Good fortune awaits me in my future.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
From LA to the Bay...
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| One stawberry didn't make it in the pic |
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| The lights of Chinatown |
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| Ferry Building Farmers Market |
In the morning we took a walk to the Farmers Market at the famous Ferry Building. I have wanted to go to the farmers market every trip to SF and I finally made it. We had a nice breakfast of an egg and bacon sandwich while enjoying the views of the water and Bay Bridge behind the Ferry Building. On our walk back to the hotel we spontaneously jumped on a cable car and took it for a ride up the hill.
We then took a little walk around the city; for some reason we feel the need to take the hills on foot in SF. We wandered around and found an eclectic dive bar called Vesuvio that may now be my favorite dive bar in SF (not that I know too many dive bars in SF, but for now this is my favorite). "This world-renowned San Francisco saloon located in North Beach just across from the infamous City Lights Bookstore, was first established in 1948 and remains an historical monument to jazz, poetry, art and the good life of the Beat Generation. Vesuvio attracts a diverse clientele: artists, chess players, cab drivers, seamen and business people, European visitors, off-duty exotic dancers and bon vivants from all walks of life." We had to stop in and have a drink... it was sometime before noon, but we were on vacation time!
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| Until we meet again... |
After making it back and checking out of the hotel, we drove over to Coit Tower and soaked in the amazing views. On our drive to Haight and Ashbury to make our obligatory stop at Amoeba, we made a slight detour by the famous painted ladies of SF... "whatever happened to predictability, the milk man, the paper boy, evening t.v." ahhhh, opening sequence of Full House! On our way out of town we stopped in the Mission District to get an award winning burrito per the paper plaques hanging on the walls; award winning, maybe, spicy? definitely Pheww... all in a day's travels!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Never Say Ooops Official Cookie
Vote for ME!
For as long as I can remember my mom has always asked me to help her out in the kitchen; whether it was snapping green beans or rolling meatballs and the holidays were no exception. My sister and I would help Mom decide what cookies to bake and help assemble the cookie platters to hand out to friends and family, always testing the cookies along the way. I learned a couple things over the years in that kitchen; meatballs are not frozen, cookies are from scratch and to never say ooops when you're baking. Now that I am baking my own holiday cookies I keep this lesson close to heart. This is the perfect never say ooops cookie because you can customize it however you like. You can use different pudding flavors or add ins and it tastes amazing every time. This lemon cookie with cranberries and white chocolate chips is my favorite variation and a sure holiday classic. The perfect ode to my mom and a pretty addition to our holiday cookie platters. Thanks mom :-)
For as long as I can remember my mom has always asked me to help her out in the kitchen; whether it was snapping green beans or rolling meatballs and the holidays were no exception. My sister and I would help Mom decide what cookies to bake and help assemble the cookie platters to hand out to friends and family, always testing the cookies along the way. I learned a couple things over the years in that kitchen; meatballs are not frozen, cookies are from scratch and to never say ooops when you're baking. Now that I am baking my own holiday cookies I keep this lesson close to heart. This is the perfect never say ooops cookie because you can customize it however you like. You can use different pudding flavors or add ins and it tastes amazing every time. This lemon cookie with cranberries and white chocolate chips is my favorite variation and a sure holiday classic. The perfect ode to my mom and a pretty addition to our holiday cookie platters. Thanks mom :-)
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 cups butter, softened
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) packages instant lemon pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
Powdered sugar for presentation
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for about 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown, do not over cook.
4. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Sprinkle with powerded sugar once cool.
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The restaurant was only a short walk from our hotel which was again, perfect. So far this was working our great. The food did not disappoint once we got there and were sat, with no wait. We started with the potstickers and the sizzling rice soup. The sizzling rice soup was very good, but not amazing. The pot stickers came to the table lightly fried which was just perfect. We had to make our own sauce for the potstickers, but our server pointed out all the sauce components that were already on the table so it worked out ok, not to spicy but plenty of flavor. Potstickers were delicious. Next we chose the orange peel chicken and Mongolian beef as entrees. The Mongolian beef had a lot of great flavor but was just a little bit on the spicy side for me, the beef was juicy and not overcooked so I decided a runny nose was worth it. The orange chicken was lightly fried and had a delicious sauce that was not too sweet or too spicy as orange chicken can sometimes be. The chicken was tender and moist and had just enough orange peel taste. We ordered the Yang Chow fried rice on the side, good, but not impressed.