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May, 2011

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Tamarindo: Oakland

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

I read about Tamarindo in Old Oakland three years ago in Sunset Magazine and I have wanted to try it ever since.  The Tamarindo Margarita was my main interest (turns out it is rather sweet and the Mezcalito is what won us over) as well as the small plates.  We finally got around to it and we re-discovered some finer points of upscale-cuisine and upscale-Mexican Cuisine in particular:

  • Mezcal is wonderful with its smoky goodness in cocktails (Drank this in Tamarindo’s Mezcalito Cocktail (Del Maguel Crema de Mezcal – Orange – Volcanic Salt Rim))
  • Some Yelpers can summarize a spot in a few key words, some. This statement is pretty much spot-on, “Expensive, Small Portions, and Delicious.” This means you must go with a Cocktails-and-Small-Plates-State-of-Mind and sit at the bar OR make it a ladies night out dinner. Don’t go with a Super Burrito mentality (or a husband who needs 3,000 calories a day who will have to run through In-N-Out on the way home) because he will not get full on the sharable small plates concept, unless you have hours to eat, and a wallet filled with hundred dollar bills.

Posted in Eating Out, Oakland | No Comments »
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Ladies’ who Lunch? The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards, Livermore, CA: SF Bay Area Day Trip

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Do you need to pretend you are among the ladies who lunch, even though you have to head out on the one day of the weekend that you don’t actually have to work? This is California right … everyone works.  The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards is your spot for a ladies who lunch outing.  Wente is also a good place for dates with your honey, hubby, or daddy too (we saw all of the above).  The complimentary lunch valet also makes you feel like your out-for-lunch, aka on vaca.  You even get to head out of town a bit for a nice drive in the country to get there, a true San Francisco Bay Area Day Trip for sure, without having to go all the way to Napa or Paso Robles.  It is about a 45 minute drive from Mountain View and from Oakland to get out to Livermore, CA.  As you get closer to Livermore you will find fruit stands along the road.  We bought cherries along the way and had a cherry spitting contest, FYI, not at Wente (don’t get yourself kicked out).

We liked snacking on: Cayenne Spiced Roasted Nuts, Maple, Garden Herbs & Warmed Nicolau Farms Goat Cheese, Herbed Bread Crumbs.

We liked sipping on: SEASONAL COCKTAILS such as the Lavender Martini and local wines at Wente.

Posted in Around California, Eating Out, Out of Town, SF Bay Area Day Trips, South Bay - Silicon Valley | 1 Response »
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Summer Tandoori Times: Tandoori Chicken Kabobs Recipe

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

I’d forgotten about this grilling recipe (super awesome and easy) that we’d discovered summers ago while living on the coast of North Carolina.  I remember thinking the ingredients were extensive at the time.  When I found the same recipe again this week (at the request of my best friend who was visiting) I was startled at just how few ingredients the original recipe took.  So my next step was to question the effectiveness of the simplicity to these tasty kabobs and I researched and found a recipe with a bit more swath of spices.  Below I’m including the down and dirty easy kabob version from Martha Stewart’s Good Food Everyday (tastes almost as good) and the bit more extensive version.   These kabobs would be tasty with an almond, currants, and cilantro rice on the side.

Super Simple Tandoori Chicken Kabobs Recipe

Click to continue »

Posted in Grilling, Home Cookin', Main Dishes | No Comments »
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Three Layer Cornbread Recipe (with a Custard Layer in the middle) – from Tassajara

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

This recipe is so simple and it is wonderful.  From what I hear, they discovered this recipe when they made a mistake in the proportions of ingredients for a cornbread recipe at Tassajara.  For some reason the cornbread separates into three layers with a soft custard layer in the middle.  It is sweet because of the honey but is a perfect balance to a hot and spicy dish such as chili (can add green chili’s to the recipe too).  If you add the additional honey, it makes a good dessert with strawberries.

  • Top Layer: Bran
  • Middle Layer: Custardy Layer
  • Bottom Layer: Cornmeal

Between the cornbread recipe and the kale salads, I have completely rediscovered two amazing cookbooks after spending lots of time with ladies who know how to cook Californian down in Santa Cruz. If you are shopping for a foodie friend or cook and they don’t have these two cookbooks in their collections, get them for them as a gift.  You can’t go wrong.

Three Layer Cornbread Recipe

  • 1 cup cornmeal (coarse ground works best but regular works)
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
  • 1/4 cup wheat bran or wheat germ
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup honey or molasses, (we use honey)
  • 1/4 cup oil or melted butter, (we use oil)
  • 3 cups milk or buttermilk, (we always use regular milk)

* Use the larger amount of honey if you want this for dessert.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients. Mix them together. The batter will be quite liquidy; this is fine.

Pour batter into a lightly oiled 9″x9″ baking dish and bake for 50 minutes or until the top is springy when gently touched.

Cool before cutting and serving.

* I’ve heard adding green chillies to it is great!

Posted in Home Cookin', Vegetable Side Dish | No Comments »
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Tassajara Kale Salad & Esalen Kale Salad: I’ve heard kids will even eat Greens like this!

Friday, May 13th, 2011

First off, I LOVE this salad! It is now my favorite way to eat greens.  I’ve made it three times in two weeks.

Feed your kids greens early on … as a salad, and it just might stick … so I’ve heard! At least this is what some photographer friends in Santa Cruz told me who recommended the recipe.  They were eating Carob, given to them by their parents, a generation before I was.  Thinking nothing of it, they said, kids like this salad too.  I started laughing, thinking to myself, not a chance I would have been excited about eating greens as a kid unless it was seamlessly slipped-into my Ohio, kid diet as a cold salad that has a bit tougher lettuce and that had no description that it was kale.  I mean, we flipped out when my mom made stuffed peppers for dinner as kids.  A story about a cousin who grew up in California came to mind when thinking about kids eating kale.  This cousin had eaten such healthy, organic food as a kid that when his parents were forced to stop by KFC and get him some fast food one time, he threw up!  Don’t worry, when I moved out to CA, I corrupted him by introducing him to loaded baked potatoes.

  • TASSAJARA KALE SALAD vs. ESALEN KALE SALAD

In terms of these two variations on the cold kale salad, I would recommend combining aspects of both.  I over salted the Tassajara Kale Salad the first time but liked the fruit aspect, ginger, honey, and lemon dressing in this recipe but would add the sprouts, red onion, and nuts from the Esalen Kale Salad recipe in the future.

KALE IS SO GOOD FOR YOU!


For Recipes —-> Click to continue »

Posted in CSA Food Box Recipes, Greens, Home Cookin', Salad | 2 Comments »
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BBQ Dinner for Twenty, That Serves Itself!

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Delegating these recipes to your friends or family and then setting everything up on a table with crock-pots or warming plates can help this dinner serve-itself all-night-long.  I’ve found that one of the hardest parts about having a dinner party is the fact that you are running around your own house getting all of the food prepared and served and not getting to spend time with friends.  Not to mention, you’re exhausted from cooking, before your friends even arrive!  With this menu, you need 4-5 cooks to complete the dinner.

Cook #1 (The Host):

Cook #2:

Cook #3:

Cook #4 – (The Baker):

For Recipes -> Click to continue »

Posted in Dinner Party Menu, Home Cookin', Main Dishes | No Comments »
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