One Scoop At A Time

Happy #Supermoon 2012

2012-05-05T21:34:00.002-07:00

We had fun taking photos of the #supermoon this evening from our home in San Jose. This was taken with our Canon DSLR.

The blurry iPhone camera photo of BJ setting up the tripod.

Beef Noodle Soups

2012-01-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

I need a second helping of this hot bowl of pho, stat.

Even though it's bright and sunny (high 60s) in the the day, the evenings have been windy and chilly. This winter I've been slurping my way through various pho places to get my noodle soup fix. In the past few weeks, I've visited Beef Noodle #1 in San Jose, Bamboo Leaf Vietnamese in Santa Clara, and Pho Garden in downtown Mountain View. That's a lot of beef noodle soups, pho sure.

Soup and (grass fed) burger night at Calafia Cafe

2012-01-02T22:18:00.000-08:00

Our favorite spot at Calafia Cafe in Palo Alto is the bar near the kitchen, and when there is only the two of us, the seats are pretty easy to come by.

We shared the cheddar and potato soup which was served in a mini Le Creseut enamel casserole. I love mini crockery.

The grass fed burger came with two slices of bacon (!) on a brioche bun, and I chose the shoestring fries. BJ and actually split this with a salad for a dose of healthiness.

Our 2011 Adventures

2012-01-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

One of the neatest feature in the Picasa uploader is the fun and useful collage maker. Here's highlights from our 2011 trips to New York city, Shanghai, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Some of these trips were for work, and we were lucky enough to see family and friends from afar during the travels.

Homemade Pasta - that's amore

2012-01-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

For our Christmas dinner, I dusted off our Imperia pasta machine to roll out the dough and slice into stringy noodles. And because I have tired hands (and a bit of carpal tunnel), I gave them a holiday rest and used a bread machine to knead the perfect ball of dough.

Making fresh pasta requires patience and elbow grease, but the final product is delicious and so much tastier than dried noodles.

A little creativity needed to set up the pasta machine in the kitchen. A baking sheet was placed on a stool to catch the falling noodles.

Fresh pasta sprinkled with some flour.

The final dish - fettuccine noodles with mushroom, carrot and arugula sauteed in garlic infused EVOO. Nom. Nom.

Being a Googleplex tourist

2011-12-31T17:44:00.000-08:00

The new Galaxy Nexus phone takes amazing panoramic pictures with just a press of a button and a few swivels. Here's a panorama of the Android office with all the adorable OS statues at the Googleplex.

The Android robot looking quite dapper in such festive attire for the holidays.

Now, wouldn't it be awesome if the Android totems were scented with the likes of an ice cream sandwich, eclair, frozen yogurt with berries, gingerbread, cupcake and honeycomb?

Stacycation: Doran Beach Bodega Bay, CA

2011-12-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

BJ and I decided to go on a last minute getaway to Bodega Bay, a coastal town in Sonoma. We are staying at the Bodega Bay Lodge and it is walking distance to Doran Beach where we saw the equestrians and their horses. First time I've seen horses on a beach.

A simple mid-afternoon snack on the beach with focaccia and mozzarella hits the spot!We had the beach nearly to ourselves!

Window shopping and lunch in Willow Glen Downtown

2011-12-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

BJ and I strolled through Willow Glen to enjoy the holiday window displays in the downtown shops.

We also took a break from window shopping to enjoy the Saturday lunch specials at Taiwan Restaurant. Crispy lemon chicken for me, and prawns in black bean sauce for him.

The chicken salad with crispy noodle appetizer was something different to try. I liked it overall, but the dressing was too sugary. Next time I'll have to remember to withhold the dressing.

After lunch, we continued strolling along Lincoln Avenue and this children's tea set caught my eye. It's a child's depression era glass tea set in jewel hues similar to vintage Pyrex - too cute!

