Almost savory blueberry muffins

I don't know if I've ever posted about a recipe I invented before! I feel like a real food blogger (if you trade a shoddy iPhone for a fancy camera and food styling). Yesterday I was at home with a fever, and I was getting really hungry but we had very little to eat in the house - some stale multi-grain cheerios, pork sausages, and, yep, I think that's about it. So I had to decide whether I wanted to get out of bed and leave the house to find food or if I wanted to get out of bed and try to make food using what we had. I decided to stay in and make muffins, and although they didn't fluff up beautifully, they actually tasted really good. 

I really don't like super sugary muffins, so I tried to go easy on the sugar and use what we had to substitute for what we didn't. Here's how I did it: 

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c oatmeal

4 T sugar

1 T baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 eggs

1 cup cottage cheese

1/4 lb butter

lots of blueberries!

Mix the dry and the wet separately, then put it all together and add blueberries. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400, then pull them out and eat them up! 

Cookhouse

Cookhouse is this super cool space in North Beach - it's basically a fully-equipped dream kitchen that can be used for events, cooking classes, and dinners with friends. You rent the space, cook using all of their state-of-the-art appliances, and when you're done, they clean up. My friend Sri is hosting a cooking class here next week, so I'll get to see the space in person while also learning how to make Indian curries. I'll be sure to report back, hopefully with lots of pictures. 

Flour + Water

 

Meeting up with some dear friends at Flour + Water tonight! I'm excited to try it - it's only two blocks from my office and I've always heard great things, but I haven't ever gotten my act together to get a reservation and come back to this side of town at dinnertime. I'm getting hungry just browsing their menu...

Roma

 This was the BEST pizza we ate all trip. We were in Naples for about an hour before taking a train to Rome, and we rushed to find this pizza place that the Lonely Planet raved about. It was truly rave-worthy. We got there, were seated immediately when the doors open, had our order taken one minute later, and our pizzas came out two minutes later. And they were so so good.

We hit the ground running once we checked into our hotel, and our first stop was the Trevi fountain. I remember really liking this last time I was in Rome, but Jonny remembers not being that impressed with it. We both loved it this time around!

 After we took this picture, we realized that we weren't throwing our coins in in the proper way. From what I'm told, to make a wish in the Trevi fountain, you should take the coin in your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder. Once we realized that, though, we'd already gone to the trouble of having someone take our first picture, so we didn't want to have to wrangle another tourist to take a second one.

From the Trevi fountain, we made our way to the Pantheon. This was the hottest day in Italy so far, and our bodies are used to San Francisco weather so we were struggling to take the heat.

 We continued our walk to the Colosseum. Both of us had been inside separately before, so we just marveled at the outside of the structure without going in. 

 One of my friends from work who grew up in Rome gave us great restaurant recommendations. At Da Felice, they make "cacio e pepe" pasta and mix it right in front of you. It was so so good.

 On our next day, we went to the Vatican. We knew they required you to have your knees covered, so Jonny wore pants even though it was boiling hot, and I wore a long dress. Little did I know, you also have to have your shoulders covered to enter St. Peter's basilica. I almost got turned away, but a brilliant businesswoman was standing right by where I was getting turned away selling scarves that I would never have bought otherwise, and she saved me.

 I was totally enthralled by the ceiling in St. Peter's basilica. 

Rocking my hideous touristy scarf. It was hilarious to see so many women with these scarves tied around their shoulders and knees in St. Peter's.  

These guards outside St. Peter's reminded me of Willy Wonka or Dr. Seuss. 

 I loved the letter boxes at the Vatican post office.

 At the Vatican museums, rocking our audio guides, which were actually great. We loved being able to go at our own pace and learn about as much or as little in a particular room as we wanted to.

 Jonny's favorite part was this gallery of maps. It was a whole hallway full of huge paintings of maps from hundreds of years ago.

I snuck this picture of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (don't tell!). I think because they don't allow pictures, I had no idea what to expect and it was much more angular and busy than I had expected. 

After hours in the museum, it was nice to get back in the sunlight, and we spent a few hours just wandering the city.

 Me with gelato in Rome at night = happiness.

 We visited the catacombs, and we had to sneak pictures here too. The catacombs we visited, San Callisto, felt almost like we were visiting a big winery in Napa when we got there. They were super touristy, and they took large groups to tour the grounds. Luckily, we broke away from our large group and found a much smaller group to walk around with. 

 I don't think Jonny would have fit if he had to be buried in the catacombs. 

Our final picture in our luxurious hotel. Goodbye Rome, on to Florence!

The Pelican Inn

I'll interrupt our regular Italy recap programming to bring you a little glimpse into our weekend. We decided to go for an excursion to Muir Woods on Saturday, but once we got close to the woods, we got hungry, so we stopped at the Pelican Inn. We got drawn in to this true English pub, had bangers and mash and fish and chips, and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the city. 

