Big Sur: Check!

One thing I love about living in California is the repeated experience of discovering something new and wondering: "How have I lived in this state my whole life and never been here before?!" Such was the case in Big Sur.

We drove up from Southern California through Solvang, a Danish community that makes you feel like you're in the Old World. Great bakeries, especially if you like almond paste-filled pastries, which I do! The town also includes the Santa Ines mission, which we got to tour (below). Some day I hope to visit all the California missions!

Then we continued north to Big Sur, a place so beautiful, I couldn't believe that it was my first time visiting, especially since it's only about 3.5 hours from Sacramento.

We began our day at Pfeiffer Beach, the first place I have ever encountered purple sand. Check it out!

Then we hiked to a vista overlook of the breathtaking McWay Waterfall. Here was the clearest water I have ever seen on the California coast, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

Finally, we ate lunch at Cafe Kevah and dinner at Nepenthe, two adjoining restaurants famous for their shared world-class view of the Big Sur coastline. For once, I neglected to take pictures of my food (although it was very, very good) in lieu of soaking in and photographing the view instead!

Bottom line: Big Sur should be on everyone's bucket list of places to see. As for me, I look forward to my next trip there!

New Orleans: A Dream Come True

Have you ever been drawn to a place and then fallen head over heels with it once you finally made it there? New Orleans was like that for me. A huge romantic, for me this city seemed to have everything that could be desired in a place: gorgeous architecture, stellar music, Southern hospitality but big-city sophistication, a fascinating history and of course, amazing food.

I headed off to explore Nawlins last week with a friend. Let's start with the food, shall we?

Favorite Appetizer: This is an Alligator Sausage and Shrimp Cheesecake from Jacque-Imo's. It's a savory cross between a cheesecake and a quiche, smothered in a creamy sauce. To die for!

Favorite Dinner: Crawfish Ettoufee, from the same place. Served alongside Cornbread, red beans and rice and corn maque choux, this was a genuine Creole experience - and soooo good!

Best Touristy Place to start your day: Cafe du Monde for some beignets topped with powdered sugar. With a tiny "large" glass of freshly squeeze orange juice, it was a wonderful (if overpriced) was to start exploring the French Quarter.

Dessert of choice in these parts: Pralines! Don't even bother looking for chocolate, cause this is Praline territory.

Biggest sandwich I have ever eaten: Muffaletta from Central Grocery. I didn't realize that "whole" meant it was served on a whole loaf of bread! We didn't finish this baby, but made a homeless guy's night.

Best "I'm in the South!" breakfast: Elizabeth's, where we ate praline bacon (I know!), fried green tomatoes, poached eggs, potatoes, and a biscuit. Swoon!

Best "I am way too underdressed to be here" lunch: Emeril's Restaurant. Despite our tennis shoes and shorts in a sea of suits, they didn't turn us away for lunch, so we got to enjoy this combination of Fried Organic Chicken, Sweet Corn-Belgian Waffle, Watermelon Slaw and Crystal Hot Sauce Syrup.

Best dessert: Emeril's Banana Cream Pie. Jacques Pepin named it "the best thing I ever ate in New Orleans", and the man has got a point there. It is one mean pie.

Best "late night dessert to eat when you're hanging out on Frenchmen Street and have a hankering for something sweet": Bread pudding in praline sauce from The Praline Connection.

Best "Dessert for Breakfast" dish: Bananas Foster French Toast from Surrey's. My stomach almost exploded by this time, but my friend finished hers. I am in awe!

Besides the food, how about some gorgeous shots of New Orleans?

Jackson Square

The French Quarter - so picturesque!

This is where we stayed: A typical house in the Bywater, with shutters, white pillars and palms.

St. Louis Cemetery #1: The first cemetery where they decided to built above-ground vaults. Before that, the bodies they buried on the river bank floated up when the city flooded. Imagine corpses floating down your street and you can see the wisdom of these vaults.

Public Art paying tribute to jazz

This mansion in the Garden District used to belong to Anne Rice. It's easy to see how the city inspired her aesthetic.

Houmas House, a real plantation. We ate lunch on green velvet chairs, strolled the gardens, 

had the best tour guide ever (a la Scarlet O'Hara) and stood under 500 year old oak trees 

draped in grey moss. 

If you ever get the chance, go to New Orleans. Filled with an indescribable positive energy, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love with it.

February Indulgence

Um... hi?

