Grand Lake Farmers Market

We definitely have become fans of the Grand Lake Farmer Market.  We’ve known it existed but we’ve never gone there until we moved to North Oakland.  Upon the recommendation of our server at B, we decided to go the week after we moved into our house.  It was a blast.  The vendors are almost uniformly friendly (almost) and the produce is high quality.  It’s a big crowd that goes there and one that is stereotypically Northern California – young white folks with dreadlocks, aging hippies, yuppies and their families, etc.

Convenience –3

This market isn’t anywhere near a BART station.  Although being at the intersection of Lakeshore Ave. and the 580 freeway it’s fairly convenient to drive. T he big challenge is to find parking.  It’s a popular farmers market so parking can be challenging.  One thing that adds to the convenience is having Trader Joe’s right down the street.  It means you can really get all of your grocery shopping done in one fell swoop.

Vibe – 4

It’s a fun friendly scene here.  Very similar to Berkeley Farmers Market but without be aggressively progressive.  It attracts the usual Bay Area crowd.  The lay is great because it is concentrated into one area and you don’t have to cross streets to see the whole market.  I’d give the vibe a 5 but there are a few vendors who just aren’t that friendly.  Also the sheer number of people makes it hard for vendors to chat (although that doesn’t stop the vendors in Berkeley or the Ferry Plaza.

Produce – 4

The variety of products is pretty standard. What is great is the sheer size of the market. You can really do comparison shopping to see whose produce you like the best.  Of course it helps that we’re shopping in the middle of summer where there is a profusion of fruits and vegetables.  I particularly like the variety of nut vendors.

Prepared Foods –4

There is a great variety of prepared foods.  There’s the roast chicken people, the Belgian waffle people, Indian Food, Afghan Food you name it.  What I do particularly like is that Cowgirl Creamery has an outpost at Grand Lake.  I love their panir and use it to make some awesome ravioli.

Flowers –4

Great selection of flowers.  I’d rank it right up there with Old Oakland for flowers.  One good thing is that there is a vendor that sells cut orchids.  For those of us who have a habit of killing orchid plants having a bouquet of cut orchids is a nice treat.

Total: 19 out of 25

Recipe Success – Pork and Tomatillo Stew

It was one of those perfect Saturdays.  The sun was shining.  The people at the farmers market were their friendly selves and we were able to get a million things done in the space of two hours.  One of the reasons why we got our weekend errands done with such dispatch was because they were all in the same two block radius – Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue.  While J got his hair cut, I went to the UPS store to ship off a quilt, the fabric store to get batting and the comic book store to see if the latest Uncanny X-Men came in.

I passed by Piedmont grocery and realized I could get fixings for dinner.  If Whole Foods and the Shop Around the corner decided to have a love-child, it would be Piedmont Grocery.  It’s a small grocery store that is halfway between a Trader Joe’s and a convenience store in size but it boasts an excellent butcher section and has an international foods section that puts World Market to shame.  Looking to be inspired, I went to the meat section and remembered a great recipe for pork and tomatillo stew.  Knowing that there was a canister of homemade tomatillo salsa in the fridge, I bought three pounds of pork shoulder (a steal at $3.00/pound), more tomatillos, and cumin.

Being new to cooking pork shoulder, I stayed close to the recipe, adjusting for the fact I had three pounds of meat instead of four.  The only changes I did make was adding in the tomatillo salsa, replace the jalapeno pepper with a poblano, adding a couple of overripe tomatoes to roast with the tomatillos, and (gasp) using Maggi chicken stock powder instead of my own chicken stock.

It turned out wonderfully.  For those of you who are wary of using pork, pork should is the perfect meat for braising.  It turns out tender without being stringy (my biggest complaint for using chicken to braise) and full of flavor.  The meat is well marbled without being fatty.  And the flavor of the stew is amazing.  We served the stew with tortilla chips, grated cheddar and sour cream along with some fresh cilantro.  It was perfect!

Two reviews – Julie and Julia/My Life in France

In anticipation of the Julie and Julia movie, I decided to write a joint review of Julie and Julia the book and My Life in France. One I like.  One I didn’t. You can probably guess which one is which.

