Things have been so busy that I haven't had time to write about our excellent adventure in the Pacific NW! Here's my account of the Seattle part of things. Portland will be along sooner or later...

Thursday, July 12

We flew to Seattle on Thursday night, after work. The only notable thing about the flight was that there was a Buddhist monk a few rows ahead of us, and I really liked his bag (it was similar to this one). It feels wrong to covet a Buddhist monk's bag. But it was so nice and simple!

We once again stayed at Ashly and Isaac's house in Ravenna, but this time they weren't there (they chose to go camping instead of doing the Seattle to Portland ride this year). It's too bad they weren't around this year. I would've gushed about how much I like their house, especially their new wall hanging, which they apparently won at a school auction. I hope someday our kids go to a school that produces such nice art.

Although Ashly, Isaac, and children weren't around, we weren't the only ones there. A family friend was staying in the basement for a few days, and the house sitter (a very nice woman named Emily who gave me some good recommendations on places to go in Seattle) stopped in while we were there. And there was a kitten! Her name is Sally, and she is very cute and very mischievous. I was kind of afraid of her because she chased everybody around trying to attack them. But in a cute way. The older cat, Maggie, was not at all happy about Sally's antics. But she made our visit much more entertaining!

Andrew showed up an hour or so after we arrived. He had driven the bikes up from the Bay Area, so his day must have been much more exhausting than ours. Despite that, he offered to sleep on the living room floor and let us have the sofa bed. It was very brave of him to sleep in the same room as the kitten.

Friday, July 13

On Friday morning, it was raining! In July! We picked up Tree at the airport and then headed downtown for breakfast. It was a bit of a hike to Julia's on Broadway, but not too bad. This Julia's was decorated very differently from the Wallingford location (which I'd gone to last year), but the menu was the same. Apparently there are drag queen performances during dinner. Breakfast was much tamer--nobody was in drag.

We split a Cinnamon Yum Yum, which was a cinnamon roll, halved and given the French toast treatment, then drizzled with butter and syrup. Very decadent, and tasty, of course. Patrick and I went halvsies on our breakfast items, sharing a scramble and a banana-caramelized-walnut buttermilk pancake (you can order just 1 pancake instead of a stack, which is nice). The scramble was good, and the pancake was delicious. I'd definitely get it again (and maybe not split it with Patrick next time).

When we walked past B & O Espresso, I stopped in to pick up a hot cocoa to go, because they are reputed to have the best hot chocolate in Seattle (that was the note I'd made on my to-visit list; I'm not sure who made that claim). It was definitely good hot chocolate. I'd get it again, were I in the neighborhood. I like their logo too.

Next, we stopped at REI to pick up the StP packets. It's a cool store. On the way out, we spotted a large dog trying on some doggie hiking boots (or something). The dog shoes came in tiny little shoe boxes, and this dog was not happy about the situation. It was walking around agitatedly, shaking its legs and trying to get the booties off. Poor doggie. It was a pretty funny scene though.

We decided to head to Salumi for lunch. The drive over was a little harrowing, as I had failed to note if it was on 3rd Ave South or North on my map. Luckily, Tree's iPhone saved the day, and we didn't get too lost. (Tree and Andrew both got iPhones recently, and they came in very handy during our trip. It made us much more interested in getting iPhones of our own. Ever since our trip up north, I've found myself frequently lamenting the fact that we don't have iPhones. If we did, we could look up an obscure fact or get store hours or directions to our destination. Ah, to have the Internet at your fingertips whenever you need it. But perhaps it's better to live in ignorance some of the time)

When we got to Salumi, the line was out the door, and we had no idea how long the wait would be, so we walked to McCoy's Firehouse for lunch instead. I think it was Andrew who said that the decorations (fireman and police regalia hanging on the walls) were reminiscent of a chain restaurant, except that these were authentic, so I guess it's just that chain restaurants are imitating restaurants like McCoy's. We sat near the bar, across from a guy who played video poker the whole time we were there. The atmosphere didn't wow me, but our waitress was friendly, and the food was good. Tree and I split the beef brisket sandwich. Yum!

After some more stressful downtown driving, we headed back to the house for a much-needed kitten break. There was also some napping and some iPhone usage. This picture of Tree and Andrew pretty much sums up our visit to Seattle--kittens and iPhones. It was nice that we were able to relax on our vacation. Sometimes I forget about that part and just spend the whole time trying to see everything that I possibly can. I think this vacation had a good mix of exploring and hanging out.

Around dinnertime, we headed up to Ballard (using the iPhone to find the best route there, as we've had trouble getting there in the past). We stopped in at the locks, but there weren't as many fish there as last year. It was still fun to watch for jumping salmon. I guess I looked pretty intense (or distraught?), judging by this picture Patrick took.

We hightailed it back to Market St. so we could check out a few stores before closing time (Patrick and Andrew may not have been as excited about the shopping parts of the trip as I was; sorry guys). First, we stopped at Cookies, which was a pretty small store, full of cookie cutters and other cookie accoutrements (sprinkles, aprons, cookie jars). Certainly a good resource if you're in the neighborhood, but it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped it would be.

Next we stopped at Velouria, which turned out to be a great find. It was packed full of cute indie arts and crafts. Tree bought a wallet and necklace (and admired these umbrellas, as did I). I bought a Portland-style engineer's cap (by Mona Lucy) in olive corduroy and rust lace (my favorite Portland house paint color combination, as you may recall). We saw short-brimmed hats all over Portland on our last visit, but I don't think they've caught on in the Bay Area. Maybe I'll be a trend setter. Or not... Here I am looking official (or maybe a little angry?) in my new hat. I think it looks cuter in person.

We also stopped at Market St. Shoes, which had all sorts of exciting shoes, but it would've been especially mean of me to try on shoes when people were hungry for dinner and tired of shopping. Our final stop was Tableau, a home goods boutique. They had just closed, and when the shopkeeper saw us looking in the window, she came out and offered to let us look around. We felt bad, since she was closed, but how could we refuse such a kind offer? Neither of us bought anything, but they carried all sorts of nice things, and, as Tree pointed out, it was all really thoughtfully displayed. Worth a second visit when we're not as rushed.

We walked down Market Street to the Hi-Life for dinner. It's located in a beautifully renovated firehouse (pole still intact), and the menu features a different wine-producing region every few months (it was Napa on our visit). The food exceeded my expectations, and I really liked the decor--airy and open, with lots of wood and exposed brick. I'd definitely go there again. Here I am sporting my purple Keens in front of the restaurant. (I wore the Keens throughout the visit, and they were very comfortable right from the get-go. And maybe not quite as ugly as I originally thought)

The drinks were quite attractive. Patrick had an Arnold Palmer (with a very nice separation of Arnold and Palmer), and Tree had a Berrito--a strawberry mojito.

Tree and Andrew split a small dish of awesome macaroni and cheese (they let me steal a bite--what good friends!) and a pizza. Patrick got pizza too, which turned out to be a good choice. Although my dinner (porterhouse pork with Laura Chenel mashed potatoes and braised greens, with a side of watermelon-jicama salad) was good, the pizzas were better. Next time...

We skipped dessert at the Hi-Life because we were only a block away from our beloved Cupcake Royale! We enjoyed their cupcakes so much last year that there was no question that we would make a return visit. I had a vanilla coconut bunny (vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and fluffy coconut), though in retrospect, chocolate cake might have been a better choice than vanilla. It was good and all, but I like the Orange You Glad (chocolate cake with orange-infused buttercream) even better. Here's a shot of Andrew's Peppermint Party (aren't nonpareils the cutest?!).

I admired the art on display at Cupcake Royale (by Scott Erickson), but it was too pricey to buy on a whim. However, I took a picture of one of our favorites, and maybe someday I will paint something similar. I'm not a very original artist, sad to say. One of the things I liked about the painting, which isn't captured here, was the subtle texture of the sky. It wasn't just flat white; there were circles and lines of slightly different shades superimposed on the background. I also really liked this painting of his.

After our cupcake dessert, we headed home for some bike maintenance and last-minute ride preparations (or exploring-Seattle preparations, in my case).

Saturday, July 14

We woke up early on Saturday so Patrick, Tree, and Andrew could start their ride. I shuttled their gear to the ride start, which was full of people on bikes, as it was last year. After wishing them well, I returned to the house and got ready for a day of exploring. Last year, I spent a lot of my time walking, but this year I realized that Seattle is a little too big to walk around, so I drove everywhere. I felt kind of bad about it, but I was able to cover a lot more ground.

First I went to Dish for breakfast. It's in an industrial area (soon to be urbanly renewed, I suspect), not too far from Ballard. I grabbed a seat at the counter and perused the menu. It was pretty standard breakfast fare. Although many things looked good, I was compelled to order the Seattle to Portland scramble (spinach, bacon, cheddar, tomatoes) in honor of the ride. I thought about ordering a scone, since you don't see those on breakfast menus very often, but I went with an English muffin instead (I seem to have English muffin cravings pretty frequently, for some reason). Although my breakfast was yummy, I suffered a little pang of ordering regret when I saw the waitress carrying the fruit and yogurt plate to another table. It had a beautiful array of fruit (including cherries!), and it looked so healthy and delicious. Oh well!

I had a good view of the kitchen past the shelves of hot sauce opposite the counter, and it looked like an honest operation. It was a pretty small place, and the kitchen looked cramped, but the cooks seemed to be doing just fine. One of them was putting together a Mickey Mouse pancake while I was waiting for my breakfast. When I was little, we used to go to a little cafe on the corner, and I would get Mickey Mouse pancakes. I'm glad restaurants still do that.

After breakfast, I drove up to Ballard proper. My primary goal was to revisit Market St. Shoes to try some things on, but they weren't open yet, so I stopped in at Caffe Fiore to pass the time. It was a pretty little coffee shop, in a relatively new location, it seemed. It was almost too pretty and polished, like a Starbucks in disguise. I think part of the problem was that it wasn't established yet, so there weren't any regulars there. It didn't feel cozy yet. But I hope it'll succeed. I really like the concept and the decor. I think I'd enjoy hanging out there if I lived in the neighborhood. Certainly a fine place to grab a snack and use the bathroom while waiting for the shoe store to open.

I wasn't able to make it to Mighty O on this visit, so I was excited to see that Caffe Fiore sold a selection of their donuts, along with items from the Essential Baking Company (another bakery I'd like to visit someday). I opted for a cute mini lemon-poppyseed donut. What a great idea--who can resist a mini donut? I also ordered a cup of tea because it seemed weird to just order a mini donut and nothing else. It was a tasty donut, but I'd still love to go to the source and try one hot out of the fryer.

When the shoe store opened, I walked in and selected a few pairs to try on. Unfortunately, they were out of my size in every style I liked. The salesgirl was intent on selling me some shoes despite this setback, and she tried her best to get me to buy something. I humored her and tried on some too-small shoes, but in the end I had to leave empty-handed. I did write down the brand of the shoes I liked the most, and when I got home I ordered them from Zappos, so all was not lost (I've since received them, but I haven't made a final decision on whether I'll keep them or not--they're cute, but in a practical German way. Very comfy though).

I explored Ballard Ave. a little, stopping in at an apothecary--Dandelion Botanical Co.--which was staffed by a very friendly man who seemed excited to have a customer; I felt bad telling him that I was from California and wouldn't be returning regularly. It was a very aesthetically pleasing store, the walls lined with big jars and the counter punctuated by old-fashioned balances. They also had some nice wooden jewelry. I turned down his offer of freshly brewed tea (a concoction of his own design), though I should have tried some. I was all tea'd out after my visit to Caffe Fiore.

I also visited Camelion Design, yet another home furnishings boutique. Also full of good stuff, but I didn't buy anything. I think I liked Tableau a little better, but that may have been because the saleslady was friendlier.

Next, I drove up to Phinney Ave. to visit the Frock Shop. It's a cute little store, stuffed with pretty dresses, as well as a few cards, shoes, purses, and other gifty items. I could've spent hours there, I think. I ended up buying one of their bread-and-butter dresses (in a black and white graphic leaf print) by Purple Rain. The dress is made of a silky jersey fabric with a surplice neckline and tie back. It's reputedly flattering on almost everybody (they sell a lot of them--thus the "bread-and-butter" moniker), and I certainly liked the way it looked on me. The owner mentioned that she was working on designing a signature Frock Shop dress, which would be made by a local sewing operation in Seattle. That would be cool!

I also bought a sweet purse, made by the shop's owner, Suzy Fairchild. I was excited to learn that it was a one-of-a-kind purse (I'm easily impressed). It's a little shallower than my normal purse, which exposes the purse contents to potential pickpockets, but as long as I keep it wedged under my arm, I think it'll be fine. I plan on using it as my cute weekend purse, not my everyday purse. It makes me happy :)

I also stopped in at Lil Paisley, a small vintage jewelry shop next door to the Frock Shop. The owner was very helpful (and wearing one of the Frock Shop's bread-and-butter dresses herself), but I didn't end up buying anything from her.

Phinney Ridge seems like a sweet little up-and-coming neighborhood. I walked by the community center, where they have a weekly farmers' market (I didn't manage to make it to a single farmers' market in Seattle or Portland this time, which was too bad). I stopped in at Red Mill Burgers, named one of GQ Magazine's "20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die." With such a ringing endorsement, how could I miss it?

It was a tiny restaurant, crowded with people waiting to order, but the line moved at a reasonable speed. Although I'm not a burger aficionado, I went with the Red Onion Jam Burger (a hamburger topped with lettuce, tomato, their special Mill Sauce, and a pile of caramelized red onions). I ate it on a little patch of grass across the street, shaded by a tree and surrounded by flowers. It was a pleasant lunch, if a little messy. I would certainly recommend their hamburgers, but their sparkling lemonade was too sweet for me. I'd go for root beer next time. Here's a shot of the crazy stack 'o' bacon behind the counter (I asked the girl who wrapped the burgers if I could take a picture; she seemed unsure as to why I wanted a picture of all that bacon).

It was about time to head out to Portland, so I returned to the house one last time and got everything loaded up. I tried to play with the kitten, but she was more intent on clawing her way up the couch in order to pounce on Maggie (Maggie did not appreciate this one bit!). On an unrelated note, I think her collar compliments her fur quite nicely!

It was time to drive down to Portland in the midday heat, in a car without air conditioning. Is that better or worse than riding a bike between Seattle and Portland (202 miles)? I'm not sure...

Since the 4th of July fell mid-week, I took Thursday and Friday off and enjoyed a nice long 5-day weekend. I did a little relaxing, got some stuff done, and even made it up to the city for a day. It was a satisfying break.

Unlike last year, we stayed close to home on the 4th. I'd heard good things about the Palo Alto Chili Cook Off, so we rode our bikes over to check it out. The line for chili tasting kits and tickets was in the sun, and by the time we'd gotten all set to eat chili, we were hot and sweaty. So we had sno cones instead and watched some people line dancing.

After cooling off for a bit, we went off to sample chili. We tasted chili from Rose and Crown and Papa's Chili, but then right when we got to the front of the line at the third booth (Capsaicin Sensation), they ran out of chili. All of the other booths ran out around the same time. It was kind of disappointing, but we got Drumsticks from the ice cream stand, which made us feel better. Next year we'll have to remember to start getting chili right when the tasting starts. It goes quickly!

I'm glad we went to the chili cook off. It was good, clean fun. We rode our bikes home and lazed around the rest of the day. We decided not to go out for fireworks, since it's always a hassle finding parking and getting out after the show. Maybe next year.

I spent Thursday puttering around the apartment and catching up on my magazine pile. I baked a loaf of Cinnamon Swirl Bread from Baking Illustrated, to use up the last of our whole milk. It took longer to prepare than your average loaf of bread, but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. It made the apartment smell so nice, and it rose up all big and golden.

