Cooking and Dining in the Bay Area Lately

Oops, I forgot to update my blog for more than a year. Between then and now I have certainly cooked some note-worthy things, I guess I was just busy. So I'll try to play catch-up a bit. I moved back to San Jose, but I spend the weekends with my boyfriend in Sunnyvale. We try to cook at least once every weekend, although sometimes "cooking" ends up meaning grabbing a rotisserie chicken from the store and tossing together a little salad. It has just been way too hot this summer to do much cooking. I'm really looking forward to fall so I can get in the mood to start using my slow cooker again!

In July, we made a delightful ratatouille. I don't remember which recipe we used. Basically we just chopped up some eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, onion, and bell peppers, and cooked them together. It was very tasty and filling.

Also we have been to some great restaurants in the area that have become our go-to for different kinds of food. One of my favorites is Shah Restaurant in Sunnyvale. This Indo-Pakistani food is just the right amount of spicy, and bursting with flavor. We always get the raita, a cucumber yogurt dip, with naan, as well as the lamb curry and chicken tikka curry. I love their complimentary chai, too.

Our favorite brunch/lunch place is Roger's Deli and Donuts in Mountain View. They serve delicious deli sandwiches, donuts, bagels, bagel sandwiches, soups, and all kinds of breakfast items all day, like pancakes, omelettes, french toast, and all kinds of breakfast sandwiches. The food is simple and delicious, the ambiance is also relaxed and down to earth, you just order your food and grab it when it's ready, no one bugging you or checking up on you afterwards, which is perfect for a leisurely Sunday morning. I always get the blueberry pancakes and Irish creme coffee.

I occasionally work in downtown San Carlos, and when I do, I love going to Bianchini's Market for lunch. They offer soups, a salad bar, as well as pre-made sandwiches or sandwiches you can order from the deli counter. My favorite is their chili, which is satisfyingly spicy and filling at just one small cup. Just being in the store makes me feel so classy, because I am surrounded by gourmet products that I am sure add an exquisitely sophisticated touch to anyone's kitchen.

Well, that's about all for now.... getting ready to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, during which I am sure to enjoy some excellent food and wine and enjoy the company of several like-minded individuals. Till next time!

The Most Delicious Foods of December

Not to make you guys hungry or anything, but I just wanted to share about some of the most delicious foods I have enjoyed this month....

These latkes are from Hanukkah last month but I also made more when I got back home in December. I made a big batch and they only lasted like two days, they're that delicious. I'll probably make some more when I get back after Christmas.

Might look a little grody? I don't know? But these chicken tacos from the little market down the street from me are delicious and about as authentic as you can get, taco-wise. Perfect enjoyed with a classic Mexican coke, made with real cane sugar.

Chicken and waffles! I just couldn't get that chicken and waffle dish from LA out of my mind, and I was pleased to find that San Francisco has some of their own chicken and waffle places, like Gussie's Chicken and Waffles. Next time I go I'm going to have to try their Georgia peach skillet cobbler for dessert, if I'm not too full after my chicken and waffles.

Good food is definitely one of the greatest pleasures of my life. It's so fun to be able to write about food every week for my writing job, and share those articles with my friends and family.

Christmas Break in Orcutt

I have been having a very nice little vacation at home in Orcutt. Sunday we had my aunts and uncle and cousins over for breakfast.. eggs, salami, my aunt's traditional pear french toast, latkes, bagels, fruit, and I think that's about it.. lots of food, haha. Then for Christmas dinner we had pork roast, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry stuffing, and jello. Some nice baked goodies in between, too, including vanilla candy bark in two varieties (peanut and peppermint), rum cake, Berliner Kranzers, and later we will probably still make some fudge.

My family and I make these Berliner Kranzers every Christmas.
They are sweet and delicate, definitely my favorite Christmas cookie.

This is our tree this year. :)

Also nice seeing some friends....

Fried ice cream with a friend in Old Town Orcutt.

I have about 2 and a half days left until I head back to San Jose so I will try to relax, see some more friends, and be all caught up with work by the time I get back.

Hope everyone else is having happy holidays too! :)

Happy Hanukkah! Also, Christmas times...

Just wanted to shine my light for Hanukkah... tonight is the first night!

My dad sent me a Hanukkah gift set in the mail so I could celebrate it from over here. It came with a menorah, some candles, some dreidels, some gelt, and some little handouts explaining each thing, like the history of Hanukkah, some Hanukkah songs, and how to light the candles and play dreidel. My housemate and I are going to play dreidel one of these nights after he has had some practice spinning the top. So, it's going to be a simple but nice Hanukkah.