Here’s what’s so weird – I related more to a dead lady who lived a big chunk of her life abroad than a fellow food blogger who is around my age.   So with Julie and Julia, I just felt like she was moving from one topic to the other without enough context.  It felt like a series of anecdotes but without the context of how life changing and nourishing cooking actually is.   Yes you hate your job as an office drone triaging the needs of 9/11 widows but I’m not getting a sense that cooking Julia’s recipes was anything other than something you did.  Obviously it changed your life but from what I read, BLOGGING about it changed your life more than the cooking.  There were very few points in the book where cooking was pleasurable and nourishing for the soul.  On top of that, things kept on happening to her but I never got a sense of who she was other than some generic 20something trying to figure herself out.

This is in contrast to My Life in France where I felt like Julia and Paul would totally be friends with J and I.  What’s funny is that My Life in France is one of the least food porny books about food there is.  There’s more descriptions of Julia’s frustration with her conservative father than mouth watering descriptions of meals.   Like Julie, food and learning to cook was a life changing event.   What was so satisfying for me about My Life in France was seeing who she was before and after she discovered cooking.  She was an extremely intelligent and socially progressive person who found a stand up guy who shared her values.   I love that she was sharing her and Paul’s frustration wit the crappy politics of the U.S. diplomatic corps and her challenges with co-author Simone Beck.  What encapsulates the book for me isn’t even a written word.  It’s two pages of Valentine’s Day cards she and Paul would send to friends.  They capture the couple that have been so well described in the book.  Pictures of the two of the as an 19th Century couple (with Paul in a toupee), in the bathtub, and sitting on a bench with red hearts pinned to their matching white shirts.  These are two engaged, funny, smart people.

Unlike Julie, I wanted to be part of Julia’s orbit.

Digs Bistro – A Tale of Two Evenings

J and I have this thing when we go to restaurants in the Bay Area, we end up totally connecting with the staff. It happened at B, it happened at Aunt Mary’s (review to come) and it happened last night at Digs Bistro.  Located in our ‘hood on the corner of Sacramento and Dwight Way, Digs bistro is a tiny (I mean TINY) neighborhood joint that does the local, organic, gourmet food extremely well.

On Tuesday, we tried to go and they were closed.  As were Aunt Mary’s, San Maru (a Korean place closed???), and Zatar.   We tried to go to Bistro Liaison but we were told they only had outdoor seating only to see them seat two other couples behind us.  We were told told “if you want an indoor table the wait will be X.”  We were told there was no indoor seating.  Period.  We tried to brave the outdoor space but couldn’t deal with the slow service.   The slow and confused service was so bad that we felt sorry for the OTHER couple who were seated outside.  We at least got bread and water. They were still waiting to get any attention.  That night we left and made a beeline to B.

Last night we made another attempt to hit Digs Bistro.  This time we were successful.   They were having a busy night.  With only two people on the floor, a maitre d’ and a server and ONE chef and a kitchen person, they had a skeleton crew.   But here’s teh difference between SLOW service and BAD service – communication.  Right away, the maitre d’ let us know they had a full house and that they were a bit slower that night.  He was apologetic aobut the fact he didn’t have space at the bar for us and once we got to the bar, he gave us a small glass of wine.  What counts is not the free booze (although that helps), it’s the thoughtfulness.

Once we got to our table the service was slow but he checked in on us and let us know how long things would take.  Once we got to our table we ordered the charcuterie plate and fried squash blossoms and the roasted half chicken with the roasted toamtoes and polenta and the semolian crusted halibut with sauteed baby spinach and three bean vinaigrette (three diferent kinds of beans in a vinaigrette).  I will say that the bread you get is excellent.  Soft with a nice crust to it.  But we were really impressed by the charcuerie plate.   It was inventive with homemade bacon and h0memade apricot chutney.  We are trying to eat as many squash blossoms as we can as the season is drawing to a close.  Here’s the thing, it’s hard NOT to get a great squash blossom because deep fried squash blossoms stuffed with cheese can never go wrong.

But it’s the entrees that really kicked it.  The halibut was perfectly cooked and the spinach and beans had a very vibrant fresh flavor to them.  The chicken ranks up there with Courdoroy and B as great tasting chicken. It was moist and tender and full of flavor.  The delicate sauces with both dishes really highlighted the flavors of their proteins.

throughout the whole evening, the skeleton crew waitstaff made sure we were attended to and were apologetic about the wait.  We were appreciative of their thoughfulness and once things slowed down we got great service.  We could tell this is an excellent neighborhood joint where people come back again and again.

Pavlova – Two Ways (or Damn you Barefoot Contessa!)

