Sunday, February 27

Notes on a Berkeley

It started with La Note. One of the most comforting brunch places I've ever seen. Decorated in a true French provencal style, La Note has stolen my heart. There's something about seeing brunch items such as "Fresh Bread Basket served with lavender honey and raspberry jam" that puts me in my happy place. The simplicity of a warm croissant smothered in jam and a steaming cup of coffee... it's perfection. Did I order that? Well, no. How could I pass up luscious, fluffy, sweet Oatmeal and Raspberry Pancakes?? After all, I was only there for a day! I planned on eating my pancakes and getting an almond croissant to go to munch on throughout the day. Didn't happen. I was too full. Anyway these pancakes were amazing. Dark and slightly doughy, covered in a swirl of raspberry coulis and powdered sugar. Caty got the Cote Nord- scrambled eggs over chewy toasted whole wheat bread smeared with goat cheese. That came with potatoes (big chunks of roasted red potatoes!) and roasted tomato halves. Très bien! We were full, but this was only the start to our day of gluttony.

Oatmeal Raspberry Pancakes

Cote Nord
We walked around Telegraph for a bit, stopped into Buffalo Exchange where I found a cute silky best-friend-approved top (slated to make its debut in New York in 3 weeks) and a black Proenza Schouler Jacket for only $16! Crazy! We also went to Fourth Street and walked around for a little bit. The shops were adorable. That's where Bette's Oceanview Diner is, a place that apparently makes delectable souffle pancakes that I'd seen on Diners Driveins and Dives before. I stopped into Chocolatier Blue, a fancy lil sweets place, and got two chocolates. One was hazelnut and the other had an angel food cake filling (almondesque)- both very good.

Hazelnut and Angel Food Cake Chocolates
We raced back to Shattuck Ave. to get to the Cheese Board Collective in time to meet our friends and house mates (Tristin and Ashelen) who were in Berkeley for their A Cappella Competition which was the whole reason we were in Berkeley. Cheese Board is a worker-owned and run pizza place that serves one vegetarian specialty pizza per day. The ingredients are locally sourced and organic. Yesterday's pizza was with roma tomatoes, mozzarella, feta, caramelized onions, lemon juice and zest, and cilantro. They are open for lunch, close for an hour and a half, and open again for dinner. The lines are loooooong, but it goes by quick since there's not much on the menu. We were greeted by our friends sitting outside and a "Guys, cheese board is closed" from Marjorie who happily finished her last bites of pizza and salad. We thought that they closed from 3:30-5, but it turned out they closed from 3-4:30. Whoops. We decided we'd come back for dinner. I went into Cheese Board's bakery and cheese store next door to grab a loaf of bread and I made the day's happiest discovery. Cheese Board sells Labneh. Cue the ear to ear smile on my face. Labneh is "kefir cheese" which is basically really thick unsweetened yogurt. At Sara's house, I gladly help myself to a bowlful of labneh drizzeled with olive oil, salt, and zaatar eaten with toasted pita and/or lavash. Good luck getting me to share. I crave it all the time, but they don't sell it anywhere in Santa Cruz so I had to buy one. I also got a blueberry ginger scone because, well... why the hell not? The scone was perfect with its crunchy outside, soft inside and chunks of crystallized ginger. Skipping ahead a little, we went back to Cheese Board for dinner and it hit the spot. One of the best Pizza's I've ever had. A thin crispy crust, but still a little chewy. No sauce, all toppings. Bright flavors. Oh yeah, baby.

Our glorious pizza.

Crystallized Ginger chunks in my scone.
Don't mind my gross nails.

Gimme gimme.

Cheese Board's kitchen and patrons.
Going back to 3pm and our disappointment at missing lunch, Tristin, Caty and I went to College Ave to grab some lunch for Tris before she had to go to campus for sound check. We got La Mediterranee (or Cafe La Med), but just a lentil salad because we wanted to save our appetites for dinner later. The lentil salad was so good! I have no idea what kind of lentils these were but they were really big, and light in color. The salad had roasted red and yellow peppers, tomato, and carrot in it. The dressing was lemon and olive oil I believe. The inside of Cafe La Med was super cute, tons of tile, an open kitchen, and high ceilings. I totally forgot to get pictures, sorry! The menu reminded me of the restaurant I worked at over the summer, Sunnin Lebanese Cafe.

