birthday extravaganza

Late winter is usually a busy time for my family... both my parents have birthdays in late February and I have been busy celebrating.

Take today, my mother's birthday. She shares a birthday with my friend Speedy, the adorable Josh Groban, and the late Elizabeth Taylor. I made her a special edition of the blackberry-apple cake to commemorate a very special birthday...

"a love letter to cinema"

If you haven't seen The Artist, then maybe a few Academy Awards will convince you that this movie is worth seeing. You know, if the prior awards and high praise from critics and common moviegoers alike hasn't convinced you already.

A dapper hero who becomes his own enemy! A darling ingenue! Film and Hollywood! Romance! Comedy! A faithful friend! Vintage cars! Money politics! Man's best friend! Dancing! Inevitable change and the ways we push through! Black and white picture! Ladies with sass! What more do you need? I don't go to the movie theater very often (I can confidently say it's less than once a month) so I've become rather choosy when deciding whether I want to see a movie for $12 or wait for it to air on TV. Without a doubt, The Artist is one of the best cinematic investments I've made and I encourage all to do the same.

Bérénice Bejo and Jean Dujardin
as Peppy Miller and George Valentin in The Artist.
Everyone needs a beauty spot!
Courtesy of google image search

It's amazing how much sympathy this film draws out from the audience, even more so given the lack of dialogue.

same thing

Easy recipe for milanesas:

Pound or cut your chicken cutlets into thinner cutlets.

Dip in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, just like eggplant parmigiana.

Fry until browned in one-quarter inch of canola oil.

Parmigianas need sauce, milanesas do not. Enjoy as is!

Oh, and don't be afraid to salt the flour. Salt is important for good-tasting food.

what more could you ask for

Yesterday - Valentine's Day - was more or less the 50th anniversary of the recording of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" by the incomparable Tony Bennett. Why, there's no better soundtrack for my mother to enjoy whoopie pies!

S'more whoopies: marshmallow fluff and chocolate buttercream
tucked in between graham cracker cakes

virtual love

Just in time for St. Valentine's Day, some people out there made a list of the 10 greatest video gaming romances of all time. The fact that I only know the first three couples speaks to my drop in playing video games since college but it's still fun to read.

I admit I clicked on the link because I saw one of my favorite franchises...

courtesy of google image search

Other lists from years past give some substantially stronger reading on the couples and show which pairs have consistently topped the list... well you know Super Mario and Princess Peach will always be No. 1 but other couples are repeats on the list.

the bright side

What to do while waiting for your tires to be changed at Costco? Go shopping!

Saw this cookbook, Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, on the book tables between the frozen food and the heat lamps and you know what? The suggested retail price is $35. During the holidays I saw it on a website - I think it was anthropologie - for $50. But Costco, good old thrifty Costco, is selling the book for $21.99.

And it's a good thing Costco offered this cookbook at such a low price because even though it looks very tasty and seems to be the hot cookbook around, I would not pay $50 for a vegetarian book. That's just me.

Apparently the author is of a similar (but not the same) hue; he is an omnivorous food journalist and restaurant vet who decided to put all of his veggie recipes in one place and create a book that celebrates vegetables (and some fruits, too.) He recognizes that there are many different types of vegetarians, from those who cannot stand meat and beyond to those who choose a vegetarian or mainly vegetarian diet for health or ecological reasons. Very nice introduction to a very beautiful book.

I already found a few recipes I can't wait to try... here, Saffron tagliatelle with spiced butter!

Saffron and pine nuts? Say no more!

bake me a cake

After 25 years of existence I still haven't shaken the sweet tooth the way my friends and family have. I am one of the few who always want dessert after dinner - sometimes lunch - and I drink sweet tea like it's going out of style. My dear father has mentioned a few times that my ever-popular whoopie pies are, at times, a bit too sweet.

But I have found a compromise we all can enjoy! After flipping through old cookbooks I found a recipe for Blackberry and Apple Cake, a cake I had always wanted to try but put off during college and forgotten about afterwards. Forgotten no more! This cake has much less sugar than any other sweets I've made yet it is flavorful and scrumptious, sort of like moistened pannetone. The book recommends sprinkling a little raw sugar on top before baking to achieve a slightly sweet-crunchy texture but I prefer a more classic topping: frosting. I don't use any ordinary frosting on this cakelet; through some miracle I came up with a rich mascarpone frosting that is also (relatively) low in sugar. Read on my hungry friends!

