Looking for some food inspired things to do?

November 28, 2017 by FV Strona

December isn’t just about the gifts. It’s also a great time to get out and sample whats happening around you.

I try to post local happenings on the BiteTheRoad Event Page or you can visit SF.FunCheap.com for lots of other ideas.

You can also send me your event and I will add them as I can.

Here is a series I am especially fond of:

This waterfront market, run by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), has over 100 food, fruit, and vegetable vendors on Saturdays and the entire Bay as its beautiful backdrop.

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market operates year-round from 8 am to 2 pm.

On most Saturdays, free cooking demos take place in the CUESA Classroom (under the white tents in front of the Ferry Building) and are free to the public, with recipes and samples for all.

Check out whats coming up

About CUESA

8 AM to 2 PM, YEAR ROUND, RAIN OR SHINE

With more than 100 vendors, it serves as the largest market surrounding the Ferry Building every Saturday, offering a wide variety of high-quality local produce, food craft products, and breakfast and lunch options.

Enjoy free educational programs by visiting the CUESA Classroom for Market to Table Demos by local chefs, and stopping by CUESA’s Food Shed education tent to deepen your understanding of sustainable food systems.

A whirlwind of tastes

November 27, 2017 by FV Strona

Not much to say except it has been a whirlwind of food the last few weeks.

With Paul’s Birthday, Thanksgiving, a rainy Sunday – it all added up for some solid cooking time in. Below are a few image carousels of some of the more memorable “bites” from the last few weeks.

First off some of the treats from Pauls Birthday. He had requested a new cake from Noe Valley Bakers, so we decided with Thanksgiving around the corner and not traveling this year, so cooking at home – we would have a coffee & dessert theme Sunday that week.

: Gluten free biscotti

: The S’mores build..

: cool down

: S’mores Cookies with Carmel chocolates

: Gooey Apple cake

: Noe Valley’ss newest Oreo Cake

: cheese for the rest

Then for Thanksgiving, we had a few friends over for a potluck. All I needed to do is the turkey, stuffing, and a few sides. Friends took care of desserts.

: Yes I am this anal sometimes

: I love doing the butterflied and rolled turkey

: Sausage stuffed mushrooms

: Susage and herb stuffing

: Corn Spoon Bread

: Bread puding

Another of our Thursday Night-Out’s last night

November 10, 2017 by FV Strona

Another of our Thursday Night-Outs last night

We continued on our food theme started in October with Night-Outs to the Exploratorium for After Dark, a cookbook night at Omnivore Books, to hear Cenk Sonmezoy, the mastermind and home-schooled blogger behind the food blog Cafe Fernando introduce his new cookbook; The Artful Baker: Extraordinary Desserts From an Obsessive Home Baker as part of my “Bite-Cap“, and seeing 177 Milk Street Author and Food Personality Christopher Kimball, who was in town talking about his second season of Milk Street TV.

This week’s agenda included

But tonight, for our Night-Out we went back to basics with Kimball’s former colleagues, at a special live programming from KQED, hosted by the Bay Areas very own Leslie Sbrocco of Check Please Bay Area for an evening of stories, tips and socializing with cohosts Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison of Cook’s Country & Americas Test Kitchen.

: Leslie warming us up with laughter

: The cohosts just have a lot of fun together

: No squash to big…

While I know they have been on tour promoting the newest cookbook due out soon and the new season – it’s nice to see they have developed a fresh and casual style that fits them and doesn’t have them try to fit the former shows, recipe. These two funny, straightforward ladies, really bring “home”, the meaning of home access food. I was amazed at the time and detial, as they explained the intense amount of effort, ethics and time that goes into the recipes and shows. An even more special treat as I recently had attempted one of Cooks Country recipes for Spicy Cheese Bread to great success. I know Paul enjoyed it as well, as he whispers in my ear after hearing it mentioned, that I need to add the Curried Butternut Soup with Cilantro Yogurt to the next menu

Not having been to one of the KQED events before, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was. The KQED space itself was great and being in the studio added its own charm. But what made it a super nice evening, was how approachable and friendly all of these television personalities were. The post-show social, snacking and wine testing was quite the mid-week treat.

Good Swag!

Of course, taking home some great swag didn’t make for a bad night either with copies of Cook’s Country Eats Local, and Pistachio Oil from the folks at La Tourangelle

These three could be trouble

And for those of you inspired foodies

Check Please Bay Area is taking applications for season 13 now. So get those applications in!

