Last night, Mr.S and I had dinner at a small restaurant in the SOMA district of San Francisco, called Fringale.  I had dined there about 5-6 years ago with my friend Grace and had really enjoyed my meal there, so I talked Mr.S. into going back there to dine.  I had had a shitstorm of a week, seriously of epic proportions- my mom passed away, some horrid delinquent went through my neighborhood slashing tires and keying cars (my car was one of the ones that got hit) and to top it off- in the middle of the night, some jerk did a major hit and run on my rental car.  Like I said, shitstorm of epic proportions.  I was beginning to feel a lot like Job.  Anyhow in an effort to clear my mind and calm my nerves, I thought Fringale would be a nice place to grab a pleasant meal of French comfort food. WRONG.

The gentleman behind the bar, that greeted us when we arrived, seemed very friendly and sat us at a nice 2-top by the window.  We had a foie with quince jam appetizer that was okay (Mulvaney's does it better) and a calamari la plancha dish, which was nice but not as memorable as when I had it during my last visit.  It really needed seasoning.  Anyhow, things were fine until we got our entrees.  Both of us ordered the sea bass, which was supposed to be served over a potato puree with artichokes. What we ended up with was potato puree sloppily plopped in a bowl with bits of artichoke and some kind of red broth (hard to tell if it was a tomato or red pepper based broth). On top was a piece of sea bass about  1.5 inches wide and 5 inches long.  This is THE most overcooked piece of fish I have ever eaten. It was dry as the Sahara and tough. Mr.S. gacked on his too but he hates to send things back. So he cut his up and tried to have it absorb some of the red liquid it was swimming in. I had had such a craptastic week that I couldn't deal with it. I very politely signaled the waiter over and explained what the situation was.  His response was to ask Mr.S if his fish too was overly dry.  Mr.S. advised him it was. So he took (only) my plate back to the kitchen.  What? Anyhow, a few minutes later he returned, handed me a menu and brusquely advised me that, "the chef always prepares the fish that way and no one has ever complained." He then informed me that I should choose something else.  At this point I'm a bit perturbed. After the horrible week I'd had, the LAST thing I needed was this snooty French waiter being a dick to me.  I really wanted to tell him that if that's how his chef ALWAYS cooks his fish, overdone to the point that it was not consumable, then that was a sad testament to his skills.  However, at the risk of ruining Mr.S's night too, I ordered the mussels.  I mean really...who can f*ck up mussels, right? The mussels arrived and they were fine. We opted to have dessert elsewhere and I mentally crossed Fringale off my list of restaurants to return to or recommend,

Anyhow, I thought I'd share a fish recipe that we make at our house often.  I ran across it by happenstance-- one of those emailed recipes from Tasting Table.  It's quite good, tasty with or without the ginger yogurt sauce and very hard to screw up (take note, Mr. Fringale chef).

Chile-Garlic Broiled Salmon with Ginger Yogurt Salmon (from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen)

Only a week into December and it's freezing! (Ok, by California standards) I hope despite the chilly weather, you've been able to get out and enjoy yourselves. Post-Thanksgiving, Mr.S and I took Kidlet #1 to the San Francisco International Auto Show at the Moscone Center. (Thanks for the tickets Grace and Lawrence!) Kidlet #1 loves sports cars, so he and his dad were gawking at all the cool rides and talking a bunch of auto gibberish that I couldn't comprehend. (I'm used to this, as they engage in the same car nerd talk when we watch Top Gear or Fast 'n Loud.) I'm not that into car shows but I did have a nice time perusing all the new vehicles (the modified street vehicles were my favorite) and afterwards we went to Japantown, where I stocked up on Japanese sundries and snacks at Nijiya Market and Ichiban Kan. Mr.S and Kidlet #1 were also very patient while I spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the aisles of kitchen gadgets at Daiso. As a trade-off, I didn't grouse when they begged to grab dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.

Here's a few photos from the car show:










For some reason the SF trip spurred a cookie baking kick in me (maybe it was all the cute baking stuff at Daiso?) and I baked a TON of cookies the following week in the cottage's kitchen. Additionally, I chose to break in a cute tea towel  that a friend gave me as a birthday gift earlier this year. The tea towel is screen printed with a short poem by William Carlos Williams called, "This is Just to Say." I love plums and seeing that poem made me crave some juicy, ripe summer plums. Unfortunately, it's December so I was a bit SOL; however, I remembered that I had made a big batch of delicious rosemary plum jam this summer. I gave a lot of it away but I had a few jars still squirreled away in the cupboard. So in addition to the various other cookies I made, I also whipped up some fresh thumbprint cookies with homemade rosemary plum jam. Mmmm!


