San Fransisco- North Beach

My mom and I had a nice little holiday in San Fransisco last week. It was a foodie extravaganza! Our first day was a foodie tour of North Beach, the Italy side of town.



This was Caffe Roma, and it's the first place I've had a cappuccino that taste like an Italian Cappuccino.




Next stop: XOX Truffles! This guy makes the best truffles in the city and has won a variety of awards. He makes tiny 60% dark chocolate balls of ganache and loads it with yummies like rum orange, or chipolte tequila. Or he rolls them in coffee or coconuts. Seriously, the best truffles I've ever had.




Third: the North Beach Bakery. They make delicious fresh bread. We did a tour of the back and it smelled soooo good! Just three guidos making bread.



This is apparently where the first two Godfather films were written. It's also famous for random street musicians playing music. I walked in and these guys had the thick Italian-American accents!



And finally, a pizza place, of course. Now, I don't really like pizza. I've had pizza in NY, Chicago, and Italy. And it's just not my fave. To be honest, as good as this pizza was, I'm still not a huge fan. But the white pizza with potatoes was delish. And the Margherita pizza is just like Firenze!

So this was North Beach! It was Italian (therefore loud!) and delicious!!

A Few More Smoothies

So I've decided that bananas are the magic ingredient in a smoothie. I've been without this magical fruit for about 2 weeks, and suddenly there they were, sitting on the counter like a present! So I used them. Bananas add a nice texture, a thickness and a sweet flavor, without having to add sugar. This is what I came up with:

Blood Orange-Banana
- 1 blood orange (whole)
- Juice of 1 blood orange (there's a juicer here and I use it!)
- 1 banana
- spinach (but I really wish I had celery. Orange and celery is my new favorite combo)

Blend together. Using fresh juice made the whole thing a little frothy and this is very very acidic! Beware!

Pineapple-Banana
- Pineapple chunks
- 1 Banana
-chopped spinach (again, I'd like to add celery)

Blend together. This one is a little thicker I added spirulina to both of these. Yummy!!!

Farmers Market Time!

I love fresh fruit. I love farmer's markets. Therefore, I love the Central Coast because they have great fruit stands everywhere and Farmer's Markets every day. Because of my work schedule I could only go the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Farmer's Market (all the other one's are too far away or are during the day while I'm at work). But in light of my adventure , I figured I'd talking about the great produce out here.

My favorite adventure-Blueberry picking! There's U-Pick blueberry farm between Buellton and Santa Barbara. If you've never done one of these, it's pretty fun. I picked strawberries years ago (I think in San Diego).

So I went with a friend in tow, and together we picked a fair amount of blueberries. What happens is they give you a 32oz bucket and you fill it as much as you want. If you fill the whole thing it's $15. If you fill it 1/3 to 1/2 (like I did) it's about $4. K, so I got a good 12 oz of fresh blueberries for $4.00!!!! Love it!!!
And yes, I ate a good 2 cups worth while picking. I knew this place would be my lunch. But you know what, it doesn't matter. It's not stealing cos they will go bad if I don't munch on a few of them.

Orcutt Farmer's Market- It's really small, just a few stands and it's not nearly as fantastic as the one in SLO. But I what I really wanted to mention was the amazing Sweet Wine Jam I bought. There was a woman there selling various jams. Most of them had chipolte in it (I'm not in to that). There was also Jalapeno Jelly and Mint Jelly. But the Sweet Wine caught my eye. There is legit Cabernet in it (yeah I read the ingredients). So I had to give this place an honorable mention.

San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market- Everyone on the Central Coast knows that SLO's Farmer's Market is the best around. Thursday night that is the place to be! There's food, music, sales, and what-not.

First off, the produce. So goood and so cheap!! Avocados for 50 cents a pop, 2.50 for the best peaches ever (Cal Poly), $2 for local strawberries that are actually ripe

(NB: the way to know if a strawberry is fresh is when you bite into it, it's red. Check next time you go to Walmart and buy strawberries. Bite into those and it's all white. Also, ! It certainly pays to eat local in California. Also, the package should smell of strawberries! That means they're good! yes, they won't last as long as store-bought, but it may not matter if they're good.)

Second, the prepared food. There's some bad food (I had a not-so-good taco salad once). But there's a BBQ line that lasts forever! (I think it's McClintocks) There's also an amazing dip stand that has great amazing dips: spinach dip, pesto, artichoke dip, garlic cream cheese. I love this place!! And there's also a fab Meditterean place with awesome hummus, great baba ganoush, and blocks of feta cheese. I die!!!
My favorite find here is the Nectarine Jam from Mt. Olive. It was (cos I ate it all) delicious, perfectly sweet w/o feeling sugary. and decently priced too.
And they sell amazing cherries here, which are now out of seasons, but I just had to say it!!!

You know you're hungry now!

Let's Make a Sandwich

This summer I worked long hours, sometimes 11 hours a day. For those who don't know, I was a stitcher at a summer theatre. I've completed 1 whole dress, 1 skirt, 2 more dresses and countless notes and alterations. All in the name of theatre!! I could be waiting tables....or not.

Now, this doesn't leave me a lot of make lunch/dinner for the day. So sandwiches are great! Here are some basic sandwich recipes that I'm using constantly.

