Category Archives: Rants & Raves

Because sometimes I am not sure what will come out of my mouth- so Rants & Raves us my melting pot of commentary

What A Day! So much for a quiet uneventful weekend

by

That would be the smoke we followed then passed after our 5:50 pm flight got cancelled due to mechanical issues after boarding. Oh yea, that and two of the flight crew going down and being removed by EMT’s with heat stroke as we were asked to disembark ..
So after hearing Alaska Airlines plan for resceduling folks, it was another car rental, then off to dinner, and a drive to LA and a few hours sleep at the Renaissance Marriott, to be able to catch rebooked Virgin America flight at 6:50 am Tues am. Either that or stay in PS another day or two. Given we could only get waitlisted on the 5pm Tues Alaska Airlines flight or confirmed on the 5pm Wed one.

Other than that snag, we had a great few “disconnect” at our favorite “home away from home” at the Triangle Inn, in Palm Springs.

Kept the trip low key with temperatures from 98 – 120+. Which meant lots of pool time


And eating at our fav spots when we could drag ourselves out of the water long enough.

Now this is a glass of Iced Tea!

A Chicken Parm sandwhich

Need I explain

More liquids

Spencer’s for brunch

Spencer’s for brunch

Sensing a theme yet?

SaveSave

Another creative cooking week amidst the craziness of hearings & shootings

by

Started off the weekend by whipping up some herbed cheesy drop biscuits. 
After a killer meal the night before at Spiazzo (check out my review here) before seeing Wonder Woman


 

Then on Tuesday night, I had an urge for lemon-candied ginger biscotti. So adapted the recipe I usually use and added some candied lemon peel and used 2 large eggs instead of XL (For that recipe visit my post here) . Luckily I usually have all the ingredients handy. First bake done.


Now packed for sharing at meeting I had at the “cube” on wed.


So by Thursday, I was at the “what to make when you just can’t face Safeway or Tower?” stage. Which means it was forage time. The outcome ended up as leftover chicken, sweet potato & veggie hash aka the “clean out the refrigerator for garbage day tomarrow ” hash.


Who knows what the rest of the week will bring. But since it seems,  according to how that silly, entitled, little man modeled his answers on Tuesday,  that it’s totally “OK for federal employees to forget, not take notes,  and misremember “, who knows what I’ll be remembering by next week…but as its June it’s time to remember we won’t be silenced.


SaveSave

That old New Hampshire TA Turn Around (past due post)

by

Note: this was supposed to have posted last month but somehow didnt post. 
So last week was a killer; my colleague and I had a all day training in New Hampshire, hosted at @SNHU on Wed. Which mean I left the house on Tuesday am around 4:30 – caught a flight to Chicago to change planes for New Hampshire. We stayed in the Radisson Hotel Manchester Downtown (Address: 700 Elm St, Manchester, NH 03101. Phone: (603) 625-1000). 

 

While the folks couldn’t have been more friendly – there were some oddly interesting observations;  Firstly- The beds; I don’t get the “bumpy” look. While the beds were comfy, this was odd and was happening with both beds. It kinda felt like I had lots of little Dino’s waiting for me under the bed.

And then there was the “alcohol preps” everywhere. I kid you not – they were placed on every surface (which I understand as a public health person – often have loads of things you simply don’t want to know about) but my first thought was “bravo, a good attempt – but they have wipes for this that work better than alcohol and where is the condoms?”. What a lost opportunity for them.

But I loved the details with the labels on the bed adjustments.. 

For Dinner that night we went to Cotton

Breakfast the next morning found me at the Buffett

 

 

Tz

SaveSave

Another “Salon” dinner saturday night with the perfect “Cowboy” Lasagna. 

by

This was a dinner shot during the last visit

A gathering of the tribe last night for a “salon” dinner. A night focused on food, talk and stories. For this month, my old friend Josh and his husband Brent were in town, taking advantage of “retiree” time and visiting the Bay Area. Now Josh and I have been friends, “sisters”, co-facilitators, both ran focus groups and volunteers for local programs for many years and all around were “those two are trouble together” for over 24 years.

Instead of a dinner out like in the past (the last visit we took them to Old Skool for a great meal),  I suggested we eat here and invite some other friends we’ve known for years and just kick back old school style.

For the menu I wanted easy, solid and fun. Years ago Josh and I manned a mens social group called the Social Exchange Network as a way to gather men to get out of the city to camp, eat, remember, heal. This was during a time of great pain and change for us, when so many of our friends were dying or sick with AIDS. So the socials and SEN were an opportunity to “stop the madness” for a few days. We did everything from camping trips to Disney World to house parties.

Often for the weekend SEN events, I tended to do all the cooking (except for the junk food table which often held every sweet treat, salty, sugary snack that we ould pre-buy that would sit on a table for the whole weekend for those late-night munchies) while Josh would serve as the front man-cruise director for the social stuff. On those trips when an oven was available – our first night menu was frozen lasagna dinners with a green salad and garlic bread. As it was easiest meal to get prepared on the day of travel as people rolled in.

With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to recreate a home version, but that wasn’t the old school all day sauce version that I normally would make , which I know he loves. So Trisha Yearwood’s  “Cowboy Lasagna” recipe came to mind.  I originally tried the recipe back in a few months ago  (that post is here) after seeing it on her cooking show to a great success. I recall saying that the mean-sauce was like “crack”, “one spoonful and you couldn’t stop tasting it”. To start the night I re-used another favorite starter; my adapted version of  Roasted Carrot Hummus that I have mentioned back in my February post

When all was said and done –  it was a win for sure.  Two of our other friends Russel (Russell has know Josh almost as long) and David,  brought a fresh baked apple pie (crust and all) incredibly infused with rosemary. Which paired perfectly to the lasagna meal.

