see it a few days out of the year.

On Christmas Eve, we bought all of our groceries, including prime rib, oxtails, bacon and breakfast sausage from Choice City Butcher, our favorite Fort Collins butcher shop. They specialize in natural meat--no hormones, grass-fed and grain-finished, etc. Luckily it was only snowing a little, and the roads were passable. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find everything we needed because of the blizzard a few days prior, but Safeway came through. The only thing I couldn't find was celery root (intended for the mashed potatoes), which wasn't a huge surprise.

I did some prep work in the afternoon (made dessert, boiled the brussels sprouts, and partially roasted the sweet potatoes) so that I could relax on Christmas morning. That evening we watched It's a Wonderful Life, which is a favorite of mine.

On Christmas morning, my mom and Alan made our traditional breakfast (coffee cake, sausage, grapefruit, eggs made to order, and orange juice). Delicious, as usual. Then we opened presents and relaxed. Dinner required some advance preparation, so I started making it around 1pm. I had put together a dinner preparation timeline a few days earlier, which made things easier.

Patrick was a big help, especially with the prime rib, and we got dinner on the table right around 6pm, as planned. It got a little stressful in the last half hour, trying to get everything on the table at the same time, but overall it went well, and I was able to enjoy myself. There were 8 of us there for dinner, which worked out just right, as most of the dishes were supposed to serve 8 or 10. Here's what we ate:

Prime Rib Roast with Jus: Recipe from The New Best Recipe. This was very tender with a nice crust on the outside. The jus was yummy--very savory and beefy. Totally worth buying oxtail for it (Oxtails contribute fat and collagen to the gravy, as the slow-and-low prime rib cooking technique doesn't yield much jus on its own. The butcher wasn't sure that he'd be able to get oxtails because of mad cow disease issues, but he came through for me. When they brought it out, it hadn't been cut up at all and was quite imposing and tail-like. Cows are big! After they'd cut it into 3" pieces, it was much more manageable). I think the prime rib itself was a little lacking in flavor, but the jus helped with that. I'm not sure if I'll make prime rib again or try something else for our next special occasion meal.

Individual Yorkshire Puddings: Recipe from The New Best Recipe. These were Patrick's favorite part of the meal, and they were at the top of my list as well. I made them in muffin tins, as recommended in the recipe, and they turned out crusty on the outside and tender and eggy on the inside. Just right! I should make popovers to go with our meals more often.

Mashed Potatoes with Mascarpone: Considering the amount of unhealthy dairy products in these, they should have been awesome. They were perfectly good mashed potatoes (especially with some jus on top), but not amazing. Next time I'll try a recipe with sour cream and/or cream cheese in it. I like my mashed potatoes a little tangy.

Roasted Sweet Potato Spears with Bacon Vinaigrette: These were my favorite part of the meal. I used applewood-smoked bacon from Choice City Butcher, which I think made the dish. It was sweet, smoky and delicious. I'll definitely add this to my recipe binder.

Baby Brussels Sprouts with Buttered Pecans: These were pretty good brussels sprouts, but not amazing. I'm still searching for the perfect brussels sprouts recipe. I want a recipe that gives sprouts with roasty caramelized exteriors and tender interiors. And it should involve bacon (though two bacon-based sides might have been a bit much at Christmas).

Accompaniments: black olives, sparkling apple cider, red wine

Gingerbread with Apple-Persimmon Vanilla Bean Compote: I was worried the gingerbread might have issues because of the increased altitude, but it turned out fine. I used blackstrap molasses instead of mild molasses, because that's what we had on hand, and it still tasted really good. The persimmons seemed to take on the apple flavor instead of maintaining their own personalities, but they added a nice color to the compote. I sure do like gingerbread!

The meal was a success! I'm glad everything turned out so well.

The next day, we subsisted entirely on leftovers. We had gingerbread, compote, and coffee cake for breakfast and prime rib sandwiches for lunch: prime rib, caramelized onions, muenster cheese, mayo and jus on no-knead bread (which handled the high altitude just fine). I think they would've been even better if I'd added a little horseradish to the mayo and used Swiss cheese instead of muenster, but they were still quite good.

Dinner also consisted of leftovers, including pancakes made from leftover mashed potatoes (there were a lot) and some green onions. Not bad!