Queso-Spinach Quesadilla
-2 Corn Tortillas
-Queso Fresco (this is really what makes a difference!)
-handful of spinach

Egg Quesadilla
-2 Corn Tortillas
-1 scrambled egg
-Cheese, spinach as wanted

Egg-Hummus Sandwich
-1 scrambled egg
-Hummus
-Spinach
-whole wheat bread

Tuna-Sweetcorn Sandwich (I haven't made this yet, but it was my favorite sandwich in London)
-Tuna
-Can of sweetcorn
-Lettuce
-Baguette (preferably)

PS- Nectarine Jam is amazing! I got it the SLO farmer's market. Yum!!!

Tortilla Chips are my Bane

Tortilla chips are my trigger food. You know, the food you eat that once you start you cannot stop eating. Well, that's a trigger food, and this is mine. Doesn't matter if it's $2 Maria's, blue corn, or guacamole-flavored. I WILL EAT THEM!!!! Well, frankly that's not healthy. And my house has corn tortillas. So I have a recipe for baked corn tortillas.

Baked Corn Tortillas
-1-3 Corn Tortillas
- Canola Oil
-Spices (I like Cayenne)

1: Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2: Cut tortillas to chip size. Or don't, and make ghetto tostadas!
3: Mix oil and spices together and brush onto tortillas.
4: Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes.
5: Eat!!

NB: I didn't know this, but you can freeze tortillas. Hmmmmmm...the fam I live w/ in Cali keeps tons of them (k, not tons, but lots) in the freezer. Just buy them at Cost-Co and make this whenever you want! It's a hell of a lot healthier than buying a bag whenever you feel like it. And cheaper!

My Favorite Smoothies

Since I've been living in California, I have access to some of the best fruit in the country, along w/ bags of blood oranges (my favorite juice ever!). And I've been experimenting. So here are some of the smoothies I've been trying out.

Blood Orange-Celery Smoothie
-1 whole Blood Orange (no skin)
-1 celery stalk
-strawberries
-1 teas. agave nectar
-soy milk

Pineapple-Peach
-Pineapple chunks
-1 Peach
-1 blood orange
-soy milk

Blueberry-Avocado
-1 cup of blueberries
-1 avocado
-soy milk

Strawberry-Any sort of citrus fruit
-3-6 strawberries
-pineapple chunks
-1 peach
-1 blood orange

Adding bananas to any of this will increase the thickness of the smoothie. I've also been adding spring greens and dried spirulina to all these. Mighty delicious!

And finally, the one I had all thru last semester

Banana-Pear
-1 Banana
-1 Pear (doesn't matter how overripe or underripe)
-Cranberry Juice

NB: This is 1) good for the digestive system (thanks, Gillian McKeith) and 2) perfect for college, esp if your school is too cheap to get actually ripe pears (yes, that means you, Walter Burke Catering!)

And finally, a Alton Brown trick: Frozen fruits are great, but if you know you'll want a smoothie a day ahead of time, prepare the frozen mixture and place it in the fridge. The next day it's perfect for blending!

My Fabulous Face....Not

I have always had horrible skin. My skin is so bad that thousands of dollars have been sunk into making my skin look...normal. I've done all sorts of stuff, including Accutane (the devil that is! The main point is the change the oil composition of your skin. Bad). The point is I'm super insecure about my skin. But I have found a fabulous toner, that is waaaaay better than my name brand non-alcoholic toner. And it's crazy cheaper:

Basil Face Toner Recipe

Ingredients:
2-3 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 cup boiling water.

Instructions:
Steep 10-20 mins. Cool, and apply with cotton ball

http://naturalfacialrecipes.homestead.com/tonerrecipes.html

I love it!

Healthy Snacks

I'm by no means a huge health nut. Anyone I work with who has seen my inhale doughnuts can attest to this. But I'm also not a huge fan of awful processed foods, Hostess Cakes and the like. So when I'm craving something sweet (this is usually while I'm watching the Food Network) these are some of what I eat.

Cinnamon Honey Toast
- 1 slice of toasted bread. I've been using french bread cos 1) it's available, 2) it's fluffy. Since it's in the freezer I have to toast it. I also just prefer toast.
- Honey
- ground cinnamon
- 1 pat of butter (Optional. I like the mix of butter and honey)
Toast the bread, then apply butter, honey, and cinnamon in that order!

No-Bake Cinnamon Apples
- Apple Slices. I prefer sweet, red apples.
- Honey
- Cinnamon or other spices like nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, etc
I did this after a friend made baked apples and when I asked for more, she said no. So I made this. Just take the apple slices, dip it in honey and then dip into the cinnamon.

Zucchini Brownies
- Prepared Brownie mix (Feel free to actually make the brownies. I just want to buy all the flour and whatnot)
- 1 egg, or as many as your box calls for
- Applesauce (I use this to replace the oil. NB: this creates a fudgy, sticky brownie!! Be prepared for a different texture)
- 1 Cup of grated zucchini. You can grate it for texture, or put it thru the food processor, making it more liquidy and less crunchy.

Mix together as recipe entails. Add chocolate chips or whatever you want. It's just a sneaky tip!

Enjoy!!

Update:

Try this: I got a banana nut muffin, cut it in half, spooned out a bit of the inside and added my blood orange marmalade and fresh strawberries. cute and delicious!