On a few recent mornings, I enjoyed a breakfast of home-baked bread (sandwich loaf or cinnamon-swirl bread) spread with good creamy peanut butter and topped with a sliced banana and a sprinkling of wheat germ. Yummy! It was a nice change from cereal, and it kept me sated for a while.

For dinner on Thursday, I made a batch of Mediterranean Eggplant and Barley Salad, accompanied by leftover Fatted Calf sausages (Toulouse and a crepinette) and steamed corn on the cob. On a whim, I used 1 tsp of smoked paprika in the salad instead of cayenne. It worked out just fine. I thought the salad was pretty tasty, though better as a side dish than a main course. The flavor definitely improved after a day or two in the fridge. Unfortunately, Patrick didn't enjoy it as much as I did, partially because he doesn't like kalamata olives. I might make it again despite his misgivings.

I spent Friday in San Francisco, which was fun, but it would've been even better if Patrick could have come along too. I especially don't like eating meals by myself. I feel all rushed and self-conscious. I brought along a magazine to read during lunch at A16, which made things somewhat better, but it still wasn't as relaxing as it could have been.

Because I hate driving in the city, I took Caltrain up and then took the #45 bus to the Marina to get to A16. It was a pretty easy trip, though time-consuming. This was my first visit to A16, and I got the Pizza Treviso, with radicchio, speck, carmelized onions, garlic, mozzarella, and Grana Padano. It was a very good pizza--sweet, smoky, and cheesy. Mmmm. I'd return to A16 if I were in the neighborhood.

Next I took the bus up to Polk and checked out La Place du Soleil (cute gifty items and a friendly shopkeeper) and Spring (eco-friendly but luxurious goods; nothing really caught my eye). Satisfied with my Polk experience, I walked down Union Street, stopping in at Ambiance along the way. They have all sorts of good clothing. I'm lucky that the Quattro carries a lot of the same brands and is so much closer to home (also, I am not the Caitlin who wrote that top review on Yelp). I bought a basic T shirt on sale, and I got two comments from salespeople at other stores when they saw my Ambiance shopping bag. I guess everybody likes Ambiance!

I reached the end of Union St and hiked up Fillmore (all those stairs are a good workout). I stopped at Nest (cute, but I didn't love it as much as everybody on Yelp did) and then warmed up with a classic hot chocolate at Bittersweet (it was cold for July!). Bittersweet has the added advantage of a relatively nice bathroom in the back for customers. When you're walking around San Francisco all day, you need a few potty breaks.

When I reached Hayes Street, it was just after 5pm, and I was hoping very hard that Lavish would still be open. I didn't have to worry; they don't close until 7pm on Fridays. Lavish is perhaps my favorite SF store so far. This was my second visit, and I liked it just as much as on my first visit. It makes me want to stockpile wonderful baby items. There was a brown onesie with a pig face appliqued on the front that called to me on this visit, but I managed not to buy it. And there was a brown floral jumper with big round buttons and a inverted box pleat in the center that was just the cutest thing ever. It reminded me of this grown-up jumper, which I'd admired in the past. I don't know if I'd be able to wear a jumper without it looking age-inappropriate, but it sure is cute!

I caved and bought a few things at Lavish, including some new art from Magpie Painting. This little bird is currently hanging under our living room clock, perpetually checking the time. I like it.

It was nearing dinnertime, so I took the MUNI over to Church Street and met up with Patrick at Incanto. My food-loving coworker had been talking it up recently, and I decided that I had to go there soon! I liked the overall ambiance--spare, with dark wood and white linens and a vase full of white runner beans at the hostess stand. I like it when restaurants (like Chez Panisse) decorate with seasonal food.

The bread basket had a nice variety of baked goods, including thin, buttery grissini and a yummy olive tapenade. We shared two starters: a grilled peach with arugula and parmesan, and a salad of Golden Jubilee tomatoes with 15-year-old balsamic vinegar and garlic croutons. The peach dish was yummy, and the tomato starter was awesome. Good tomatoes are so wonderful.

Our entrees weren't as impressive as our starters. Patrick had risotto with summer squash blossoms, and I had handkerchief pasta with ragu. The ragu was too beefy for my tastes; I prefer a porkier sauce, like the recipe I tried or the pork rib ragu I had at Oliveto. It wasn't a bad meal, but we both agreed that we liked the food at Oliveto better than that at Incanto. But I'd go to Incanto again if we were in the neighborhood.

For dessert, we walked over to Mission Pie, since Patrick is a pie enthusiast. I loved the homemade vibe. The pies weren't perfect-looking, but that just added to the charm. Patrick had a slice of the strawberry-ollalieberry galette with a dollop of whipped cream, and I had a small Blenheim apricot galette. We also bought a walnut tartlet to go; it was too cute to resist. All of our pies were delicious. Very well made pie crusts. They're a relatively new business. I hope they succeed!

On Saturday I went clothes shopping at the Stanford Shopping Center, which isn't the most relaxing thing (especially since I was trying on 2-piece swimsuits for our upcoming river rafting trip), but it had to be done. I got some practical work clothes from J. Crew, and I bought a Bare Minerals starter kit at Sephora. I normally don't wear makeup, so this seemed like a good choice. I watched the informational DVD and tried applying the makeup yesterday and today, but I couldn't really see much of a difference. My skin did look a little smoother, but that could've just been the power of suggestion. I'll keep using it though. It's certainly not making me look worse.

In preparation for the river trip (a good excuse to buy new clothes), I bought some cute board shorts on sale at Lucy, as well as a nice thermal henley and a few pairs of sweet little ankle socks. I know it's all just a ruse and that legitimate female athletes probably don't shop at Lucy, but I like it there. It feels welcoming.

Later in the day, we went to REI to buy more rafting supplies. I found a decent 2-piece swimsuit, but I'm hoping to find something even better before the trip. It just seems like all the swimsuits out there are either for serious athletes or for girls who want to sunbathe and look fashionable. I want a suit that will provide adequate support and coverage but still look cute. Any recommendations? I'm sure there's something good out there; I just haven't looked hard enough.

I also bought a pair of Keen sandals (in a dusty purple color) for the river trip. I think they make my feet look kind of ugly, but they're comfy and functional. Maybe they'll look cuter to me once I'm used to them. I guess fashion isn't the top priority on the river trip anyway.

We didn't do much on Sunday, which was nice. Patrick made French Toast (from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook) with leftover cinnamon-swirl bread. I think I cut the slices too thick, because the insides were a little dry. So next time we should either use thinner bread or let it soak longer. The exteriors were just right though, so this recipe definitely deserves a second chance.

I spent part of the afternoon shortening three pairs of pajama pants--one to shorts, one to knee-length capris, and one to calf-length capris. Now I have pajamas of the correct length for any occasion! It was a really simple sewing job, but it made me feel good to get out the sewing machine again.

For dinner, we tried grilling farmers' market salmon for a third time, this time with very good results. Patrick followed the directions in The New Best Recipe for Charcoal-Grilled Salmon Fillets, and it turned out just right. It had a great crispy exterior, and the interior was only a little translucent in the very middle. Yay! I'm glad we finally did the good salmon justice.

We also had grilled corn on the cob from the farmers' market. This time we removed all but a few inner husks, and the corn turned out pretty well. Next time we'll try the suggested Cook's Illustrated method (I don't know why we ever try anything else, since they always know best). I squirted a little lime juice on my corn, which made it extra yummy. We rounded out the meal with some grilled summer squash from the cool tattooed lady who sells all the greens at the market (I can never remember the name of her farm).

For dessert, we had a bunch of cut up stone fruit (Blenheim apricots, Santa Rosa plums, a disappointing yellow peach, and a couple nectarines) topped with a scoop of leftover Earl Grey ice cream. It was pretty good, but the fruit wasn't perfect. Oh well, still a very good summer dinner, and a good 5-day weekend.

July is a big vacation month. This upcoming weekend is the Seattle to Portland bike ride. We had such a good time last year that we decided to do it again. I will once again be driving between Seattle and Portland because I'm a wuss :) I'm looking forward to our trip. There's so much good stuff in the Pacific Northwest!

We started the week with two simple meals. First up was Gingery Shrimp and Couscous with leftover grilled vegetables and strawberries for dessert. It was easy enough, but nothing special.

Next was another recipe from Whole Grains Every Day Every Way: Quinoa and Chili-Scented Pork Chops with Roasted Red Pepper Dressing (we used bottled roasted red peppers instead of roasting our own). Patrick made it, and since he isn't stingy with the olive oil like I am, it was extra tasty. We really enjoyed it.

My granola adventures continue. I wanted to mix things up a little, so I made the cocoa and peanut variation of Andy's Fairfield Granola from Feast. I substituted dried tart cherries for the raisins. Despite my mistakenly using twice the amount of cocoa powder called for, it doesn't taste very chocolatey to me. It's not bad though; the dried cherries are tasty. I'd make it again, but it won't be our default granola recipe.

We had a summer social at work on Friday afternoon, and I made a Fresh Berry Tart as a surprise birthday treat for the head of our HR department. I made a half recipe of the pate sucree (enough for one and a half 9-inch tarts), and I used the extra dough to make cookies, sprinkled with demerara sugar. The cookies took about 15 minutes to bake and tasted like sugar cookies. Not bad. The tart dough was easy to put together. I was a little worried by Deb's recipe notes, but I must have gotten lucky, because my crust behaved very nicely. I would definitely use the crust recipe again.

I used a real vanilla bean in the pastry cream, which is always a pleasure. I was expecting the pastry cream to be like vanilla pudding, but it was firmer than that, more like vanilla jello. It tasted good, but the texture wasn't quite what I wanted. I decorated the tart with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and red currants. I'd never eaten red currants before, and I was hoping to actually put them on the tart, but since they had little seeds and were pretty tangy, I instead used them as garnishes and put them back in their container before actually serving the tart. Does anybody have suggestions for what to do with red currants? I suppose I could just eat them...Or make a tiny batch of jam?

Our cherry tomato harvest got underway this weekend. The plants in our patio box yielded two baby tomatoes, and the plants tucked along our driveway (which are absolutely thriving, much to my surprise) gave six more. Yay!

Yesterday was great. While Patrick, Tree, and Andrew were riding their bikes, I took the train up to the city and went to the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market, which is always exciting. I didn't have a ton of time to explore, since I didn't want to miss the return train (they only run once an hour), so I didn't get to go inside to visit Miette. But there was plenty of good food to be had outside!

I had a crab cake sandwich from the Hayes St. Grill stand (not quite as good as before) and a large-scale fig newton from Downtown Bakery. I had brought our cooler along to carry meat and cheese back on the train, and it came in very handy as an impromptu stool when there were no other seating options. Much better than sitting on the ground!

My goal was to get bread and cheese for snacks, squash for grilling, and (the main reason for the trip) some of the Fatted Calf's legendary Red Wattle smoked pork chops. I was so excited when I got their weekly newsletter and saw that they were selling the chops this week! I'd been wanting to try them for a while, but the timing was never right.

I tried to stick to my shopping list and avoid buying anything extra, since I had to carry it all home, but I broke down and bought this cute honeybear for Patrick to keep at work for tea and yogurt. I like the sign around its neck.

I got everything I needed and made it back to the train station with five minutes to spare. When I got back home, everybody was back from the bike ride, and we had some Acme walnut levain with Redwood Hill Farm Camellia brie (the nice young man working their booth convinced me to buy this, and I'm glad he did) and smoked cheddar. The walnut bread was so good, as was the brie. A good summertime snack.

A little later on, Patrick fired up the grill and I whipped up a batch of Buttermilk Biscuits from Baking Illustrated. It was my first time making this particular recipe, but I had faith that Cook's Illustrated knew what they were doing, and that faith was well placed. Those were some good biscuits, if I do say so myself. Very light and fluffy, and they were easy to make with our stand mixer. We enjoyed them with some awesome chile jam from Tierra Vegetables (sold to me by the owner, who helped us dig up parsnips last year, though she didn't remember me). Here they are bundled up in our Canadian dishtowel (from Jen) and spread with chile jam.

Patrick did the grilling in three phases. First up was the squash, and then the pork chops. Oh baby, were they good! Definitely deserving of Shuna's praise. Luckily, Patrick grilled up two extra, and we had them cold for lunch today. The grilling enhanced the smokiness of the chops. They were moist and sweet and salty and delicious. I want more!

Next on the grill was a smattering of sausages, also from Fatted Calf: pork and greens, merguez, knockwurst, toulouse, and a crepinette. When I placed my order online, I thought I was ordering one of each type of sausage, but I ended up with 1 package of each type (with anywhere from 2 to 4 sausages per package). That's okay though; I just froze the extras. The pork and greens and crepinette were the standouts in the group, but all of the sausages were great.

I really like the Fatted Calf. They use quality meats and make awesome products, and the stand is staffed by nice people. The guy who sold me my meat yesterday told me how to grill the chops, and he threw in an extra package of crepinettes for good measure. I definitely want to buy more meaty items from them in the future. They're expensive but totally worth it.

Somehow after all that, we still had a little room for dessert, which was good, because I had made ice cream sandwiches. I used the tart dough cookies from earlier in the week and filled them with Earl Grey Ice Cream (based on the recipe for Black Currant Tea Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop, my go-to ice cream book).

This was my first time making ice cream sandwiches, and I ran into a few problems. I had thought I'd seen recipes that said to assemble the sandwiches immediately after freezing the ice cream in the ice cream maker, but this approach didn't work well for me. The cookies were pretty heavy, and the ice cream was still pretty soft, so all the ice cream just smooshed out the sides of the cookies and flowed into the bottom of the tupperware I'd put them in. I had to refill them right before serving.

Next time I make ice cream sandwiches, I'll use cookies that are intended for use with ice cream. Despite some structural flaws, I think the sandwiches turned out well. The Earl Grey ice cream was yummy. It tasted like tea with lots of milk and sugar added. I'd definitely like to make it again, but I also want to try the other recipes in The Perfect Scoop. So far, every recipe I've made from it has been great.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and ate both lunch and dinner on our patio today. For lunch, we had the aforementioned leftover pork chops, cornbread muffins (minus the bacon and chipotle) spread with more chile jam, and big juicy slices of watermelon. This watermelon was better than the one we had a few weeks back. We got it at the Menlo Park farmers' market, and it was nice and sweet. We opted for the seeded kind, so we could spit the seeds out. It's more fun that way.

This afternoon, I baked a loaf of Oatmeal American Sandwich Bread from Baking Illustrated (this recipe is very similar) to use up some leftover whole milk from the tart and ice cream. I had to use more flour than the recipe called for, but the bread turned out really well. The slices are sturdy, with a tender interior and chewy exterior. It's rich and slightly sweet, and it made the apartment smell great. Good stuff!

For dinner, we had grilled salmon (from the Menlo Park farmers' market, same as last week) glazed with more chile jam (we finished the entire jar this weekend!); Mediterranean Couscous Salad (from Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites) topped with a pretty heirloom tomato; grilled corn on the cob; and more watermelon.

We again had problems grilling the salmon. The jam made the fire flare up, which burned the bottom while leaving the inside of the salmon undercooked. I guess next time we'll need to give in and actually use a real recipe intended for grilling, since our experiments haven't worked so well. The couscous salad was fine, but not exciting.

For dessert, I made Lemon-Buttermilk Sherbet (again from The Perfect Scoop) to use up leftover buttermilk from the biscuits. It was like a kinder, gentler version of Lemon Ginger Frozen Yogurt. Refreshing, but mellow and smooth. I like it.

Yesterday, we drove over to the East Bay and had brunch at Citron. We were seated by the window with a good view of Rockridge residents walking their mid-sized dogs and chatting on the sidewalk. Rockridge is a nice place, as is Citron. This was our first visit, but I'd definitely like to go there again.