My thumbprint cookies have always been a crowd favorite - they're the perfect blend of savory and sweet. The trick is - I use Alice Water's sweet tart dough recipe paired with one of my own jams...strawberry balsamic, ginger peach, blackberry lime, etc. The rosemary plum is my favorite though. Plus it's super easy to make- I use a standard recipe for plum jam and just add in some fresh rosemary.



Rosemary-Plum Jam

Ingredients

3 lbs. fresh plums
a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary
7 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 pouch liquid pectin

Instructions

1. Wash your fruit, cut in half, twist and remove pit. Chop. Place in food processor.

2. Wash rosemary. Remove needles from stem. Discard stem. Chop. Place chopped needles in with plums.

3. Give the processor a good pulse/chop or two. You want the processor to crush the fruit mixture (but not puree it). Alternately, if you're not too fussy - you can chop the plums finely with a kitchen knife and call it a day. It'll cook down.

5. Pour rosemary-plum mixture into a large heavy bottomed pot.  Add lemon juice then sugar. Place on high heat and bring to a full rolling boil boil. Stir constantly while the softened fruit and sugar meld.

6. When it gets to be a full rolling boil (rolling boil-= boiling so hard it can't be stirred down, it keeps bubbling), add the pectin in quickly. Keep stirring the entire time.

7.  Return to full rolling boil for exactly 1 minute. Check to see if the jam has set. If it has, remove it from the heat. Skim off any foam.

8. Ladle the jam (while it's still hot) into hot, sterilized half-pint jars. Leave a 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the rims, secure the lids and finger tighten the rings. Then follow the procedure for processing in a hot water bath.

PS This jam is also amazing when paired with roast pork.

How to sterilize jars and lids
How to hot water bath/can your jam

2765 Hyde Street, San Francisco, CA 94109. (415) 474-5044
http://www.thebuenavista.com

It's said that you can't go home again, but I call BS. This past weekend during our escape to San Francisco, Mr.S. took me to one of his childhood haunts- the historic Buena Vista Cafe near the Fisherman's Wharf. Had we planned a little more carefully, we probably could have hopped on a cable car right outside of our hotel and rode it straight to the porch of the cafe. Instead we drove over there and luckily parking didn't turn out to be an issue. We got there minutes before it opened and as we stood outside in line, we inhaled the crisp bay air and Mr.S. excitedly told me how he and his family would always stop by the Buena Vista when he was a child. At 9am promptly, a matronly waitress unlocked the doors and the masses moved in, tables become occupied in a flash and seats at the well worn wooden counter quickly filled. Somehow we were one of the lucky ones who were able to slide into a table next to the window. Those who were unable to find a table stood in the walkway and any open nook or cranny available anxiously looking for a seat to open. Everyone's elbow to elbow, that's how it rolls at the Buena Vista...a bit like musical chairs.



Now if you haven't heard, the Buena Vista is supposedly the birthplace of the Irish Coffee in America. The Buena Vista has been using the same tried and true recipe since 1952, can you believe it?!  Every table around us seemed to be sporting a goblet of the hot, frothy liquid. (I bet they go through TONS of Irish Whiskey!) For breakfast, we both went a bit traditional. Mr.S. ordered a plate of corn beef hash (he loooves hash) and I went with some eggs, sausage and toast. Both orders were tasty- nothing fancy. Service was a bit slow but it was a full house. As soon as we paid our tab and stood to leave, hungry patrons quickly swooped into our still warm seats.


The food at the Buena Vista is solid, the atmosphere is fun and nostalgia is abound in the small restaurant. Regulars and visitors equally were lining up to come in and smiles were plentiful. While I was digging into my breakfast , I looked up and I swear I could picture a school-aged Mr.S. bellying up to the counter and demanding a plate of hash. That made ME smile. So even if the joint is a wee bit touristy, I'm glad we stopped by.

