I couldn’t resist making these Oh Baby bars. My chocolate wasn’t as smooth and pourable as hers, but after a little action with an offset spatula, they looked just fine.

But it doesn’t matter how they looked. I promise you. These taste so freaking awesome they could look like total crap and you would still like it. That is how good they are. Oh. And it took me 15 minutes to assemble. So go ahead and whip these up for your family. They will love you forever.

I have to say, I love pumpkin flavor. Pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin cakes. Pumpkin lattes. Pumpkin everything. So when I saw this mix at Trader Joe’s, I had a Pavlovian response to put it in my cart.

It was one of the best decisions I made all weekend. On Saturday morning Eric made a pot of pumpkin spice coffee and whipped up these pancakes along with some breakfast sausage from Willowside Meats (awesome butchers, those gents). I am not going to lie. I took one bite of those pancakes… those cakes that were lightly kissed with maple syrup… and I think I saw pumpkin nirvana.

This mix made pancakes that had the light diner texture with enough pumpkin flavor that you knew what you were eating. Even Eric, who isn’t smitten with pumpkin flavored everything agreed that these pancakes were perfect.

Good enough to have two mornings in a row…

Please note: latte was served in my Penn State cup. Congrats Jo Pa on your 400th win!

So there is this place called Spinners right by my apartment here in the city. And Spinners makes cinnamon rolls, muffins, and Java City Coffee. All of which are fantastic. As if the quality wasn’t reason to go back again and again, this little gem of a place charges me $1.00 to refill my coffee mug in the morning and after 10 refills I get one free. That works out to $0.90 a refill. Plus if I buy a muffin or cinnamon roll AND a cup of coffee ($2.95 for the muffin combo and $2.50 for the cinnamon roll combo), I get TWO stamps.

One dollar refills. The only other place where I can get things for a dollar is the Dollar Store. This is a serious bargain to me folks!

The only disadvantage to this place is that I am pretty cofident (based on the deliciousness factor of their baked goods) that this is a high fat/ high calorie breakfast. Which is why I stick to the coffee most mornings.

I am off to another martini tasting this evening with the Big A. It gives me an opportunity to spend time with the Big A, to drink delicious martinis and eat delicious food, but most importantly, it gives me an excuse to get my super cute shoes out of the closet and parade around in them!

Hope you are ready for another review of Ink’s event!

When we went to the cabin a little over two weeks ago, we took a picnic lunch to Hog Island Oyster Co. It is a little place in Tomales Bay on Route 1 where you can buy raw oysters and have yourself a time! When we showed up, one of the guys asked us if we had reservations and we totally didn’t. But I think this is one of the times that we should thank our lucky stars that we are all cute females because he managed to get us a picnic table outside.

We paid a reduced entrance fee (maybe because we showed up kind of late in the afternoon and the guy didn’t think it was fair to charge us the normal $8/person fee, or maybe we are really so cute as a foursome that the men at Hog Island were spellbound into treating us well – I guess it is an oyster company… and you know that oysters are an aphrodesiac… hmmmm). Regardless, we ended up getting 2 dozen oysters for the 4 of us to share; 12 small oysters and 12 atlantic oysters (as a suggestion of the guy who said they ran out of kumomoto and extra small ones) and a bunch of lemons).

We packed up a bottle of wine from the cabin, all of our cheeses, a loaf of bread, and all of the fixins’ for a minuet sauce. We settled in at the only free picnic table and started shucking our little hearts out. A couple of the atlantic oysters were creamy inside. So I went an asked one of the oyster guys if they were safe to eat. He proceeded to tell me that it was their reproductive juice and that it was completely safe to eat. Needless to say, I stuck to the non-creamy ones from that point out, but I didn’t tell the rest of the girls, for fear that it would deter them. The oyster guy came over to our table and told them that it was fine to eat and said that he preferred them creamy. Then he ate one of our oysters.

Really, this place only provided the oysters, a picnic table, and there were some BBQs around if you didn’t want your oysters raw. They recommend making reservations at least two weeks in advance (but apparently if you are cute and female, there is a small chance of getting around that rule). You are allowed dogs on leashes, although I think everyone who had a dog let it off-leash. The picnic tables sit along the banks of the bay and it is a beautiful view. There was no shade, but it wasn’t a particularly hot day. I don’t remember getting sunburn.

They also have retail locations and a restaurant at the pier in SF. But I had a great time at the farm! Something tells me the employees there know first hand about oyster farming and shucking and everything else.

Here is the contact info and some information from the website:

To enjoy our facility, please keep the following in mind:

One week advance reservation only
Call 415-663-9218 ext. 208
Leave the folling information clearly: first/last name, phone number, date, total people
Reservations confirmed by return phone call, Advance reservations are $8 per person, Walk-ins are welcome if we have space at $10 per person, No walk-ins after 4pm, We close promptly at 5pm, No groups larger than 20 people, BBQ pits provided, but bring your own charcoal, No personal cooking devices, No portable music devices. We have a great selection of music, Bring your own beverages and containers, Dress warmly as the afternoon wind and fog can be a little chilly, Please car pool as parking is very limited

Travel time from San Francisco is 1.5 hours.