We started with a pair of cinnamon-sugar donut holes, which were delicious, of course. I can't refuse a good jam and baked good assortment, so we got the starter of strawberry-rhubarb jam, bergamot orange marmalade, and lemon curd with mini corn muffin, grilled sourdough baguette, and a petite croissant. It was so good; I would've been happy just to order another one of those and call it a meal. Here is the happy assortment (deserving of more than a grainy cell phone picture).

Patrick had a fluffy omelet with porcini mushrooms, sweet corn, and chevre, with which he was quite happy. I had the special--a dungeness crab benedict. It was beautiful. The Hollandaise sauce was light and lemony, and the English muffins were dense and chewy. Yum, yum, yum! I was less taken with the side of breakfast potatoes (a little undercooked) and the fresh fruit (good honeydew, but mushy nectarine slices). But still, I was so happy with our meal. I was super full afterwards.

Next, Patrick dropped me off at Tree and Andrew's place for a Pride and Prejudice tea party, which was as delightful as it sounds. I'm lucky to have friends who organize tea parties! Tree and Amanda put together a great spread, complete with an assortment of teas, little crustless sandwiches, chocolate-dipped digestive biscuits, and homemade scones. It was all so good.

We sat around and watched all five hours of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. This was the second time I'd seen it (I watched it in installments with my coworkers over lunch last fall), and I liked it just as much as I originally did. No wonder it's so popular.

I baked a batch of Rosebud Madeleines (from How to Be a Domestic Goddess). They seemed appropriately cute and tea-party-like. It was my first time using rosewater (a little hard to locate, but I found it at Draegers, and I hear you can get it at Whole Foods too). The cookies were different than I'd imagined--kind of dense, with a pronounced rosewater flavor. They seemed to go over well with the tea party guests. I agree with Patrick--they're good, but they're not my favorite cookie ever. I might try them with orange blossom water, which was also available at Draegers.

I was very happy with my new mini madeleine pan. The shell pattern on the front of the cookie was well defined, and the cookie backs were nicely curved, which is (I believe) how they should be. Each madeleine required a little less than 1 tsp of batter. Nigella's recipe said it would make 48 cookies, but I only got 29 cookies, so I must have overfilled the molds a little. It didn't cause me any problems though.

After the tea party wrapped up and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy got together, Patrick came and got me (he had been at a manly grilling party with all of the tea party husbands), and we headed into San Francisco for dinner. We went to Il Borgo in Hayes Valley, at the recommendation of Patrick's roommate from grad school (he recommended it about 3 years ago, and we only now got around to going).

There were plenty of empty tables, which explains why when I called to change our reservation time, the guy who answered the phone didn't seem too worried (he didn't even ask what my name was). I guess there are plenty of other newer restaurants in the area (Suppenkuche is only a block away). Il Borgo feels like a comfortable neighborhood place; a restaurant to go to when you want to eat well without paying too much.

The food was simple but delicious. Patrick had pasta alla amatriciana, and I had the lasagnetta (noodles rolled up with mozzarella in a cream tomato sauce--how can you go wrong?). We sopped up the sauce with simple Italian bread. Good stuff. I would go back there, but I'd also go to Suppenkuche or any of the other restaurants we haven't tried yet in the area. Tough call!

We walked a few blocks over to Citizen Cake for dessert. We had peeked in the windows on our other visits to Hayes St., but this was our first time eating there. They have some crazy (but good) plated desserts. Patrick had the Age of Innocence (sauteed organic stone fruits, thyme and walnut streusel, double cream), and I had Summer Snow (white peach litchi soup, marcona almond tofu, vanilla oil, violet sorbet). Both desserts were reasonably sized (I was afraid it would be too much dessert after our filling dinners, but it was just right). I especially liked the violet sorbet in my soup, and the almond tofu was surprisingly delicious.

Toward the end of dessert, a group of four was seated next to us, and both men in the party were drunk and loud. They were pretty annoying, but our waitress handled them very well. I was impressed. It's a nice place, and conveniently located near good restaurants and the opera. In addition to the plated desserts, they also have a bakery counter full of beautiful treats.

We wrapped up the night at 330 Ritch near the ballpark. One of Patrick's coworkers is in a cover band (Buda Belly) that was playing there last night. Who knew a business development guy could wail so hard on the guitar? It was a fun time. I particularly enjoyed their rendition of Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker. That song rocks!

Today was much quieter. Patrick went to the Burlingame Criterium (bike-related), and I walked to the farmers' market and sat around our apartment. Patrick fired up the grill for the first time this season, and we had a healthy farmers' market meal of grilled salmon (from the fish vendor--F/V Anne B of Pillar Point Harbor; this was my first visit to their booth, and I'll definitely buy from them again), asparagus, and yellow squash with a big bowl of technicolor strawberries, blackberries, and nectarines for dessert.

We referred to How to Grill (by the guy with the scary glasses), which worked out pretty well. He suggested that asparagus be grilled in rafts (pictured blurrily above) to make it easier to handle, but Patrick wasn't a fan. He said that since our grill is small, the skewers just got all tangled up and caused more problems than they solved. They looked cool at least.

The squash was grilled with a little garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes, and it turned out really well. The salmon wasn't quite as good. I asked Patrick to use the rub from this recipe, which may have been ill-advised. It ended up overseasoned. I'm not sure if it was over-salted, over-peppered (we have a new pepper mill, and we haven't become accustomed to its rate of pepper dispensal yet), the use of lime instead of lemon zest, too much rub for the amount of salmon, or just that a dry rub that works well in a cast iron pan doesn't work when you're grilling. Anyway, it was still edible, and we'll try something different next time. I'd like to make it a habit to get fish from the Menlo Park fishmonger most Sundays, now that I know he sells good stuff.

I had wanted to make a cobbler with our berries, but I opted to serve them with a little lime juice and sprinkling of sugar instead, to be healthier. We still have a pint of strawberries though, and I'm feeling a hankering for strawberry shortcake. Must resist!

Summer's so great :)

Last weekend, I got it in my head that I wanted to make something involving homemade tortillas. I decided to make Chicken Fajitas (from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook), topped with avocado and 1-minute salsa. Patrick made the filling in our cast iron skillet. Instead of using my stepdad Alan's tried-and-true tortilla recipe, I used the flour tortilla recipe in the New Moosewood Cookbook because it looked so simple. Not a good idea. The salsa and fajita filling were good, but the tortillas were a flop (figuratively speaking; literally speaking, they were the opposite of floppy). They were inflexible and tough.

Given these dismal results, I think I must have overworked the tortilla dough. Also, I should have taken them out at the low end of the recommended baking time, instead of waiting for the magical brown tortilla spots to appear (they never did). I guess there's a learning curve to tortilla making. Maybe I'll try Alan's recipe next time. It involves more ingredients, but at least I know if can work if executed properly.

Last Sunday, we rode our bikes to Los Altos for a barbecue at my coworker's house. We saw some goats grazing in Bol Park, and we stopped to run through some sprinklers on the way back, which was nice because it was a hot day! It was a pleasant ride, and all the exercise gave me license to eat heartily at the barbecue. I made Roasted Potato Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette and blondies with pecans, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chunks (recipe was from Baking Illustrated, but this one is similar), and Patrick shuttled them all the way to Los Altos in his cool messenger bag without any food spillage disasters.

The potato salad was very good, but I was hoping it would be like the potato salad served at Tree and Andrew's wedding, and it wasn't quite that good. I would make it again though (and maybe next time roast some cherry tomatoes and shallots with the potatoes to try and replicate the wedding salad). The blondies were yummy--very buttery and rich. There were quite a few left over after the barbecue, and I had to take them to work because Patrick and I kept eating them! I think I slightly prefer brownies to blondies, but this is a very good recipe all the same.

There was supposed to be watermelon at the barbecue, but it never materialized, so that evening, Patrick and I walked to Draegers and bought a small watermelon and ate it on our patio in the twilight. It made me happy :) And speaking of summery food and drink, I recently made iced tea using PG Tips, and it tasted just like iced tea should. I think we've found our standard iced tea. It's about time!

Patrick is a fan of breakfast for dinner (as am I), so on Monday and Tuesday we had Cottage Cheese and Apple Pancakes (from the New Moosewood Cookbook) and a heap of fruit salad dressed with lime juice and honey. Considering that they're healthier than most pancakes, we were very happy with these pancakes. I'm a fan of cottage cheese, so I didn't mind the large cheese curds in the pancakes, but I think next time I'll try blending the batter so the curds aren't quite so noticeable. I think that would make them more generally appealing.

On Wednesday, we had Salmon Sandwiches (from Nigella Lawson's Feast) on Beer Rye Rolls with lentil salad (from the New Best Recipe; Tracy's is very similar and is what inspired me to try the original). We also had Happy Girl Kitchen dill pickles.

Tracy was right--the lentil salad was very good. The lentils du Puy maintained their shape nicely. It would definitely be good with some feta cheese sprinkled on top. I baked the Beer Rye Rolls for about 25 minutes, but 20 minutes probably would have been better, as they were a little dry and dark on the bottoms. Not bad though, especially spread with some leftover fromage blanc and apricot jam for lunch the next day. I wanted to like the pickles because of the cute packaging, but they weren't very good. Too much vinegar and not enough sweetness. I wish we had more Uncle Bob pickles. Those were great!

The salmon salad is made by poaching salmon briefly, then tossing it with mayo and a few other things. Our salmon didn't cook all the way through (which isn't a big problem, since we enjoy raw salmon, and it had been purchased that day). It also didn't seem to make enough sandwich filling for two nights, so we just ate it all the first night and filled our rolls with smoked salmon mixed with Bellwether Farms fromage blanc, garlic, and chives the second night. Although Nigella's salmon salad was pretty good, I enjoyed the smoked salmon and fromage blanc even more. This was my first time trying fromage blanc, and I really liked it. It's like smooth cottage cheese. Although the saturated fat content is pretty high, the number of calories per serving is very reasonable. Plus it goes equally well with sweet and savory things.

Our most recent meal was Brown Rice Salad and Flank Steak with Asian Flavors (from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way) and Stir-Fried Baby Bok Choy. Patrick manned the steak and did an excellent job of slicing it thinly. It was an all-around tasty meal, and it let me use our new Oxo mandoline. The mandoline was easy to use, though I ended up with a lot of un-matchstick-able chunks of carrot that were too small for the mandoline. The cucumber had less waste. I'm sure there are better models out there, but the Oxo performs well enough for my needs. Now I need to find something to waffle cut!

On the same day that I bought the mandoline, I bought another unnecessary but fun French culinary item starting with the letter "M"--a mini madeleine pan! Like this, but teensy. It is exceedingly cute, and I used it on Friday. I'll talk more about that in my next entry.

On Saturday, we biked over to Menlo College, to attend my company's annual family picnic. It was a beautiful day. We ate some barbecue and bounced in a bouncy house for a little bit (I think this was my first time in a bouncy house, actually). There was a magician who told some bad jokes and had a real bunny! The kids seemed to like him. We played Bingo, and I almost won $50, but not quite. Here I am eating some corn with my eyes closed. Lovely, I know.

We weren't the only group at Menlo College. There was some sort of large summer camp, which involved groups of people walking around chanting and wearing funny oversized hats (wizard hats and big yellow cowboy hats, most notably). They also did a variety of relays, some with blindfolds. It's the kind of thing I would hate to do, but they seemed to be having a good time. We also had two shirtless guys stop by and mooch our food and watch the magic show. We're pretty sure they were college students. It was pretty ballsy of them to crash our company picnic, but it worked out in their favor.

Unfortunately, a large number of my coworkers turned up at work on Monday covered in itchy red spots. The going theory is that we held our picnic in the middle of a no-see-um mating area. Somehow, Patrick and I escaped unbitten. Not a fun way to end a company outing, but at least it gave people something to talk about!

On Sunday, we headed over to Stanford, where we thought we'd see Patrick's sister and the rest of the Paly senior class graduate. Shows what we know! It turns out that Sunday was just the Paly baccalaureate program, and today was the real graduation. The baccalaureate program wasn't too bad. There were some student musical performances, including an awesome one-man (plus piano) xylophone performance that blew us all away. Plus we got to hear James Franco (a Paly alum) address the graduating class. The girls were all very excited to have him as their speaker. It was a pretty good speech, but a little rambly in parts.

After the baccalaureate program, everybody filed outside to take pretend graduation pictures in front of the fountain. All of the graduates were dressed in full regalia, and I must admit that it was a better photo op than the actual graduation ceremony.

We attended the real ceremony at Paly this evening. It was a hot day, and there wasn't much shade, so Patrick and I sat outside the official graduation seating area, in the shade of one of the academic buildings. We snuck out pretty early on to grab some wraps for dinner, and luckily we made it back before Meg's name was called. We couldn't see much, but we cheered for her, and we congratulated her afterwards. Both of our little sisters are all grown up. We're so proud of them :) Oh, and yes--Paly's graduation had plenty of air-horn-wielding families. I guess California isn't any more sophisticated than Colorado.

We recently purchased the Firefly boxed set, as well as Serenity, to fulfill our Firefly nostalgia (if it can be called that, since we didn't even know about the show until after it was over). Once we've gotten through those DVDs, I'm kind of tempted to rewatch Buffy in its entirety (it would be quite an investment to buy all of those DVDs!). Or maybe Angel? Joss Whedon created such endearing characters. I miss them when the shows are over, as silly as that sounds. It's more likely that instead of a Whedon-fest, we'll join Netflix and watch all of Arrested Development or The Sopranos or some other show that we never got into that has a big following.

Since my yogurt adventures are taking longer than anticipated, I'm going to move my documentation to a dedicated yogurt entry instead of talking about it here. But you still get to read about granola! My latest batch of granola was based on the Classic Granola recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I think the name is appropriate. It's a very standard granola without any adventurous ingredients, but it's definitely good. I think I want a more remarkable granola recipe to call my own, but this is definitely a good, reliable granola recipe. Here is the granola atop some Yogurt #6 with a drizzle of honey, at Patrick's request.

I bought the ingredients for my granola at Country Sun in Palo Alto. I think this was my first visit to Country Sun. I had admired the smiling hippie sun for many years, but it always smelled like a vitamin store when we walked past, and it was closed the one time I actually tried to go in. But they were open when I stopped by on Tuesday, and I very much enjoyed my visit. They carry mostly organic foods, and their local items are well-labeled. They've got a pretty good variety of foods available in bulk. Their produce section looked decent, but the head of broccoli I bought was pretty sad-looking once I got it home and inspected it more carefully. That could have been an isolated incident though. I'll definitely go there again. It's the closest thing to a co-op we've got in these parts.

While at Country Sun, I also bought ingredients to make some super-healthy cookies from a cookbook I'd borrowed from my mom on our last visit (Smart Cookies--still in print, amazingly enough). My mom said that she made one recipe out of it when I was born, and then never used it again. That didn't bode well, but I decided to try a recipe anyway. I selected the High-Fiber Buckwheat Buckaroos (all of the cookies have similarly goofy names), as I was intrigued by the thought of putting uncooked buckwheat groats in cookies, and the recipe involved soy lecithin, which seemed like an exotic and exciting new ingredient.

Country Sun just happened to sell lecithin in bulk, so I didn't have to buy a whole canister of it, which is good, because I don't think I'm a fan of lecithin. In addition to baking with it, you're supposed to be able to sprinkle it on foods, but after trying a few granules, I wouldn't sprinkle it on anything. It doesn't have much flavor, but it coated the inside of my mouth with a lingering oily film. Yuckola.

The lecithin texture is masked in the cookies, which is good. They're not good cookies by a long shot, but they're not inedible (ringing endorsement, I know). They definitely taste as healthy as they are. The ingredient list is kind of a tip-off: egg, olive oil, honey, applesauce, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, bran, raisins, buckwheat, and rolled oats (plus some spices and leaveners). It's kind of impressive that you can make an edible cookie out of those ingredients, but you're definitely never going to have a child clamoring for more Buckwheat Buckaroos. Patrick tried one this morning and refused to eat any more of them. Oh well, more boringly healthy cookies for me! They'll be good for my 3pm work snack.

