Say Hey, Say Willie... Swinging at the Plate

We landed in SF on the most beautiful day. The sky was a radiant blue. The game started at 6pm and we had great tickets behind home plate. We grabbed two orders of garlic fries, which were yummy-- even for someone on the fence about garlic like me. I held out for a crab sandwich and took the kid over to the slide and playground. She loved the little slide and took the obligatory picture in front of the huge baseball glove. The glove doesn't actually do anything, in case you're wondering, just looks interesting and inviting in the far outfield. I grabbed a spot in the long, long line for crab sandwiches, wrestling my toddler who just wanted to run and play. There were only two families in front of me when they started falling out of line, crestfallen. They were OUT of crab. OUT of CRAB. The guy in front of me offered to buy the sandwich on display, which had been sitting out under the lights for who-knows-how-long. They didn't let him. I kind of wished they had... Anyway, I settled on a standard all-beef hotdog instead. I'm sure it's because I'm a Dodger fan. Kind of a bummer, but what kind of a maniac goes to the games, just for the food anyway? We did have nice sundaes with Gheradelli hot fudge. Good ice cream, decent hot fudge. There was a couple sitting behind us who were making a tour of all 30 parks this summer. I asked him where the best food was and he said without hesitating, "Milwaukee. Brats. No question." I like a man with conviction. It did make me a little sad, since a friend of mine was killed in a car accident as he and his dad set off for a trip like that. They had a car accident and both were killed. They were different kind of men, but baseball brought them together.

Sunday morning we braved the line at Sears Fine Foods for some silver dollar pancakes and french toast with sourdough bread. It was simple, no frills and delicious. It kept us filled until we hit the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park for green tea, crackers and cookies in the outdoor pagoda. The first trip I ever took by-myself, where I wasn't going to see family was in eighth grade. We took a bus tour to San Francisco. Two things happened on that trip, I discovered the tea garden and The Clash. Both were life changing. It made me wildly happy to see Afton drinking (watered down) green tea and munching almond cookies there. Now we just need to introduce her to "Give 'em Enough Rope".

Local Jams... The Sticky Kind

Don't miss this great article on the Ward family and their fabulous jams and jellies...It's only minutes from my house and I pick up my organic delivery from their farm every week and it's nice to be on a working mini-farm, even for a few minutes.

And here come the figs...

We're headed to SF this weekend and can't wait to dive into the good food there. I'll tell you all about it next week.

Save Our Taco Trucks

LA wouldn't be LA without taco trucks. There are real restaurants on wheels who's culture extends beyond lunch carts. Twenty years ago, late night punk rock shows would not have been the same without being able to stop at one of these and down a couple of carne asada tacos and a beer, or a bottle of Mexican soda. I can't imagine a late night without the sound of the grill, the tiny paper napkins, the soft paper plates and a pile of awesome tacos. Check out this site and contact Gloria Molina if you're here (or near) LA. The shirt's cool too, even if you're not. And a great way to support the trucks.

What's in the Oven...

This weekend I made Grace Kelsberg's Sugar Cookies, but instead of vanilla, I used Lime Oil and I topped them with pink sugar which always makes things shine. And I made Martha's, Outrageous Chocolate Cookies. Eating one is like drinking a cup of strong, black coffee. The texture is like chewy meringue which adds to their appeal. I needed to have dinner ready tonight so I just threw together Heidi Swanson's, Spinach Rice Gratin, using bismati rice from Trader Joes and Spanish Gruyere. I also threw in some steamed carrots I had from our organic delivery, and tossed toasted flax seed with the cheese on top, because that nutty flavor never goes wrong. If you're not getting updates from Heidi's blog (see links on your right) with all her new recipes, you're totally missing out on yummy, flavorful and healthy ways to make dinner. And bonus, she's seems like a nice person. We all love chefs, but that's being nice doesn't always come easy for them.... (one of my earliest memories is one of my dad's chefs throwing a knife across the room and it stayed lodged in the wall) but Heidi's a wonderful exception.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and ... Garlic Fries

Click on the headline for a culinary comparisons of the food at all of the 30 major league ballparks from the New York Times. Did you know you can get a good Cuban pressed ham sandwich at Yankee stadium? I hate those dirty Yankees, but would be happy to honor the house that Baby built with a ham sandwich.

I've been thinking about ballparks because we're headed to SF in a couple of weeks for my oldest and dearest friend's wedding. One of the things I'm excited about is going to the Giants game. Not that I'm a Giants fan, mind you. I bleed Dodger Blue. And this year we are frustrated fans... But going to AT&T Park will give me a chance to check out the Ghiradelli Hot Fudge Sundae stand, the rumored roaming hot choc and the kid's slide in the Coke sign. You can also bring your own food and locals seem to enjoy thumbing their nose at the concessions. Chowhound noted one guys bringing in a huge pizza box. As a bonus kids are invited to run the bases 15 minutes after the game ends and when they get to home-plate they receive a See's Candy sample. Sound like fun... at the old ballgame. (Try not humming that all day.)

Splendid Table Foodinistas on Sex, Food and Life

Check out this great survey of Foodinistas from Splendid Table. Do you judge people based on what they eat? Post your thoughts below. That's a picture of our beloved dog, Savannah who has strong opinions about what you had for lunch. If she gets the chance, she'll sniff your mouth for a long time as though examining you for cavities. I think she judges people based on what they ate for lunch, and she loves folks who go for beef, mangos and bananas-- all her favorites.