Our physical location is 20215 Coast Hwy One, Marshall, CA 94940

We are located 10.2 miles north of Pt. Reyes Station on Hwy One. Look for us on the left-hand side.

HAVE FUN AND EAT LOTS OF OYSTERS!

I haven’t had much experience with Indian food. To be honest, I have only eaten at one indian restaurant, for a lunch buffet. And I didn’t like it. On several other occasions, I have had homemade indian food. (In fact, I make a mean lamb curry…) And the homemade stuff was generally pretty good, so I wasn’t going into this dinner with a biased view.

The Big A and I started off with some chicken samosas (deep fried pastries filled with mildly spiced chicken). These were awesome, and next to the naan, were the best things I ate there. The pastry was EXACTLY like the pastry they use to make natchitoches meat pies (New Orleans treat, pronounced : nachadish). The garnish sauce with these little fried pockets of deliciousness was also yummy.

For our main course, we ordered both the nawabi murg kabobs (boneless chicken breast pieces marinated in sour cream, yogurt, ginger, garlic, and spices, grilled in tandoor oven and served in sizzling platter from Delhi) and the chicken tikka masala (marinated boneless chicken breast pieces simmer in a thick, spicy sauce made with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and spices). We asked for medium spice and I found it to be a little more spicy than I could handle without having to take a drink after every bite. However, the flavor was really good. The Big A, who really likes indian food, thought dinner was awesome. (Maybe he should have wrote this review?) I thought the food was delicious and I would go back and try it again (with mild spice…). The naan was awesome. The plain was much better than the naan with roasted garlic. And the saag? I hated it. But I am not a big fan of cooked spinach.

I had a glass of Chenin Blanc from India with our dinner and it was very good. It had a nice tart fruit flavor that help off set the spicy food.

The service at this restaurant was impeccable. Never an empty water glass. Never a dirty plate. The only confusion was when someone other than our waiter brought out our entree and the people sitting next to us (who ordered after us) had ordered the same thing. But he figured out who ordered first and everything was fine.

The interior of the restaurant was beautiful. They had magnificent paper lanterns covering their ceiling. I spent most of dinner contemplating how to make them. The art was rich and colorful. Apparently they have (or had) erotic art, but it must have been behind the curtain that separated the bathrooms and kitchen from the rest of the restaurant.

All in all, I would totally go back and try it again!

The address of the restaurant is:
1888 Solano Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 526-4373

and reservations for the weekends are recommended. To see their menu, click here.

This weekend was Porter’s bachelorette weekend out at the cabin. It was nice to take a weekend and unwind. And it was nice to spend some time with Kitty – the other girl in the wedding. Our original plan was to go kayaking and horseback riding this weekend, but instead we went on a picnic at Hog Island Oyster Co. (pictures to come) and hung out at Salmon Creek beach watching all of the surfers and kite flyers.

We also visited the Cowgirl Creamery, which was DELICIOUS. I ended up buying two cheese, one was a sheep’s milk peppercorn and one was a harder goat cheese. Porter bought some Chevre, which was to die for. I strongly suggest checking out their cheeses if you are a cheese lover. They are phenomenal.

I also got the chance to finish up Harry Potter. Man! It was a bummer. Like such a bummer, you can’t even be sure that there will be a happy ending at the end of the series kind of bummer. I guess that is life though, huh… not always a happy ending.

Two weeks ago, Porter, Sheesha and I went to a restaurant called someone’s something Haufbrau. It is basically like a buffet with prime rib, turkey, chicken and meatloaf. I would classify it as a classic American food. My sister found the giant ham hanging in a warming oven to be the funniest thing ever. What is even funnier is that both Porter and I tried to capture the essence of the ham with my digital camera. Porter did a great job. Mine was just plain scary.

This Sunday my family and I went to a jazz brunch at the Mission Ranch Restaurant. Here is an except for the above link:

“More than a few local residents breathed a sigh of relief when Clint Eastwood bought the historic Mission Ranch property on the Carmel River in 1986. It wasn’t just the threat that the old ranch would be torn down and replaced by condominiums. That was bad enough. But the possibility of losing the restaurant that had been a favorite local hangout for as long as some of them could remember made it doubly distressing.”

The brunch was divine. We had a lovely waitress, who had a slight Irish accent. After getting seated outside on their amazingly scenic back patio, we were brought our mimosas (YUM!). For my first course, I had the shredded prime rib burrito with mole sauce, thick cut french toast, and breakfast potatoes. The mole sauce was perfect, not too spicy. The shredded prime rib was moist and they did an excellent job not including all of the fat. The breakfast potatoes weren’t cooked all of the way and the spices were bland. But 2 out of 3 was a pretty good start in my book. My sister had the eggs benedict, french toast, and a bloody mary and she thought everything delish. The french toast was done with a custard so that the bread was nice and gooey with the coating.