Homemade Yogurt

I'm trying to find a great homemade yogurt recipe through trial and error. My general approach is after the table.

Yogurt	Milk	Starter	Additional Ingredients	Mixing Utensil	Incubation Time	Comments
1	2c Straus 2% milk 2c Straus skim milk	1/2c Straus nonfat plain yogurt	1/2 c powdered nonfat milk 1T honey	Whisk	8 hours	Firm and mild, but grainy with pockets of whey
2	2c Straus 2% milk 2c Straus skim milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt	1T honey	Whisk	12 hours	Firm, tangy, and pretty smooth (still a little grainy)
3	4c Meyenburg 1% goat milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	1T honey	Whisk	11 hours	Smooth, nicely tangy, very liquid (almost drinkable)
4	4c Straus 2% milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	1T honey	Whisk	12 hours	Firm, tangy, pretty smooth (a little grainy), unpleasant creamy skin on top
5	4c Meyenburg 1% goat milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	1/2c powdered nonfat milk 1T honey	Whisk	11 hours	Like #3, but with an unpleasant creamy skin on top
6	4c Clover organic 1% cow milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	1T honey	Whisk	11 hours	Firm and mild, some pockets of whey and unpleasant creamy skin on top; pretty smooth
7	4c Clover organic 1% cow milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	nothing	Whisk	11 hours	Firm, pretty good texture, but especially yucky skin on top
8	4c Clover organic 1% cow milk	Yo'gourmet freeze-dried yogurt starter (5 g)	nothing	Whisk	11 hours	Firm, tangy, smooth, and no nasty skin on top! I'd say the freeze-dried starter is the way to go
9	4c Clover organic 1% cow milk	Yo'gourmet freeze-dried yogurt starter (5 g)	nothing	Spoon	11 hours	Just like yogurt #8, but fewer bubbles at top. Still too tangy and firm, but otherwise good.
10	4c Clover organic 1% cow milk	Yo'gourmet freeze-dried yogurt starter (5 g)	nothing	Spoon	4.5 hours	This and yogurt #3 are the best yet. Softer and less tangy than yogurt #9, as desired.
11	4c Meyenburg 1% goat milk	Yo'gourmet freeze-dried yogurt starter (5 g)	nothing	Spoon	4.5 hours	The freeze-dried starter is powerless against the liquidity of goat milk. This yogurt was just slightly thickened goat milk. Not good.
12	4c Clover organic 1% cow milk	Yo'gourmet freeze-dried yogurt starter (5 g)	nothing	Spoon	3.5 hours	Still good, but not as firm as #10.

Homemade Yogurt (Version 1)

I've been playing around with our new Euro Cuisine yogurt maker. This was my first attempt at making yogurt in it, based largely on Alton Brown's Fresh Yogurt recipe. It takes approximately 1 hour to prepare the milk for the yogurt maker (mostly waiting for it to cool).

See this journal entry for my comments on this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 c 2% milk
• 2 c skim milk
• 1/2 c powdered nonfat milk (makes yogurt firmer)
• 1 T honey
• 1/2 c plain yogurt with active cultures, to be used as starter (Stonyfield seems popular; I used Straus nonfat plain yogurt)

Directions:

1. Whisk 2% milk, skim milk, powdered milk, and honey in a 2 qt Pyrex measuring cup. Take yogurt starter out of fridge to come to room temp.
   
   
2. Microwave milk mixture on high until it reaches 180F, ~12 minutes, whisking every 2-3 minutes.
   
   
3. Place measuring cup on a wire rack in a cool spot and let cool to 115F (takes ~30 minutes with frequent stirring). Meanwhile, sterilize yogurt jars by pouring boiling water into them and letting them sit for 5 minutes, then pouring out water. Place jars upside down on a clean dishtowel.
   
   
4. When milk mixture is 115F, mix 1/2 c of the milk mixture with the yogurt starter, then mix that into the remaining milk mixture. Now your milk is innoculated with lots of friendly bacteria!
   
   
5. Pour innoculated milk into sterilized yogurt jars, then place jars in the yogurt maker (without lids). Let warm overnight, ~8 hours.
   
   
6. Put lids on jars and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before eating yogurt. Yogurt will last in the fridge for about 2 weeks.
   
   

(makes 1 quart of yogurt)

Earlier this week, I made Skillet Chicken and Rice with Peas and Scallions (from Cook's Illustrated) using fresh peas and torpedo onions from the farmers' market. It ended up being a frustrating experience because I bought whole instead of halved chicken breasts, so they took a long time to cook, and the rice burned to the bottom of the pan. Despite the complications, it wasn't half bad. I might make it again. Next time I'd use chicken breast halves and make it in our Dutch oven instead of a large skillet.

My quest for perfect homemade yogurt continues. Yogurt #5 (like Yogurt #3, but with 1/2 c nonfat powdered milk added for thickness) did not turn out as well as I'd hoped. It had an unpleasant thick skin on top and was just as liquidy underneath as Yogurt #3. I'm not sure what to try next. I guess I'll try cow milk again, this time a brand other than Straus, because all of my Straus-based yogurt has been grainy. It's worth a try. (Here we have Yogurt #5 with a little apricot jam swirled in for good measure)

For dinner tonight, we had Crockpot BBQ Pork Sandwiches on whole wheat rolls from last weekend (they defrosted just fine), with a side of Sunset's Red Cabbage Salad with Dates. We washed it all down with jasmine iced tea spiked with peach nectar (okay, it was more like 60% nectar, 40% tea). I got the idea from Super Natural Cooking.

I misheard Patrick when he was reading off the BBQ marinade ingredients to me and accidentally quadrupled the amount of soy sauce. The pork was definitely a little overly salty, but not inedible. It was pretty good (especially given how easy it was to make), but we were spoiled because last week my coworker brought in some pulled pork that he'd smoked for 11 hours. So good! The red cabbage salad was great--easy, colorful, tasty, and pretty healthy. I'd definitely make it again. I think I put too much nectar in the iced tea, but I like the general idea of the nectar-tea combination--like a modified Arnold Palmer.

The best part of our dinner was dessert--a second batch of homemade ice cream (hey, we had leftover cream and milk from the vanilla ice cream), another Perfect Scoop recipe. This time I went with the Gianduja-Straciatella Gelato (hazelnut and milk chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate pieces). The dark chocolate pieces are added by drizzling melted chocolate into the ice cream right after churning. According to Shuna, this is the best way to add chocolate pieces to ice cream so that they melt quickly in your mouth instead of being hard and unpleasantly crunchy and interfering with the smoothness of the ice cream.

For some reason, this batch froze slightly harder than the vanilla ice cream (fewer egg yolks, perhaps?), and we were too impatient to let it properly soften, so the texture wasn't perfect. Also, I think I would have slightly preferred fudgy, chewy brownie pieces instead of crunchy chocolate pieces. Despite these two minor complaints, this stuff is awesome. The flavor combination is great. I would totally make it again, except that there are so many other intriguing ice cream flavors that I want to try as well. I love our new ice cream maker. Homemade ice cream is the best!

Also, I rode my bike all around today (first to Juut, where I got highlights that aren't quite as pronounced as I might have liked, and then to my company picnic, where I almost won $50 at bingo, but not quite). It was very nice. It's such a pleasant mode of transportation (except on busy streets with lots of cars). And it makes me feel a little bit better about eating ice cream with both lunch and dinner :)

Recent Meals

1. We needed a quick egg-centric dinner (they were about to expire!) prior to our Colorado trip, so Patrick made a Crispy Prosciutto and Scallion Frittata with arugula and goat cheese from Real Simple. It was easy and tasty (especially the greens and goat cheese).

2. Upon our return from Colorado, Cooking Light's daily recipe caught my eye, and so we had Honey and Spice-Glazed Pork Chops with whole wheat couscous and steamed broccoli. The pork was easy to make and tasted fine. Nothing mind-blowing. I like Buttermilk Brined Pork Chops better.

3. Patrick made us another Real Simple main dish, this time Spice-Baked Sea Bass with Red Lentils, along with Cook's Illustrated's awesome (and simple) Roasted Cauliflower (not pictured here, sadly). I love roasted cauliflower! Due to a miscommunication with the fish dude at Draegers, I ended up with trout instead of striped bass. The fish tasted fine, but it had little bones in it, which does not make for an enjoyable eating experience. The lentils were good, with just the right level of cumin flavor. I'm on the fence about whether it's good enough to make again.

4. I felt like baking bread this weekend, and I bought a bunch of good produce at the farmers' market, so we ended up having a picnic on the floor. We had a salad of mixed greens, baby carrots, and radishes tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar; steamed corn on the cob (oh, baby!); Fra'Mani salametto; Spring Hill Jersey white cheddar; and freshly baked Whole Wheat Bread with Wheat Germ and Rye (another Cook's Illustrated recipe). Fra'Mani salami is so good! I think I should have picked a milder cheese to accompany it, as the cheddar kind of clashed with the salami.

The bread turned out very well, though the crust was a little too brown and toasty for my tastes. Also, it stuck to my beloved Emile Henry loaf pan. Next time I should just use the non-stick loaf pan. I made one loaf and six rolls (which took 15 minutes to bake), and I froze the rolls for a meal later this week. I hope they defrost gracefully!

We had a very exciting dessert with this particular meal: Fruit Crumbles (half peach, half plum) topped with homemade vanilla ice cream (I used the recipe in David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, but he has a similar recipe on his website). The ice cream was amazing. Sooo good! I love having an ice cream maker.

The peach crumbles were pretty good, but the plum crumbles were too tart, and the filling was pasty. The plums weren't quite ripe, but I figured baking them might mitigate that problem. I thought the filling might need some tweaking, since Deb's original recipe was for strawberries and rhubarb, but I didn't know how I should tweak it, so I just left it alone. Turns out the plums would've benefited from less flour and lemon juice and more sugar. I halved the sugar for the peaches, and that worked well. They could have used less flour as well (and maybe a little cinnamon). The crumble topping was great though. I'd definitely use it again.

It's a good thing we have a few more months of summer ahead of us so I can perfect my crumble (and make more cobbler; that stuff was good) and eat more ice cream!

Hippie Practice

My yogurt adventures are coming along well. I've made a table summarizing the different conditions I've tried so far (general approach here). I think I'm very close to finding a good recipe. Yogurt #3 (with goat's milk--what a surprise!) is definitely the yogurt to beat right now. It's pictured below with apricot jam mixed in.

Yogurt	Milk	Starter	Additional Ingredients	Incubation Time	Comments
1	2c Straus 2% milk 2c Straus skim milk	1/2c Straus nonfat plain yogurt	1/2 c powdered nonfat milk 1T honey	8 hours	Firm and mild, but grainy with pockets of whey
2	2c Straus 2% milk 2c Straus skim milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt	1T honey	12 hours	Firm, tangy, and pretty smooth (still a little grainy)
3	4c Meyenburg 1% goat milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	1T honey	11 hours	Smooth, nicely tangy, very liquid (almost drinkable)
4	4c Straus 2% milk	1/2c Stonyfield plain whole milk yogurt (previously frozen)	1T honey	12 hours	Firm, tangy, pretty smooth (a little grainy), unpleasant creamy skin on top

I think for the next batch, I'll repeat yogurt #3 but add a little nonfat milk powder to try and firm it up a little.

I also made a fifth batch of granola, which is definitely better than the fourth batch. Still not perfect. The golden raisins are too large and too sweet. Oh well, it's still good to eat.

On Saturday, we rode our bikes to the Palo Alto Farmers' Market and had horchata, pork tamales, and memelas for lunch from the Oaxacan Foods stand. We had a tender and rich sticky bun from another vendor for dessert. It's such a nice way to start the day. I really enjoy riding my bike around town at a leisurely pace. This still comes as a surprise to me, as I boycotted bicycle riding for a while in my adolescence after falling off of my bike when I was a kid and then being made to ride a bike for a month in Germany by my host family (it was the only way to get to school with my host sister, Kirsten). I'm glad bikes and I have been able to mend our fences despite past troubles.

On Saturday night, we went to Redwood City and saw Knocked Up, which is actually good! I mean, I knew I'd like it because it stars Katherine Heigl, who I have enjoyed ever since her Roswell days, but Patrick liked it too! It was a good time.

Granola #5

See this journal entry for my comments on this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 c Bob's five-grain rolled cereal w/ flax seeds
• 1/2 c crisp rice cereal (I found this in the gluten-free section at my grocery store)
• 1 T oat bran
• 1 T whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c sunflower seeds
• 2 T brown (unhulled) sesame seeds
• 2 T walnuts, chopped
• 2 T hazelnuts, chopped
• 1/4 cup almonds, chopped
• 1.5 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cardamom
• 1/4 t ground ginger
• 3 T sunflower oil
• 1/4 c pure maple syrup
• 2 T brown rice syrup
• 1/2 c brown rice syrup
• 1 T molasses
• 1/2 c golden raisins
• 1/2 c dried sweetened cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
   
   
2. Mix all ingredients except dried fruit in a big bowl. Spread mixture in pan.
   
   
3. Bake 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. When granola is golden brown and quietly sizzling, it is done. Remove from oven and let cool.
   
   
4. Stir in raisins and cranberries. Store in airtight container.
   
   

(makes 5 cups of granola)

Last weekend, we flew to Colorado to see my sister, Lianna, graduate from high school (the same school I graduated from nine years ago). It was a fun, relaxing visit, for the most part.

We flew in last Friday, after work. People on the plane were extra talkative, and it turned out that one of the guys in the row in front of us not only went to Mudd (class of 1998, Chemistry department) but also trained Tree at her first job out of grad school. Small world! Based on the bits of conversation I overheard, he has to travel a lot for his job, so he is living in Colorado (on weekends). It's smart--he makes a Bay Area salary but lives elsewhere so he can afford a house. It's a good plan, but I wouldn't enjoy traveling so much during the week. I'm a homebody.

Upon arriving in Denver, we tried to rent a compact car at Alamo, but the only cars they had left were SUVs and minivans. Patrick went with a Dodge Grand Caravan, the same kind of van he drove in high school. He enjoyed manning the van during our visit, and we were able to chauffeur my whole family around with room to spare!

We were lucky enough to have our trip coincide with a visit from my stepdad, Alan (he and my mom have been doing the long distance thing for a few years, but my mom will be moving out to California to live with him this fall, which will be nice). Alan is a great cook, and he takes good care of us all. On Saturday, everybody (my dad and Vicki [stepmom], Matt [stepbrother], and Eunice [step-ex-wife]) came over for pre-graduation brunch, and Alan made breakfast burritos (with homemade tortillas, of course). My mom picked up some gigantic Silver Grill cinnamon rolls to accompany the burritos. Everything was great! I'm so lucky that everybody in my family gets along.

We lounged around (my family is very good at that), and then later that day we headed over to Moby Gym at CSU to see Lianna graduate. I didn't run into any of my old teachers, but I saw some from afar during the graduation ceremony. It was very similar to my graduation--the choir sang the same songs, families smuggled in airhorns and cowbells and made annoying amounts of noise when their loved ones' names were called (not my favorite part, especially since one of the airhorn families was in the row immediately in front of us). It will be interesting to see if Patrick's sister's graduation from Paly in a few weeks will be more refined, or if all high school graduations involve airhorns.

It made me a little nostalgic, but I'm also glad that high school is behind me. I think Lianna feels the same way, especially since she gets to go to college in Switzerland this fall! I'm proud of her and impressed by her self-confidence--and by the number of graduation parties she attended. My sister, the social butterfly!

On Sunday, Patrick went for an early bike ride (using a rental from Recycled Cycles) up around Horsetooth Reservoir. I'm glad he took advantage of his surroundings. We had beautiful weather during our visit, which was lucky.