So now it's 4:15, we drop Tris off on campus, run around town a little bit and meet Caty's friend Katrina for our splendid and overdue pizza date at Cheese Board. When we left the restaurant, the line was winding down the street, almost around the corner. The people of Berkeley need their pizza! We had some time to kill so we drove up to the Lawrence Lab to gawk at the most spectacular view of Berkeley. It was clear last night and we could see everything. We could see the ocean, the Bay Bridge, and Golden Gate Bridge, and the lights across the bay in San Francisco. It was finally time to go see the girls sing and they did such a great job!! After the competition Caty and I stopped for one last Berkeley treat- King Pin Donuts in the Asian Ghetto. The only donut I really like is a cake donut with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles (which is weird because I don't really like sprinkles). King Pin had exactly what I wanted, but it was half rainbow sprinkles, half coconut!! I was so happy. We ate our donuts in the car and drove back home to  relax after one of the longest, but best days we'd had in a while. The day ended with a smile, just as it started with one.

Congrats on your first ICCAs girls!

A pancake induced smile.

Wednesday, February 23

Heart Shaped Pizza

Continuing with the Valentine's Day theme from my previous post, Ricotta Pound Cake, I want to share with you all one of my passions. PIZZA. I'd say my pizza passion started last year when my friend Rosy and I realized you could buy fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods for 2 dollars per dough. We'd go a little crazy with our Friday night pizza and trashy tv nights. I know some people have a weird aversion to Whole Foods because it can get a little pricey, but do not buy Trader Joe's pizza dough. I repeat- don't do it! It's good for making soft pretzels (just roll it into a thin log, make a U shape, and cross the sides over) but it is extremely hard to stretch into a pizza. The Whole Foods dough is made on site, packaged as you order it, and fluffy as a cloud. But what does this have to do with Valentine's Day? My house mates and I invited some friends from the next block over the day after valentines day for pizza making, and we ended up making heart shaped pizza! It was adorable. The one wrong thing that happened this night was that neither Whole Foods, nor Trader Joe's had basil in stock. I couldn't believe it. But we made due on the Margherita with dried herbs.

Heart Shaped Margherita.

Our favorites are...
Goat cheese - with sundried tomatoes and carmelized onions (cooked beforehand). No sauce, just a drizzle of olive oil
Margherita - the real way with buffalo mozzarella, slices of tomato, and basil (sauce optional)
Veggie- orange pepper, mushroom, spinach in the sauce
Mexican- drained and rinsed black beans, corn, chopped cilantro, pico de gallo, mozzarella and/or cheddar, and a squeeze of lime (no tomato sauce)
(the pictures are out of order)

The Mexican

Veggie

Goat cheese.
Rosy and I watched a youtube video on how to stretch a pizza dough by hand and it gets easier with time, but some parts are going to be thinner than others if you're amateur like us. I recommend using a rolling pin until the dough is about a foot in diameter, then lay the dough over your knuckles and turn it around until it gets stretched out. Always flour both sides of the dough and your work surface. The best thing to do in terms of cooking it is to heat the oven to 450. If you have a pizza stone, through that baby in there while the oven heats up. If not, throw a heavy cookie sheet in there for 10 minutes before putting the dough on. This will help the dough get nice and crispy on the bottom but stay soft inside the crust.

When you're putting sauce on, remember that no matter what, a crust will appear. Don't leave a one inch margin around the edges to form a crust, you'll end up with a 2 inch crust. Spread the sauce and toppings to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the edge. Cooking times will vary, but ours usually take about 15 minutes. If you have two in the oven at once, switch the racks half way though so that the bottom of the lower pizza doesn't get charred. At the end, if everything is done but you want the cheese to brown and bubble, pop that sucker under the broiler!

This weekend Caty and I are going to Berkeley to see Ashelen and Tristin's (our house mates) A Capella competition. As excited as I am to hear them sing on a real stage, ever the foodie I'm just as excited to eat at two great restaurants that Caty has raved about for the year that I've known her. The first is Cheese Board Collective, a vegetarian pizza place and bakery that serves one pizza a day. This Saturday it is "Roma tomatoes, onions, mozzarella and feta cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic oil, cilantro." YUM. The second is La Note a classic provencal restaurant- definitely want to try the pain perdu or pancakes there. More posts to come. Happy eatings!