Even though we didn't make it to Muir Woods, and even though we ate lots of heavy English food instead of walking around in nature, I think we could unanimously agree that the Pelican Inn was completely worth the trip. 

A Gigantaur Sandwich by Jonny

I had meant to have lots of fun weekend pictures up by now, but I haven't had a chance to go through them yet. How do real bloggers do it? Seriously. I need an extra four hours tacked onto my day. 

Anyways, what you get today is a gigantaur sandwich that Jonny made. After he made it and before he was about to eat it, he actually asked for me to take a picture of it and feature it on the b-l-o-g. I'm no food stylist and my iPhone is no SLR, but I think it still looks pretty good. I also like how Jonny's hand is moving so fast as he's eating it that it looks ghosted. 

Happy Wednesday! More pictures to come soon! xo

Asparagus Ribbon Salad

It's been a week and a half since I've posted, and since I last posted I've been to Birmingham then Nashville and back. I got to see my little brother graduate from college, then got to spend time with old friends at Steeplechase, and I've got to get my pictures together for updates. But for now, dinner...

I made this really yummy ribboned asparagus salad the other day by Smitten Kitchen, and I'm making it again tonight. I don't know how I never knew that you could eat raw asparagus, but I'm glad I know it now. It's so good and tastes so fresh and healthy. Check it. Smitten Kitchen never disappoints!

Outstanding in the Field

My friend Loin just sent me a link to these Outstanding in the Field dinners, and they look so cool. These dinners are prepared by well-known chefs and are hosted in neat outdoor spots all over the country. I love the long tables and the beautiful settings! There are tons of these scheduled in California this year, and I think we should bite the $200 bullet and get a group together to go to one. Anyone?!

Serious Catchup

So I've been MIA for a little while. I seriously don't understand how all this cute people on the interwebs can live fun and busy lives and also find time to document said lives with amazing photographs and post them on blogs. I struggle. That said, here's a little catchup from the past two weeks:

{1&2} We had a fast food dinner at a nice restaurant in the Mission, Farina. Probably a restaurant where you should have a leisurely two hour dinner and a bottle of wine. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes!

{3} Flowers on my bedside table.

{4, 5, & 6} Little Mermaid Sing Along at the Castro theater. Lydia and I almost decided not to go to this, which would have been a huge mistake. It was so perfectly San Francisco and so hilarious. And the ceiling in the Castro theater was amazing!

{7} Pretty flowers in the shop by our apartment.

{8} This is our street! And one of my very favorite streets in San Francisco. Love.

{9} I rediscovered this app that I have that allows you to stache your friends. Here's Cait's stache at dinner at CPK. Yes, we went to a chain, and it was glorious. I realized that there are times when I find the familiarity of chain restaurants really comforting. Good thing this blog isn't widely read, or the SF foodies would be hating on me!

In other news, Jonny has three more weeks left on his project in Toronto. I've been refusing to count down the days up to this point, but I think I'm about ready to start. Can't wait for him to be at home all week every week.

Bike Basket Pies

There's a lady here in San Francisco who makes mini-pies and peddles around, selling them from her bicycle. At Kiva, we had a little phase where we were ordering pies from her weekly. She would bike over with a delivery, and we would all have pies for breakfast or lunch or dessert. Check out her website here. 

Happy Weekend!

One of my favorite things that has come from working at Kiva is my new and improved love for donuts.

Not that I never loved donuts. We used to get them on the way to church on Sundays when we were little (my parents' brilliant way of getting us out of bed happily on Sunday mornings!). When I was in 8th grade running for President of the middle school, I promised my first act as Middle School President would be to bring donuts to the every person the next morning. (I won, and I came through with donuts from Donut Den!).

But until recently, I haven't been that into donuts in my adult life. I lived in Winston-Salem (home of Krispy Kreme), and for the five years I lived there, I never once at a donut. Now that I work at Kiva, though, I have at least one donut a week. And not even the fancy San Francisco kind of donuts like Dynamo. I go for the cheap kind sold on Mission Street, and my very favorite is a cake donut with icing and sprinkles. 

This weekend, my amazing friend Caitlyn organized a PARTY BUS to take us on a wine tour of Napa and Sonoma. I can't wait! Maybe I'll bring some donuts for the road...

Happy weekend everyone!

SF L-O-V-E: Chez Spencer

One of my very favorite restaurants in San Francisco is Chez Spencer. It's a fancy French restaurant tucked away on 14th and Folsom, and it is incredible. When Jonny and I went a few nights ago for our anniversary, we split a red and gold beet salad, then, for my main course, I got pan-seared tai snapper and Jonny (who claims one of his top three skills is ordering off of a menu) had an amazing wood-seared venison.

Happy anniversary!

Snack time before 10:30am

A Kiva cookie and a diet Coke! So healthy. I l-o-v-e the new heart graphics on the diet Coke cans. See more from their campaign here.