It was a good visit. We ate lots of fudge and read magazines and lazed about when we weren't in the kitchen. Patrick got to throw a snowball at me when I wasn't looking, which he finds exceedingly entertaining. I retaliated, accidentally getting snow down the back of his jacket, which is never pleasant. I need to work on my aim!

Now we're back home in California, where it's pretty windy. I have the urge to make something or organize our apartment, but sitting on the couch reading books sounds awfully nice too.

As mentioned in my last entry, I made Christmas cookies a few days ago, primarily to bring to my company's winter solstice/white elephant party. It was a good excuse to use both my cookie press and A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies. I doubled the Spritz recipe from the latter, because I was planning on making cookie sandwiches with some of them, which would reduce the yield.

I ended up splitting the dough into two batches, and I must have added slightly different amounts of flour to them, because the first batch was stiffer and showed impressions from the cookie press plates. The second batch was a little too sticky. Assuming I measure more accurately next time, I think the dough should be just the right consistency.

Here's a picture showing the different cookie shapes I can make with my cookie press, for future reference:

I was particularly fond of the trilobite-shaped cookies, as they came off the press most easily. Here are the finished cookies, before decorating. For some reason, the recipe made twice as many cookies as I'd expected (taking the doubling into account), so I ended up with over 200 of them. Yikes!

I ended up trying quite a few different embellishments for the cookies, featuring crushed candy cane and pistachios prominently. Patrick shelled all of the pistachios by hand (what a man!), and I thought they looked especially pretty with their rosy husks.

Top row (l-r): white chocolate + pistachio, white chocolate sandwich, orange marmalade sandwich dipped in dark chocolate with chocolate sprinkles, dark chocolate + chocolate sprinkles + white chocolate drizzles. Middle row: blackberry jam sandwich, blackberry jam + pistachio, dark chocolate with pistachio garnish, dark chocolate + peppermint stick. Bottom row: white chocolate + peppermint stick, dark chocolate + pistachio, dark chocolate sandwich.

I think they turned out well. My coworkers complimented me on them once they found out they weren't from a box :) My favorite was dark chocolate + peppermint stick; Patrick's favorite was orange maramalade + dark chocolate + chocolate sprinkles (I liked that one a lot too). I didn't like the pistachio ones so much, but one of my coworkers said those were her favorite, so I guess there's something for everyone. They took quite a bit more work than I'd anticipated, but I had fun making them. I think they're a once-a-year kind of cookie though.

I also wanted to include a picture of my coworker's Mister Hankey cookie. She has made them for the past three years, and people get a kick out of them. She came up with the idea herself and combined a recipe for chocolate chunk cookies with a simple sugar cookie recipe for the hat. So creative!

We had an early Christmas with Patrick's family tonight, since he and I will be going to Colorado tomorrow (assuming DIA is up and running at that point; I think it will be). It's always fun getting together with his family. We gave small gifts this year, so instead of wrapping them, we put them in gift bags from Paper Source. I think they're cute!

I'm also proud of our gift tags, which I made from one of the cards I made during my letterpress class at Dauphine. Snowflakes! I wish I had a letterpress of my own so I could always make cute cards...If only we had a spare barn in which we could set up a letterpress (and a welding studio for Patrick; it's only fair).

Featured at our pre-Christmas dinner tonight were prosciutto-filled tortellini from Molinari Delicatessen in the city. They were packaged in cute cardboard boxes tied with butcher's twine. Nice presentation! They were tasty. We'll have to visit them sometime and buy some salami!

I brought gingerbread for dessert, accompanied by a compote of fuji apples, bosc pears, cranberries and vanilla bean. I was really pleased with how both turned out. This was my first time trying the Cook's Illustrated gingerbread recipe, and it didn't disappoint. The gingerbread was just as I'd imagined it. I'll definitely go back to this recipe next time I make gingerbread (which will be this Monday night in Colorado, if all goes as planned). Of course, this recipe looks really good too; I might have to try it sometime.

I used a real vanilla bean in the compote. It was my first experience with vanilla beans, and I quite enjoyed it. I even found an affordable bean hidden on the top shelf at Draegers. I only used 1/4 of it for the compote, so I still have plenty left for the future.