For my second course I had a slice of ham and a slice of prime rib. I had wanted more, but for some reason, they gave you HUGE portions of meat and reasonable portions of everything else. The ham was so moist and juicy that it melted in your mouth. It was cooked to perfection. The prime rib was also moist, but again, there were no seasonings and the meat was extremely fatty.

My third course involved a myriad of small desserts, including the chocolate covered strawberry and the pecan tart in the picture. I also had a slice of ripe pineapple. The pecan tart was well done with a low sugar taste, which is the way I prefer pecan pie/tart – without an overpowering sugar taste.

This was an excellent meal at a price of $24.95 per person. If you are ever in the Carmel area on a Sunday morning, you really should check it out. I wouldn’t hesitate to go back, hell, I would do it just for the view and the jazz. The first song the band played was Take 5 by Dave Brubeck. I mean, it was like they were after my heart right out of the gate.

Well, the martini tasting, it was a success! There were five martinis and three different types of vodka. Here is the run down:

An extra dirty Belvedere martini (pictured below) that went was served with the shrimp cerviche

A Belvedere lemon drop that was served with crab cakes

A Chopin albino cosmo served with grapes, arugula, and fontina cheese with a balsamic reduction sauce

An orange creamcicle Belvedere martini that was served with prosciutto, asparagus, and pineapple.

And finally a chocolate raspberry Ciroc martini paired with a white chocolate mousse (pictured below).

It was a great night! Afterwards we went across the street to Paragary’s where the bartender made us some lemon drops and gave us a free eggplant pizza that was DELICIOUS. I love this place and it has the most beautiful and zen-like back patio.

click below to see the full review of the martini tasting.

While all of the vodkas were high end, the only vodka that really was allowed to show its stuff was the Belvedere in the dirty martini. Even then, the olive juice was very strong and the martinis were clearly olive colored. However, this wasn’t a vodka tasting, it was a martini tasting so I can overlook this. The shrimp cerviche was aptly paired with this martini and was my favorite appetizer of the evening.

The lemon drops were made very well and were probably my favorite of the night. The first round was very light on the lemon, but also not strong on the vodka flavor. We thought these would be particularly dangerous. However the second round came out and this time the martinis were much sweeter and had more lemon flavor, like lemonade, which is even MORE dangerous. The crab cakes paired well with the lemon drops, but were not the best crab cakes ever. (This is because Winemonkey really does make the best crab cakes in the world and I have NEVER EVER paid for a crab cake and liked it half as much as Winemonkey’s.) However, Ink’s crab cakes were fairly dry but served in a large portion with an interesting red pepper sauce. The Big A likes The Black Pearl’s crab cakes (and they also have an awesome partini called the black pearl, which is made with pearl vodka and parfait de amour).

Before dinner we had a regular cosmo made with Absolute Mandarin (or some other brand of orange flavored vodka). I will say up front that Ink makes one of the BEST cosmos I have ever had and trust me… I have had a LOT of cosmos. When the Chopin albino came out, I have to say I was a little disappointed. The white cranberry juice had a much sweeter base than their regular cranberry juice and something just tasted “off” about the drink. In addition to the off taste, Chopin is one of my most favorite vodkas, so to have it doctored up so severely in a cosmo was painful. The pairing with the grapes and fontina cheese was a good choice though and this course was fairly good.

The orange creamcicle martini was decent. The Big A told our server that it would make a great shot to which she replied, “We usually serve it as a shot.” I found it to have a good taste, very much like the creamcicles of my childhood. However, whatever they used to make it creamy, also made it a little chalky. I can see how this wouldn’t be noticed in a shot, but martinis are meant to be sipped, so it stood out. I think the pairing with the prosciutto was just kind of random. Like someone said, “Well, we have pineapple in it, so I guess the orange one will go with the dish.” I think a martini that was a little less adulterated would have paired better with a food that had so much variety and flavor.

The final martini, the chocolate raspberry, was delicious. The first round was perfect, a very nice blend of chocolate and raspberry. There was no strong alcohol taste. I assume because they used more of the flavorless high end vodka and less of the raspberry and chocolate liqueurs. The second round was much more raspberry in flavor (and color) and had a very strong alcohol taste. The mousse pairing was appropriate, however the mousse was not very good because it had a strong butter taste and was gritty.

Overall, I had a great time tasting the variety of food and martinis. It was a very well run event, with little waiting between courses. The differences between rounds of drinks was expected because there were 3 bartenders mixing all night. The DJ (DJ Rigatoni) played some interesting choices for the “smooth jazz” theme. They raffled off 4 bottles of Ciroc vodka and one pair of tickets to the next tasting. The Big A said the crowd was a lot more mellow than the last time he went to a tasting. I would gladly go to their next martini event.