Meanwhile, everyone's getting into the Christmas spirit. Downtown, there are street musicians playing Christmas songs on flutes and french horns. There's this event that has been going on for the past few weeks called Christmas in the Park, and it's kind of like a carnival mixed with a Christmas display.

There are rides, and popcorn/hot dog stands, and stands selling all kinds of other food... churros, hot chocolate, burgers, Hispanic food, and more.. and also a bunch of Christmas trees, and little dioramas with dolls of various themes, the trees and dioramas designed by different community organizations. Also there were fake snow, lights, and Christmas music in the background.

Loved this gingerbread house!

Pretty trees...

The Nutcracker :)

A choir singing...

And a big tree of lights right at the front!

It's nice to know that San Jose gets into the spirit for Christmas. Whether you live in a big city or a small town, Christmas is all around.

P.S. My final project is finished... check out the finished product if you wish :)
http://senna.sjsu.edu/aparsons/corobj/finalprojectmain.php

So busy, but here's another video!

So, I'm still wading through finals... and trying to keep up with my second job.... but for my computer class I made another video so I thought I would share it.



I am building a website about medieval literature. I will post the link here when I finish it. It will be featuring all the authors in this video. I will enjoy revisiting all these classic greats.

Another sneak peek:
http://senna.sjsu.edu/aparsons/corobj/france.php

I can't believe it's just 3 weeks until Christmas. Thank goodness my finals will be over after this week so I will have a little more time to start preparing and enjoying the season.

Halloween & CLA

So, fun week/weekend. At work we had our halloween party and people had fun costumes. I was a penguin.

We also got delicious catered Chinese food, and candy. There was a costume contest and the winner was the guy who dressed up as a revolutionary.

This weekend was the California Library Association General Conference, CLA for short, here in San Jose. I had a great time.

I went to a session on social media, a panel of mystery/crime authors, some lovely receptions where I met some new people, and a little evening amusement called CLA Battledecks which mixed slideshows and improv. I also saw lots of fascinating posters from different companies/libraries and enjoyed perusing the exhibit hall. Great weekend, and I still had time to meet with my study group and finish all my homework.

Here's a picture of a bunch of "swag" or fun exhibit hall freebies I got. Some flyers, bookmarks, pens, post-it notes, candy, a free picture of myself as a "Library Scientist"...

 ...and some books, including a free one I picked out about pirates.

I also bought a book by one of the authors at the panel I attended. She writes crime novels set in Paris, and she actually goes to Paris on a regular basis to do research for her novels. She signed my book for me, too :). I will be reviewing the book here when I finish it. At the suggestion of one of my new conference friends, I think I will occasionally start reviewing books here on my blog, because I really want to get back into reading more and that would give me the motivation to do so.

Happy November!

A Fall Weekend

This weekend I am celebrating fall. Today my housemate and I went to the Emma Prusch Farm Park Harvest Fair & Exposition. They had a bunch of neat booths, a pumpkin patch, music, and the occasional chicken wandering around. 

This hen and her chicks in front of the pumpkin patch attracted much attention from the kids. We think she was teaching her chicks how to peck for bugs or seeds. :)

Here is a glimpse of the park. It would be really nice to come here some weekend and just enjoy nature with a book and some fruit as a snack.

Here's another chicken. It's fascinating to see the different patterns of feathers that chickens have. This one is almost like a zebra chicken.

I picked out a pumpkin at the fair, and my housemate helped me hollow out the pumpkin so I could make a pumpkin stew like the one I made last year with my family. This one came out just as tasty. Later on we will get 1-2 more pumpkins, so I can make a soup or we can just have one as a jack-o-lantern.

I also went to Walgreens and picked out some Halloween themed pencils for the kids I tutor. They always need pencils to do their homework, so if they are extra good, they get to keep the pencil at the end of the day. :)

St. Patrick's Day!

I'm really on a roll here with updating my blog. The St. Patrick's Day cupcakes are done so I thought I'd post a picture before they get eaten and I get too busy to bake something for a while until maybe the next holiday.

A cupcake is a cupcake, as long as they're baked properly, and I used a somewhat fudgy recipe, which is actually what I prefer, rather than something that's too dry. Maybe they just turned out this way because I cut down the sugar by half a cup, used soymilk and also Ghiradelli hot chocolate powder instead of unsweetened cocoa powder. My coworkers are sure to love them.

I'm sure you've noticed that I added a fun new feature to my blog. As a future librarian, I couldn't help adding "tags" to each blog post so that most posts are now in categories: "cupcakes," "holiday," "pasta," "travel," "cute party foods,""cookies,"and "cakes." I may come up with more categories over time, if more subjects present themselves.

