Northern CA Favorite Dining

Last week, I spent a couple days with my sister from another mister( aka my best friend), at her home in Northern California. We had the best time hanging 0ut and not doing much other than eating (our favorite pastime together). Here are some of my favorite meals we ate during my stay.

 

The two of us at Land’s End in northern CA looking at the Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge — HIGHLY recommend this walk / hike — truly gorgeous the entire 3.5 miles — from every step.

 

 

Lazy Bear

 

Lazy Bear is a Michelin star (2 stars) rated restaurant in the Mission district of SF. it is a tasting menu, but not stuffy, and the vibe is low key, cool, and hip. It was A LOT of food, but we ate it all and had the best time. This was a salmon crudo and one of my favorite bites the entire meal.

One of the dishes is a roll and butter. They are famous for their butter and it was absolutely delicious. My hand is in the picture to show you how big the butter dish is.

Chicken pot pie — stuffed in morel mushrooms. OMG so good. So good.

 

Pizzetta 211

 

The menu — worth sharing if you want to look closely at all the different pizza combinations for inspiration if you yourself make your own pizza.

The cucumber salad — with hazelnuts, nectarines and green goddess dressing — loved every bite.

Pizza with egg and bacon. Scrumptious.

This pizza was my favorite — summer squash and cherry tomatoes.

Olive oil cake and blackberry compote YES YES YES.

 

Homecooked meal

 

Garden veggies — my dream.

Two salads that I will definitely remake (and share the recipes on here) — they were both so good and so summery.

Salmon with Momofuku Chili crunch glaze. Spicy and good.

Ensemble.

 

Lulu’s

 

Chicken street tacos. BOOM. So good.

 

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So there you have it, delicious food to eat if and when you are in the Bay Area, and if not, use these as inspirations for your own cooking!

 

PS — we love Alpine Inn near Stanford’s Campus and go there every time I visit, but didn’t take pictures of anything but us.

 

Pasta Party

The past three weeks I have been taking cooking classes with some friends — it has been a highlight of the week. Fun, tasty, and a great way to break up the week. On that certain day, we decided to do a late afternoon class and include our daughters and make it a pasta party. It was a great night.

 

Flowers to have for the party! If I don’t have time to go down to the flower market, I like to get my flowers at Trader Joe’s — cheap, good quality, and great selection.

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Mango Sorbet

I might as well make this a baking blog now because that is all I have been wanting to post about recently! HA! I am the worst cook, but I love baking and experimenting in the kitchen. Recently, we made mango sorbet AND mango ice cream in a bake off — and hands down, the winner was the mango sorbet.  So if you feel like making something SUPER easy, delicious, and refreshing, make this!

 

First, you peel the mangos (make sure they are good ones — it makes all the difference). Then, you blend them with water, a little sugar, some lime juice, and THAT IS IT!

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Jennifer Fisher Flavored Salt

I have been hearing a lot about Jennifer Fisher’s Flavored Salt for quite some time, but finally picked some up at a local market, and I am hooked! They only had the Universal Salt variety so that is what I purchased, but I can’t wait to try out the others soon (curry and spicy)!

 

Jennifer Fisher is a jewelry designer but also branched out into cooking and salts! Good for her to diversify and expand her business!

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ABC Kitchen Roasted Carrot Salad

I was first introduced to this Roasted Carrot Salad at one of my favorite NYC restaurants, ABC Kitchen. Although it has been years since I have last eaten there, I distinctively remember the salad — the rainbow colors, the mixture of elements, and most of all how delicious it is. Ever since I found the recipe (Thank you, NY Times!), I have made this salad 5 times (in 2 weeks). It is SOOOOOO GOOD! A perfect salad for summer (or winter) and alone (or for guests).

 

The perfect salad!

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Virtual Cooking Classes

For the past several months, I have been taking virtual private cooking classes and they have changed. my. life. Through a kids’ cooking program, I became acquainted with Kate and loved her so much that I poached her from the program, and hired her to teach me how to cook. It has been absolutely incredible. Not only do I work with her on a weekly basis, but she does classes with both my kids — for special occasions here and there and in the past on a weekly basis. Kate offers cooking classes and baking classes and they are ABSOLUTELY incredible.

