Back to the Future Cheesecakes; Too Busy to Blog; The Short Post

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to cook with anyone this week due to being busy busy busy. I do have an exciting prospect in the future though- I will be making cheesecakes for the tea court where I work starting next week. I had talked about doing it with my boss a while ago but now I'll actually begin to make and sell them, yay! Hopefully they'll be well-received and help open doors to other opportunities. Who knows what the future will bring? Just gotta buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Midnight Delight; Earl Grey Elaagen Dazs; The Seven-Hour Ice Cream Post

This week, I got to hang out with my good friend, Elan (you might recognize him from The Patty Pan Post, and help him make some Earl Grey ice cream. He told me it’d be super easy and wouldn’t take that long. Seven hours later, we got to try it.

Granted, we did step out for a bite to eat and had to make a stop at Berkeley Bowl. So during most of those seven hours, I stirred 1 pint of heavy cream and 1 pint of whole milk with 3 organic Earl Grey tea bags while Elan freaked out about the amount of sugar required by the recipe. Apparently, it was a lot. He calmed down after decided to add about half the amount. I stirred and stirred and then stirred some more while the mixture was slowly being heated over low heat. Then we strained the cream and then slowly poured it in with six beaten egg yolks. Then we realized the custard had to be thickened, so we dumped it back in the saucepan along with 2 more teabags. Once the custard was thick enough to pass the back-of-the-spoon test (where it holds its shape when you run your finger down the back of the spoon), we covered the custard with saran wrap, so that the plastic was touching the custard and stuck it in the fridge I’m not even sure how long. While waiting for it to cool down, Elan and I had some girl talk (he’s one of my best guy friends to girl talk with), I got to play some piano and anger the neighbors, and then his friend/temporary housemate, Ken, came home and slipped on some bright yellow pants with the word WAFFLES written down the side in hot pink. Those pants made my night.

           

Like a sleepy Cinderella, I was going to skedaddle when I saw it was midnight, but Elan convinced me to stay another hour or so to witness the churning of the ice cream using his vintage 1970’s ice cream maker that requires not only ice, but 2 whole cartons of salt! FINALLY after an hour or so of noisy churning, we got to taste the finished product. I must say it was well worth the seven hours- not too sweet, silky smooth in texture, and with just the right amount of Early Grey flavor. Elan transferred the ice cream to an empty Haagen Dazs carton, for which he asked me to make a hand-drawn label. I jokingly called it Elaagen Dazs, which I thought was quite clever but he begged to differ. This whole event ended at 1:30 AM. What a night!

                               

Feeding on Fashion; Color Me Calivintage; The Blogspiration Post

"Sammich Cake" from Calivintage.com

Erin from Calivintage.com

 So Friday evening, I headed over to Pretty Penny in Oakland, an adorable vintage store, for the Calivintage pop-up shop event. Created by Erin Perez Hagstrom, Calivintage is a vintage fashion blog that I’ve been following ever since I bought a peter-pan collared mini-dress that a Pretty Penny shop girl informed me was on Erin’s wishlist.

“Do you know Erin, the fashion blogger?”

“Nope.”

“She has a blog called Calivintage and she’s been fighting for that dress in an online war on Etsy. We said the first person to come in could have it.”

“Whoa, I had no idea! I’ll have to look her up.”

That was the beginning of my minor obsession with Calivintage and similar fashion blogs like it. I’ve been buying vintage since middle school, but none of my friends were as interested in shopping for used clothing as I. Now I feel I’ve found a little niche- a group of fellow aficionados of all things vintage. Instead of food fixings, I fed on fashion this week.

At the pop-up shop, I got to meet and briefly talk with Erin. She was so sweet and down-to-earth! It was strange actually meeting her after following her online for some months. It’s almost like meeting a celebrity. Anyhoo, I’m hoping she’ll be able to give me some tips on how to develop my blog and use it perhaps as a steppingstone to a career. I believe she got a job at Modcloth after Calivintage became popular.