Ricotta Pound Cake

When I was little, my aunt Stacy would throw Valentine's Day tea parties for my cousins and their friends. They were always so much fun. We tried to act fancy as if we were British or something, ha! To this day I smile at the idea of tea parties, or having tea with someone. It reminds me of this. Well, being in the middle of midterms, I wasn't about to throw a Valentine's Tea this year, but in the spirit of vday I made something that pairs perfectly with tea- a Ricotta Pound Cake. I'm so glad I stumbled across this recipe on Food Gawker. God Bless whoever started the gawker websites. If you're ever feeling uninspired, just go look at one of those and your eyes will be opened. Anyway this recipe comes from the blog My Kitchen In The Rockies.


More please!


This pound cake is one of the best I've ever had. It's moist, it's flavorful and pretty easy, too. The original recipe calls for whole milk ricotta which I felt guilty buying. I think the cake would do fine with part-skim because it was super moist with the whole milk ricotta, almost too moist. The 2 or 3 slices from the middle of the cake were doughy in the middle, but I couldn't bake it more- one, because it had already cooled and you can't really go back after, and two because the outsides were already perfectly browned. I didn't want to burn it! Other than using part-skim ricotta, my other note would be to add lemon juice and zest. Lemon in vanilla based things is perfect, it adds a little bit of brightness that the final product might otherwise be lacking. I still had those meyer lemons my boss had given me that I used in my Lentil Salad with Avocado and Grapefruit. I used the zest of one medium sized lemon, and about a tablespoon of the juice. I resisted the urge to put a little almond extract in these, it was tough, but I made it through. If I keep putting almond in everything I'll be known as the almond lady. Could that be worse than being the bag lady?


Always let it cool completely or the bottom wont come
out of the pan! Unfortunately, I know this from experience.


Ricotta Pound Cake
Makes 1 loaf pan

Ingredients


1 1/2 cup cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup fresh whole-milk ricotta
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Zest of one lemon

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and place rack in center. Grease and flour 9-inch loaf pan.

1. In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cream together butter, ricotta, and sugar until smooth and light.  Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping sides of bowl after each addition.
3. Split a vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the blunt side of a small knife, then beat them into the batter along with the vanilla extract. If you don't have one, just use another teaspoon of vanilla extract. Add vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
4. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients to combine them, scrape down sides of the bowl, and beat the batter for 30 seconds on medium.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula. Tap pan on counter a few times to remove air pockets.
6. Bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes. Allow cake to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert it on wire rack to cool completely. Do not slice until completely cooled. Dust with confectioner’s sugar before serving.


**My cousin (more like my sister) just gave me the idea of using this in a trifle. My aunt (her mom) makes a trifle out of a cubed Sarah Lee pound cake, layered in a trifle dish or a big glass bowl with sliced strawberries and fresh whipped cream. Pound cake, strawberries, whipped cream, repeat, repeat, repeat. She's right though this would be fantastic. If you want to stick with a lemon theme you could also fold a little bit of lemon curd into the whipped cream. In the summer you could do a berry mixture, peaches, mangoes, whatever you like!

Enjoy!

Sunday, February 13

Lentil Salad with Avocado and Grapefruit

Beans are a vegetarian's best friend! I know that's really not sexy, but it could be when you think about that versus eating the cooked flesh of an animal. Yeah, that's what I thought. I try to eat a lot of garbanzo beans, black beans, and white beans but the other day at Trader Joes, the steamed lentils were calling my name. A big, vacuum sealed, precooked bag of lentils for only about two dollars. I'll take them all! I'd bought these before, but I'd never done anything too exciting with them. Friday afternoon they were singing out to me like a beacon of light in the refrigerator at the end of a slumpy week. I needed something refreshing. I saw my pink grapefruit and homegrown meyer lemons my boss gave to me sitting on the counter. Bing! The lightbulb went off over my tired little head.

Fiber, protein, sweet, bitter, crunchy, crispy...