It’s been intimated that J and I have some eating restrictions, me with the diabetes and J with dairy allergies as well as an allergy to artificial sweeteners.  That makes dessert a huge challenge.  I’ve resolved this challenge by making the same desserts two ways – one with Splenda and dairy (for me) and the other with sugar and dairy substitutes (for him).  A good example of this is my cobbler recipe.  I make a cobbler with almond flour in ramekins.  I do a ¼ cup of almond flour with ½ teaspoon of baking powder and 1 tablespoon of sugar and then mix in 1 tablespoon of melted butter, 1 tablespoon of almond milk and a dash of vanilla.  Spoon on top of about ½ a cup of chopped fruit (stone fruit like cherries and nectarines work best) and bake for half an hour at 350 degrees.  For myself, all I need to do is replace the sugar with the equivalent amount of Splenda and I’m set.

Sunday, J and I were going to Muffin and June’s for a BBQ with Bellisima and West Coast Rebecca.  Being summertime in the bay area, I decided to try my hand at pavlova.  For those of you who don’t know palvova, it’s a meringue shell that is mashmallowy in the middle.  It’s cratered in the middle as well so people traditionally pile it high with fruit and whipped cream.  Perfect dessert to highlight summer fruit.  Like the cobbler, I decided to make a version for me (whipped cream and splenda) and a version for J (lemon curd and sugar).  Because you can freeze the pavlova ahead of time, I tried my hand at pavlova on Friday night.  For the first time Ina Garten did me WRONG.  I made her Back to Basics it failed.  What I got was a gloppy mess of a meringue that was more the consistency of a meringue topping for a lemon meringue pie.  Never a waster, I decided to fold in the lemon curb to the failed meringue to lighten the lemon curd.

The next morning I did a little research (Nigella!) and saw that every OTHER cookbook was saying to bake the pavlova at 300 degrees as opposed to the 180 that Ina instructed.  I did the whole shebang again using the Barefoot Contessa recipe but using the oven temperature of Nigella Lawson (preheat to 350 and when you put it in, immediately drop temp to 300).  It was a huge success.  I tried it again using baking Splenda, and another HUGE SUCCESS!  So in one pavlova there were raspberries and blackberries over lemon curd and another pavlova there were the same berries over whipped cream sweetened with Splenda.  In fact, Muffin, who ate both versions, liked the Splenda version.  SCORE!

So here’s my sugar-free version of a pavlova.  To make it low-fat, simply use low-fat (or even nonfat cool whip).

• 2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan. Draw a 5-inch circle on the paper, then turn the paper over so the circle is on the reverse side. (This way you won’t get a pencil mark on the meringue.)

Place the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites on high speed until firm, about 2 minutes. With the mixer still on high, slowly add the sugar and beat until it makes firm, shiny peaks, about 2-3 more minutes.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, sift the cornstarch onto the beaten egg whites, add the vinegar and vanilla, and fold in lightly with a rubber spatula. Pile the meringue into the middle of the circle on the parchment paper and smooth it within the circle, making a rough disk. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the oven, keep the door closed, and allow the meringue to cool completely in the oven, about 1 hour. It will be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

Invert the meringue disk onto a plate.  There will be a cracked crater of delciciousness that is perfect for lemon curd, whipped cream or just fruit and a dash of some old balsamic.

Crossposted at itsalifestylex2.blogspot.com

A weekend of deliciousness

How was all of your July Fourths?  This was the first July Fourth I spent in Oakland, as last year, I was down in SoCal visiting my parents.  It was truly a blast and great to have a longish, lazyish weekend.  Because J and I are who we are and we live in what I consider the food capitol of the United States (there’s a throwdown for you!), our weekend revolved around food.

On Friday, West Coast Rebecca and Bellisima came over to see the new place and to eat at B.  While it’s still on the menu, get the chicken roulade.  It’s thoroughly flavorful and moist and tender.  Just a perfect dish.  We also got the sweetbreads with a mushroom and fennel hash.  As I am totally not squeamish, I ate my own sweetbreads and West Coast Rebecca’s.  I made a deal with J that I would never tell him what sweetbreads are.

For the Fourth, we had Rebecca over for a foodie evening.  West Coast Rebecca is a blast to cook with.  She really exults in fresh produce and brought a salad with green goddess dressing that came straight from her backyard garden.  I made ravioli with won ton skins filled with paneer from Cowgirl Creamery, argula, parmigiano, and a touch of nutmeg.  The Cowgirl Creamery paneer was actually better than the traditional ricotta.  It stayed solid and held its shape when boiled.  This was definitely a winner.  All the ravioli needed was a nice fruity olive oil as a sauce.