Whenever the new year rolls around, I (like most of the world) am hasty to make a multitude of resolutions. Honestly- I always have the best of intentions but the majority of the time, my lofty resolutions (which usually have to do with exercise and eating healthier...big surprise!) end up being cast aside with that first giant bite of double chocolate cheesecake (gosh darn it!). Anyhow, I still like the idea of starting anew each year and this year in particular I'm ready for 2012 to wrap itself up. December has been a particularly rough month and I can't wait to dispose of it and start fresh. I've been feeling emotionally drained and conflicted for weeks on end and my stress eating has become reflected in some holiday pudge. I did get a tiny respite this weekend, when Mr.S. and I took a spontaneous weekend trip to SF. His kidlets were out of town and we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have a romantic weekend getaway and just de-com-press!

 
We stayed at an adorable boutique hotel just steps from Union Square called The Orchard Hotel (super cute room and friendly staff), indulged in a delicious seafood dinner at Anchor & Hope with Mr.S.'s brother and did some fun touristy things like eating clam chowder at Pier 39 (I hadn't been in years), shopping in Japantown and taking a moonlit stroll to Union Square to see the ice skaters and holiday lights. It was a lovely trip and just what I needed.





Anyhow, my heart and soul haven't been into cooking for weeks but I was able to somehow muster myself into the cooking spirit for the big Christmas Day dinner. I made some spicy chorizo-lentil empanadas for appetizers and also a scrumptious corn casserole as my side dish. My friend Minzi had suggested a recipe by Paula Deen which gave me the idea to do a corn casserole. I liked the basics of Deen's recipe so I used that as my starting point and built from there. The dish turned out to be a big hit and almost all of it was eaten; considering how much food was out on the table, I was pretty impressed. Even the pickier eaters gave me compliments!


The recipe is listed below, give it a try in the new year and let me know what you think.

Holiday Corn Casserole

Ingredients

1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (*do not substitute frozen corn, use canned)

1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn

1 (8-ounce) package Jiffy corn muffin mix

1 small sweet yellow onion, diced

4 ounce can diced mild green chiles, drained

1 egg

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese

5 slices bacon

salt and pepper


Instructions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

2. In a skillet, fry up your bacon. Place cooked bacon slices on a plate lined with a papertowel. Allow to cool. Then dice bacon slices. Next, in the same pan- fry up your diced onion. Then set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine: corn kernels, creamed corn, Jiffy corn muffin mix, onion, diced green chiles, 1 egg, sour cream, melted butter and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix throughly.

4. Take a greased 8x8 glass casserole dish and pour corn mixture from bowl into dish. Spread so it's even.

5. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Then remove from oven. Sprinkle bacon pieces and 2 tablespoons of cheddar across the top. Place dish back in oven and cook for another 10-15.

6. Serve warm.

Finally! About time! I know, I know....Part 2 of the Foodbuzz Festival :

The second day of the Foodbuzz Festival started early (well, early for me--I'm not a morning person). I met up with Debby from A Feast for Your Eyes and we cabbed it over to the Federated Media Headquarters for some blog workshops. The first one I had signed up for was a featured panel discussion by five bloggers. Oddly enough, even though I write a food blog I don't follow a lot of what I would call the "popular" food blogs, so I had only heard of one of the five panelists.

• Joy Wilson (Joy the Baker)
• Kath Younger (Kath Eats Real Food)
• Jessica Merchant (How Sweet It Is)
• Tracy Benjamin (Shutterbean)
• Sarah Matheny (Peas and Thank You)

The topic for the discussion was "Taking Your Blog to the Next Level," and the panelists talked about how to make your blog unique, the importance of good photography and connecting with your readers. It was informative. Several of the panelists also talked about book deals and selling their photography but that part didn't really interest me since I just do blogging as a hobby. Afterwards we divided into smaller groups and I attended two sessions 1) The DSLR-Free Zone led by Greg Henry (Sippity Sup), Angi Chau (Rice and Wheat) and Chuck Lai (Foodgawker).
 
 
They talked about how you can use point & shoot and cell phone cameras to get great shots instead of lugging around your DSLR. They also talked about working with natural lighting, ways to work around not using a flash and different post processing apps. I picked up some cool tips from Chuck of Foodgawker that I'm going to try out soon. 2) Introduction to Adobe Lightroom: How to Make Good Photos Great led by Marc Matsumoto (No Recipes).
 