Cat sweater Calivintage purchase

Bullocks Los Angeles shirt blouse Calivintage purchase

Though this seems more about fashion and vintage and blogging than cooking and conversations, there is a connection! Apparently, Erin studied at culinary school and is a certified pastry chef. Perusing her blog, I found a post about making a “Sammich Cake” or smörgåstårta with a round loaf of bread, asparagus, cream cheese, cucumber, avocado, and some leafy greens. It looks amazing!! Her food photography skills surely surpass mine. This is definitely on my to cook list. Check out her savory cake here: http://www.calivintage.com/2012/05/sammich-cake.html

I realized that I should start messaging other bloggers with whom I share common interests and whose blogs I admire, because they could become great contacts, perhaps even friends, and I could definitely use some lessons in blogging…some BLOGspiration!

Yay for dandelions! Photo from Calivintage.com

Hardly Strictly Breakfast; Kiwi Berries? Kiwi Berries!; The Pink Eggs and No Ham Post

This weekend, I requested Friday and Saturday off so I could go to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, yay! It’s an amazing free, non-commercial music festival founded and funded by one man: the late Warren Hellman, a private equity investor and avid aficionado of bluegrass and country music, not to mention a Berkeley alum. The festival features artists from genres other than bluegrass and country- there’s indie, folk, rock, etc. I was most excited to see Beachwood Sparks, Ben Kweller, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, and the Head and the Heart. None of them disappoint- altogether it was a moving and uplifting experience, especially in the sunny, green setting of Golden Gate Park.

How does this connect to cooking, you may ask?  Well, my friend Anya, also a fan of Hardly Strictly, coming from a somewhat bluegrass background as a former Nashville native, joined me this weekend in enjoying everything the festival had to offer. You may recognize her from my Improvised Pie Post. Anyhoo, she stayed with me Saturday after we saw the Head and the Heart, so Sunday morning, we made breakfast together. I wanted to make her some muffins, to repay her for the delicious Maple Almond Scones she made me, so I whipped up some Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins. The texture turned out looking kind of lumpy, but they were quite fluffy upon tasting. My guess is that the melted butter was too hot when I mixed it with the sour cream, so the mixture curdled. I’ll just have to keep on experimenting. I’d like to perfect a basic muffin recipe, so I can start doing variations. I’m going to try using 0% Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream next time. According to Anya, the acidity reacts with the baking soda to create air bubbles (like in elementary school volcano experiments) that make the muffins fluffier.

To go with the muffins, Anya cooked some tasty “eggs pink.” I had never had my eggs like this before meeting the Desai sisters (her sister, Danika, also told me about this egg style), and I love it! It’s a cross between a fried egg and a poached egg. First, you heat the pan with oil or butter at medium heat. Then you crack the eggs into the pan- they should make a sizzling noise. Once they’ve cooked a bit (don’t let them get too fried), you add a little water and put a lid over them. This should result in a fried egg shape without the fried edges and with a white film covering the yolk that makes it look sort of pink. YUM. We placed them atop some toasted Vital Vittles Sesame Oat bread.

Finally, we had a mini fig and kiwi berry salad. I found the organic kiwi berries at Berkeley Bowl, and they blew my mind. I thought they were literally baby kiwi, but they’re actually cousins of the kiwi. Scientifically known as Actinidlia arguta, or hardy kiwi, the kiwi berry is originally from China. The ones I bought were green, fuzz-less, and absolutely DEElicious! I highly recommend them to spruce up your fruit salads or decorate your desserts.

As for conversation, Anya and I always seem to have plenty to talk about- with our similar interests in food, farming, people and their stories, and men (heheh). I’m not afraid to be open and giving with her, because she’s even more open and giving than me! We have to constantly be telling each other to stop apologizing or giving, which ends up just making us laugh. I’m so happy we started spending lots of time together- I feel like I’ve found a new sister and am truly grateful to have her around. Now both Desai sisters are like my sisters! That’s all for this week- it was hardly strictly wonderful!