Eating Local Organic Food is Cheaper

Splendid Table is doing a year long study on eating sustainably and the results for their second quarter are in and half of their participants report spending less on food. Check out this site. You can read participant blogs as they try to eat 80% local for a year.

Apricot Jammy

Our friends have a CRAZY big backyard with the trees/vines for apricots, figs, peaches, plums and grapes. They are a little overwhelmed by all the fabulous apricots this year and offered to leave the gate open so we could pick to our hearts content. I'm reading, The Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children from Nature Deficiency Disorder. Recommended by our fabulous friend, Carley. Anyway, I loaded the car with baskets and we headed over to their backyard to pick fruit. You can never tell what will hold a two-year-old's attention. Sometimes the elaborate toys or plans are completely uninteresting to her. I wasn't sure she would dig hanging out in the heat, picking sticky fruit. But... she embraced it all right away. She loved carrying her own basket, picking the apricots she could reach and tucking them in her basket. She loved how warm the fruit was and would exclaim over every apricot, "Ohhhh mama, this is a good one!" We picked some peaches and some tiny plums that were not quite ripe, but we snacked on them since they were wonderfully sweet by the heat of the sun. I was shocked when we got in the car and the clock said it was an hour later. She loved every minute of it. We cleaned the apricots and took sliced a bunch of them for snack at her school. She announced to the class, "I picked that, off a tree!" I took the rest of them and pretended that I know how to can, without a canning pot or any tools and because I didn't know any better. I hung out in my kitchen, listening to NPR's Day to Day (late at night, like usual) and experimenting with ginger syrup, and cardamom sugar melting over apricots. And I blanched peaches. Something I didn't know how to do when I got up in the morning. It made the kitchen smell sticky sweet like a candy shop and was immensely satisfying. I had wild fantasies about canning for Christmas and everyone will get a jar of something canned. I had myself convinced that I missed my calling. I'm going to sell jam on Etsy and get rich. I'm totally rustic and back to nature and I preserve. Like a week later, someone asked me how it was to seal the jars in boiling water after I filled them, and I was all... Huh? What? Kinda. Not really. So, we have lots of jam to eat, quick.

Surfas Booty

Here's the list of loot that I grabbed...

Bird's Custard Powder, for my friend Jenny. She makes these great bar cookies and the custard powder is hard to find.

Pizza Screen, So I can do pizza and pizzetta on the grill.

Cardamom/Sugar Blend, This is becoming a staple at our house.

Israeli Couscous, I'm going to blend it with Quinoa.

Japanese Metal Strainer, To pull whole peaches out for canning, without bruising them.

And this FABULOUS Plaid Pugliese Pasta.

Bonus points for finding my friend Deanna a walnut cracker for a mere $3 bucks.

I didn't buy, but would have loved the pure Avocado oil, and the $30 bottle of white balsamic vinegar (good enough to drink straight).

Happy Fourth! Pass the hotdogs, keep the Beuschl.

I'm a conflicted patriot myself... but I'll be marching in the local tiny parade in tomorrow morning. If you needed another reason to love the US... my friend Irmi sent me this recipe for the Austrian Main Courses: Beuschl. Beuschl sounds like sneeze, right? In the immortal words of Irmi, "WTF is that, you ask? Lung and trachea as well as heart large blood vessels of a calf." She was traumatized as a child by having to eat this. (It was obviously our gain since she moved to the US to live.)

Thanks for the heads up Irmi! Somebody light me a sparkler so I can sing the national anthem...

Beuschl
Ingredients (2 people)

1 small beuschl of pork or calf
2 carrots
1 parsley root
1 piece of celery root
1 onion
2 leaves of bayleaf
vinegar
125 g butter
100 g flour
250 mL water
1 tablespoon of sour cream

What Vienna Beuschl is

Beuschl is pretty much the most ambivalent dish of Austrian cuisine: It is disgusting to think of the ingredients, but most delicious to eat. Don't worry about the lung and vessel things in it - they get cut into tiny pieces and look all innocent and nice. Beuschl, by the way, is also an Austrian slang term for a person's lung and low-quality cigarettes are sometimes referred to as "Beschlreißer" - beuschl strippers. Since it is a lot of work to make beuschl, most Austrians are more likely to eat it in restaurants or buy it in some stage of preparation from a butcher than making it themselves from scratch.

How to make Beuschl

Wash the beuschl and boil it in about 2 L of water with salt, pepper, bayleaf and the roots and onion for about 1.5 hours. Take the beuschl from the soup and cut it into tiny stripes. Put these into some water with vinegar. Remove the bayleaf from the soup and mash the vegetables using a blender. Chill the soup whilst the beuschl sits in the vinegar water.

Roast the flour in butter until lightly brown and add the soup bit by bit like making begamel (with soup instead of milk or water). Boil the now thickened soup and add the beuschl strips . Ad a tablespoon of sour cream or two and maybe a shot of vinegar, a bit of salt or pepper. Serve the beuschl with a Semmelknödel bread dumpling.

Surfas

Lucky me! I'm heading to Surfas this morning with a big fat gift certificate! I can't wait to stock up on Cardamon Sugar and all kinds of other goodies... I'll post a list of the good stuff later. Whee! Click on the headline above if you're not familiar with this kitchen store and all it's fabulousity.

Be Careful When You Order Ranch on the Side

Click on the headline above for the most insane salad dressing story you've ever heard. (And I never thought I'd write those words.)