We headed to Choice City Butcher for lunch. Sadly, we were a little too early to partake in their Sunday BBQ, so instead we had sandwiches. We all went the pastrami route--Patrick had a pastrami and swiss on rye, and the rest of us had reubens. I ordered a half sandwich, which turned out to be a full sandwich with half the meat. It was a bit more food than I'd bargained for, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Somehow we found room for ice cream following our pastrami-heavy lunch, so we stopped in at Walrus for a little dessert. I had a scoop of strawberry-rhubarb ice cream in a white-chocolate-coated cone. Patrick had a swiss chocolate shake. Good stuff...

My mom's house is conveniently located within walking distance of Old Town Fort Collins, so we spent a good deal of time walking around this past weekend, which was great. One of our routes downtown took us past a pretty house that was for sale for only $435k (super cheap compared with Bay Area housing prices). Too bad there aren't many biotech/computer jobs to be had in Fort Collins. I especially like the white flowers lining the walk. I'm not sure what kind they are.

The cohousing community in which my mom and Alan live was looking especially beautiful on this particular visit. Everything was in bloom, including a big lilac bush outside my mom's front door. It smelled so nice! I love spring...

I'm glad that my mom and Alan will get to live together soon, but I'm going to miss their current house. Even though it was never my primary home (they moved there a year or two after I left for college), it has always been a nice place to visit. It's pretty special to be able to relax, talk with people you love, eat well, take walks by the river, pet Mister the cat, and sleep late. I appreciate it so much more now that I'm a grown up (supposedly).

I'm sure my mom and Alan's new home in California will be just as warm and inviting as their current home is. Plus we'll still get to visit my dad and Vicki (newly minted tango fiends!) in Fort Collins. We'll have homes all over the place! Holidays will be more complicated (especially with a sister in Switzerland!), but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

On Monday, we went to Coopersmiths and sat on the patio, people-watching. I had a decent sandwich and salad, and Patrick had a pretty calzone. I enjoyed a pint of their housemade ginger ale, and Patrick had their Columbine Kolsch. It was toasty and mild--almost enjoyable. Most beers make me wince, but this one wasn't bad. Maybe this is the turning point and I'll start liking beer and wine now. I'm not so sure.

For dinner, we made a rare trip to Denver (in the 14 years that my family has lived in Colorado, we've gone to Denver maybe three times, airport trips excluded). Lianna had plans to meet up with a bunch of prospective Franklin students at Casa Bonita, and we tagged along. Patrick was super excited to go there because of the South Park episode where Cartman goes to Casa Bonita. It was a fun evening, and Lianna seemed to hit it off with the other students.

I had been to Casa Bonita once before in high school, with Trailer Park Dave (my ill-advised semi-boyfriend from junior year), but this was my mom and Alan's first visit. We were lucky enough to get a table overlooking the waterfall (Lianna's group sat elsewhere, of course). The food was actually pretty good (I had chicken fajitas), though the sopaipillas could have used some cinnamon-sugar in addition to the honey provided at each table.

Our waitress was pleasant, and the entertainment was enjoyable, apart from the fake gunshots (too startling for mealtime). There were a number of bits involving good guys and bad guys and people being thrown off of the cliffs into the lagoon below. There was also a traveling mariachi band that kept playing Happy Birthday and La Cucaracha over and over again (I wonder what it does to a mariachi's self-esteem to be so limited in what he's allowed to play). Our favorite part was the cliff diving extravaganza near the end of the meal, in which a charismatic young couple did all sorts of impressive tandem dives off of the cliffs. We were speculating that Casa Bonita must recruit at high school diving tournaments. You don't find talent like that just anywhere.

We headed back to Denver early Tuesday morning, unaware that we would be spending the entire day (11 hours!) at DIA. Our original flight was delayed and then cancelled because of mechanical problems in Vegas. And then some lightning storms rolled in, and the whole airport was shut down for an hour or so. All of the flights to San Francisco were full because there was a whole plane-load of (majorly disgruntled) people who had to be rescheduled. The customer service line moved incredibly slowly. We were maybe 15th in line, and it took an hour for us to get to the counter. I don't know what the people who were 100th in line did. I felt really bad for the people staffing the Frontier customer service desk. They had to deal with some unhappy campers, I'll tell you what! We were as pleasant and agreeable as we could be, to make up for everybody else's bad attitudes.

Anyway, we managed to get on a 9pm flight to San Jose. This posed a slight problem, as our car was in long-term parking at SFO, but we knew Patrick's dad would be happy to give us a ride. We used our meal vouchers from Frontier to get a decent dinner at Chef Jimmy's Bistro, and then we went back to the gate and waited.

There was all sorts of confusion involving trying to get on earlier flights which didn't actually leave until our scheduled flight did (three San Jose flights, each originally scheduled an hour apart, left within 15 minutes of each other). Flights were disappearing off the boards and being shuffled between gates, and the surly but endearing faux-hawked gate agent was not much help (poor guy). I sure hope Frontier was just having a really bad day, because if they always run things like this, I don't see how they can stay in business. I'm glad Patrick was there with me. He made it much more tolerable.

The airport run-around wasn't all bad. We got some ticket vouchers, and I ran into the mother of an old friend from high school, which was nice. I sat next to a pleasant girl on the flight back. We probably could've been friends, but she switched seats with Patrick so we could sit together (awww). Our luggage arrived in San Jose 15 minutes after we did (it was supposed to arrive there before us on an earlier flight, but that flight didn't end up leaving until after ours), which wasn't so bad. Patrick's dad drove us home, and Patrick took Caltrain/BART up to SFO the next morning and got our car back.

It wasn't the most relaxing way to end our trip, but everything worked out okay. I'm glad we got to visit Colorado and see Lianna graduate. For some reason, I'm having a hard time grasping the fact that in a few months my family members won't all be living in Fort Collins anymore. How strange...Life is exciting!

(More pictures on Flickr)

Two Meals Out

1. Last Friday, we biked to Palo Alto and had dinner for the first time at St. Michael's Alley. It's on a side street that I don't go down very often, so I kept forgetting it existed. It was a small, cozy restaurant with interesting textile art (gathered fabric, thread, and zip ties) on the walls. Since it was a Friday night and we didn't have reservations, the only available tables were outside on the sidewalk. At first I was happy to be seated outside, but then it got dark and chilly, and it was less pleasant. But it was a good excuse to order a pot of Earl Grey with dessert.

Patrick started with a salad of baby greens, beets, walnuts, and fried goat cheese in a mustard vinaigrette. I had one of the specials--duck breast in a berry sauce with goat cheese polenta and Blue Lake green beans. Patrick had crab ravioli in a tomato cream sauce. For dessert, we shared a piece of apple tarte tatin with a scoop of vanilla bean gelato and the aforementioned hot tea. It was a very nice dinner, but nothing really stood out about it. I think I'm spoiled by all the awesome restaurants in this area. I hear their brunch is really good, so maybe we should go back on a weekend.

2. On Sunday, we went to Suppenkuche again, this time with Tree and Andrew (strangely enough, I also attended one of Shuna's classes this weekend, same as last time we visited Suppenkuche). We were seated right away, next to a couple who I overheard speculating about the relationship between the four of us (I ended up sitting next to Andrew but sharing my food with Patrick, and we were all wearing wedding rings, so I can see how it might have been confusing). Our waiter was incredibly nice and smiley. It kind of caught us off guard. Also, I got a picture of the butterflies on the ceiling (they're the white textured parts of the ceiling).

We started by splitting an order of their awesome potato pancakes with applesauce. I'd forgotten how good they were. I really wanted to try the spaetzel, so I got an order of Kaesespaetzel (with a plate of beets, red cabbage, and citrusy grated carrots). It was too much for me, so I shared with the others, and I got some of Patrick's yummy pork chop (Kassler vom Grill) in return. It was one of the best pork chops I've ever had--very moist, with crispy skin. I'm glad I trid the Kaesespaetzel, but my curiosity is satisfied; I don't need to order it again.

It was a good and filling dinner. I don't know how all the beer-lovers in our group managed to drink beer and eat all that German food! Patrick and Andrew each got 1-liter mugs (quails) of beer, while Tree stuck with a dainty 0.4-liter glass (squirrel!). Patrick shot me surly looks every time I tried to photograph him with his giant beer. I suppose that's appropriate behavior when you're drinking large amounts of German beer.

As the meal was winding down, we admired the beautiful pine table at which we were seated. The square-head (Robertson) screws were especially nice. Patrick and I agreed that we should have tables just like that someday, along with a wall-mounted bench.

Two Meals In

1. Skillet Roasted Chicken with Rosemary, Garlic, and Maple-Balsamic Glaze (from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook), using a mixture of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and onions under the chicken instead of potatoes; Wild Rice Medley from Whole Grains Every Day Every Way.

I've made better roast chicken, though I did like the maple-balsamic glaze, and the vegetables turned out well. The wild rice medley was a little boring by itself, but it went well with the chicken and vegetables. Not bad, not great.

2. I had some zucchini to use up, so I decided to make Deep Dish Pizza (using a similar recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook) with zucchini, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives (only on my half), tomatoes, garlic, and feta cheese. I didn't have quite enough potato, and instead of just scaling back the recipe, I temporarily took leave of my common sense and decided to supplement the cooked potato with some mashed banana (similar consistency, right?).

Because of the banana, the dough required more flour than the recipe called for, and I had a hard time shaping it in the pan. Despite all the trouble, the pizza actually turned out pretty well. The crust was sturdy, brown, and crisp (and you could only taste the banana if you knew it was there). Just imagine how good it would have been if I'd actually followed the recipe! Definitely worth trying again someday.

Two Dairy-Related Items

1. I made a second batch of yogurt (here's the recipe) recently, using the modifications I described last week. It turned out much smoother and tangier, as desired. It was still pretty firm, even without the powdered milk.

I think I'm pretty close to having a yogurt recipe that I'm happy with, but I still want it to be smoother. It has a subtle graininess that I don't like (the texture is much better than the first batch though). My next modification will be to use all 2% milk instead of 50/50 skim and 2%.

(And speaking of things I made last week, Granola #4 was much better after going back into the oven for 30 more minutes, though still too lemony)

2. As mentioned above, I went to my second eggbeater cooking class this past weekend. This class was all about ice cream and sorbet--perfect timing, what with my new birthday ice cream maker!

As with her pie dough class, Shuna's ice cream class was chock full of useful and interesting information, and I learned a lot! Plus we got to taste lots of delicious frozen confections. It was totally worth it! With this class under my belt and last night's purchase of Perfect Scoop (I stayed up too late reading it cover to cover), I'm ready to start churning out all kinds of delicious ice cream! Too bad it isn't healthy. I'll have to enjoy it in moderation.

After talking about ice cream basics and ingredients, we all went into the kitchen (at Poulet, same as last time), and Shuna showed us how to whip up a batch of coconut-cardamom ice cream with chocolate pieces using a rich creme anglaise base. She also made a big pot of real butterscotch for pouring over the ice cream. It smelled so good!

Then we moved on to the tasting portion of the class. Shuna brought in a bunch of different kinds of ice creams and toppings that she had pre-made, and we enjoyed them along with the coconut-cardamom ice cream. The coconut-cardamom ice cream and butterscotch sauce were my favorites (they were both soooo good!), but everything was delicious. Here we have Redwood Hill goat yogurt granite in the middle, ringed by pecan vanilla shortbread, roasted apriums, cherries, strawberries, butterscotch ice cream, lemon thyme ice cream, butterscotch sauce, and brown butter butter pecan ice cream. Oh, baby!

There was also amazing lemon sherbet (it tasted just like lemons!) and mango sorbet, made in ice cream balls (to show that you don't need a fancy ice cream maker).

Like I said before--Shuna's classes are great. I definitely want to take another class in the future so I can learn even more!

Homemade Yogurt (Version 2)

See this journal entry for my comments on this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 c 2% milk
• 2 c skim milk
• 1 T honey
• 1/2 c plain whole milk Stonyfield yogurt

Directions:

1. Whisk 2% milk, skim milk, and honey in a 2 qt Pyrex measuring cup. Take yogurt starter out of fridge to come to room temp.
   
   
2. Microwave milk mixture on high until it reaches 180F, ~12 minutes, whisking every 2-3 minutes.
   
   
3. Place measuring cup on a wire rack in a cool spot and let cool to 115F (takes ~30 minutes with frequent stirring). Meanwhile, sterilize yogurt jars by pouring boiling water into them and letting them sit for 5 minutes, then pouring out water. Place jars upside down on a clean dishtowel.
   
   
4. When milk mixture is 115F, mix 1/2 c of the milk mixture with the yogurt starter, then mix that into the remaining milk mixture. Be sure to mix thoroughly to prevent graininess. Now your milk is innoculated with lots of friendly bacteria!
   
   
5. Pour innoculated milk into sterilized yogurt jars, then place jars in the yogurt maker (without lids). Let warm overnight, ~12 hours.
   
   
6. Put lids on jars and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before eating yogurt. Yogurt will last in the fridge for about 2 weeks.
   
   

(makes 1 quart of yogurt)

I have been working on being a better hippie by trying to find the perfect granola and yogurt recipes. I still have some work ahead of me.

Yogurt

I made my first batch of homemade yogurt in our new Euro Cuisine YM80 yogurt maker on Sunday. My recipe and approach are described here.

I love the little 6 oz jars that came with the yogurt maker! The yogurt turned out firm and mild, but it was also grainy, which is not a desirable attribute. It's pretty good with a big spoonful of blackberry jam stirred in. After doing some online reading, it seems like graininess can be mitigated by better incorporating the yogurt starter and by increasing the amount of fat in the milk. Also, Patrick would prefer a tangier, more liquid yogurt, so I am going to make a few changes when I make my next batch:

• Omit the powdered milk (to give a less firm yogurt)
• Stir the yogurt starter slurry into the milk mixture more thoroughly (to prevent graininess)
• Incubate the yogurt longer (to make it tangier). If I start the yogurt when I get home from work and then let it incubate in the evening and overnight, I can probably get up to ~12 hours incubation time

If the extra stirring doesn't prevent graininess, I'll switch to all 2% milk instead of a 50/50 blend of skim and 2% (I used a blend instead of all 1% because I wanted to use glass bottles of Straus milk, and our store only sells skim, 2%, and whole Straus milk). If you're looking for information on making your own yogurt, I especially liked this guide and the Good Milk Gone Bad episode of Good Eats.

It's like an edible biology experiment! If I had a more quantitative way of evaluating the finished product, I'd really be able to optimize my process.

Granola

As is typical of me, I made too many modifications to my base recipe (Tracy Granola!), and the finished product wasn't so great. I dub this Granola #4, and I proclaim that it is not worth making again! (But I do love the assortment of mini latte bowls I bought at Anthropologie recently! The Tiffany blue bowl is featured below)

This granola was sabotaged by two things: (1) the lemon oil, (2) too high a ratio of liquid to dry ingredients. It has a strong lemony flavor, and it's kind of soggy. Maybe if I'd baked it a little longer, it would've been better. I liked the addition of pumpkin seeds, but I missed the sunflower seeds. I also liked the addition of crispy brown rice cereal (I used Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, available in my grocer's gluten-free section). The Bob's Red Mill 5-grain rolled cereal with flax was a fine substitute for rolled oats, but I wanted whole flax seeds too (even though your body can't process them very well). Now we just have work our way through the remainder of the Granola #4 batch so I can try out my next granola recipe!

Unrelated to my hippie pursuits, but worth a mention, is the dinner we had last night: Seared Halibut on Lemon Tabbouleh accompanied by Balsamic-Dressed Roasted Beets on a bed of baby spinach. The halibut tasted fine, but it was expensive! I forgot to check the price at the butcher counter, and then when I got home and looked at the receipt, I had buyer's remorse. When will I learn? Anyway, the tabbouleh was tasty and complimented the fish well. I would make the recipe again with cheaper fish. The beets were once again yummy.