Homegrown Meyer Lemons!


I enjoyed this light and almost vegan meal (just sub agave nectar for the honey in the dressing) with two slices of a fresh baguette, toasted and spread with earth balance. The grapefruit was the perfect amount of bitterness needed to balance out the sweetness of the grape tomatoes and cucumber. Yum yum yum.

Refreshed.


Lentil Salad with Avocado and Grapefruit

Ingredients

2/3 cup cooked lentils
1/2 cup garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
1/2 an avocado (cubed)
1/4 cup grape tomatoes
1/2 a pink grapefruit (segmented)
1 Persian cucumber (chopped)
1 scallion sliced
1/4 cup roasted unsalted cashews

3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (approx.)
salt + pepper to taste

Steps

1. In a medium bowl toss or shake all ingredients lentils through cucumber around until well mixed. Sprinkle sliced scallion and cashews (quartered, halved or whole, whatever you like) over mixture.
2. In a small bowl or pyrex liquid measuring cup, whisk together all ingredients orange juice- s+p.

Wednesday, February 2

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

What better to top off my Butternut Squash and Pesto Lasagna than oatmeal cookies with dried cherries and white chocolate chips? I've always been a fan of oatmeal cookies for their chewiness and heartiness that can really cheer me up. One thing I do not like is raisins. Raisins are a big no no. I'm coming around to them being in some things, but their flavor is so overpowering and concentrated to me. Yuck. As an alternative, I'll use dried cranberries or craisins but this time I found a recipe for Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies from the blog All Day I Dream About Food.

Buttery chocolatey yummy.

What I love about cookies is how easy they are. I've been making the tollhouse recipe chocolate chip cookies since I was in second grade so now I can literally recite it from memory (2 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 cup softened butter, 3/4 cup granulated...). After making a few batches of those my 8 year old mind thought it wise to do 1 cup of brown sugar and only a 1/2 cup of granulated instead of equal parts of both. I felt comfortable making the modifications because cookies are so forgiving. You can't really go wrong making them. Cookies are like your favorite pair of dark wash skinny jeans, while cakes, scones, and other pastries are more like that hot pink Herve Leger bandage dress you saw in Vogue the other day. You have to pull the dress off perfectly or you'll look terrible, but you can pretty much throw on any old top with your jeans and you're ready to go. Right? Right.

They lasted about 36 hours in the house.

I'd read a few months ago to brown the butter whenever you're making standard cookies because the flavor of the browned butter adds a richness and depth to the cookie that can't be brought in from anything else. The browned butter with the brown sugar in these cookies was heavenly. Since the butter was still a little warm when I put it over the sugar, it started to melt the sugar and the kitchen smelled like caramel. It was d-i-v-i-n-e. The only reason I put the bowl with the butter over an ice bath was because I was afraid that the cookies wouldn't be fluffy if the butter wasn't at least slightly solid again.The other change I made was adding vanilla extract and just a dab of almond extract. I'm a huge fan of almond extract for its clean and sharp flavor, but it's extremely potent so use it sparingly. So here is the recipe with my modifications. Enjoy!


White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup butter (two sticks)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
1 cup white chocolate chips
Steps

Preheat oven to 350

1. Place the two sticks of butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally, but allow butter to bubble slightly in pan. What you are looking for is browned butter. This will take about 8 minutes, but please be careful not to burn the butter. It does not taste good!

2. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. When butter has browned and cooled slightly, pour butter into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Fill a larger bowl with ice water and place the mixing bowl over ice water. This will cool the butter down and help it re-form into butter like texture. Be sure to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, and stir constantly to release heat. When browned butter has thickened, fit mixer with whisk attachment and whip butter to fluff up a bit- about  2 minutes on full speed.

4. Take off whisk attachment and replace with paddle attachment. Beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time until thoroughly combined, scraping down beaters and bowl as needed. Add vanilla and almond extracts.

5. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Mix in oats, cherries and white chocolate chips until just incorporated.

6. Roll tablespoons of dough between palms and place on prepared baking sheets. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake until edges are beginning to brown and tops are soft and puffy, 15-20 minutes, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking. 

7. Let cool on baking sheets for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.