Let's Cuddle

For Valentine's Day, I embroidered this little guy for Cole.  What is it, you ask?  Why, it's the chemical compound for oxytocin--that little cocktail otherwise known as the love hormone.

Happy Valentine's Day!  Here's to everyone having someone that trips the love hormone for them--whether it's a friend, family member, or lover.

The New Whole Grains in My Life

Yes, I'm really writing about whole grains.  It's pretty exciting.  You think I'm being sarcastic...

For the past few years, I'd been playing the field with the usual suspects:  brown rice, Israeli couscous, oatmeal...some steel-cut oats that I quickly rejected.  About six months ago, I fell into an addictive relationship with popcorn, popped fresh on the stove and topped with nutritional yeast.  During this time I also started seeing bulgur (cracked wheat) on and off, but never could commit to a regular thing.

But this week I decided to step up my commitment to the ol' whole grain by bringing the following into my life:

• Barley:  Filling, chewy, delicious.  Barley has appeared this week in a salmon/baby spinach/orange salad; as an entree with sauteed onions and mushrooms; and as breakfast with a sprinkle of sliced almonds, cinnamon, Mayan cocoa, and milk.  It's a great alternative to my first love, oatmeal, in the morning.
• Kamut & Quinoa:  Now, to be honest, I'd already seen quinoa quite a few times and knew that my pantry contained an abundance of this grain in a red-lidded jar.  But it took a desire for better-tasting, healthy (i.e., not white) pasta for me to seek quinoa and friend kamut out in the co-op aisle.  They're a twisted pair, those 100% organic, whole-grain fellows.

Truth be told, I was a bit apprehensive about this pasta after having a lackluster experience with whole wheat pasta, which is just kind of cardboard-esque and not even that good for you in the end.

But these guys!  This twisted pair!  They knocked my socks off.

After cooking the pasta to a nice tenderness, I added a few large fistfuls of arugula (I am OBSESSED with its peppery goodness), some diced tomato*, olive oil, sea salt, and pepper.  Topped it all off with some grated Parmesan.

It came out pretty delish, if I do say so myself.  I could tell straight away that K&Q and I were hitting it off.  This twisted pair was nice and tender but not soggy.  Nowhere could I detect the taste of cardboard, despite a robust 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving.  Just like regular pasta, but better!

{I actually had to go look kamut up.  The Interwebs tells me it's two times larger than regular wheat and has a rich, nutty flavor.}

*Yes, I know tomatoes aren't in season right now.  It's a sad, sad fact of winter.  So when I saw some shiny tomatoes at the farmers market last weekend, I pounced.  Are they the best tomatoes I've ever tasted?  Not by a long shot.  Am I wondering where they came from?  Yes.  But neither of these things detracts from my enjoyment of their juicy goodness.

Cole Turns 30, with a Little Help from Anchor Steam Brewery

{The venerable Anchor Steam label.}

The day before Cole turned 30 (thereby becoming obsolete, according to some), we both took the day off work to tour the one and only brewery in San Francisco, Anchor Steam.  We'd been passing the building and inhaling the sweet smell of hops during our trips to Potrero Hill but had never been able to get in on a tour.  Turns out you have to reserve a spot weeks in advance.  Once I heard that my baby wanted to celebrate her birthday with some beer and history, I got on the horn and wrangled us a couple of spots.

{The brewery's Art Deco stylings.}

Even six weeks in advance, all I could get was a ten a.m. tour.  Competition is evidently fierce for this free, two-hour tour.

{Original sign in tasting room.}

The tour was REALLY good (and not just because our guide encouraged us to try all eight of Anchor Steam's offerings).  Because I recommend that any visitor to San Francisco take this tour (whether you're a beer-swiller or not), I won't recite all of the fun historical facts I learned.  Let's just say that Anchor Steam as a beer has survived a lot of trials and tribulations from its start in the late 1800s by two German immigrants to its present day status.  The brewery is even expanding to a warehouse next door but has no plans to leave the city, which I think is cool.

{A brewer hard at work monitoring some vats.  I dig his onesie.}

{Our tour guide, Joe, who did a dang good job quenching our collective thirst.}

{The Humming Ale, so named because as of 2009, the brewery is humming along.}

{Some of the vintage signs displayed in the tasting room.}

{Lush.}

{This was me really just playing with my camera.  Dark ale atop an original keg.}

{Collection of vintage Anchor Steam bottles lining the bar.}

After bidding Anchor Steam farewell, we headed up to Russian Hill to eat at Swan's Oyster Depot, which is Cole's favorite restaurant in the city.  We sat at its long marble counter and she had another Anchor Steam and a selection of oysters.  I had a delicious dungeness crab cocktail.  

We spent the rest of the day basking in the unseasonably beautiful weather (sun and 65 degrees!), reading in a coffee shop, baking/eating cake, and opening presents.  Yay for birthdays!

Olive Oil Cake: Eh.

For her 30th (!) birthday, Cole requested an olive oil cake.  I've been wanting to try my hand at one of these for quite awhile.  It's a far cry from the incredibly rich, decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter cake that I made for Cole's birthday last year (which was the subject of my very first blog post, incidentally).

After hitting Sam up for a good recipe and finding that she didn't have one, I trolled the Internet until finally settling on this recipe.

Here's how it turned out.

Looks good, right?  Nothing fancy, but certainly edible.  Well...I wasn't impressed at all.  The cake came out a lot drier and more crumbly than I expected.  The flavors were good:  subtle olive oil, interspersed with citrus and almond.  But I wasn't compelled to devour my slice, even with the citrus compote I made to go along with it.

A week later, 1/3 of the cake is still chillin' on its cake stand.  That right there should tell you something.

You win some, you lose some, right?

{Note the sweet cake stand in these photos--the crown jewel of my burgeoning vintage cake stand collection and a gift from my dad!}

Sun & Storm

I was out with my camera recently and spotted this amazing woodwork at the top of a house near ours.  I'm blown away.  I mean, look at the faces on the sun and the storm cloud.  Don't they convey so much?

Achtung!

Cautionary sign thoughtfully provided by a friendly neighbor.

Tentacles

{Spotted on Folsom Street in Bernal Heights}

At first glance, and if you make your eyes go a bit fuzzy, doesn't this aloe plant resemble an octopus' swirling arms?