More Holiday Times

It's almost Christmas! I have a little more baking to do. So far, I made the white chocolate and craisin cookies, some fudge, some cereal bark, and some sugar cookies.. one batch decorated Hanukkah themed, and the other decorated Christmas themed with my neighbor and her kids tonight.

My sister and I had fun making these last night. Hopefully the kids at the Hanukkah celebration my parents went to tonight enjoyed the cookies.

This is our tree. It's so nice to look at when it's all lit up at night.

Hope everyone's having fun getting ready for Christmas!

Winter Treats: White Chocolate Chip & Cran-raisin Cookies, and Hanukkah

So, I'm beginning my festive season of baking with white chocolate chip and cran-raisin cookies: a sweet, healthy treat reminiscent of winter and fall at the same time. The sweet, snow-like white chocolate chips are a perfect complement to the tart, chewy cran-raisins (or "craisins") that are reminiscent of the fall harvest. Mixed with a classic chocolate chip cookie dough, they're one fantastic kind of cookie that has my family and I returning to the cookie jar again and again. Perfect with a glass of egg nog.

On Wednesday, Hanukkah will start. My family and I already had our Hanukkah dinner at church last week, where we had latkes and grape juice, and shared stories and songs with our friends. We played dreidel, too.

If you've never played dreidel before, the rules are quite simple. Everyone, to start, gets maybe ten tokens of some kind, whether it's pennies, or in the case of last week, dried macaroni. First each person puts one token in the middle of the table, or the "pot." Everyone takes turns spinning the dreidel, a four-sided top that has a different Hebrew symbol on each side, and whatever it lands on is what you have to do with your macaroni. If it lands on "Gimel," you get everything in the pot. If it lands on "Hey," you get half of what's in the pot. If it lands on "Nun," you get nothing. If it lands on "Shin," you have to put two tokens into the pot (three, counting the ante). After each person takes their turn, everyone has to put one token into the pot. Whoever has the most at the end wins. My sister won when we played last week. I may just have to challenge her, as there are still eight nights of Hanukkah left.

More NOLA/ Thanksgiving

Well, besides the Po-Boy Festival and admiring the nature and architecture, I did some other things while I was in New Orleans. I went to Angelo Brocato's Italian Ice Cream Parlor in Midtown with my friend who lives in that area, and we got some Italian cookies and some gelato.

I didn't have my phone with me because it was charging at my friend's apartment, so I didn't get a picture of the beautiful display of pastries under the glass. I did, however, get a picture of the beautiful display of cakes and other goodies at Whole Foods, on Magazine Street, where we went next.

Whole Foods is amazing, it's like Trader Joe's but even better. They have all different kinds of wine, fancy cheeses, international/healthy foods and a large selection of fruits and vegetables. They even had wine and cheese tasting samples inside the store. I bought some Camembert which I enjoyed over a few days with some crackers and blackberry jelly, plus some tangerines.

A visit to New Orleans would not be complete without some adult beverages. I enjoyed a variety of things: whiskey and coke, a Pimm's cup from a jazz club on Frenchman Street, a bellini flavored margarita from the little mall by the river, and a cosmopolitan at Port of Call, a little pub a few doors down from the place where I was staying.

They have great ambiance, candles on the tables for lighting and a big fish tank to watch as drinks are enjoyed. They make it feel like being inside a ship at sea. 

Thanksgiving was great, too. My mom and sister and I shared the holiday in Palm Springs, CA with my great uncles, my second cousin and her family, my uncle, aunt and cousins, and some other relatives and friends. There were about 20 of us all together. My great uncle was the host, and he had to specially order tables and chairs so there would be enough room for everyone to sit. It was like being at a restaurant. He even has his own bar.

Someone was making drinks, and I requested a martini. I usually like my drinks sweet, but sometimes a nice martini is the perfect choice.

We also had all kinds of lovely appetizers... bacon wrapped figs (amazing idea I will have to make for my own party one of these days), cheese spreads and crackers, and caviar pie with crackers. 

And of course, the main event: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, home made creamed corn, and an assortment of other delicious side dishes. It was very nice.

Now I'm back in my normal routine at home, starting to get ready for Christmas. Maybe we'll start decorating the house this weekend, and soon I'll be baking a bunch of cookies and other sweets!

Halloween Fun and Upcoming Vacation

I had a fun Halloween. My mom and I made pumpkin stew, which is cooking a stew inside a pumpkin, and it was very good. The pumpkin flesh tasted just like spaghetti squash, with a very nice flavor.