Persimmon Season

2011-12-08T15:44:00.001-08:00

I have been stockpiling fuyu and hachiya persimmons for the past two weeks, and some are finally ripe enough to eat.

My favorite way is to enjoy them peeled and chopped into pieces to put into yogurt.

Pumpkin Pie made with Tofu

2011-12-04T20:44:00.001-08:00

Ever since my trip to New York where I tried the delicious Babycakes cupcakes, I have been curious about learning to make my own gluten free and vegan desserts. Since I'm a bit sloppy at baking in general, I decided not to attempt making cupcakes, or anything that requires flours and other important baking ingredients like baking powders, baking sodas, yeast, etc. And that's when I thought of making a pumpkin tofu pie. I seem to always have tofu in the fridge and there was a can of Trader Joe's organic pumpkin on hand as well.

I found a fairly straight forward gluten free, dairy free, egg free pumpkin tofu pie recipe here. So simple - you just measure the ingredients and then blend everything in the food processor before pouring the mixture in a pie shell. Instead of the pie shell, I made a corn flake and walnuts crust with melted Earth Balance organic coconut spread.

Verdict - Very good consistency and tasted very, very close to pumpkin pie but there were still small hints of a tofu undertone. I think next time I'll use less tofu or more pumpkin then maybe it would have tasted exactly like pumpkin pie. The pie's taste is still great, and I'm going to be making this again.

More Thanksgiving Feasting

2011-11-27T20:05:00.001-08:00

We have an annual tradition of sharing Thanksgiving with a group of our closest friends on the Saturday after the holiday. We had a new visitor at this year's gathering, Sam the pug, who kept a close watch on BJ's carving of the turkey.

It's become tradition for us to bring the yorkshire pudding. We like to make them in muffin tins instead the traditional square baking pan for serving our 20+ group. The round shape also makes it a perfect bite size vessel for all the gravy!

Thanskgiving Leftovers: sheperds pie with turkey

2011-11-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

For round two of Thanksgiving turkey leftovers, I made Andrea's turkey pot pie, following her recipe except I omitted the mushrooms because I didn't have any in the house. When I brought this out of the oven, BJ announced, "you effectively made sheperds pie."

According to the hubby, traditional shepherds pie has a ground beef filling, but he thought this was a tasty twist to what he is use to eating.

Leftover turkey has never tasted so good. Nom, nom!

a Pyrex-ful Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T19:54:00.001-08:00

The vintage pyrex came out again for another Thanksgiving feast. I am really enjoying the versatility of the "new" blue loaf pan that my friend gave me, a hand me down from her mom. It held BJ's creamy mash potatoes and has served many loaves in years past.

For our main meal, we relied on my trusty Crock-Pot for making our Thanksgiving turkey and BBQ pulled pork! When we decided to make a turkey (a half of turkey breast that is) in it, I was a bit weary initially. I rarely use the crock-pot for cooking anything but turkey chili, but magically the turkey breast turned out amazingly succulent and flavorful. And the pulled-pork simmered all evening in J. Lee Roy's Hickory BBQ sauce that I received at the Foodbuzz Festival.

We're officially stuffed and am working on leftovers for dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving road trip to San Francisco

2011-11-23T21:44:00.001-08:00

For our break from work this week, we hit the road and discovered a new bakery by chance after getting lost in Pacifica - Mazzetti's. We ended up stopping to get some breakfast pastries but narrowing down an item was very hard. Mazzeti's has such a huge selection, ranging from pies, cakes to cupcakes and even homemade panettone breads, just to name a few of the items that I spotted.
I really enjoyed discovering Mazzetti's. The old-time feel of Mazzetti's reminded me of my favorite bake shops in Chicago and Evanston Illinois. We each bought something small to take with us to our next stop . . .Land's End in San Francisco.

The ruins of the Sutro bath house always makes for a nice backdrop for a hike.

BJ enjoys a vanilla cupcake from Mazzetti's, a perfect pick-me-upper for the cliff side walk.