I also tried making Cardamom Creme Anglaise to drizzle atop the gingerbread and compote, but I used only whole milk and tried the technique described on this page because it seemed easier. I should've known better. My egg yolks scrambled when I added the boiling milk to them (duh). I strained the resulting mixture, and it looked fine, but it never thickened up. So instead of serving it with the gingerbread, I added a little nutmeg and a splash of rum and voila--egg nog! It was really good. If I do it again, I'll try the normal creme anglaise technique.

There was half a pan of gingerbread left over, so I cut it into squares, wrapped each square in plastic wrap, and put them all in a ziploc bag in the freezer. I'm guessing it'll freeze just fine, since other quick breads freeze well. This way we'll have yummy dessert to eat someday in the future.

Last Thursday was a busy day. In the evening, I took a Oaxacan cooking class at the new Whole Foods, taught by the husband and wife who own Oaxacan Foods (they also sell food at local farmers' markets, much to our joy). There were ~15 people there, and it was a very hands-off class. We basically sat there and watched Ron cook, and his wife brought us food every so often. Not a bad way to spend an evening! Ron was entertaining, and the food was really good (and served in quite generous portions). My only complaint was that it was hard to see what was going on if you weren't sitting in the front row of the classroom.

The menu consisted of horchata (Patrick and I learned to love horchata in college, where it was served in our cafeteria), vegan tamales, chicken and mole negro tamales, molotes (little fried pockets of dough stuffed with chorizo and potatoes and topped with mole negro and queso fresca), red snapper wrapped in a banana leaf with spanish rice, and chocolate lava cake for dessert. I think the molotes were the best part, but it was all delicious. I definitely got my money's worth!

That same night, Patrick and I had planned to get up in the middle of the night to watch the peak of the Geminid meteor shower (it was supposed to peak at 3am, according to Sunset). However, it was overcast, so instead we drank hot cocoa (pretty good recipe, but not exactly what I was looking for) and ate ginger cookies on our patio under our Christmas lights before going to bed at a reasonable hour. It's too bad we didn't get to watch the meteor shower, but it was still a nice way to spend the evening, and we got a full night's sleep.

Also on Thursday, we received our box of Christmas cookies from Auntie Nance! It's one of my favorite holiday traditions, and I'm glad she's able to find the motivation to keep doing it every year. Patrick got home before I did, and he had the willpower to leave the box sealed until I got home, even though it clearly contained cookies. What a thoughtful husband I have!

I'm so lucky to have an Auntie Nance! I'm not sure what everything is yet, but you can see two of my favorites in the above photo: buckeyes and chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons. Yum! I'm also a big fan of the chocolate-rum balls. So many good cookies! Luckily, Auntie Nance's cookies freeze well, so we can enjoy them for months to come, since we're pretty inundated with good things to eat at the moment.

We spent Saturday in San Francisco; our third weekend in a row visiting the city, which is unusual for us. First we stopped at the Ferry Building to check out the Saturday Farmers' Market. Through some horrible oversight, I had never been to the Saturday market before, even though we've lived here for over two years. Unacceptable!

It was wonderfully awesome, of course. It was downright chilly, but there were still plenty of people there. We browsed the arts and crafts booths and then proceeded to the food vendors. I bought flageolets from Rancho Gordo to use in our Christmas dinner (have I mentioned that I'm making Christmas dinner for my family this year?), and they threw in a 2007 RG calendar for free!

We ended up spending more money than expected, first on some mandarin almonds at the Lagier Ranch stand, and then on Fatted Calf beef jerky (we thought it was $2.50/lb, when it was really $25.00/lb--ouch!). We took comfort in the fact that it was high-quality food (super-tasty beef jerky!), and we're supporting local businesses. But next time we need to read the prices more carefully! I'd love to buy something more substantial from the Fatted Calf, but it'll take planning to keep it cold long enough to get it home.

We also sampled some yummy yogurt in cute ceramic crocks, but since it was perishable, we couldn't buy it. After much hemming and hawing, we bought a jar of fig and plum preserves and a jar of pear-vanilla butter from June Taylor Jams to give as gifts. I'd love to buy some for ourselves as well, but we have too many half-used jars of jam in our fridge door as it is. But I bet if we had good jam, we'd be more inclined to use it in a timely manner.

We wanted to try food from a few different places for lunch, so we split a crab cake sandwich from the Hayes Street Grill stand and two buffalo tacos from the Prather Ranch grill. The tacos were enjoyable, but the crab cake sandwich really stood out as the winner. So good!

