Gold Country

We took a field trip to Columbia State Historic Park, about a 3 hour drive east of San Francisco. It was a long bus ride but so fun to step back in time to the 1850s. Teaching brings up bittersweet memories of my own elementary school experience and I, too, remember learning all about the history of California. I hope the kids that I teach remember their year in my class fondly.

of course I spent all my coins on iced coffee

Peace + Harmony with Bibimbap

1) simplicity

2) purpose

3) flexibility

4) peace + harmony

Explore: Potrero hill

I'm not that familiar with this neighborhood in San Francisco. A bit out of the way from my apartment, I've only been in this area once to go to Plow for brunch. I spent Memorial Day Monday exploring this under the radar neighborhood that seems removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. I liked what I saw, particularly the oversized succulents lining the sidewalks and small neighborhood bookstores like Christopher's books. I also stopped by Front Cafe, an impeccably designed garage turned into a coffee shop. Dare I say, this makes me want to give Plow another chance.

inspired to read more

Hipster Toast

I heart toast. Inspired by the current $4 toast craze in San Francisco, here's proof that I can make my own hipster toast.

Coffee Shop Vibes

Exploring San Francisco's coffee shops one cup at a time.

Cafe Murano

Vinyl Coffee & Wine Bar

Stable Cafe

Matching Half Cafe

Matching Half Cafe

Cold-Brew Craving

Always have cold-brew coffee in the refrigerator. You never know when the craving will hit.

San Francisco Design

How awesome are these books that I randomly stumbled upon? It's all in Japanese but from flipping through the pages, I got the general sense that it dissects the intent of the design of popular San Francisco companies and brands. I found it fascinating that there are books out there that reflect what I spend a lot of time thinking about. Design is really all-encompassing.

Bay to Breakers 2014

I didn't participate in Bay to Breakers but somehow got caught up in the crowd. I meant to go somewhere but got held up by all the street closures. Wow, I've never seen so many people on Divisadero Street before. Not only were there a ton of people but all of them were wearing ridiculous costumes. I never made it to my destination but instead spent the afternoon people watching and popping in to The Mill.

You're the Peanut Butter to my Raspberry Jam

Oops apparently faux raspberry jam is what happens when raspberries get smashed in backpacks. I dolloped the smashed raspberries atop a bagel spread with peanut butter and declared it a winning combination. No food goes to waste in this house.

Recipe: Strawberry Oat Bake

I'm so excited for strawberry season! Somehow I ended up with way too many strawberries and so I did the smart thing - I sliced them all up and tossed the bag in the freezer. Easy.

This recipe originally called for rhubarb but because I didn't have any, I just omitted it out completely and instead doubled up on the amount of strawberries. I like how crispy and crunchy the oatmeal topping gets so I recommend eating the bake straight out of the oven while it's still hot. Go for it.

Strawberry Oat Bake
Inspired by What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
2 cups strawberries, cut in pieces
1 tbsp agave syrup or sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
zest from ½ orange
½ tsp grated ginger
pinch of salt
1 cup oats
½ cup walnuts, chopped
pinch of salt
2/3 cup almond milk

Instructions
Preheat oven to 360 degrees fahrenheit.
Brush a small baking pan with oil or line with parchment paper and place cut strawberries in it.
Add agave syrup or sugar, orange juice, orange zest, ginger, and salt. Mix well.
In a bowl, prepare the topping by mixing oats with walnuts, salt, and almond milk.
Cover strawberries with it and bake for ~30 minutes.
Serve with yogurt and sprinkles of cinnamon.
Note: easily reheat in the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit

Cactus

Snagged a tiny cactus from work. So cute.

Shanghai Dumpling King Part 2

The soup dumplings this time weren't the clouds of deliciousness I remember. The stir-fried rice cakes and beef noodle soup were good though.

Eats

Turns out going out for breakfast on weekdays is the best thing ever. There's no wait at usually packed weekend brunch spots. Today we went to Eats in the Inner Richmond. I've been wanting to try this place ever since I walked past the outside tables and noticed how tasty the food looked, especially the waffles.

I ordered the Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs (salmon, cream cheese, capers, tomatoes, pickled red onions, dill), which came with toast and home potatoes. I'm also completely partial to waffles so I got a half order of the Berries & Creme Waffle. The waffle was the perfect size and so cute!

I also tried bites of the Waffle Bacon (bacon pressed in a waffle, cheddar, peppers, sunny-side up eggs), B.A.T Scrambled Eggs (bacon, avocado, tomato, white cheddar), and Farmer's Scrambled Eggs (a variety of vegetables and goat cheese).

After brunch, we explored Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Ferry Building. It was such a warm day!

Palace of Fine Arts

Nopa Part 5

In anticipation of my family's visit to the city, I made reservations at Nopa for mother's day dinner. I wax poetic about Nopa all the time so it seemed only fitting to go with my family there.

We ordered a bottle of red wine and I also got the Strawberry Cava to drink. We started by sharing the Smoked Trout (little gems, english peas, pickled beets, and cucumber vinaigrette). My usual favorite smoked trout and quinoa dish wasn't there but the trout salad was pretty good. My favorite of the night was the second appetizer, Poached Duck Egg (creamy farro, trumpet mushrooms, fresh herbs, and parmesan). The combination of the duck egg yolk and farro was excellent.

Though the burger was enticing, I felt like I should branch out tonight. We shared the King Salmon, Nine Hour Bolognese Pappardelle, and Roasted Rabbit Loin. It was my first time trying rabbit and the addition of blueberries in the dish was interesting. Overall though, the salmon dish was my second favorite.