Oh the possibilities!

Now the first time I made this cake a lot of it ended up sticking to the pan, even though I buttered it. An easier solution is to line the cake pan with some parchment paper... this will result in an irregular side but I like the way it looks. Here I used some Martha Stewart parchment-foil paper. It's a little pricey so I save it for the good stuff.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line the pan, foil side down.

The amateur book I was following doesn't order you to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately before integrating all elements. I tried adding the ingredients one by one and it was actually more difficult to mix the butter and sugar... I guess Crisco (I use half Crisco and half butter for the whoopie pies) makes everything go down more smoothly.

Anyways, the ingredients and recipe are so simple I could make this cake in my sleep. Mix

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour (I used almond meal, it worked just fine)
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons apple juice
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• a few drops of vanilla extract

Blend until smooth.

Peel and chop one Granny Smith apple and wash one cup of blackberries. Fold the apples and blackberries into the batter.

Honestly I found one entire apple and one cup of berries a bit overwhelming for the batter so I ate a few pieces. Don't be afraid to do the same.

Pour the batter into the parchment-lined pan...

.. and bake away! Set your timer for 50 minutes.

Why so long? Because this cake is pretty moist and you don't want it to be undercooked or it will fall apart. Big cake fail.

Let the cake cool for a good long while... I took the cake out, turned off the oven, and let the cakelet sit for over an hour. Cakes that are not properly cooled can also crumble upon impact. Ever since I was a little girl, waiting for the cake to cool has always been difficult for me. But patience pays off.

While the cake cools, make the mascarpone frosting! Mascarpone is pretty much Italian cream cheese... being Italian, it has a richer flavor than regular cream cheese. Empty the contents of an 8-ounce tub of mascarpone into a bowl along with 3/4 cup of powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla extract. Give it a whirl with the hand mixer and voila! Super-easy homemade frosting.  You could use more powdered sugar but it really isn't necessary with the mascarpone.

Transfer cooled cake to a plate. I like to flip it upside-down since the bottom provides a flat surface for frosting and I am no good at leveling cakes.

Pile on the frosting...

... and smooth out. I kept the sides bare but feel free to cover those up, too.

When finished, serve to someone you love. Awww!


Recipe for the Blackberry and Apple Cake from The Redwall Cookbook by Brian Jacques. My sister and I loved reading this series when we were young and I even taught a Pass/No Pass class on it in college. The children's books are superfluously descriptive, due in part to Jacques original intention of creating stories for blind children. Now with The Redwall Cookbook (snatched used on amazon.com) those famous Redwall feasts that fill fifty or so pages of each episode can come to your dinner table!

Recipe for the mascarpone frosting derived from various ice cream recipes by a drunk British woman who preferred ice cream made with the cheese and my plentiful experiences with whipping up homemade frosting.

the replacement

A long time ago in a land far far away, before scandals of anti-Semitic career-enders and domestic abuse, Mel Gibson was the go-to man for a certain mother I know and love. But Mel fell out of grace a long time ago.

Mumsy references Chef Fabio Viviani so much that maybe he's the new dreamboat... or maybe she just likes clicking on his web show Chow Ciao! because it's property of Yahoo and Mumsy's homepage is Yahoo. Whatever the case, the emergence of Fabio in my mother's life has brought an abundance of even more delicious food, and I don't have to cook!

One delicious dinner:

Chicken piccata with marsala sauce
and Fabio's Italian mac 'n' cheese

I can see why Mumsy loves watching the web show... Fabio is talented, couples delicious food with simple explanations, and always has a funny anecdote or two about being Italian. For instance...

To be honest, I never had this [marsala sauce] in Italy, well not too often, 'cause my grandpa used to drink the marsala needed to make this recipe. So you can't do this when my grandpa's around 'cause he's gonna knock off the marsala.

Click on the chicken piccata link below the photo and skip to 4:20 to hear it yourself.

The accent isn't too heavy and Fabio is quite the looker, too!

"I know you like mac 'n' cheese," says Mumsy. "So I made two pans."