After we left the bath ruins and Lands End, I was totally ready for lunch at La Garage in Sausalito. I ordered a baked pumpkin that included chanterelle mushrooms, brussels sprout and other veggies packed inside. Must try making this at home.

Psycho Donuts, Campbell, CA

2011-11-19T20:40:00.001-08:00

We had some free time this morning and decided to stroll around downtown Campbell and straight into Psycho Donuts on Campbell Ave. and Winchester. I've heard about their extravagant toppings and popular triangle shape donuts.

A lobotomized jelly donut with scar to show. Eek!

A s'mores style donut - sugar glazed with graham crackers, marshmallow fluff and melted chocolate.

In general, I prefer plain old fashioned cake donuts without a lot of sugary add-ons, but these were OK for a laugh. Actually, I don't know how they taste as BJ ate both.

Oh, how I wish we had Tim Hortons!

Sunday Stroll in Los Gatos Downtown

2011-11-13T14:14:00.001-08:00

This Sunday morning walk involved hot chai from Great Bear Coffee and ...

checking out the cupcake displays at Icing on the Cake. We both bought cookies this morning and will reserve cupcake eating for a special occasion. BJ is intrigued by the cookie dough cupcake (on display , top left ).

Foodbuzz Festival 2011

2011-11-13T12:22:00.001-08:00

I can't believe a week has passed since BJ and I enjoyed the wonderful mini feast in San Francisco last weekend at Foodbuzz 2011. Before any more time passes by, here are my highlights through pictures. Instead of posting individual photos which I normally would do, I discovered this nifty collage maker in Picasa, which randomly creates a collage of my selected photos from the Foodbuzz Taste Pavillion.

Foodbuzz allowed us to bring a guest to the Taste Pavillion so BJ happily volunteered to taste and drink his way with me through the 4 hour food extravaganza at the Metreon's 4th Floor.

There were so many wonderful vendors. Some of our most delicious tasting and discoveries included:

Alaska Seafood lettuce and lobster wraps
Redwood Hill Farm's goat cheese samplers
J. Lee Roy's BBQ sauce (we are both fans of the "hot" and decided to include ribs with this sauce as part of our Thanksgiving feast)
SKY Spirits special "punch" bowl
OXO booth featuring the latest kitchen gadget designs (I won an egg beater. Can't wait to use for Sunday omelette brunches)

And thank you to the Foodbuzz organizers for once again hosting the most fabulous foodie event of the year!

Lower East Side, New York

2011-10-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

I was exploring the Lower East Side when all of a sudden a group of pirates sailed through the streets on their bikes.

Happy Halloween!

Snowy NYC: photos from 5th Ave and Central Park

2011-10-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

We spent a few hours exploring the Metropolitan Museum to escape the heavy New York city rains this morning. By the time we left the Met, the city was coated with wet and heavy snow fall.

Museum goers checking out the early snow fall in Central Park from the large windows on the second floor.

We were lucky to enjoy a snowy Central Park before being asked to leave because of the dangers of falling tree branches.

Geraniums and green plants are still in bloom in this garden apartment off of Fifth Avenue.

We saw many fallen tree branches while walking from the Met, through Central Park, and then along Fifth Avenue. In some places, we were just yards away and heard the loud crack and then a big thud!

It's another hot weekend

2011-10-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

We met friends for Saturday brunch at Calafia Cafe in Palo Alto. This is BJ's order - tempura fried chicken and bacon studded waffles. Leave it to Calafia to make a gourmet version of the classic fried chicken and waffles.

I craved a burger, in the form of a veggie puree, tofu, lentil and quinoa patty. Jicama slaw and house pickles on the side.

Nothing Bundt Cakes, San Jose

2011-10-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Move over cupcakes. This is the new obsession. Nothing Bundt Cakes is in San Jose now! We were at a potluck and some friends brought a red velvet with cream cheese from Nothing Bundt Cake.