Sunday was a day for us to do some more exploring of our neighborhood.  We found a great furniture importer, a Polynesian dance center (while looking for a nursery), and a Berkeley Bowl with aisle that are bigger than three feet wide.  Even more than that, we found another go-to place for food.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s hard for me to find a go-to place.  A place with quality food, relatively decent prices (entrees below $20), and friendly service.  B has been that for us and we go time and time again.  We definitely want to branch out a bit.  Luckily we decided to hit Aunt Mary’s Café on Telegraph Ave.  It’s an organic Southern restaurant that leans towards the New Orleans style of cooking.  Fried oysters, both on top of a frittata and in a po’boy are featured.  For brunch we had the aforementioned oysters on top of a frittata and a chicken fried steak with a roasted tomato and green bean salad.  I have never been so enthusiastic about salad in my life.  The tomato flavor just permeated the whole thing with a sweet, tart, tanginess.  And yes the chicken fried steak was excellent, served with a savory beer gravy.

For dinner, we went to our new favorite Korean place call Sahn Maru (a few doors down from Aunt Mary’s).  Featured on Check Please Bay Area, it’s your basic Korean place but everything is well done and they don’t serve potato salad with the panchan.  If you go, please or the #1 combination.  It gives you the kitchen sink of Korean food – chicken AND beef BBQ, the tofu stew, and the jap chae noodles.  That’s a lot of food for $20 per person.

This whole buying thing has been a great experience.  My biggest concern was the commute.  I’ve been REALLY lucky to have a bus line a block away from the house that drops me off a block away from work in fifteen minutes.  Our block reminds me of the area of Capitol Hill near the old baseball stadium.   Upper-middle class white families moving into neighborhoods with black families who have been there for generations.  What’s different about Oakland than DC is that the white and black kids play together in the street and apparently go to the same schools.  It’s so weird having bought a hosue and completed a life goal.  It is opening us up to think about THE FUTURE.  Getting pets and (gasp!) children.

You asked for it

House pictures!  Here you go.

Our living room

The renovated master bath

The vanity of the renovated master bath

The guest bathroom

Our bedroom

The awesomest dining room EVER!

And of course...the kitchen

Meaty!

Dear Scotte:

You are a genius.  Full stop.  This week, the in-laws were in town to help us do the finishing touches on our move.  After a Saturday night dinner at B that was four courses of spectacular, we wanted to eat at home on Sunday.  We had a fairly lazy Sunday, just doing errands – Target, Home Depot, and Jo-Ann fabric.  So dinner would be equally casual but delicious nonetheless.

I decided to do a nice steak salad with individual blueberry-nectarine cobblers.  The only thing I needed to buy was a steak and bread.   Here’s what the salad was composed of:

Sliced steak with a reduction of fig balsamic vinegar

Caramelized onions

Field greens in a balsamic vinaigrette

I was totally inspired by Scotte’s Gucci-treatment steak so I went to Trader Joe’s, got a cheap cut of sirloin and went to town.  I made a salt rub of salt, garlic, green onions, and cilantro.  I followed Scotte’s instructions to the T and the steak was perfect, flavorful all the way through the middle.  The good thing is that the time the steak takes to essentially dry brine, you can put together your dressing, assemble your dessert, reduce the balsamic and set the table.

House pics to come!

Moved!

So Saturday, marked the end of the beginning for our foray into home ownership.  We moved.  It took five hours to move but it was worth it for the first uninterrupted weekend of sleep we’ve gotten in a year.  You see we loved our neighborhood of Old Oakland, all except for the crazy noise where we seemed to live next to all the cars that go boom and the requisite verbal battles that happen in front of the cars that go boom. Now we’ve lived on Capitol Hill near 8^th street so we know noisy but this was BAAAAD.

The biggest psychological change for me is living with color.  Having rented all my life and been extremely lazy, I never wanted to paint the walls of my living space. Why bother if I were going to move in a couple of years.  Now that we’re here to stay, we wanted color.  And we got color!  In anticipation of the move we had the house painted and are in the process of putting in a second bathroom which is supposed to be completed tomorrow (God willing).  In keeping with the arts and craft style of the house, we painted our well wainscoted dining room a chocolate brown (weirdly named banana leaf on the sample).  We painted the living room, hall, and front bedroom a terra cotta color called falling leaf, the bathrooms blue, our bedroom a mustard color, and the kitchen a bright lemony yellow.  At the advice of our contractor, we decided to have all the space above our crown molding and all the wood work a nice ivory color.  Once the chaos of moving gets completed the house will look stunning.