Genius!

first-world problems: get that grease

San Francisco is so green that it hurts. Only here would the theft of leftover cooking oil make the news.

courtesy of google image search

Those biofuel drivers sure are cutthroat!

whoopiebowl

Happy Superbowl Day! Who will win? The blueberries or the bacon-maples? Both wear oatmeal armor so this match is all about the filling.

game of the year

For those of you who do not care for the Superbowl, the commercials, or getting together with friends, this afternoon is a great time to go shopping.

tourist traps and tricks

There are many in San Francisco... visited a few Friday night:

The price of a one-way cable car ticket is now $6... and you don't even get that postcard memento anymore. So glad that the cable car fare is included in my monthly fast pass!

Climbing up California Street on a cable car

A few years ago I heard rumors that the famed Tonga Room in the Fairmont Hotel was closing. Well those rumors proved false as the tiki-themed lounge is still serving up its famous Mai Tai... my speech professor might've said that the Mai Tai was invented in this bar in San Francisco... I'm not sure anymore, my memory isn't what it used to be.

L: Tonga Tart. R: Mai Tai

the Lava Bowl, a drink for two
but consumed by one!

The Scorpion, another sharing drink.
Despite the name, this cocktail packs no sting.
It's very sweet with a hint of coconut... never saw that coming!

During happy hour, the drinks are a steal at $7.50. Besides, the drinks make the fake rain seem almost real!

In the Tonga Room, they literally make it rain!

Lounge band boards boat and plays 90s beats.

After we'd had enough fruity drinks we could take, a group of us shuffled to nearby Grace Cathedral. On the way I saw an old friend:

Love that the EA bus prominently features a zombie from Plants vs. Zombies!

Pardon the image, it's difficult for my six year-old camera to take nice night shots but you get the gist of the cathedral tower rising up to touch the moon.

Even at night, Grace Cathedral is a lovely place to hang out. The Labyrinth maze is thoughtfully laid outside for all to enjoy, and that's just what we did. To mix it up, have a friend start in the center while you make your way in. Where will you meet?

talks with Bruce

Well, we weren't that unlucky but we came pretty close!

After the madness that was FanFest 2011, KNBR and AT&T Park finally took note and actually organized some of the lines for autographs. They also added a few autograph booths on the top deck. And on top of that, there were a lot less people in attendance today.

We thought we had learned from our past mistakes. We headed for the nearest line first and then scouted, happily learning that the line we were in was indeed a line for autographs. We split up and bought baseballs and food.

on the field

Little did we know that we were in quite possibly the slowest moving line in the entire park. There were periods of up to half an hour when the line wouldn't move at all. I have never spent all 5 hours of FanFest waiting in line... there were so many coulda-shoulda-woulda moments when each of us thought of abandoning the line in favor of another, for one on the top deck or the surprise line at the Build-a-Bear workshop. But none of us dared to leave the line for fear of the changing-lanes-on-the-highway phenomenon. So we stuck it out.

We had been standing still for so long
that somebody started a beach volleyball game.

Huff was signing at the booth for which we were in line. Then Crawford? Then Belt, Baby Giraffe was definitely there. And finally, when we got down to the wire, we heard that head coach Bruce Bochy was signing. Just Bruce, no other guys to throw in as a thanks for waiting so darn long.

the Skipper

Better than nothing, right? Exactly, especially since one volunteer wanted to cut off the autographs with ten minutes to spare and Bruce graciously told her to keep the fans coming.

Being one who tries to make the best of things, I tried chatting with the man...

Me: Your [World Series Champions] ring is really big. Is your ring bigger than everyone else's?

Bochy: That's 'cause my fingers are bigger than everyone else's.

The more I think about it, the weirder it gets, so I'll just leave it be. But the actual autograph is pretty sharp!

My friends and I visited the remaining booths to see who we missed and we discovered that we had, in fact, not chosen the worst line. This line still stretched down the outfield because Nate Schierholtz was still making his mark...

That is, until the clock struck 3 o'clock. Then about 200 people who were still in line were out of luck.

Once in a while I entertain the thought of camping out for FanFest but who am I kidding? If I didn't camp out for the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Missoni for Target line, I'm sure as hell not going to be sleeping by the waterfront anytime soon. Even if I got there at 5 in the morning and was one of the first ten through the door, it wouldn't help. FanFest changes every year and you never know exactly how many booths there will be or where the end of the line is (those maps are not 100% accurate.) We usually enter through the Willie Mays (main) Gate but today we were shepherded into the Marina Gate. If I had gone camping, I would've been waiting in front of the wrong door.