I've managed to bike to work four times this month, including today (Bike to Work Day!). My company is home to some dedicated cyclists, and they always organize a fun party and awards ceremony for the people who participate in Bike to Work Day. There's a raffle and awards for all the participants. It was a fun time, and I won a pair of bike socks!

Of course, nothing can top my raffle prize from last year--streamers! I still have them on my bike, and they still make me happy every time I ride it! I got many compliments on them today, two from total strangers who biked past me. I guess Bike to Work day makes people more friendly, since normally people I pass (or, more accurately, who pass me) on my bike commute don't say anything to me. I'm always afraid somebody will say something mean about my streamers, but everybody is very positive about them.

I'm glad it's getting toward summer. I like riding my bike!

Granola #4

See this journal entry for my comments on this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 c (1 lb) Bob's five-grain rolled cereal w/ flax seeds
• 1/2 c crisp rice cereal (I found this in the gluten-free section at my grocery store)
• 2 T oat bran
• 2 T whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 c brown (unhulled) sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, chopped
• 1/4 cup almonds, chopped
• 1 T ground cinnamon
• 1 t ground cardamom
• 1 t ground ginger
• 1 t sea salt
• 1/4 c apple butter
• 1/2 c apple sauce
• 1/2 c brown rice syrup
• 2 T molasses
• 2 T sunflower oil
• 1/2 t lemon oil
• 1 c raisins
• 1 c dried sweetened cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
   
   
2. Mix all ingredients except dried fruit in a big bowl. Spread mixture in pan.
   
   
3. Bake 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. When granola is golden brown and quietly sizzling, it is done. Remove from oven and let cool.
   
   
4. Stir in raisins and cranberries. Store in airtight container.
   
   

(makes 10 cups of mediocre granola)

I took last Friday off to get some errands done, and I had lunch at Shiok in Menlo Park. I'd known about it for a while, but we'd never gotten around to going there. I sat down by the window, read my magazine, and enjoyed a lunch of Pork Char Siew with brown rice, iceberg salad with peanut dressing, and marinated cucumbers. It wasn't amazing, but it was sufficiently good that I'd go there again. I enjoyed my meal.

Nak's is just a few doors down from Shiok, so I stopped in and bought a little ocean (seaweed) salad to round out my meal. I love seaweed salad, and this stuff was good. Yay for Nak's!

I went to Ikea twice this past weekend. It wasn't the most relaxing thing to do, but it was productive. I wanted to get bookshelves for our kitchen and guest room closets, as our kitchen appliance collection was getting a little disorganized with our new (exciting!) additions. Ikea didn't have the bookcase end pieces (Ivar) we needed, so we bought taller pieces and Patrick sawed them down. He's awesome!

We managed to get the bookcases assembled and the kitchen closet (and kitchen cabinets) organized over the weekend, but the guest room still needs some love. I forgot to take a before picture of our kitchen closet, but it was basically a bunch of empty appliance boxes all piled up. They're all going to be recycled, finally. Here's the finished kitchen closet. I'm happy with it.

We made kind of an impulse buy on Saturday. We've looked around Harvest in downtown Menlo Park a few times, and I had admired one of their stools previously. I noticed it again on Friday when I went to lunch, and I brought Patrick in on Saturday to check it out. After much sitting and discussing and uncertainty, we decided to buy it. I like it very much. It is just the right height, and it even has little grooves worn out of the bottom rung where your feet naturally go. It's bright red, while the rest of our living room is more cool blues and greens. I guess we'll be going for an eclectic decorating style now.

After organizing the apartment all day on Saturday, we biked over to the The Counter on California Ave. in Palo Alto and ate there for the first time. It was so nice biking to and from dinner, and it gave us an excuse to get a big basket of fried food to start--half sweet potato fries and half fried onion strips. They came with three dipping sauces--BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, and some sort of buttermilk-chipotle sauce. I could've made a meal out of the sweet potato fries and BBQ sauce. Yum!

The gimmick at the Counter is that you're given an order form on a clipboard, and you build your own burger--meat, topping, sauce, bun. I'm afraid I chose my burger poorly. I got a turkey burger on a honey-wheat bun with Gruyere, avocado, sprouts, grilled onions, dried cranberries, and a ginger-soy glaze. The turkey burger, though moist, wasn't very flavorful, and the Gruyere tasted a little funny with the other toppings I'd chosen. The ginger-soy glaze was okay, but I liked my burger better with the leftover BBQ sauce slathered on the top bun.

Patrick got a more traditional burger, topped with a fried egg (hey, we rode our bikes--it's okay!). His was pretty good. I would skip the turkey burger if we go there again. I wasn't thrilled about the service or the ambience (it was kind of like an upscale sports bar). We were packed in pretty closely with the tables on either side of us. But I do enjoy variety and checklists on clipboards, so I think I'd go back and try a non-turkey burger. And more sweet potato fries!

Recent dinners:

1. Chicken Thighs with Roasted Apples and Garlic, Farro with Portobellos and Thyme from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way. The farro dish reminded me of Moosewood's Mushroom Wheatberry Pilaf. I don't think I'm a fan of the combination of mushrooms, red wine, and whole grains. I wouldn't make the farro dish again. We didn't have much luck with the chicken either--it was undercooked despite our using a meat thermometer. That's never fun. The following night, I cut up the chicken leftovers and sauteed them with the apples to make sure everything was well and truly cooked, and it was pretty tasty. I like the chicken-apple combo. I might try the chicken recipe again, despite our difficulties this time.

2. Green Onion and Sesame Parchment-Baked Sole, Braised Lentils, Sauteed Escarole with Pine Nuts and Raisins, and whole wheat couscous. The first night we ate it without couscous, and everything was too saucy. It definitely needed couscous or rice to sop everything up. I like baking fish in parchment because it's healthy, easy, and fun to cut out paper hearts, but I wasn't a big fan of the strong sesame oil flavor in this recipe. I'll have to find a different fish en papillote recipe to try. The lentils were easy to make but boring. I wouldn't make them again. I enjoyed the escarole quite a bit. The slight bitterness of the greens goes well with the sweet raisins and rich nuts. That recipe is a keeper, I'd say. I think this may have been my first time cooking with escarole.

On a whim, I picked up a four-pack of Japanese pastries (Manju from Benkyodo) when I was at Nak's earlier in the day, so we had those for dessert. I'm not very familiar with Japanese desserts. I preferred the red bean filling to the lima bean filling (put that way, who wouldn't?). The Inaka was my favorite, though the Ohagi and Pink Habutai were tasty too. The Chofu was our least favorite. Too much rice dough, not enough bean paste. We're lucky to have a market like Nak's where we can get new and exciting foods.

3. Pork and Asparagus Rice Bowl. I modified this one somewhat, using ground turkey instead of pork, brown rice instead of white, and halving the amount of rice. It's certainly not fancy, but it's tasty, healthy, and easy to prepare. I would make it again.

We had dessert before dinner in this case. I made Lemon Ginger Frozen Yogurt in our new ice cream maker, and it was ready around 3pm, so we ate it then. The ice cream maker did a great job. I quartered the recipe so it would make 2 servings, and it worked just fine. We topped the finished product with fresh farmers' market blueberries (yum!).

I liked the idea of straining the yogurt (Straus yogurt, not homemade) to make it thicker, but the finished product was too tangy, what with the yogurt, lemon, and ginger. To its credit, the frozen yogurt was fat free and had a nice creamy texture, but I think it needed some fat to mellow the tanginess. It certainly wasn't bad, just a little too refreshing for me.

I had a good birthday weekend. We headed to the East Bay on Saturday, stopping by Romolo's Spumoni and Cannoli Factory to pick up some cannoli for our picnic with Tree and Andrew. I read about Romolo's in the April Sunset. Apparently, in the old days (when everybody ate seasonally), cannoli were a traditional springtime food because sheep have their babies in the spring, and ricotta (for the filling) is made from sheep's milk. I liked the idea of eating cannoli at the seasonally appropriate time. Plus, yum--cannoli!

Romolo's is located in a boring part of San Mateo, near the mall. It's a small shop, decorated with Italian paraphernalia (and pictures of a couple who had a cannoli tower at their wedding!). Like any self-respecting ice cream shop, there were freezer cases sporting tubs of yummy-looking ice cream (and ice cream cannoli! We'll have to try those sometime). It's run by a nice Italian couple. The proprietress prepared a cannoli-to-go box at our request. She had good hands; hands that have made a lot of cannoli. She gave us the chocolate-lined shells, a tub of filling, a baggie of powdered sugar, and eight pieces of red and green candied fruit for decorating the ends, all tucked into a pink bakery box. Beautiful!

Equipped with our picnic treat, we headed over to Tree and Andrew's place in the East Bay. They gave me a surprise birthday present--a Hoopoe print from Pushmepullyou design. It's great! Here it is in its place of honor in our living room (we may end up rearranging that corner; it's starting to feel a little cluttery).

After picking up box lunches from Gregoire and drinks from Piedmont Grocery, we headed up to Tilden Nature Area. It was up windy streets lined with beautiful big houses. When we pulled in at Tilden, we passed a sign that said that the pony ride area was closed until further notice (apparently they're looking to hire a pony ride manager in the near future, if anybody's looking for work). No pony rides? Man!

We parked near the Little Farm and set up our picnic blanket on the (kind of wet) grass. I was really happy with our Gregoire box lunches. No wonder Tree and Andrew like them so much! Patrick and I went halvsies on (1) smoked duck breast with cabbage and shiitake slaw on pantofolina and (2) Montana roasted beef with crispy fried onions in a baguette. Both were great. I loved the duck, while he preferred the roast beef. Each sandwich came with a little container of cous cous salad, and we all shared an order of crispy potato puffs, which are like mashed potato fritters. Yum!

Here we have Gregoire's aesthetically pleasing take-out boxes and a little bit of my skirt (with pockets!, purchased on sale at Anthropologie):

Mid-picnic, with potato puff in hand:

Next it was cannoli time! I should have brought our pastry bag for filling the shells. Instead I used a plastic spoon. It worked pretty well, though the filling didn't get quite to the middle of the shells. We just had to stop and refill once we got halfway through eating the cannoli.

Man, those cannoli were good. Granted, I didn't have much to compare them to. I think we had some once in the North End when I was at MIT. Anyway, Romolo and wife know how to make cannoli. The filling was smooth, rich, and sweet; studded with pieces of chocolate and candied rind. The shells were crispy and light. I almost wished we'd gotten two apiece!

It's too bad Romolo's is only open 11-5 Tues-Sat and that they go on long vacations in the summers. It's a pretty narrow window for cannoli acquisition. But that just makes it all the more special. Next time we visit, maybe we'll get some spumoni! It all looked so good.

After lunch, we walked over to the Little Farm to see some baby animals! Except it's not exactly baby animal season anymore, so we mostly saw some normal-aged animals and some cute baby chicks. Awww! The farm was indeed little, but it had a good selection--cows, geese, ducks, turkeys, chickens, bunnies, rare black Welsh mountain sheep, and some pretty goats. Sadly, we had no celery or lettuce to feed the animals.

Big ugly turkey, all puffed up and making angry noises:

Crotchety old black ram, also making angry noises:

Black Welsh mountain ewes. Much more congenial than the rams. They had cute little ladders to help them navigate the hay bales in their enclosure, but they refused to use them:

The goats were so pretty and placid compared with the other animals.

Tree and I looking at the goats:

Tree and Andrew were nice enough to let us laze around their apartment until it was time for our dinner reservation at Chez Panisse. Tree showed me her exciting new filing system. I should improve my filing system!

I was very excited to have my birthday dinner at Chez Panisse. I'd been to the cafe for my surprise bridal shower but never to the restaurant. I called and made our reservation a month to the day before my birthday to be sure that we'd be able to get in.

We arrived a little early and sat outside under the arbor until our table was ready. I was really impressed with the service and ambience of the restaurant. It felt like a fancy dinner but also cozy and welcoming. Not snooty at all. As you may know, Chez Panisse has a seasonally appropriate prix fixe menu, which changes daily. You don't have to choose what you'll be eating; everybody gets the same thing. I like that!

We started with an aperitif of prosecco, which wasn't half bad, considering that I haven't learned to enjoy wine. It was accompanied by a small dish of green olives, buttery and mild. Patrick is not an olive fan, so I got them all to myself! A waitress also stopped by with a tray of puff pastry twists with sheep's milk cheese and coriander, and we were given a bread basket filled with a dark sourdough loaf and a light French bread, both delicious.

I might as well just say right here that everything was delicious. It was a perfect spring meal. I don't have a big enough repertoire of positive food descriptors to address each part of the meal individually. So I'll just list what we had. We started with fava bean crostini with ricotta and prosciutto, accompanied by a salad of dressed microgreens (including cute little white flowers!). Next we had hand-cut pasta ribbons with shrimp, morel mushrooms, peas, and parsley pesto. The entree was tender Watson Farms lamb (three cuts) with asparagus gratin and mustard greens with turnips.

For dessert we had tangerine and candied kumquat ice cream profiteroles. They were very good, but ice cream/pastry combos aren't my favorite. But I really can't complain. I ordered a mint and lemongrass tisane to drink with dessert. It came in a beautiful clear glass teapot. The tisane was warm and relaxing, and we sat for a while, revelling in the satisfaction of a delicious meal.

I love it when the check is accompanied by a treat, and we received two--a dark chocolate button topped with a candied mint leaf and some sort of almond-gingerbread confection. It was a wonderful birthday meal. I'm glad we went. I need to come up with another special occasion so we can go again!

On Sunday, we went out for a second birthday dinner, this time to Naomi Sushi with Patrick's family. Unfortunately, our experience wasn't as good as last time. The food was good (I had the Omakase A option again), but the service was really slow, and the food took a long time. Plus they seated us in the back room with all the kids, and it was really noisy. I wouldn't have minded any of that, but I felt bad subjecting Patrick's family to it. I think we'll go there again, but not for a special occasion.

After sushi, we came back to our apartment and had birthday cake--my favorite gingerbread cake from Miette. Patrick took the long Caltrain trip up to the city earlier that day to pick it up for me. What a guy! He also picked up some macarons for us to share: chocolate-lavender, strawberry, and hazelnut. Just like last year! It's a good birthday tradition.

The cavalcade of birthday meals continued with a birthday lunch on Tuesday with my coworkers. At my request, we went to Junnoon in Palo Alto. I'd been wanting to go there for a while, but they were always booked up when we tried to make dinner reservations. We had no problem getting in for lunch. In fact, they were able to seat us outside on the plaza, which was very nice (the traffic noise wasn't great, but I was still glad to be able to enjoy the nice day outside).

Everything was crisp, clean, and pretty, and our waiters were nice and attentive. Instead of bread, they gave us complimentary pappadam with a yummy dip reminiscent of hummus. We all ended up ordering tiffins, which are basically prix fixe lunch selections with one entree, naan, raita, and chutney included in the price. It didn't look like much food when they arrived, but I think all but the largest men in our group were satisfied by the end of the meal.

My tiffin included tandoori halibut, Punjabi chickpeas, rosemary naan, avocado raita, and mint chutney. It was all delicious. I can see why Junnoon is so popular. I was particularly enamored with the avocado raita. It was a beautiful pale green and was smooth and avocado-y. I ate the leftovers with a spoon after I'd exhausted my halibut and naan. Good stuff, all of it.

It was a very good birthday. It's good to have a reason to celebrate. I hope this year is even more wonderful than the last.