One great aspect of the house is the kick ass plate rail at the top of the wainscoting in the dining room.  Right now, it’s home to our orphan framed photos as well has plates we’ve painted at Made By You.  At this point, almost every box is unpacked but the empty boxes are piling up in our dining room. Thank god for the garage where we are storing random crap.

As it’s an old house, it’s a work in progress.  We’re waiting until we get our fat tax check to do more but here’s what’s on the list:

Buying a dining table (I see farmhouse style with reclaimed wood)

Buying a sectional sofa (oh the ability to seat 9 people at once)

Installing recessed lighting

Redoing the kitchen

And of course there’s the garden.  Here’s my list of plants to put in:

Hydrangea bush

Rosemary (a must for California)

Lavender

Thyme

Oregano

California Poppies

Cosmos

Calla lilies

Jasmine

Any suggestions on what to plant?

We know how to show a gal a good time – Part 2

Prom Date was only in town two days, coming in midday Saturday and leaving midday Monday.  We had to show her the best of the Bay Area. Here’s where I have to admit something slightly shameful for a bay Area resident – I’ve never been to wine country.  There, I said it.  It’s totally embarrassing since I’m not Mormon and I drink alcohol.  But for some reason, I never got around to driving up to Napa or Sonoma County and sampling some of their famous wine.

Luckily, J went last year with June and Muffin and knew where to go – Chateau St. Jean.  (Jean is pronounced in the same was you would say Gene).  Having never gone to wine country, my criteria for a place to do a wine tasting was how closely it resembled the winery on Falcon Crest.  Yes, my cultural point of reference is a Dynasty-style nighttime soap.  J chose well because Chateau St. Jean is a picture postcard of a winery with beautiful views of the vineyard and the surrounding mountains.  The grounds are gardens were out of some travel guide and we could have just gone there for the scenery.

Scenery schmenery, we were there for some wine.  We decided to spend $15 for the reserve tasting, mainly because we would get to taste their Cinq Cépages wine.  Cinq Cepage is their signature wine, a reserve wine price at $75/bottle.   Not being wine people J and I were skeptical about how that would be worth it but boy was it worth it.  Before coming to California and visiting Chateau St. Jean there were two things about us:

We weren’t red wine people.

We hated Chardonnays

For #1, as we’ve had some wine enthusiasts in our circle of friends, we’ve been introduced to red wines we adore (oooh Bink’s Syrah!).  Cinq Cepage is definitely one of those.  Full fruity but not oaky.  And oaky is what we absolutely hate about chardonnays.  There’s usually so much oak flavor that the crisp fruit flavors get lost.  But the Chateau St. Jean reserve was amazing because the oak took a back seat to a wonderful caramel flavor.  It really lingered and gave the chardonnay a great complexity and depth.  We all bought bottles to enjoy for later and they weren’t cheap.

After a leisurely wine tasting, we hooked up with West Coast Rebecca and Bellisima to taste some authentic Italian-style pizza at Diavola in Geyserville.  This is literally a one street town but oh what a street that is – wine bars and tasting rooms and a photo gallery.  And the best pizza in the bay area.  Yum!  We shared three different pizzas, their sausage, their meatball, and their pizza Margherita along with an asparagus salad with fried egg and a smoked trout salad.  As I can’t really chow down on the pizza I ordered myself their meatballs on crostini with tomato sauce.  The pizza lived up to the hype. The crust was hearty and substantial without being too bready.  On top of that (literally!), the toppings have so much flavor!  I was particularly enamored with the sausage.  Sampling the sausage and having the meatballs, Diavola really does meat well. Their sausage and meatballs have a strong meat flavor which some might call gaminess but I call delicious.  Their tomato sauce has a nice savory flavor and tastes less like canned tomatoes and more like a sauce that’s been simmered for hours.  On top of that, we got a sausage stuffed pork belly with sautéed fennel.  Yes, this place does meat well.  After rolling ourselves out of Diavola, we could barely think much less think about food.  Therefore, we got Chinese take-out for dinner.

That’s Prom Date for visiting us. It was a great excuse to eat a lot!