We then went inside the Ferry Building so that I could try the hijiki and edamame salad at Delica rf-1. Patrick wasn't impressed, but I enjoyed it very much. The salad was well-composed texturally, and the flavor was pretty good. I'd get it again.

And then, of course, we had to stop at Miette and buy some Parisian macarons (chocolate-mandarin, grapefruit, pistachio). They're just so good! I think the pistachio was the best of the three, but they were all awesome. I need to learn to make proper macarons at home.

Next, we walked down Hayes Street, doing a little shopping. I totally loved Lavish. Their main thing is cute baby stuff, but they also have letterpress cards and other grown-up items. I bought a few cards to replenish our emergency card supply (as well as a holiday card that was too cute to pass up), and I pawed all of the baby stuff. They had the softest baby blankets ever, lined with nubbly material. I wanted one for myself! I also admired a set of 26 3x3" paintings, one for each letter of the alphabet, by Bishop Lennon. My favorite was the "h" painting, which featured a honeybear. However, each painting was $50. I need to learn to improve my painting skills so I can make something similar on the cheap.

Next, we took a rather unpleasant bus ride to Pacific Heights and looked around Paper Source briefly. We stopped for hot chocolate at Bittersweet again. This time we shared a classic hot chocolate, and it was exactly what hot chocolate should be. They know what they're doing.

As agreed upon two weeks ago, we returned to Alta Plaza Park and climbed all the stairs to the top. The view was nice, and there were lots of dogs and kids frolicking around us. Too bad it was so cold!

We chose to forgo the bus ride and ended up walking back to Hayes Street to have dinner at Suppenkuche, a popular German restaurant. Patrick had been there before, but this was my first visit. We got there around half an hour after they'd opened, and the place was already pretty full. We waited at the bar for ~30 minutes to be seated, but we didn't mind. Patrick had a beer, and I admired their ceiling decorations. I tried to take a picture of them, but it didn't turn out. A variety of things were suspended from the ceiling by fishing twine--tree branches, small disco balls, and a water faucet. There was also a flock of butterflies made of white paper (or thin metal?) affixed to the ceiling. It was such a beautiful display. I totally wasn't expecting such attractive decor from a German restaurant, but it fit quite well. This photo gives the general idea, but when we visited, the butterflies were pinned to the ceiling, not suspended).

We were seated at a long, beautiful wood table, next to a family of 6. There was enough space at the table that we weren't encroaching on our neighbors' space and could ignore each other pleasantly. Our friendly waitress brought us a basket of seeded bread, including a dense, dark rye (not as dense as the bread we had for dinner when I visited Germany in high school). Good stuff.

We started with potato pancakes with applesauce, which were beautifully brown and crispy without being greasy. Since we weren't very hungry and portions looked large, we split the roast suckling pig, which was accompanied by sauerkraut and a knoedel (softball-sized bread dumpling). I got a kick out of using my rusty German while reading the menu (English translations were provided as well). The pig was super-tender and well-seasoned, and both of the sides were tasty. The dumpling tasted like stuffing and was surpringly light, considering its appearance. It was a good dinner, and we left feeling satisfied but not overly full. I'd love to go there again someday.

We walked past Citizen Cake on our way to the MUNI station, and I entertained thoughts of stopping for dessert, but luckily Patrick talked me out of it. We'll have to go some other time when we're not full of German food.

We spend Sunday in the East Bay (too much fun stuff going on--no time to just sit around at home!). We went to the Crucible's gifty craft show and admired the offerings with chattering teeth (the Crucible's warehouse is cold!). I considered buying a few different pieces of jewelry, including items by this artist, but I decided to save my money. We're not very good patrons of the arts, I'm afraid. It would be cool to take a class at the Crucible--too bad it's a bit of a drive to get there.

Next, we grabbed a quick lunch from Kirala2 in Berkeley's Epicurean Garden (Socca Oven apparently closed soon after we visited it and has been replaced with a Mexican restaurant; that's too bad!). I had a chicken bento box, and while the chicken was a little dry, the rest of it was great. I loved all the little sides! I also got a small serving of seaweed salad, because I can't get enough of the seaweed!

Patrick had a Yummy Sushi Tray and enjoyed it very much. I was impressed by the quality of the food. I'd definitely stop there again for a quick lunch (though the Cheeseboard Collective is enticing as well).