What to make for dinner with nothing?

by

Ok so last week we both too beat to decide on what to eat and go out.. Which meant it was time for our own version of #Chopped@Home and for me to come up with something to eat.

I had remembered a @LidiaBastianich (one of my fav italian professional food folks) and how she had married some of the same things and always says that its not about the recipe as much as what you have.  So after a fast forage in my cabinets and refrigerator – I ended up with:

Baked Ham that I had from a few weeks back when I tried my first full baked ham myself which I had luckily frozen the leftover meat and bones seperately, fresh snap peas, cherry tomatoes, mine orange peppers, and a box of pasta, olive oil, butter and lemons.

So well – when all was said and done – I got a pretty easy and nice hearty meal out of it.

 

Date night to kick off a 3-day weekend

by

On Friday as a treat, Paul took me to a resturant neither of us had been too – but often walked by;  L’Ardoise Bistro .
This would be one of those “hidden gems” that get so easily overlooked. With so many decadent options I went old school with Coq au Vin‬ while Paul Burke splurged on the Hanger steak. Started off with little Charcuterie Plate with housemade Patés and an incredible carrot soup special was rich with “American butter” and hot. In fact, the entrees were solid sized and rare it seems of late in restaurants – actually HOT and just just warmed under a heat lamp.

From start to finish, an outstanding diner, well prepared and lick your plate good. Reasonably priced and great portions topped only by the welcoming staff. I would go once a week if my waistline would agreed.  A new favorite on my list of “go to’s”.

Pardon the fuzzy shots – but the atmosphere is so nice and we had such a lovely time – that I refused to fuss with my camera. 

They have a great menu online (http://www.ardoisesf.com) for those that like to review them

L’ardoise Bistro
51 Noe St
San Francisco, CA 94114
b/t 15th St & Henry St. Duboce Triangle

Phone number(415) 437-2600.  Business website: ardoisesf.com or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LArdoiseBistro

 

You know it’s good when I start with the empty plates!

Read my review of L’ardoise Bistro on Yelp

 

 

Sessions at the Presidio

by

So last week we went to the Palace of Fine Arts to see Bernadette Peters in concert. We wanted to go to dinner beforehand somewhere close and when looking for places that had a 6 o’clock reservations we came across sessions. 
I don’t have any expectations and what we would find; reviews were mixed from 3 to 5 stars depending on where you looked. 

I loved the inside of the restaurant, nice balance of light and airy with substance. They were very gracious, we were seated pretty quickly. They were really helpful when we explained we were going to the theater and our server felt we had plenty of time. But that’s when service got a little wonky. 

We ordered pretty quickly, going with the sliced meat appetizer and then the hanger steak entrée, the chicken entrée and a burger. I think the kitchen may have been having a bit of a off night; our waiter did mention they were short one staff but it sort of feel like maybe the kitchen was a little short. He came out to tell us that there could be a chance for appetizer would be out after our entrées because of timing in the kitchen and with that be a problem for us. Now I appreciated him asking because in some cases we wouldn’t care but it did feel kind of odd.

Now we did notice the food coming out looks wonderful. We got our appetizer first, and just finished when our entrées were served. I was sort of underwhelmed with the burger; it was a seared on both sides but nearly raw inside (and had been ordered medium). The hanger steak looked very and tasted good as did the chicken although I have to say that the chicken portion was underwhelming for the price of the entrée. I’m sort of wondering if some of our food may have been held up so that we could eat ourbappetizers first as both the other entrees weren’t particularly hot, even though the place themselves were. 

Luckily they redeemed themselves at the end of the night with a very very good banana nut cake with salted butterscotch ice cream. I could’ve eaten that as my dinner and been happy. They did remove the cost of the burger from our tab then asked about my not eating it. 

So while I wouldn’t rule out going to Sessions again, I probably wouldn’t order the burger. I noticed they do have a squid ink seafood pasta dish that reads good on the menu, that is likely what I want to try next. 

Another Sample bread Recipe

by

So back on May 5th. I tried my hand at some new  breads – and here I am at it again  – the first one used the same ingredients; cherries, white & chocolate chips & almonds but different ratios and types of flour and was baked in the Dutch Oven instead of braided and has both an overnight proof and a second 2 hour one before baking. Note: this is a much older recipe and didnt account for post 1990 stoves so I could have taken it out sooner.

Then for our monthly bookclub – I redid the one from May 5th (Chocolate Chip Cherry Bread)  and also tried a whole wheat bread with cranberries and walnuts. Both to some success. The whole wheat was dense -but perfect with cheese or a soup. The other was screaming for sweet butter or to be put in bread pudding or fresh toast !

But what I realized is that the process of baking isn’t easy for me – unlike cooking. I need to pay attention different and learn to not only follow the directions -but feel as it comes along. I also found that the process allows my mind to process more complex projects in my head from a different angle so when I sit back down to work, I have a different perspective to see.



Bowling for burgers

by

Dinner last night at Mission Bowling club; over all not so bad for Friday night eats. While a little loud inside, the staff are attentive (making a reservation helps), the front open air space has a nice after work, local neighborhood vibe, almost boardering on “too hip” but not quite. 

The burgers rocked, thick, hot with carmelized onions and cheese on a toasted bun. The meat quality itself was pretty good- not over worked, with that outer “crunch” bite into a perfect medium center. I did notice that eaten without the bun,  you get a salt blast from the meat which was balanced nice.


 The place offers a bunch of starters imcluding “break your teeth hard” fried seasoned garbonzo beans and vegatable “fritto misto”, which was flavorful but the portion was really small for the price. The classic wedge salad was a win on price, taste and size. 


Mission Bowling Club

3176 17th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

https://missionbowlingclub.com/