For more info about the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, you can go here:

http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/2012/

For the muffin recipe I used, here:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Sour-Cream-Chip-Muffins

For more info on Kiwiberries, here:

http://www.kiwiberry.com/kiwi%20berries%20css.htm

Beaucoup d’Amuses Bouche; More Shuck for your Buck; The Delicious DISH post

Today, I requested a split shift at work, so that I could meet my friend, Elissa, at the SF Weekly 5^th Annual DISH event [http://microapp.sfweekly.com/dish/2012/] that featured restaurants from around the Bay Area. Her friends and cousin were there as well, which made the event all the merrier. Elissa had gotten us tickets, because her uncle, who works at SF Weekly, wasn’t able to make it- thank you, uncle! I was so happy she invited me, because I get this natural high or instant elation when surrounded by culinary offerings- not having to pay for them doesn’t hurt much either.

                   

                           

                           

The event was full of foodies and featured restaurants and brands such as Farina, Mission Minis, and Zico Coconut Water. With so many things to taste, it was a bit hard to remember everything I served to my taste buds. Some of the dishes that stood out were the chilled cucumber soup with crème fraiche, the bitter lemon tonic water, and the oysters. The oysters.

Oyster station

I must say, the raw oysters on the half shell at the Farallon station stand out most in my memory because of the hilarious oyster massacre Elissa and her friends, James and Devon, committed. We were starting to head towards the exit, moaning about our stuffed stomachs when we passed by the oyster table. Since the event was coming to an end, the Farallon chefs were shucking all the remaining oysters and doling them out. This caught Elissa, James, and Devon’s eyes, and their mouths followed. They slurped up a few oysters and appeared satisfied, but the oysters kept coming, and it seemed they couldn’t resist the alluring gleam of the shells, so they kept eating. They were more impressive than the Walrus from Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum’s story, “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” in Alice in Wonderland.  Laughing, I asked Elissa how they could fit so many oysters after eating everything else. She replied, “They’re $4 a piece usually!” Moral of the story: “Don’t be a shmuck! Get more shuck for your buck!”

No Meat Week; Mean Meat?; The Fast Post

I haven't been making any meals with anyone lately, so I've been on a bit of a cooking up conversations fast. I also took this week as a break from meat after eating every kind of animal with my family last weekend. Chinese have a knack for finding ways to prepare every kind and every part of an animal. I'm not sure if this is just me, but I felt that I was more gentle and less aggressive than usual. Then when I started eating a little meat again, I felt a change. I would sometimes find it difficult to be caring and almost felt meaner. I've heard some vegetarians and vegans say they also felt less aggressive after giving up meat. I haven't done enough research to state this opinion with confidence, but perhaps people are more aggressive when they eat meat, because evolutionarily speaking, hunters had to have a certain amount of aggression to hunt and kill their prey. If anyone has more specific information on this, I'd love to hear what you've read or heard. Does meat make us meaner?

Lunch in Lake Merritt; Amateur Food Photography; The Patty Pan Post

This is going to be mostly a photographic blog post, which is quite fitting since one of my meal-mates, Sean, is a photographer. Last Sunday, he, my friend Elan, and I made lunch together at Sean’s gorgeous Lake Merritt apartment in Oakland, a place where everything is magically photographable. Sean cooked up some apple-wood smoked bacon, I brought veggies and organic chicken sausage (summer squash again!) to make a frittata, and Elan made some decadent brownies with brown-butter frosting. I tried to capture this all on my Canon G11, but I'm still an amateur compared to all the food photographers out there. Hopefully, practice and learning more Photoshop skills will help. It was a wonderfully relaxing Sunday afternoon, also enjoyed by Sean’s cat, Moses aka Mo aka Mojo (what I like to call him). The other kitty Ellie, preferred to keep to herself under the sink. Once we were all pregnant with bacon, eggs, and patty pan squash (my favorite summer squash- it reminds me of a Peter Pan collar), we took a walk around the bright blue lake that showcased all the panoply of Oakland wildlife including egrets, wild geese, and the more common species, picnickers. It was a Sunday well spent- with good food, good friends, and cats.

Sliced Patty Pan!

Makon Bakon

The bright green fava beans were hand-shucked by Sean himself.

     

Doggies and their paddlers

Me and my new cat shorts