I've never seen such a ginormous bundt cake before. The moistness of the cake and whipped cream cheese frosting was mmm, mmm, good.

Calafia Cafe

2011-10-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

We sat outdoors for dinner at Calafia Cafe in the Palo Alto Town & Country Shopping Center, enjoying cool breezes and the last day of September. The Calafia Cafe is noted for its organic and vegan selections and contains plenty of variety for carnivores too. The restaurant was started by the former head chef at Google, and the menu was filled with an eclectic California cuisine blending a combination of Asian and Mexican inspired dishes with several vegetarian, vegan, Gluten Free dishes. For starters, we had uber juicy duck wontons and a dipping sauce.

We both ordered from the meat menu - salmon with quinoa and seaweed for me. BJ enjoyed braised short ribs with horseradish mash potatoes , of which there was plenty of left overs due to the huge portion. What a wonderful first time experience!

Fall Favorites All-Clad Cooking Class at Sur La Table

2011-09-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend a friend and I signed-up for the Fall Favorites All-Clad cooking class in Sur La Table at Palo Alto. All the dishes from savory appetizers to a sweet pear dessert were either prepared in an All-Clad skillet, demonstrating the versatility of the pan. Just as notable, this was also the first time that I used a really sharp chefs knife to chop and cut my food. (I use a dull-ish knife at home, which I'm quite OK with as I'm scared of sharp pointy knives).

The class was divided into two sections, and each section had the opportunity to prepare the same 4 dishes:

-Bubbling Shrimp in Tomato Sauce with Feta Cheese
-Yukon Gold and Sweet Potato Gratin with Three Cheeses

-Sweet Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe with Orecchiette
-Pear Tart Tartin

The recipes for the class came from Sur La Table HQ, but the cooking assistants and chef tweaked them a bit as we went along. The gratin was too soggy, and the advise was to use less milk next time or skip it altogether in favor of using just the cream. I was nonetheless very pleased with the results as the ingredients worked well for each recipe.

Sincee this was an All-Clad class, we were also excited to receive our very own All-Clad 40th Anniversary skillet to take home!

Saturday Date Night - Boston Chowda in Los Gatos

2011-09-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

We had good intentions to walk 4 miles at the Los Gatos creek trail this evening, but this sign outside the newly opened Billy's Boston Chowder House proved to be too enticing. Whole belly Ipswich clams - yes, please.

The small shops and restaurants dotting Los Gatos' Main Street at dusk.

Happy as a clam.

BJ and I reviewed the menu and decided to go big, ordering several dishes to support the new local eatery and test out the menu.

A lobster roll with plenty of claw meat served on a hot and buttery crunchy bun for me. A steamed bowl of clams and mussels for him.

Clam chowder and fried oysters appetizers. Nom. Nom.

Hoosier Eats

2011-09-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

We recently visited Indiana and enjoyed great company with friends and family, and lots of good food. We started out in Bloomington where my friends Ellen and Jason served us brunch in their home. There are so many things I love about the above photo - from the variety of delicious baked treats to the Bloomington farmer's market sausages to the Fire King Jadeite pie... Ellen made sure to point out it's a replica reissued a few years ago. : ) It's fun to know that after all these years after college, we still have lots in common!

A frittata with perfectly julienned veggies and eggplant. A coffee cake whipped up from a recipe in Baked, the cookbook from the Brooklyn bakery.

We also visited Indy to see my brother who introduced us to amazing restaurants and sights in Broad Ripple, a quirky little neighborhood lined with bars, restaurants, and boutiques and access to a city-wide nature trail. And in Broad Ripple, I had amazing pizza from Three Wise Men, the last place I expected to find such a gem. The sausage is local and the cheese blend has local cheese as well!

Our trip also included BBQ, pulled pork, and lots of iceberg lettuce wedges with bacon and blue cheese. All comfort foods of my home state.

I heart Indiana.