More on that can be found at http://ww2.kqed.org/checkplease/apply/

SaveSave

A Sunday morning treat at Le Marais

November 9, 2017 by FV Strona

Planning and Brunch at Le Marais

A busy week of late, as I prepared for a trip to Alexandria, VA for a week of meetings. Including one of which is a workshop, I am hosting as part of my other world. But knowing that, on Sunday I took Dino for a morning walk and I even managed to get Paul up to go with a promise of brunch. We had heard a lot about the new Le Marais Bakery that made moved in on 18th & Sanchez. But hadn’t had a chance to sample it. It has been some time since I was last in France, so anytime I can enjoy some of the flavors I look forward to it. When we saw seating outside – we grabbed it for sure.

A menu I look forward to sampling more of

I really like the Le Marias “Board” menu which lets you choose from a variety of options. This is perfect for me as I am not normally an omelet person. After waiting for an unusually long time, a server came over to check on us and I think realized we hadn’t even been offered coffee. Once they fixed that and took our menu, we were pleasantly surprised when another server came by with an offer of two curtesy pastries to apologize for the delay.

Not being one to say no to the temptation of the baked kind, I went with the savory scone of the day and Paul grabbed the almond croissant. So just to stop you from wondering if you should? YES! You should. They were great. The scone was the right balance of cheese, dense and savory with chunks of ham. While the croissant was crisp, rich and layers of the almond filling but not so much it was like paste inside as some other spots tend to do.

We both opted to order from the Board Menu, my going for a smoked salmon and lox theme and Paul with a more traditional egg, avocado one. From a quality perspective – I was very pleased. While paying for the check, I went up to the counter and purchased a few other take homes and again was pleasantly surprised when the house tossed in an extra croissant for the trouble.

It is service like this, that will make me a customer on a routine basis. I don’t need extras on every visit – but I do appreciate places that put the effort out to recognize when”service had a moment” with a gesture. Overall a great showing at Le Marias Bakery in the Castro.

Le Marias Bakery http://www.lemaraisbakery.com

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeMaraisBakery and Twitter and Instagram as @LeMaraisBakery

Thursday Date Night at AfterDark

November 4, 2017 by FV Strona

We have been on a binge of late to try and sample some of what is happening locally and AfterDark was on deck.

Last week I shared about out try to the California Academy of Sciences for it’s Thursday night event. This week knowig I was working that day at the office and Pauls office isnt far we thought we would check out After Dark this week at the Exploratorium.

Since I was planning to go into the office Thursday for that late afternoon meeting and the weather was mild, I decided to walk. I arranged to meet a professional colleague at Cafe Flore for coffee first. Lucky me, I got to see the infamous “Smoking Santa” get ready to take to the roof. It’s amazing to see what is going on around us, when we aren’t in our cars or stuck below ground.

Each week they highlight a few special themes. Last week was food and the food of tomarrow, on Nov 16th the theme also food related is: After Dark: Cooking Contraptions. They have a posted full list of the scedule as a well as the indivudal nights events here

After walking down to the Ferry building or Ferry Building Marketplace as it is officially what they call it (earlier than expected due to a power outage on the Van Ness/Market street area). I took some time to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells that being in the Ferry Building always offers. The Ferry Building actually has a cool history to it and what it has become. It is well worth an afternoon or early evening walk through. If you are a cheese lover – the happy hour crowd at the Cowgirl Creamery‘s Sidekick spot is pretty rocken and on the night I stopped they had “oh so good Raclette” and grilled cheese goodness everywhere.Eventually Paul got out of work and we walked over the the Exploratorium. A hint – as long as you buy your tickets for the even by 5:00pm you can save a few bucks off the entry, not can get busy – so you might want to read up on what features it has and what you want to be sure to get in line for early.

The Exploratorium is a meadering space that makes thinkers out of children and children out of adults! Below are a few of my favorites shots from the night. This is so a “do with your friends kind of place” very hands on and well worth taking the time for it. After Dark is every Thursday from 6:00 – 10:00 pm. The whole idea of the place is interactivity – some on your own, others with those around you. They even offer a few “trust” activies for you to consider.. Which would you hit?

Sip or Squit; make the choice

This was one of my favorite displays – if you had two fountains and one looks like a toilet – would you still drink from it?

Would you drink from this?

Wrapping up the night, we walked back from Pier 15 towards the Ferry Building and ended up deciding to stop at Gott’s Roadside for burgers, people watching and even spotted a few celebrity Food Network folks walking through before grabbing Muni home for the night.

Ahh a day off!

Friday being my day off, that meant I got to do mostly catch up as I prepare for a trip to DC in two weeks, and offer a several hour workshop.. But since the weather wasn’t all that nice, after a quick trip to the grocery store, I tossed togther a hearty pan of “Cowboy Lasagna” which I have raved about before a few times before. This dish has become a real favorite as it takes only 30 minutes to put togther and 40 min to bake. Sure it isn’t my all-day sauce Italian lasagna, but it sure is a great alternative with some homeade cheese bread on the side. The recipe actually comes from the Trisha Yearwood cooking show.