That afternoon, Patrick went to Tree and Andrew's place to play some Wii while I attended Shuna's pie dough class at Poulet (I wish Poulet were closer to us, as it seemed like a good place to pick up a snack or dinner). I was a little nervous about attending a class full of people I didn't know, but I didn't need to worry. There were about 6 other people there (including Sam and Teresa), and they were all very friendly.

Shuna did a great job teaching the class. She gave us lots of useful technical information regarding pie dough interspersed with anecdotes from her various jobs. This class was very hands on, unlike the Oaxacan class I took on Thursday.

We started out by introducing ourselves and telling the class about our level of experience and what we wanted to get out of the class. Then Shuna went over the different ways in which butter and flour can be combined and addressed some of our questions. And then it was time to go into the kitchen!

Shuna made a huge batch of pie dough in an industrial-sized mixer, stopping every so often so we could feel the changes in the butter-flour mixture over time. In the picture above, she's demonstrating one of the many uses of the mini offset spatula--pouring ice water into the dough without letting any ice through. Ingenious!

Next, she divided the dough into 12oz portions (she made heavy use of the kitchen scale, which reminded me that I should get one if I'm really serious about baking) and demonstrated proper rolling technique. One thing that I hadn't really understood was the importance of flouring your surfaces when rolling out pie dough. Shuna lightly floured all surfaces (rolling pin, butcher block, dough) by sprinkling the flour from above her head (just like sprinkling fairy dust!). Then, after rolling, she uses a pastry brush to remove all excess flour. I think this will really help me improve my dough rolling approach, as I used to have issues with my dough sticking to everything (this could also be because I was adding too much water, as I learned during the class).

After the dough rolling demonstration, we all got a chance to roll our own dough with Shuna watching and giving advice. It was very helpful, and it really gave me a feel for what pie dough should be like. I need to make more pies now so I don't lose what I learned! Below is my beautiful pie crust. Shuna complimented me on my crimping technique--I'm so proud!

Most of the pie crusts went in the freezer to be used later, but we blind-baked one to be used for a pumpkin pie. I got to help mix up the pumpkin pie filling, which I found quite enjoyable. Pie spices smell so good! And we used squash that Shuna had roasted herself, which made it extra good, I'm sure. Here's a picture of the beans going into the pie crust before blind-baking.

We also assembled a double-crust apple pie. There wasn't enough time to eat the pies we'd made, but Shuna had made two pies the night before, so we got to enjoy those instead (I'm sure our pies went to a good home). They were such pretty pies--I love the sunburst crack pattern in the pumpkin pie! The apple pie had some persimmons added to it, which turned out to be a good match.

It was a great class--I learned a lot, I met nice people, and I got to eat pie! If Shuna offers more classes in the future, there's a good chance I'll attend those as well. Good stuff!

After the class, Patrick picked me up, and we played a little Wii tennis with Tree and Andrew. Then we drove down to Piedmont and had dinner at Bay Wolf. We were seated on the patio right next to a heater, thankfully. The decor was simple and appealing, and the service was friendly. It felt fancy but not intimidating. I started with the potato-leek soup topped with crispy onions, and Patrick had the tangerine, beet and avocado salad with a cumin dressing. Both dishes were very good. We split the goat cheese cannelloni with butternut squash, spinach, porcini cream and fried sage. It was delicious, as was their house bread, which we used to mop up the extra cream sauce. We also split a side of wild rice cakes, which I enjoyed quite a bit (crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside). Patrick wasn't as excited about them.

Tree and Andrew split the eggnog creme brulee for dessert (very good, based on the taste I had), and Patrick and I split the persimmon pudding with brandy sauce and candied pecans. It felt like a tea-drinking kind of meal, so I had a cup of nice, mild chamomile. It was a good meal for a cold night. I'm glad we ended up going there for dinner.

Man, it's past my bedtime! Life has been pretty busy recently, but at least it's all enjoyable. Last night, I volunteered along with some coworkers at the Family Giving Tree warehouse for the second year, and tonight I made cookies for our company Winter Solstice party on Thursday (those will get their own post). Although I'm enjoying all of my obligations, I'm also looking forward to not doing much of anything for the week after Christmas. That'll be nice!

The Quattro has been serving me well lately. I bought a lot of cute clothes there near the end of my diet, and just last week I bought a dress to wear to my company's holiday party. It's kimono-style, and I got a lot of compliments on it at the party, which made me feel good :) It felt a little like I was wearing a nice bathrobe, but whatever!