 

This is Kate. SHE IS AMAZING. Personable, super friendly, knowledgeable, patient, funny. I love her. If she lived in NYC, she would be my friend.

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Dehydrated Peaches

Earlier this week, we went peach picking (one of my favorite pastimes in Oregon….  fun, beautiful, and super inexpensive. WIN WIN all around). In 20 minutes, we gathered 35 pounds of delicious and perfect peaches. As much as I love peaches, that is a WHOLE lot of peaches to eat….especially since they go bad very quickly. So within minutes, I made two crisps (a little bit of oatmeal, a little bit of butter, a little bit of sugar and VOILA).  But there was still 30 plus pounds left….so we decided to dehydrate them and they are oh so good.

 

Me and my partner in crime. She weighs just slightly more than the peaches.

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Haven’s Kitchen Sauces

Now that I am back to NYC, I am all about fast, easy dinners. I like simple, delicious, and healthy meals that do not require much thought but are still tasty and good for you. So when I came across Haven’s Kitchen Sauces on Fresh Direct, I jumped especially because my friend Katie Carey, happens to be the brains and beauty behind these delicious sauces! Can you believe how small this world is? TINY! And can you believe how amazing these sauces are? INCREDIBLE.

 

So good. So good. So good. Worth repeating and eating more and more and more of them.

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Favorite New Cookbooks March 2018

Happy March! It feels like it was just January.  Time has flown (probably because of my recent travels to Italy and India) but in any case, here we are!  I was just gifted three new cookbooks by two dear friends and I love them all so much (both the friends and the cookbooks) that I wanted to share.

 

I am officially my mom: a collector of cookbooks.  I have more cookbooks than real actual books! And I love it……

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Casey 2 Cook – TV Chef

Today we go behind the scenes with a TV chef (one of my favorite types of TV). Casey (aka, Casey2Cook) is a successful chef who won a season of Cooks vs. Cons! (BTW, that is my biggest nightmare — being quick and fast in the kitchen). Such an inspiration and I learned so much from the interview. Thanks so much, Casey! And FYI, her partner Steven is Natori’s E-Commerce Shipping manager!

 

Talented and beautiful, too! Thanks, Casey for this interview and inspiration for all of us.

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How did you start cooking? What inspired you to become a chef?

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Cookbooks – Summer 2016

Everything about my biffle‘s house is blog worthy. It is like walking into a perfectly curated store that carries only the best of the best. Literally, every nook and cranny could be photographed and written about as her taste and style is impeccable (I will take one of each, please). She is also a phenomenal cook who meal plans for her family with healthy, simple, and varied recipes. Here are her top cookbooks of Summer 2016. And perhaps if we have the same cookbooks, then we have the same dinners?

 

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cookbooks

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Thai Cabbage Slaw

The perfect crunch, taste, and salad. I can't wait to try more of Mark Bittman's concoctions.

My obsession with Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Matrix Cookbook continues. I can’t speak highly enough about it and EVERYONE must get it for their kitchen STAT. It makes meal-planning easy, and spices up our family dinner repertoire. My most recent find (there seems to be a new one every week!) is the thai cabbage slaw — DELISH what what!!!

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Spiralizer

I shelled out the big dough and bought another kitchen gadget; and I couldn’t be happier. YUP, a spiralizer. What is a spiralizer (good question, kinda sounds like a pencil sharpener)? It is a device that transforms vegetables into “angel-hair” strands as well as spiral cuts, shoestrings and ribbon “noodles” — amazing, right?

 

Spiralizer! Even the name sounds spunky and happy! SPIRALIZE!

Spiralizer! Even the name sounds spunky and happy! SPIRALIZE!

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Short Stack Cookbooks

One of my besties is someone whose style and taste is impeccable. Everything she wears, owns, makes, likes and buys is top quality and perfect. She offers great outfit advice, gift options, and decor styling. This is in addition to being the most loyal, fun, funny, beautiful and loving friend. I am lucky to have her in my life. I am also incredibly lucky that she gifted me these hip and up-and-coming short stack cookbooks. Check them out!

 

short stack

short stack

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