I've been swimming along in the sea of life and friends and trips and just now pausing to reflect on how wonderful the past few weeks have been. There was Valentine's Day:


For the second year in a row we made the Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken with Bread Salad, and it is hard to foresee us ever departing from this tradition. This is one make-at-home dish that is so sublimely simple and perfectly elegant, that it makes me forget any ideas I ever had of getting dressed up, going out amongst the crowd and spending three times as much on dinner in a restaurant. It's just that good!

For dessert, I made Smitten Kitchen's Pear-Bittersweet Chocolate Cake, a symbolic coming together of my love for fruit and my husband's chocolate preference. This was truly a stellar cake, and it may become a future V-Day tradition as well!

A close friend came to visit next, and there was Muir Woods (below), a coffee house concert, independent bookstore perusal, artsy movies at the local retro movie theater, chocolate pie, Bula Burgers, high tea, and Bollywood. In other words, a perfect three-day weekend.

This past weekend, we joined up with another couple for an evening of soul food in San Francisco...

And live blues music with a band that won 3rd place in the country in a recent competition in Memphis! There's just something about live music...

The next day, we drove to the Legion of Honor, which (intentionally, I think) feels like a miniature Louvre - very French in spirit and style.

The current exhibition focused on the Pre-Raphaelite era and the Cult of Beauty. A whole exhibition dedicated to the worship of beauty? I'm a fan! Here's one of Rossetti's most famous paintings that was on display (and it turns out the model was one several of his mistresses):

Our last stop in the city was at the Bi-Rite Market, which came out with a fantastic cookbook last fall that I own and adore. The author gives more than just recipes for the store's most popular prepared items; he lays out, step by step, how to seek out and "Eat Good Food", as the store's motto goes, from cheese to eggs to meat.

The store itself felt like a specialty food market meets independent bookstore, with hand-written, thoughtful notes on many items explaining the product's origin, flavor, and best use. Who does that? Bi-Rite Market does, and it explains why there was a huge (albeit fast-moving) line in the tiny store.

I headed immediately to the back of the store, where I procured a pint of their Brown Butter Ice Cream, preferring to take it home than stand in line for a scoop at the nearby Creamery. Other ice cream options included honey lavender, salted caramel, and seasonal citrus flavors.

So concluded my series of weekend adventures. Next adventure: Staying at home long enough to plant a spring garden!

Bodega Bay

This is how we began: cerulean sky and an expanse of water, right outside our window.

The next morning was more like:

Every day I spent there, I wrote. Not literally as I must when at work, but as a poet might. I tried to see everything as an artist. I'd nearly forgotten I had it in me.

But I found plenty to inspire...



Crab sandwich and clam chowder? Check. Salty wind and view of the Bay? Check. Random bluesy Elvis crooner? Check.

When the clouds blew past us, we were left to enjoy a silver-tinged landscape.




So we did.

A Food Lover's Seattle

When people ask me what we did in Seattle, I never really know what to say except that we ate. Some people learn a new place by sight-seeing, but it seems that we do so by eating.

We couldn't have asked for a better start to our trip than a sunny corner of Volunteer Park Cafe with a hot cup of hot chocolate and a slice of wonderful slice of blueberry coffee cake. (A copy of Bon Appetit and a rustic wooden table didn't hurt either; I felt right at home instantly.)
From there, Seattle's food continued to wow us at every turn. I got to eat the best sandwich of my life, a cuban roast pork sandwich from Paseo. Believe the hype, the flavors were outstanding.


We had breakfast at The Crumpet Shop before hitting Pike's Place. Here's my lemon curd-ricotta crumpet.

I have to say that one of the highlights of the trip was visiting Delancey, the restaurant owned by famed blogger/author Orangette and her husband.

There was just something about experiencing physically what I'd only read about and imagined - actually tasting the wood-fired pizza, roasted raddichio salad and the bittersweet chocolate cookie sprinkled with salt. We opted for a pizza with homemade sausage and roasted padrone peppers:

I think the best thing I ate on the whole trip was likely the maple walnut trifle we had for dessert. It was the kind of dish that you take one bite of and tell yourself, "I have to figure out how to make this at home." I'll work on that one.

We ate Chicken-Spinach Manicotti made by Mario Batali's father at Salumi:

And bacon-wrapped Mehjool dates at Tango, a tapas restaurant:


On a cold Saturday morning, we made a trip to a great Farmer's Market, where I bought salted caramels, allium flower bulbs and fresh pasta and stuffed it into my suitcase to take home with me. Then, our noses frozen, we curled up in a cozy spot appropriately named Nook...

...where everything on the menu is based on biscuits:

And then it was time to head home. But of course we couldn't leave without one last tribute to this wonderful city:

Cheers, Seattle! Thanks for a lovely trip.