A day after buying the dress, I returned to the Quattro and told them I'd like to buy a necklace to go with it. They remembered which dress I had bought and picked out a necklace that I think complimented it really well. How great is that? I hope they're making enough money to stay in business.

We went into the city on Sunday to go see A Christmas Carol at ACT. Prior to the show, we went to the new Westfield Shopping Centre, which was pretty overwhelming in its mall-ness. Our primary reason for visiting was not shopping but consuming good food at their upscale food court.

We had lunch at 'wichcraft. We were excited because we're sandwich fans, but we'd heard lukewarm reviews from people who had been there. Patrick had the chicken salad sandwich with walnuts, roasted tomatoes, pickled red onions and frisee on multigrain bread. I had the slow-roasted pork with red cabbage, jalapenos and mustard on ciabatta.

Both sandwiches were good (the chicken salad was the better of the two), but they didn't live up to the hype (well, taking into account the lukewarm reviews, I guess they lived up to it). Maybe it's just because it was attached to a mall, but the place just didn't feel very authentic. But if I were in the neighborhood I might go there again.

We had lunch dessert at Beard Papa, also at the mall. Patrick very much likes their Gorton's-fisherman-esque spokesman. We split a pumpkin cream puff (yay, seasonal items!), which was sadly unphotogenic. It was good, but not amazing. Again, I think I was too excited for it and it didn't live up to my expectations. It was a fine cream puff. I'd eat another.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Christmas Carol performance. It turned out to be kind of a musical (there were a few songs, but not really a full-fledged musical). It was well-done, if a little cheesy. My favorite part was a little song and dance number by children dressed up as international produce items (Spanish onions, Turkish figs, and French plums). I've never seen dancing produce in other Christmas Carol interpretations, but it was quite amusing. And our tickets were half-price, so I was satisfied.

We walked around for a while after the show, and I finally got to visit Britex Fabrics. It was a little overwhelming, there was so much fabric. I bought some felt there. I have aspirations to make something festive with it (inspired by this felt garland), but who knows if it'll happen. It was cheap, so I won't feel bad if I don't make anything with it right away.

We had dinner reservations at Town Hall and arrived about half an hour early. They weren't open yet, but they kindly let us sit at the bar until they officially opened. I felt like we were imposing, but it was better than waiting outside (it was a pretty dead neighborhood apart from the restaurant). Patrick had a beer, and I felt like I should get something to drink, so I had Eli's refresher (white peach and guava puree with lime juice, mint syrup and ginger beer). It was pretty good, but not as good as the description might lead you to believe. It just tasted peachy.

Once seated, we had quite a time deciding what to order. Everything on the menu looked great! We debated which starter to get but finally went with my preference (thank you, Patrick!): apple beignets with ham, pecans and cinnamon creme fraiche. Luckily for me, it turned out to be delicious. There were three beignets for two people, which could have been trouble, but we worked things out. Mmm, those were good!

When I originally visited the Town Hall website, I was intrigued by the duck with gingersnap gravy, so I decided to order it for dinner. It was accompanied by wild rice and spiced dates. It was really good, though the gingersnap gravy wasn't quite as sweet as I'd anticipated. It tasted more like Chinese five-spice than gingersnaps. But I was still glad to have ordered it.

Patrick, at his brother's recommendation, had the Old Bay fried chicken with brussels sprouts and biscuits and gravy. The brussels sprouts were nice and roasted, just like they should be. The portion of chicken was very generous, and it was exactly how fried chicken should be. The biscuits and gravy were the best part, in my opinion. I'd be hard-pressed to choose between the biscuits at Elite Cafe and these biscuits. Both were awesome!

For dessert, we split the butterscotch-chocolate pot de creme topped with shards of buttercrunch. We would've been happy with a dessert half the size. But it was so delicious that we ate the whole thing anyway and then groaned with fullness on our walk back to the Caltrain station. I also had a pot of peppermint-lavender tea, which I had hoped would aid digestion of the large meal I'd just eaten. Maybe it helped a little.

It was a good meal. I would happily go there again.

Wow, I wish we had a house so we could get Shawn Lovell to make lots of custom metal items for it! My favorites: this firescreen, this railing, this gate, this bed. Link via Love Forever.