You can see that the second pumpkin was the one we used for the stew. My dad felt like being a little silly and carving a face into it afterwards, haha.

It doesn't get much better than this-- warm, hearty stew on a chilly Halloween evening. We got some of the cutest trick-or-treaters, too-- some preschoolers who barely even knew how to say, "Halloween," but gave it a good effort. We also ordered pizza and watched classic scary movies.

So, now that we're done with the Halloween excitement, it's time for me to work a couple more weeks.... then, I get a week off, during which I will be going to New Orleans again, then Palm Springs for Thanksgiving. It will be so much fun. There is even going to be a festival on November 20th when I am in New Orleans, featuring one of the foods of which I have wanted to try more.

They will have all kinds of Po Boys there, and arts and crafts, and live jazz playing all day. Some other new things I plan on trying/visiting while in New Orleans: oysters, a mint julep, their famous bread pudding, bananas foster, Antoine's, Mahony's, Croissant D'or Patisserie, the antique shops on Royal Street, and more. Hopefully I'll have enough energy to see and do as much as possible!

Birthday Weekend!

Well I had a very nice birthday weekend. My family and I had a barbecue with tri-tip, chicken, french bread, beans, potato salad, and corn. Santa Maria style tri-tip is famous worldwide. Our beans are famous too, and super good.

Then after that we had s'mores and exchanged funny stories. Also, my parents got all of us cupcakes from KK's Gourmet Bundt Cakes as my cake. My dad got me a customized wine bag, a charm photo bracelet, and a CD. My mom got me a pretty snow globe with kitties in it. My sister got me a salad spinner and a flexible liquid measuring pouring cup for baking. My boyfriend gave me one of his treasured beanie babies and his mom got me a pretty bookmark. So I felt very special.

The next day, my boyfriend and I went to a Chili Festival in Arroyo Grande, near Lopez Lake. It was really fun and we got to try all kinds of different chili recipes-- vegetarian, red (spicy), chili verde, and some other unique styles of beans. The spicy beans I voted I liked the best were one of the groups that won-- these beans came from Chele's Food & Spirits, in Pismo. Apparently they haven't changed their chili recipe in 22 years and they've won at the festival two years in a row. I may need to check out that restaurant sometime! :)

There isn't much summer left, but I'm trying to enjoy the rest of it as much as I can. Saturday, I'm having a birthday party with my girls. Looking forward to that!

A Passover dessert/ Happy Easter :)

Tonight's Passover meal was lovely. We had matzo ball soup, carrot tzimmies, chicken with orange sauce, potato casserole, some latkes, and for dessert... my apple crisp, and a fabulous chocolate caramel matzo crunch made by a lady who came to the dinner.

The recipe for this treat is all over the internet, originating from baker Marcy Goldman. After having just one piece, I resolved I'd have to make this for myself one day to share with my friends.These beautiful pictures from various blogs encourage me even more to do so. The people at church tomorrow will certainly enjoy the rest of the batch.

Easter Sunday here in California promises to be a lovely day... sunny, clear skies ringing with the laughter and frolicking of children searching for eggs filled with candy.

My mom found these really cute chick and bunny shaped Easter eggs that we filled with Easter grass and little chocolate eggs for the kids at church tomorrow. It seems like almost yesterday that my younger sister and her Easter rival Joe, both in their 20s now, were fighting over who *really* found the golden egg. Best thoughts of luck to the searchers this year.... and a happy Easter to all.

Spring Festivities

This week my family and I have been celebrating Passover. In preparation for our dinner tomorrow night, I made a couple batches of kosher apple crisp based on this recipe. I improvised a bit to suit my own adaptations.

Preheat the oven to 375. Then, peel, core and slice six granny smith apples and divide the apple chunks evenly between two small casserole dishes sprayed with some olive oil. Mixed in with each dish of apples is 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon vanilla extract, and some orange zest. The next step is to crush up 4-5 sheets of matzo-- I probably ended up using 6 or 7.

Matzo, as you may know, is the traditional Jewish unleavened bread which is eaten on various holidays. In ancient times, the Jews ate matzo because they were fleeing from their enemies and did not have time to let their bread rise. It was sustenance enough to keep them going on their journeys.

Once I crushed up the matzo with my fingers into as small of pieces as I could, I drizzled in some honey. Don't worry about measuring the honey, just make sure it's enough to be able to mix it all together later to form a sort of crust, but not before....

Adding in some spices. The original recipe only has cinnamon, but I used a dash or so of each spice in each batch for extra flavor.

So, mix the matzo, honey and spices till it's nice and sticky and golden....

Then cover the apples with it and put it in the oven for 40 minutes.