Now I'm not saying that coming early doesn't make a difference but you also need a lot of luck (they're not about to tell you where Lincecum is signing, early birds!) And this year our FanFest luck just didn't live up to years past.

fresh new kicks

A new season of baseball means new shoes... actually it's ask player for autograph and then buy new shoes, but now's a good time to obtain a new pair... you know, since KNBR's SF Giants FanFest is this Saturday.

Instead of the usual orange Converse sneakers, I decided to experiment this year with these crocheted babies from Blowfish:

By nature of construction, these aren't nearly as sturdy as my old Converse kicks. But with these I won't have to debate about whether or not to wear socks... Actually, bright pink socks peeking out from behind an orange veil might look pretty cool...

it's not just red or white

There is another saucy option for pasta!

A few years ago there was a special episode of Iron Chef America that pitted teams of Iron Chefs and guest chefs against each other. In one corner was the Boy with the oversized grill, Bobbly Flay, and White House Executive Chef Comerford. In the other corner, croc-wearing Mario Batali and where-has-he-been Emeril Lagasse. The secret ingredient was the Obamas' vegetable garden in the White House and probably the most enjoyable part was watching the four pick apart the garden like hyenas feasting on a carcass. Lovely analogy, I know.

Anyways I always poke fun at Food Network personalities but one of the one's you just can't resist ridiculing is Mario Batali. I think it was an episode of Ciao America in which Mario visited gelaterias and pizzerias somewhere on the East Coast. Nothing wrong with that, except he couldn't wait for the food to be ready before eating it... half-served cups of gelato, partially-cooked pizzas and subs... oh yes, Mario was quite memorable.

But he made up for it all with a single dish that ended up securing a resounding victory for Team Batali-Lagasse. The heavenly dish was butternut squash and goat cheese ravioli, crafted from garden to table and made super-fresh. The three judges - Nigella Lawson, Jane Seymour, and Natalie Coughlin - couldn't find one bit to critique about the ravioli. Their praises were so deliciously descriptive that I had to find a way to mimic the dish...

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Take out a pack of goat cheese (mine was 8 ounces) and let it sit on the counter... you don't want to mix cold cheese because, well, it's hard mixing cold cheese. Besides, you don't want to mix ingredients with extremely different temperatures. The cheese doesn't have to sit out for hours, just half an hour or so to approach room temperature.

Start with some chopped butternut squash. Trader Joe's sells some conveniently cubed butternut squash in the salad section and that's what I like to use. I've only cracked open a whole butternut squash once and let me tell you, the shape and girth of that squash does not make it easy to halve. If you know how to handle the gourd, then by all means use a fresh one. Just saying, the pre-chopped squash is already cleaned, cut, and measured.

Though, if you see any large chunks (greater than one inch,) feel free to halve them. The smaller the pieces are, the more well thoroughly the squash will cook, and well-cooked squash is essential to making a smooth sauce.

Toss the cubed squash with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes. After roasting, take the squash out and let it rest for no more than 10 minutes. It's the same reason I let the goat cheese warm up: you don't want to add very hot substances to cooler cheeses.

gettin' ready to mix it up

You know what to do: blend!

so tasty... it already smells good and I haven't even turned the hand mixer on

When it turns this lovely light orange shade, you've mixed well. This butternut squash and goat cheese mixture has a light tangy taste. It's not really a sauce, it's a bit thicker than your standard pasta sauce but feel free to mix in a little cream if you prefer a consistency more akin to liquid.

A few stray cubes are okay but if you have a lot of unmixed butternut squash, you didn't cook the squash long enough!

it's certainly tempting to eat this straight out of the mixing bowl

I've never filled ravioli myself so I usually like to tackle the next best thing: manicotti. Manicotti pasta look like huge rigatoni shells and, because of their size, are very easy to fill. All you have to do is spoon in the butternut squash mixture.

However, Trader Joe's does not sell manicotti shells and I haven't been to a supermarket in a while. It turns out that the butternut squash and goat cheese filling is just as good served atop any shape of pasta, such as these bronze die-stamped orecchiette.

pasta of the gods

And that's how Mario Batali found a way into my stomach.