P.S. I was lucky enough to receive many exciting birthday presents, including an ice cream maker! Well, that one was technically a joint present for Patrick and me, but I think I'll be the one using it the most. I decided to use my birthday money to register for Shuna's upcoming ice cream and sorbet class (she of the outstanding pie dough class). So there may be pictures of homemade ice cream showing up here shortly. Of course, I really don't want to get in the habit of having ice cream around the apartment. I need to find someone to pawn it off on so I can make it but not eat it all. Coworkers, perhaps? They are a very hungry group...

I also recently purchased a yogurt maker after trying to decide whether I should use a cobbled-together method (another here) or take the easy way out and buy a single-use tool. Alton Brown would be ashamed of me. Despite that, I'm looking forward to making our own yogurt to go with our granola. Plus now that we have an ice cream maker, we can make our own frozen yogurt almost from scratch (if we had a cow, we'd be all set!).

I'm looking forward to embarking upon some delicious new dairy adventures in the near future! Stay tuned...

Although my recent granola attempt turned out well, I wanted to try something less sweet, so I made a batch of Tracy Granola. I didn't have enough Quaker oats, so I supplemented with McCann's Quick-Cooking Irish Oats. It turned out well--deliciously spiced, slightly sweet, and chock full of nuts. Yum! Here it is in our handy new Tupperware cereal storer. It's just the right size to hold a batch of granola.

Tracy's granola is great with yogurt but not quite right as cereal (too many nuts, not enough oats). I'd like a granola that can perform well in both situations. I'm not quite sure what to try next. Although Andy's Fairfield Granola is delicious, it's a little overly sweet for daily consumption, and it seems more prone to overbaking. I think I'll stick with Tracy's general baking approach and sweetness level and just play with the ingredients incrementally until I find something that works for me.

There are a few more things I'd like to try in future batches (not all at once): Bob's 5-Grain Rolled Hot Cereal, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, coconut or lemon oil, cocoa, and crispy rice. Now to plan my next batch.

Not deserving of its own entry: we had Stir-fry with Curry Sauce (chicken, baked tofu, broccoli, zucchini, snap peas, crimini mushrooms, romaine lettuce) on oven-baked brown rice and barley with baked mashed sweet potato on the side. The vegetables were all from our box, and I was excited to use them all in one dish. The volume of vegetables turned out to be much higher than the recipe called for, and the stir-fry was pretty boring (not bad, just not the kind of dinner you'd look forward to eating). I won't write off this recipe yet though; I need to try it again with the appropriate vegetable-to-sauce ratio. It's definitely healthy and easy to make.

I had a good birthday weekend, but I don't have time to write about it tonight. I have to go to bed early so I can bike to work tomorrow (I didn't end up biking on Friday because it was rainy. Not an auspicious start to my 2007 biking season).

As I said in my last entry, we returned to Mudd last weekend for our 5-year college reunion. Prior to the reunion, I kept exclaiming how it didn't feel like it had been 5 years, but I think after the reunion, it does feel like it has been that long. Things have changed on campus and in our lives. I think it was good to go there and realize that we have grown up and changed. It's good to mark milestones like that. It did make me feel kind of old though...

Friday, April 27

Patrick and I flew into Ontario airport on Friday morning. We were on Southwest in the C boarding group, but luckily we were able to find seats together. We arrived around 10am. When we were landing, I was reminded of how brown and dirty the Inland Empire is compared to the Bay Area. It was still nice to come back to Ontario airport. It's familiar, as were a lot of things we encountered during our visit. Southern California was home for four years--longer than I've lived here!

We picked up our rental car, which had all sorts of mysterious buttons that didn't do anything. I begged Patrick to drive down Foothill Blvd. instead of taking the freeway, since that's how I always drove to and from the airport in college (since I hate freeway driving). Not much had changed in five years, except that $1 Chinese Food and Donuts has been replaced by another Chinese fast food establishment. That was kind of sad. I used to love going there, mostly for the novelty of cheap Chinese food and donuts in the same place.

Foothill Blvd. isn't the most glamorous stretch of road. It's lined with chain stores and quite a few adult bookstores. But, as with the airport, it was familiar, which counts for a lot. We drove through Ontario, Upland and Montclair before arriving in Claremont.

We had a few hours to kill before check-in time at the HoJo's, Claremont finest hotel establishment. We parked in the Village (Claremont's nice downtown area) and walked around. The weather was beautiful the whole weekend, which was nice. I wished I'd brought more dresses and skirts to take advantage of the Southern CA weather.

We walked around for a while and visited Rhino Records, and then we went to Harvard Square Cafe for an early lunch. Harvard Square was one of our favorite fancy restaurants when we were in college. Now that our food horizons have expanded, it doesn't seem quite as fancy, but it's definitely a nice restaurant. We sat on the patio and had some tasty sandwiches for lunch, and Patrick had a good Arnold Palmer (it's his go-to drink when it's warm out).

A little after lunch, we went to Bert and Rocky's for ice cream (man, if I'd seen that Chowhound page before the trip, I would've gotten the peppermint ice cream!). I had a scoop of Cookies and Cream frozen yogurt in a sugar cone, which was quite good. Patrick had the Dutch sweet cream ice cream, which was good as well. It was a perfect day to sit on a bench in Claremont and eat ice cream. How nice not to have to go to class!

Next, we drove over to Mudd and got our registration packets in front of Kingston. They have added two new buildings since we were there (Hoch-Shanahan dining hall and Sontag residence hall), but the buildings blend very well with the older buildings (which is to say they are boxy and covered with warts, as things at Mudd should be). Both new buildings are landscaped with drought-tolerant plants, which is a nice change from the flowers that need lots of watering and have to be replanted frequently because they can't handle the desert climate.

After getting our packets and sitting around for a little bit, we drove down to the HoJo's (right next to the freeway; not the nicest place we've ever stayed, but it worked fine for us) and checked in. I had originally wanted to drive to L.A. while were there, but we were both pretty tired, so we just sat in our room and watched TV for a few hours.

Tree, Andrew, and Jacob spent the day driving down from the Bay Area, and they apparently hit some nasty traffic near Pasadena. Ah, Southern California. They arrived in Claremont around dinnertime, so we met up and headed to the Village for dinner.

They were excited to go to Heroes for dinner, which sounded good to me. Heroes is exciting (to me at least) because they give you bags of peanuts, and you get to throw the shells on the floor! I'm easily amused. Oh, and they have a big selection of beer, and they serve it in big mugs, but since I don't like beer that's not really a selling point for me.

We waited ~40 minutes, and once we had gotten a table, the service wasn't great. But it was still a good meal. The portions are big there! Tree and Andrew were initially disappointed because the loaded potato skins were no longer on the menu, but the kitchen still made them for us at Tree's request. These weren't any dinky potato skins--they were huge!

Following the appetizer, we received our entrees, which were also huge! I had a yummy Ahi tuna burger with (giant) chunks of fruit on the side, Andrew had fish and chips, and everybody else had burgers, I think. Tree's burger was almost as big as her head! She didn't make much of a dent in it, I'm sorry to say.

As our meal was winding down, a group of people approached our table, and one asked us if we were Mudders. When we said we were, she place a small white paper ball on the table. We were momentarily baffled, but then she said that it was a napkin ball (a Mudd tradition--students aren't allowed to throw food in Mudd dining halls, so instead they make balls out of napkins and throw those). We had totally forgotten about napkin balls! It was a well made napkin ball. These people were clearly experts. Tree, showing much foresight, put it in her purse in case we needed it later.

We headed over to campus and caught the end of the annual Media Studio show (Media Studio is a class where students make their own short films. Patrick and Andrew both took it when they were at Mudd). There were far fewer people in the audience this time than there were 5 years ago. I know this sounds cliched, but it wasn't nearly as good as when we were students. Maybe we just missed all the good stuff at the start of the show. We weren't the only ones who were underwhelmed. Some alum's kid said, "This is boooring" in the middle of the show. Harsh, but true.

After Media Studio, we walked around the academic buildings, revisiting familiar classrooms and hallways. We were particularly excited to come upon the classroom where we had Chemistry 21A first semester freshman year. It's the class where Patrick and I met (though we also had friends in common and saw each other in other classes and outside of class, so I'm not sure if it's technically where we met). Awww...Here we are, where it all began. I took the one left-handed desk in the room, as I always did back then. As it turns out, Tree is left-handed too, and she had to use a right-handed desk when we were in Chem 21A together, but she did not begrudge me the special desk. She's so nice!

We stopped at the Muddhole in Platt, which got a facelift and is now called Jay's Place. Platt is all different now that it's not the cafeteria and is just a student center. The mailboxes are where the kitchen used to be. It's just strange.

Eventually, we wandered down to the residential end of campus. A few dorms were having parties, but we felt a little strange trying to get in, since everybody we knew at Mudd had already graduated (sigh). We visited the Linde Activities Center, where there was supposedly an alumni hospitality suite, but apparently they'd packed everything up for the night, because all that was left were a couple of tea bags (not even any hot water!).

Discouraged by the lack of exciting activities and food, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Saturday, April 28

We had breakfast at the BC Cafe, which is in the same parking lot as the hotel. It's a popular breakfast place among Claremont residents, but the food was too unhealthy for a delicate Bay Area flower such as myself. Even the "Lite" breakfast options were a bit much. I guess I can't fault them for serving big portions laden with fat and sugar; it's what people want.

I had a bowl of granola with vanilla yogurt, honey, berries, and bananas. It was yummy (very sweet). Jacob had some sort of an egg sandwich, and it came with a bowl of tapioca pudding and mints on the side. I thought that was pretty exciting. How often do you get tapioca with breakfast?

After breakfast, we headed over to Mudd so that Tree, Andrew, and Jacob could register. The schedule said that there would be Foster's Donuts at registration. We were hoping they would have strawberry donuts (donuts split in half and stuffed with sugared strawberries--yum!), but there were no donuts (strawberry or otherwise) to be had by the time we arrived. We planned on making a donut run later in our trip, but we never got around to it. Sad!

We walked around campus and ran into quite a few people from the class of 2002. I had been worried about making small talk with people I hadn't seen in a while (and hadn't known that well in college), but it was easy to find things to talk about. Phew!

We went to the new president's address before lunch. She seems nice, and it seems like she really enjoys being at Mudd. She did manage to fit in a request for money, but I guess that's part of her job.

After the talk, we had lunch (Platt burgers and picnic food; not worth $20) in the hot, hot sunshine in Hixon Court with Prof. Kuenning (from the CS department). Patrick had his second Arnold Palmer of the trip, and I tried desparately not to get sunburnt. I succeeded!

After lunch, we followed Prof. Keller around for a tour of the CS department. I wasn't very interested in the actual department tour, but we did get to see Prof. Dodds along the way. He was my favorite CS professor (not that I knew many CS professors, since I was a Chemistry major). I'm glad we got to talk to him.

After hanging out briefly in the new CS digs on the second floor of Sprague library (and almost getting stuck in the library stairwell because we didn't have key cards for the doors), Tree and I ran into Dr. Daub from the Chemistry department. He took us around the department, and we talked for a while. Not much seems to have changed in Chemistry, at least in terms of the building. It's too bad there weren't any other Chemistry professors around, but I'm glad we got to talk to Dr. Daub. He's nice.

We tooled around campus for a few hours after that. This time the hospitality suite in the LAC was better stocked, and I enjoyed a cookie and some lemonade. We checked out the new dining hall and sat in one of the private dining rooms, watching people walk by outside. College can be kind of boring when you don't go there anymore and don't have a dorm to go back to!

Ooh, at the new dining hall, they not only have horchata (which they had at Platt back in the day, but everybody was afraid to drink it because they didn't know how delicious it was), they also have agua de jamaica and pina colada drink! Sadly, when Patrick tried to sample the horchata, the liquid that came out of the dispenser was not horchata at all! What a disappointment. Good thing we have horchata up here in the Bay Area too. Man, I wish we could be at Platt for the Cinco de Mayo lunch tomorrow. They always put on a good show, with a mariachi band and food (including churros!) out on the lawn.

We visited Huntley bookstore, and upon returning to Mudd we happened upon a game of beer ball out behind Linde, which was in direct defiance of a memo included in our registration folders. Beer ball is a popular alumni weekend activity, but the administration does not like it at all, unsurprisingly. I didn't want to get in trouble for breaking the rules, so I didn't stick around to watch the festivities. It's just like in college. I'm still lame!

We headed back to Galileo Hall and sat on the cushy leather couches that our class had given to the school (the couch gift was made less special by the fact that Platt was later outfitted with more of the exact same couches and chairs a few years after we left). The chairs are unfortunately situated directly outside of the men's room in the Galileo foyer, but I still like them.

Soon enough it was time for the cocktail hour and class reunion photos in Hixon Court. The hors d' oeuvres were tasty, especially the baked brie and cocktail meatballs. We got to catch up with some more people from our class, including Charlie and Chrissy, who both live in the area and luckily decided it was worth their whiles to stop by.

It's crazy how quickly we reverted back to our old college personalities. It's not like we've changed hugely in five years, but we've definitely grown up. That all melted away once the boys of OG Suite were reunited, let me tell you!

We assembled for the class picture (I wonder if we'll get a copy). Patrick and I stood (or, in this case, kneeled) next to each other, just as we did for all of our other class pictures at Mudd. I remember when we took our freshman year class picture, I was all excited and nervous to be standing next to Patrick in the picture. It was like we were a legitimate couple! Who knew that seven years later we'd be getting married?

After our class picture, the top secret location of our class reunion dinner was revealed--the tent on the grass next to Platt! We were sharing the tent with the class of 1997. We had purchased tickets for the dinner, but they ended up not checking the tickets, and I think a few Westies from the years below us snuck in and got a free dinner. Oh well, their company was welcome.

Dinner was buffet style and was pretty good--filet mignon, veggie puff pastry, and chocolate mousse cake. They were pretty generous with the wine, and at the end of dinner, a napkin ball war broke out between the two classes. I tried to stay out of it because water and wine glasses were being knocked over right and left. People were having a great time. It felt like we were back in college. I tried to get an action shot of napkin balls flying, but I don't think I succeeded.

We'd heard rumors that West dorm might set up the Octagon (an impromptu wrestling ring made of security fences and a big pile of mattresses) later that night, which was a big deal, since the Octagon is normally reserved for HHP (Heaven, Hell, Purgatory--an annual West party). Andrew and Jacob had a score to settle, as they'd wrestled at HHP when we were in college, and their record was tied. This would be a decisive night!

It was still kind of early (by college standards) when we got to West, and not much was going on. Some students were playing with a spray bottle of flammable liquid, sort of an impromptu flamethrower. It made me nervous, as you might have guessed. I'm such an old lady. I wasn't much better when we were actually in college. I've never been a real wild and crazy type. It's probably good that I didn't end up living in West, as I'd wanted to when I visited in high school. West is the crazy dorm. I lived in Atwood, which was much more laid back and quiet.

Beer was consumed, more people showed up, and a band started setting up on a makeshift plywood stage. The alumni were all standing at one end of the courtyard, and the students were at the other end. At one point, one brave Westie approached us and addressed us as "sketchy alums" (which is exactly how we viewed alumni who came to parties when we were students). He encouraged us to actually talk to the students instead of standing around talking to each other, but we remained segregated. That's when it really hit me that I wasn't in college anymore. Sigh...

Andrew wrestled not only Jacob, but also Charlie and Austin. It's not exactly clear who won, but I think they enjoyed themselves. I was kind of worried somebody's head would get cracked open on the cement (there were scary gaps in between the mattresses in the ring), but the worst injury was a bloody nose. I'm guessing there won't be any Octagon wrestling at our 10-year reunion, so it's a good thing they were able to get in the ring this time!

The OG boys were excited to spot a Westie who looked eerily like our friend Noah from a distance. They got him to pose for a picture (he's the one in the green shirt). He seemed a little spooked. I probably would be too if a bunch of sketchy alumni approached me and wanted to take a picture with me!