Here it is out of the oven. One good thing about it is the matzo is not crushed up too much, so you can enjoy the flavor of the matzo but still get the caramelized honey and spices, and the sweet baked apple.

Can't wait for dinner tomorrow... matzo ball soup, knishes, cauliflower fritters, chocolate and caramel covered matzo, and more. Happy holidays!

Update

Well, my two-week cooking courses are over... and I'd say they went pretty well. We made a whole bunch of healthy kids snacks, some of which include the following: "ants on a log," applesauce, berry muffins, turkey rolls, basil tomato pasta, strawberry banana smoothies, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and fruit and yogurt parfaits. In the older kids class we also learned about several kinds of herbs. I hope everyone came out of the class more informed about nutrition and empowered with the tools to cook healthy foods for themselves and others.

 I was so excited about teaching the kids about herbs that I bought some of my own herbs from Osh last weekend to plant in my yard. I will post a picture of them when they start to grow more. I am just really excited about the idea of having fresh herbs available to cook with whenever I want.

Speaking of green, St. Patricks day at school was lots of fun. I made the kids cupcakes and they loved them. They were so fun to make, too.. especially putting on the frosting.

So, things are pretty good here... looking forward to the next holiday to celebrate! :)

Kiddy Snack of the Week: Candy Christmas Trees

I forgot to post a snack last Friday. In the spirit of Christmas, this wasn't really a snack, but it was a food that was created at school... and eaten at home.

Candy Christmas Trees

These were my co-teacher's idea. Each child got a plate with their name on it, and an ice cream cone turned upside down and stuck into place with some "snow" (vanilla frosting). I got a big bowl and mixed some green food coloring in with some separate vanilla frosting, and gave each child some green frosting to spread on their tree. Then they had little candies and sprinkles to choose from to decorate it. We put the different candies on separate plates and I scooped up whichever kinds they wanted with a spoon and put it in a corner of their own plate so they could put them on with their fingers. Good practice in fine motor coordination :).

This all occurred while we were watching Polar Express; we'd just have 3 children come to the table at a time to do their tree, then they could sit back down to watch the movie. It was lots of fun, I even decorated my own tree while finishing up with the last couple girls. The trees were so pretty sitting on the table like a little forest, waiting to be taken home at the end of the day.

Holiday Fun

So, here's a look at my most recent holiday fun...

Last night was my winter solstice celebration. I had a couple friends over for goodies and wassail, a warm spiced wine drink from England. We lit candles, sat in my sunroom and listened to the rain, and watched fun youtube videos of these British guys who are funny and have a band.

From left to right: chocolate peanut + peanut butter crunch bark, amaretto cookies, my mom's fudge she makes every year, more cookies, and amaretto cake in the middle.

Today, I baked some brown sugar & spice cookies. I got the recipe from Lovin' From the Oven, one of the several blogs I frequent. I made the animal shapes with the adorable cookie cutters my internship boss mailed me. He got them from Ikea, along with some other lovely baking things on my wish list... a flour sifter, a frosting piping set, a quiche pan, a little juicer, and more cookie/cake cutters. I'll definitely be mailing him at least a couple batches of cookies in gratitude :)

All this fun and it's not even Christmas yet... but I guess Christmas lasts the whole month :)

Christmas Baking: Day 1

It's 5 days before Christmas, and my family and I have started our holiday baking. The first thing I baked was a recipe from my grandma called Absolutely Heavenly Amaretto Cake. She liked it so much that she hand-wrote the whole thing from its original source-- maybe a cookbook of hers, maybe a magazine-- and my mom saved it so that we could make it in her memory.

Absolutely Heavenly Amaretto Cake

Serves 10-12

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup butter

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ozs sour cream

2 teaspoons almond extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon orange extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup amaretto

Glaze: 

1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons apricot preserves

3/4 cup orange marmalade

1/4 cup amaretto

Cake Instructions: 

1. Beat butter at medium speed in an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until soft and creamy.

2. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed 5-7 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.
4. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl; add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, making sure you begin and end with flour mixture. Mix at low speed just until blended after each addition.
5. Stir in extracts and 1/2 cup amaretto with a spatula.
6. Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour 15 minutes, at which time a toothpick inserted should come out clean.
7. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes. 

8. Remove from pan and let cool completely.

Glaze Instructions: 

1. Combine apricot preserves, orange marmalade and 1/4 cup amaretto in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until melted, stirring frequently.
2. Drizzle over cooled cake.

What a lovely cake: the tang of the orange and apricot complements the light, sweet amaretto taste perfectly. A delightful treat for dessert or even breakfast.

Stay tuned for amaretto cookies :)