Bay Area Comfort Food

After recently returning from a trip to San Francisco, my dad gave me the best gift of all time: Sourdough Bread!

We enjoyed it last night with a warm pot of spaghetti.  Jared made some delicious homemade tomato sauce with hot Italian sausage.

Somehow we still have about 1/2 of the loaf left over.  I'm going to cut some thin slices and make toast with it in on Sunday morning.  Heaven!!!!!!!!!!

Fresh Herbs

For the one year I spent in North Carolina, my Saturday morning routine was to get Dunkin' Donuts coffee and then drive to the state farmer's market in Raleigh.  To this day, one of my top three all time favorite spots on the planet.  I would get all sorts of fresh vegetables; tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, onions, eggplant (all for about $3 total) come home and roast them in olive oil and garlic to make this awesome ratatouille.  Then I'd toss it with this homemade feta cheese I bought from some lady that called me "Suga" every time she saw me.  And finally, I'd top it with fresh basil from the basil guy who sold these huge bushels for $3 that would last for 2 weeks if you kept it in water. 

The vegetables were great, the feta - awesome, but that freaking basil; That pushed it over the edge.  Not like I'm the first person to discover it.  But I don't know that I had ever had fresh grown, non packaged basil picked that same morning available to me prior to living in NC.  As stupid as it sounds, thats the thing I miss the most about living there - that basil. 

But the $3 basil man will not always be within driving distance, I realize this.  So now, I've decided to take back control of my own fresh basil supply chain.  I must plant.  And this past weekend, plant we did.

 

cookie haiku

cold milk fills my glass,
warm chocolate chips and walnuts;
a cookie fixes everything.

Glazed Maple-Pecan Oatmeal Scones and Coffeecake Muffins

The other day Jared checked out a cookbook titled "Baking Illustrated: The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker."  This wonderful (and enormous) cookbook is written by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine.  Jared has a subscription to the magazine and an online membership to the website which we use pretty frequently.

Recently I started to enjoy baking.  I mean, I grew up making homemade cookies and boxed brownies just like most kids, but now I'm really into baking from "scratch."  Lately it's been scones, or muffins, or cupcakes.  Nothing too fancy just yet.  I'm really trying to master the flavor and texture of scones in particular, but I haven't quite achieved the "ultimate scone" just yet.  I got pretty darn close with a "Baking Illustrated" recipe for Glazed Maple-Pecan Oatmeal Scones.  They were really good and much easier to make than I anticipated.

Another "Baking Illustrated" recipe I tried - and LOVED: Coffeecake Muffins.  They were heavenly.  They were rich and moist; with a crumbly strudel topping.  Perfect with coffee, of course!  Needless to say, we ate them for breakfast almost every morning!

If you're unfamiliar with Cook's Illustrated but you like to cook/eat/learn/watch/etc.  I urge you to check them out by clicking on any of the links within this post.  The chefs, cookbooks, recipes, TV shows and best of all - the food, won't let you down!