Drew stopped by with his guitar and sang us a song before heading off to serenade random Scrippsies. Ah, Drew. Tree visited East Dorm (she was proctor there senior year) and met a lot of friendly Easties. They were much more approachable than the Westies. They were updating the East Dorm Wiki when I stopped by. I'm in it, as is Tree!

We headed back to the hotel around midnight, just when the party was really getting started. We really have gotten old, haven't we?

Sunday, April 29

We didn't do much on Sunday. We got bagels at 42nd St. Bagel Cafe in the Village. Actually, I had oatmeal, which came in a styrofoam bowl but wasn't half bad. Ooh, and Patrick and I split a honey whole wheat bagel encrusted with cinnamon sugar. Good stuff.

We lazed around the hotel the rest of the morning, and then we met up with Jeff M. (another member of the class of '02) for lunch. We stopped at Wolfe's to get sandwiches. Each sandwich includes a side salad of your choice (I went with the 4-bean salad--yum!) and a choice of pickles, peppers, or marinated mushrooms. So exciting! I had a mesquite turkey sandwich on squaw bread, which was quite good.

We took our sandwiches to the park on Indian Hill Blvd. and had a picnic there. Patrick and I had quite a few picnics there back in the day. It was good to go back. After talking and enjoying the weather for a little while, Tree, Andrew, and Jacob left to drive back up to the Bay Area, and Jeff headed home to Pasadena. Our flight wasn't until 8pm (a poor choice, in retrospect), so we laid on the grass in the shade for a while, and then we swung on the swings. It was so nice and peaceful.

We had some time to kill before dinner, so we drove down to Montclair (Upland?) to see a movie. Unfortunately, nothing good was playing when we got there, so we drove one exit down to our beloved old mall, Montclair Plaza, and hung out in Borders for a while. I guess it's appropriate to go to the mall when you're in Southern CA.

We drove back to the Village and contemplated getting pearl milk tea at a cute little bakery, but they were just about to close. Instead, we decided to go to The Press for dinner. I had heard good things about it while in college, but we'd never been. I really liked it!

The decor was fun (strings of blue Christmas lights, exposed rafters, unusual art on the walls), and I was excited about the menu. It had a bunch of vegetarian/healthy options, which is just what we were looking for. Patrick had a tofu stir-fry (and his third Arnold Palmer of the trip), and I had the eggplant burger (a blend of eggplant, oats, and TVP), which was interesting. I would definitely go there again. It just felt like a comfortable, familiar restaurant with reasonably healthy and tasty food. It's too bad we never went in college.

After dinner, we headed to the airport, returned our car, and got situated at our gate. This time we were in boarding group A, but unfortunately, our flight was majorly delayed. Initially it was delayed by an hour and a half, but they kept delaying it more as the night wore on. I think we ended up taking off around 10:45pm. At least they gave us each two packets of honey-roasted peanuts (my favorite airplane food) to make up for it. It was pretty boring waiting around the airport for hours on end. Most of the restaurants were closed, and the TVs weren't showing anything interesting (America's Funniest Home Videos and Dr. Phil), so we just read magazines. I could think of better ways to spend a Sunday night.

When we finally arrived in San Jose, the shuttle to the off-site long-term parking lot was nowhere to be found, and we didn't have their phone number, so we ended up taking a cab to the lot (it turns out the shuttle was still running, but I don't think they would've come to the airport unless they'd gotten a call). Our cabbie seemed a little out of it. Maybe he was just tired. I was glad to get to the parking lot safely. We drove home without incident, went to bed, and the next morning we returned to our normal, non-college-student lives.

I'm glad we went to the reunion, even though it made me feel nostalgic and a little wistful. It was good returning to Claremont and visiting some of our favorite places. We grew up a lot in the four years we were in college. Returning to Mudd made me think about my 10-year high school reunion coming up next year. That'll be even stranger. I wonder if we'll even have a reunion. I hope so!

We've been busy recently! Last Wednesday, we went to see the Decemberists at the Warfield with My Brightest Diamond. We only recently started listening to the Decemberists, and we like them a lot. I know, we're like 5 years behind the times. It was a fun concert. Toward the end, they played Chimbley Sweep, and they all ended up crowd-surfing in the general admission area (we were up in the balcony). Two teenage guys got up on stage (perhaps invited, perhaps not) and played the drums and guitar and sang a little bit, and everybody cheered for them. It was nice.

Tree and Andrew saw the Decemberists a while back, and Tree and I agree that we totally want to learn to play the accordion like Jenny Conlee. She not only plays the accordion, but she also plays organ and tambourine (she played a sweet solo at one point during the concert), and she has cute hair!

We were out past our bedtime, but it was worth it. We should go to more concerts!

The next day was Take Your Kids to Work Day. I helped marginally with the activities at work. Kids are both cute and exhausting. I wonder if we'll ever feel really ready to have one. I'd definitely like to have kids someday, but it seems like a pretty daunting task at the moment. Good thing we have time to wait.

After work, we drove down to the South Bay and had dinner at my grandma's house with my mom, Auntie Nance, and a few of my favorite local relatives. It's always so much fun getting together with all of them. I like my family (and not just because they read this website :)

Both my sister and Patrick's are seniors in high school, so they've been making exciting choices about their futures recently. Patrick's sister is going to Stanford, and mine is going to Franklin in Switzerland! Very different choices, but both exciting. My sister has definitely beaten me at going as far away from Colorado as possible for college. And I thought California was far away! I'm excited to see what the future holds for everybody!

Speaking of college, this past weekend was our 5-year college reunion at Mudd. That gets its own entry (with a few pictures!), probably tomorrow.

The softball team at work has been doing great this season. Last season I helped manage the team, but this year I opted not to manage because I found it too stressful and I could care less about putting together a good lineup. Instead I just keep score at the games (using a situational scorecard). It makes the games go more quickly. It's nice that our team is doing so well this year. We're even having a party at work tomorrow afternoon to celebrate our undefeated status.

I'm also going to start riding my bike to work again every Friday, now that it's getting warmer. I took a long break from riding my bike over the winter, but it's time to start again with Bike to Work Day coming up on May 17. Unfortunately it looks like it might rain tomorrow, but I feel like I have to bike to work tomorrow or else I'll lose my momentum. A little rain isn't a big deal, right?

It's hard to get back into the normal rhythm of life after being gone all weekend! There doesn't seem to be enough time to do all the things I normally do in a week. Eh, it's good to shake things up every so often.

While at the market this afternoon, I spotted some fava beans. I'd never prepared them before, but they seemed like a good springtime side dish, so I picked up a pound to have with dinner.

Conveniently enough, the April Sunset had a blurb about how to prepare them. First you remove them from the pod (the interior of the fava bean pod is so cushy and velvety. If I were a bean, I'd want to be a fava bean). Then you boil them for 2 minutes (I think these beans were a little mature and would've benefited from a slightly longer boil). Then you remove each cooked bean from its skin. I tossed the finished beans in some lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper and topped with grated Parmesan.

It was quite a labor-intensive process overall, and I didn't think the finished product was worth the effort. But I'm glad for the experience. I've definitely had yummy fava beans in restaurants, so maybe it's just a matter of finding the right recipe.

I planted our summer garden today (pictures here). This summer, we'll have three new kinds of tomatoes (Supersweet 100s, Black Zebra, and Stupice), Crane melons, beets, and a bunch of herbs (basil, cilantro, thyme, sage, parsley, and orange mint--it smelled so nice at the nursery!). In addition to using our patio boxes, Patrick convinced me to plant stuff in the empty patches of dirt on either side of our patio, which don't technically belong to our apartment. Our neighbors have already commandeered the patches of dirt near their apartments, and the building manager doesn't seem to care. The dirt is pretty clay-heavy, so I don't know if the plants I put there (tomatoes and melons) will survive, but it's worth a try.

We've had some decent chicken dinners lately. First, there was Chicken, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes with Port Wine Sauce, Sugar Snap Peas with Lemon and Toasted Almonds, and oven-baked polenta (from Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way). The chicken recipe turned out well, considering it used boneless skinless chicken breasts. I especially liked the garlic--I'd double the cloves of garlic next time. The peas were yummy! The polenta was a little dry, but it was easy to make. I'm sure it would have benefited from some butter and cheese, but I was trying to keep things healthy, so I left it plain.

Last night, we had a chicken-free meal of Otsu from Super Natural Cooking. It's a simple dish combining soba noodles, tofu, and cucumber slices in a tasty dressing. It was easy to make and enjoyable to eat. It's definitely worth repeating. Yum!

Our dessert was less successful. I made the Chocolate Rice Pudding from Feast (which I ended up buying last week, since I felt so sad when I had to return it to the library). It was super easy to make--just mix all the ingredients in custard cups and bake--but it didn't impress me. When I took it out of the oven after the designated baking time, it was still all liquidy, so I put it back in for 20 minutes, but it didn't help much. I could have gotten the same effect by pouring chocolate milk over cooked rice. It tasted okay, but it wasn't like real rice pudding. Oh well, at least I didn't spend much time on it.

For dinner tonight, I tried another Feast recipe, St. Tropez Chicken, along with Israeli couscous with toasted pine nuts, spinach and feta (based on the wheat berry salad in Super Natural Cooking). I used six chicken thighs instead of cutting up a whole chicken. It smelled good while it was cooking, but the skin came off of two of the thighs while they were cooking, and they dried out (no big surprise). The thighs that were protected by their skin turned out well though. It wasn't as amazing as I'd imagined, but it's good enough to make again on a lazy weekend.

Both of us enjoyed the couscous salad a lot. Not as healthy as Heidi's original wheat berry salad, but I'm trying to use up what we have on hand, and the Israeli couscous has been in our cupboard for a while. I would definitely make the salad again, either with wheat berries or another grain.

You can tell that I'm excited about Feast; in addition to the rice pudding and chicken, I also made a half batch of Andy's Fairfield Granola, which is one of the first recipes I earmarked after buying Feast. Patrick frequently eats yogurt with granola as a snack, so it would be great if I could find a good granola recipe to call my own (I even ordered a Tupperware cereal storer in anticipation of this becoming a regular activity; I'm sad their FIFO version has such a big footprint--it's impractical!). Also, I was excited to have a reason to buy and use brown rice syrup!

I think I overbaked it a little. I left it in for a little longer than 40 minutes because I was expecting it to crisp up toward the end of the baking time, but it was still pretty pliable when I finally gave up and took it out of the oven. I needn't have worried--it got nice and crunchy as it cooled. This granola is definitely on the sweet end of the spectrum, and because of this it's really yummy (almost like candy). The sweetness is probably due, in part, to my using apple butter (which had some added sugar) instead of apple sauce. I think next I'll try Tracy's Granola (on the less sweet end of things) to see if we like that better (it would certainly be better for us). I'm looking forward to having a favorite granola recipe! It seems like a good thing to have in one's repertoire.

First, a few recent meals:

1. Buttermilk-Brined Pork Chops, Millet with Buttermilk and Chives from Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, and steamed peas. The pork chops were good, as usual. They're one of my favorite ways to use up extra buttermilk. The millet's flavor was good (reminiscent of mashed potatoes, as promised), but the texture wasn't pleasant--kind of dry and gritty. It's possible this was because I cooked the millet the night before making the dish. I get the impression millet doesn't keep well. Maybe if we'd made it fresh that night, it would've been better.

2. Chicken-Cashew Stir-Fry with oven-baked brown rice and sauteed chard. This stir-fry, like others, was good and easy, and we would make it again. Not amazing, but certainly an acceptable dinner. I was really happy with the brown rice. Based on Sass's recommendation, I portioned out the cooked brown rice and froze it. Each night, I removed two servings of rice from the freezer, covered them with a paper towel, and microwaved on low for ~6 minutes. The rice reheated really well! It's an easy way to include whole grains in our meals without spending an hour making dinner each night.

When the chard ran out, we accompanied the stir-fry with a baby spinach salad with Pt. Reyes blue cheese (leftover from the cracker-making expedition described below), diced Pink Lady apple, candied walnuts, carrots, and Tracy's Shallot-Balsamic Vinaigrette. I was really happy with the dressing. It was easy to make, and all I needed to buy at the store was a shallot; we had everything else on hand. Thanks, Tracy!

3. Rogan Josh atop Curried Kalijira Rice Pilaf with Cashews and Peas (also from Sass's Whole Grains). The name of the dish reminds me of Joe Rogan, but I believe the two are unrelated. I think I should have used a smaller pot when making the Rogan Josh; most of the sauce had cooked away with half an hour still left in the cooking time, so I stopped cooking it early. It turned out okay, but we weren't wowed by the flavor. I guess I should just accept the fact that we're not big lamb fans.

We both really liked the pilaf though. I accidentally bought white Kalijira rice instead of brown, which probably made it tastier, if not healthier. It was reminiscent of fried rice, with pleasant curry flavors and occasional bursts of flavor from the fennel and cumin seeds. I'd definitely make it again (well, Patrick made it this time around, but you know what I mean).

In addition to dinners, I made a few fun extras. Tree's birthday party was this weekend, and I made two savory snacks to bring with us (I think I feel more comfortable making sweet things, so I wanted to broaden my horizons). I made Irish Blue Cheese Crackers (using non-Irish Pt. Reyes Blue) from Nigella's How to Be a Domestic Goddess and Indian-spiced Peanuts with Cumin, using smoked paprika instead of cayenne.

The crackers were yummy, though very rich from all the butter and blue cheese. They were more like mini-biscuits than crackers. I think if I make them again (which I would, given the proper occasion), I would make them smaller--approximately 1 inch in diameter. The peanuts were good, but not amazing. I think I liked the Cook's Illustrated spiced nuts better.

Last week, I had some egg whites to use up (from the hot cross buns), so I jumped on the Internet bandwagon and made pavlovas with rhubarb compote. The rhubarb-pavlova combination was my idea, and it didn't work out very well. Both were pretty sweet. Maybe if there had been some whipped cream involved, it would have cut the sweetness sufficiently, but we didn't have any, and the combination was cloying. Instead, we ended up enjoying the compote on top of plain yogurt, and we topped the pavlovas with sliced strawberries one night and bananas the next. Much better! I really liked the rhubarb compote. I bet it would be good on top of ice cream too.

I really enjoyed the pavlova-making process. Spreading the egg white mixture with the back of a spoon was strangely therapeutic. It has such a nice texture! We were a little ambivalent about the crisp/marshmallowy texture of the baked pavlovas. I liked it okay, but I don't think Patrick was a fan. It's definitely a good way to use up leftover egg whites though. I might try making them again. Nigella's Chocolate Pavlova with Raspberries looks so good!

Patrick had a kayaking class in the city last weekend (at UCSF; he enjoyed it very much), and afterwards, we went to Mitchell's ice cream for the first time. They are a San Francisco institution and are known for their unusual tropical flavors. Since it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, there was a line out front, and we had to take a number to be served. A nice man (who had apparently taken a few extra numbers when he arrived) gave us a lower number, so we got to order sooner. It kind of negates the whole concept of taking a number, but we gave our original number to somebody who had arrived after us, so it all worked out for the best. I had a sugar cone with a scoop of macapuno (sweet coconut) ice cream dipped in chocolate. It was delicious, but the chocolate shell led to unexpected difficulties. The ice cream kept dripping out of invisible fissures in the shell, and I never knew where the next drip would come from. It made the whole experience a little stressful. But it was so yummy, I didn't mind a little stress and a few drops of ice cream on my shoes. Mitchell's is definitely worth a visit if you're in the Mission on a sunny day (or a cloudy day; whatever).

A little something crafty, after a long craft hiatus:

I bought some cute scraps from Kozo back in December. I wanted to be able to enjoy them every day, so I made a little paper scrap quilt. I cut 1.75 x 2.5-inch rectangles (and a few larger pieces) and sewed them together with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Unfortunately, some of the pieces got a little puckered, so it doesn't look totally smooth, but it's good enough. Now I can enjoy the monkeys and bunnies every time I go into our guest room!