After dinner we got ice cream cones, Coffee Toffee and Salted Caramel, next door at Bi-Rite Creamery. Yum.

Smoked Trout with little gems, english peas, pickled beets and cucumber vinaigrette

King Salmon with potatoes, green garlic panna, broccoli di cicco, capers and hazelnuts

Pappardelle, Nine Hour Bolognese with fava beans, spinach and parmesan

Roasted Rabbit Loin

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz seems like a cool beachy town. The beach scene feels so different from the ones back home in socal and in SF. We walked along the boardwalk and had lunch there.

Verve Coffee Roasters

Aahhh I was so excited to check out Verve Coffee Roasters. I basically only wanted to go to Santa Cruz for that reason. I got a camping mug and a bag of The 1950 beans and am so excited to brew it. My sister also brought me a bag of Toby's Estate beans from New York and I can't wait to try that as well. Yay coffee!

Big Sur

It took several hours to drive down to Big Sur but the views of the coastline and the Pacific Ocean were worth it. So pretty! We even spotted Death Cab for Cutie's Bixby Canyon Bridge. Next time I want to stay overnight to explore the main Big Sur campgrounds.

Then we drove back up to Sunnyvale and had delicious Korean food.

Universal Cafe

Why in the world did no one tell me how delicious Caffe Americanos are?! I had my first cup this morning at Universal Cafe and was so surprised to find that despite it being just the same coffee and water as drip coffee, it tastes so much better.

The wait at the restaurant at 10:30am wasn't horrible and the food came out fairly fast. We started off with the Toasted Banana Bread with whipped cream cheese. It was a big hunk and very tasty. I ordered the Soft Scrambled Eggs (spinach, snap peas, fresh mozzarella, pecorino) that came with Acme toast and lettuce. The eggs were perfectly cooked and exactly what I've been trying to master with Gordon Ramsey's technique all this time. My sister got the Poached Eggs and Spring Onion-Potato Cakes with whole grain mustard hollandaise and stewed spring vegetables. I tried a bite and I really liked the potato cake underneath the eggs because it gave it a unique taste and texture than the usual english muffin eggs benedicts.

Graduation

After two years of graduate school for my Masters degree, it's all finally over. Looking back, I'm not sure how I had the stamina to go to class after work, do homework, and still maintain somewhat of a social life. I'm so thrilled to be done.

Jerusalem

This is the newest addition to my growing collection of cookbooks, courtesy of my sister. I've heard amazing things about Yotam Ottolenghi's dishes so I'm really excited to make some epic recipes from it.

Coffee and Donuts

The upper school boys did an amazing job making these sculptures for art class. These two are my favorite.

Recipe: Honey Chipotle Chicken Bowls

Wow, this recipe was way better than I had expected it to be!

I had a few leftover adobo peppers in chipotle sauce that I had stashed in the freezer a long time ago and figured I might as well use it up somehow. I stumbled upon this recipe and followed it loosely: I didn't have honey mustard so I just upped the amount of honey, included the peppers in the adobo sauce, and had the chicken with just plain old brown rice and a romaine salad with lemony yogurt sauce. The chicken was the perfect blend of spicy and sweet. I plan on cooking it again and think it would even make a fantastically easy dinner date meal. I highly recommend it.

Honey Chipotle Chicken Bowls
Adapted from How Sweet Eats
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
pinch salt & pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1¼ tbsp honey
1¼ tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions
Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
In a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, garlic, adobo, honey, mustard, and cilantro.
Pour the marinade over the chicken, covering it evenly.
Place it in the fridge and marinate for at least 2 hours, or even overnight.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add a tiny bit of olive oil and add the chicken, then cover the skillet and cook until the chicken is deeply browned on both sides and cooked in the center, ~6 minutes per side.
Serve with sides of choice. Eat while hot!

Recipe: Chia Seed Pudding

I finally bit the bullet and tried chia seed pudding for the first time this morning. I've been aware of chia's popularity for years now but never felt compelled enough to try the pudding until curiosity finally got the best of me.

And the experience was interesting... The almond coconut milk took on an interesting texture that I really couldn't decide whether I liked or hated. Pudding is also not the most accurate word to characterize it with because it wasn't pudding as one might expect. I topped mine with sliced strawberries and granola and cereal but the topping combinations seem endless. I'm forever a greek yogurt girl though so this fad will only last until I'm done with the current carton of almond coconut milk.

Chia Seed Pudding

Serves 1

Ingredients

½ cup almond coconut milk

1 tbsp (15 g) chia seeds

optional toppings:

fresh sliced fruit

cinnamon, sugar, honey, maple syrup, vanilla extract

granola, cereal, cashews, coconut flakes

Instructions

Combine the almond coconut milk together with the chia seeds in a bowl or glass jar and cover with plastic wrap or lid.

Stir well and refrigerate. After a few hours, stir again, then refrigerate overnight or for at least 5-6 hours.

Before serving, stir the pudding to make sure that there aren't any clumps.

Garnish with toppings of your choice.

Sightglass Coffee

This newer, second location of Sightglass Coffee in the Mission isn't as epic as the one in SOMA but the same attention to architectural detail is eye candy. This afternoon I planted myself on a cushiony bench and sipped a cup of pour-over coffee. I've given Sightglass Coffee a few chances but I left again with the same conclusion that I just don't like fruity notes in my coffee.