From there we were bussed over to the Metreon for the Tasting Pavillion. This was my favorite part of the weekend. It was so much fun (and this year they allowed you to bring someone so my friend Jenny who lives in the city was able to join me). In a nutshell, they set up this giant room with all sorts of gourmet food and beverage vendors (and a couple of big name sponsors) and all you do is walk around and taste samples and network with the reps for 3 hours. We had a blast. Some of the vendors even gave us full size products to take home, like this Vanilla Bean Syrup by Sonoma Syrup Co.. I can't wait to try it out in some of my holiday baking, it's so delicious!
 
 
The other product that I fell head over heels for was the Black Truffle and White Cheddar Popcorn by 479 Popcorn...it's gluten-free and kind of like popcorn crack...super addicting. While were wandering around tasting red onion confit, sampling goat camembert and sipping gin and tonics; Tyler Florence slipped in  and signed a few autographs and posed for some photos.
 
Now I think I mentioned earlier how I don't really follow a lot of food blogs, well I do follow one popular food blog based out of SF...The Tomato Tart. Anyhow, I ran into Sabrina of The Tomato Tart randomly at the tasting and she's just as sassy and nice as she is in her blog (and was kind enough to take a photo). I was pretty stoked about that!
 
 
Some of us were so pooped afterwards that we went and sat outside and enjoyed the view for awhile. The Metreon had this cool wall of succulents on their balcony that I loved. Maybe I could get Mr. S. to build me one?
 
 
Here's a few more shots of some of the stuff we sipped and tasted that I liked.
 
 
 
 
Stuffed to the gills, I waddled back to the hotel and took a nap to prepare for what else...dinner! I'm not kidding, Foodbuzz had a cocktail reception, a cooking demo with Tyler Florence and a gala dinner on the evening's lineup. Jeebus! Since Alexia Foods was the sponsor of the gala dinner, the cocktail party was stocked with fries from their "Reinvent a Classic" Challenge....a contest where several bloggers had to come up with a new flavor. My favorite flavor was the dill flavored ones. Funny I only hit the fry line once (the fries were kind of lukewarm) but the Alexia photographer somehow photographed me and I found this photo of me online:  
 

Our dinner time entertainment was watching Tyler Florence...or as I will forever call him now, Ty-Flo, cook up some fat Flintstone-looking pork chops, braised red cabbage and herb spaetzle with a mustard and crème fraîche sauce while we munched on hors d'oeuvres. I've always liked Ty Flo's recipes prior to this demo but had never been much of a fan of the chef himself but after watching and listening to him at the dinner, I have to admit his frat boy/dad personality kind of grew on me. The guy's likable.  
 
Once he was done, it was dinner time. Dinner was...meh. Being that it was a dinner for food bloggers I was thinking the food would be more...well, tasty...especially after all the amazing eats we had at the Tasting Pavillion but quite honestly, the food we had kind of reminded me of hotel food and it very well could have been as the event was being held at the Grand Hyatt. We started with a Bibb Lettuce Salad with Honey Roasted Pears, Glazed Pecans and Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette. (There was way too much dressing on my salad, so much so that when I was done there appeared to be a pool of it on my plate with bits of pecan doing the backstroke in it.) The main course was a Brandt Beef Farms Filet Mignon and Meyer Lemon Roasted Prawns served with Heirloom Carrots, Celery Root Puree and Peppercorn Demi-Glace. Sounds fab, right? The prawns were really overcooked and neither the meat nor the shrimp had a lot of flavor. Pretty disappointing. In fact, I kind of wanted to chase after Tyler and grab that dish of herb spaetzle out of his hand and have THAT for dinner. Mmmm!
 

Dessert was a "San Francisco Trio" of Sourdough Bread Pudding, Cowgirl Creamery Cheesecake and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Mousse. I thought it should have been called the "frio trio" because mine tasted like they might have still been frozen. All three were really hard. I pushed my hockey pucks around the plate for awhile and decided to pass. Luckily I was still full from the giant feast I had indulged in at the Metreon earlier in the day.
 
Although there was a farewell lunch scheduled for the next morning, I decided to pass and meet up with a friend in the city and do a little shopping before heading back to Sac. Overall, I enjoyed myself at FBF'11...great food, friendly people---a fantastic time. Next year though I'll know to start exercising a few months prior in preparation for the calorie-fest. ;)