7.19.2014 | TI8

SATURDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

Lunch: Burrito from Cactus

Dinner: Rosemary salmon

Dessert: Blackberry spice cake.

7.17.2014 | TI8

THURSDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice and fresh picked strawberries

LunchMini sandwiches from some deli at the Stanford medical school

Dinner:  Zucchini soup and homemade croutons

Dessert: Leftover chocolate cake

7.16.2014 | TI8

WEDNESDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

LunchRoast beef sandwich with bacon and a Visallia onion jam from a little market in Bodega Bay

Dinner:  Leftover Sloppy Joes

Dessert: Chocolate Lush from Picnic

7.15.2014 | TI8

TUESDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

LunchBurrito from El Senor

Afternoon snack: Strawberry shortcake

Dinner:  Mashed potatoes and salad (all from the garden)

7.14.2014 | TI8

MONDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

LunchLeftover pizza from Little Star

Afternoon snack: A couple of chocolate chip cookies from Bittersweet.

Dinner:  Pasta with arugula pesto from the garden.

Dessert: Egg creams (actually we quickly turned them into chocolate sodas). This is a revelation for us dessert-wise… when I was growing up, my brother’s friend, Tom, worked at Baskin Robins. He was 9 or so years older, so I was maybe 6 and thought it was so cool that I knew the guy at Baskin Robins. If it wasn’t busy, I got to try all sorts of flavors and one day he made something special for me — an Ice Cream Soda. This was just chocolate sauce, seltzer water, and a scoop of ice cream. It kind of reminded me of that scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Willy Wonka hands Charlie the mug of chocolate to drink (“hasn’t there been anything to eat in your house lately”) and as the “chocolate ran down his throat… his whole body… began to tingle with pleasure, and a feeling of intense happiness spread over him.” Seriously, I love chocolate sodas that much. I used to order them all the time, which gave many an ice-cream parlor employee a conniption fit. I eventually learned to just tell them how to make them. But I’ve kind of stopped ordering that kind of stuff, and hadn’t had one in a while. Then Suzanne was reading Seriously Bittersweet (by Alice Medrich) and she had a great description of her love of egg creams. Now I’d never had an egg cream and always assumed I wouldn’t like them because I don’t like eggs, but it turns out they don’t have eggs in them… you know how it goes. Turns out I love them. But I like them better with a scoop of ice cream and now we’re right back to my beloved ice cream soda.

Chocolate soda

Basically, pour some milk in a glass, and some soda water (hello Sodastream!) and add chocolate sauce.

To make it better, Alice offers a chocolate sauce recipe. I always kind of thought I should just bottle up the first step of making hot chocolate, and it turns out, I should have. This stuff is fantastic.

 

 

7.13.2014 | TI8

SUNDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

LunchTurkey sandwich with avocado, ripe tomato, and some really spicy hummus

Afternoon snack: Ice cream. From Smitten Ice Cream.

smitten ice cream

Wow. This place is crazy. They individually mix up your ice cream in a couple of minutes using special mixers and liquid nitrogen. It really gets a wonderful consistency… just past that super soft, just out of the churn stage, so you can actually scoop it up. The salted caramel was great, the brown sugar and cinnamon was so good I thought I was eating an apple pie (apparently, no apple. Turns out, I really think the ice cream is the critical flavor in apple pie). The mint chip, sadly, was just a touch disappointing. It’s made with fresh mint, which was cool, and all, but it came across as just a bit too earthy. I’ve made my own ice cream with fresh mint and thought I’d just done something wrong, but apparently that’s just the flavor. I like my mint ice cream almost like a tic-tac where it takes your breath away and the chocolate is the mellowing influence. 

I was all over the N2 ice cream machines, though. In a way, it’s a sign of my own failure as a gadgeteer. I used to make a lot of liquid nitrogen ice cream in graduate school… whenever there was a big party, we’d always fire it up. And I was always disappointed. It was a great schtick, and it impressed the hell out of visitors, but the ice cream was always too fluffy from too much vigorous stirring, by turns soupy and icy, and never as good as what I’d make with rock salt and a churn. I just assumed that was what it was… but this Smitten person looked beyond the problems and saw something beautiful and made it so. I’m so impressed, I didn’t even cringe at the price ($6 for a standard dish)… hot ticket: buy a pint for $11 and share with 4.

Dinner:  Sloppy Joes. On the brioche rolls. Damn good. I followed a recipe from The Pioneer Woman, and it was pretty good. Only thing was it was just a bit too sweet. I’d skip the optional tomato paste, or maybe 1 Tbls of brown sugar next time.

 

7.12.2014 | TI8

SATURDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Doughnuts from All Star Doughnuts in El Cerrito

Lunch: Roast beef and rocket attempt. This is the first time I tried since our trip to Friday Harbor. Since Laurie at Market Chef casually mentioned a bunch of things that weren’t in my earlier attempts (like mayonnaise and lemon juice) I had pretty high hopes for this one. The sauce was much, much closer to the original; close enough to make me really suspect that the prepared horseradish from Trader Joe’s is just kinda not that good. It has the smell like it’s going to bite, but then, even with a ton of it dumped in, it just sort of whimpers on the tongue. I need to try something better. I also need to roast my own beef. Not that the packaged stuff is bad, but I always feel like that’s a place to improve. The bread here is the brioche bun that Suzanne has been making every day for 2 weeks while she tries to figure out how to stop them from cracking. This one didn’t solve that problem, but cracking doesn’t stop it being delicious. The rocket, at least, is fresh from the garden, natch.

2014-07-11 08.10.37

Dinner:  Pizza from Little Star.

 

7.10.2014 | TI8

THURSDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

Morning Snack: shortbread cookie

LunchRoast beef sandwich on experimental brioche rolls. Not the RBR… that’s tomorrow.

Dinner:  Rice, beans, zucchini and salad from the garden.

Dessert: Peppermint ice cream and hot fudge. Score to find that in the freezer.

7.2.2014

WEDNESDAY I ATE

Location: Home

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

Morning Snack: Apple

LunchTurkey avocado sandwich

Afternoon snack:  Mini Twix candies with Dove dark chocolate squares

Dinner: Pork chili verde burrito from Picante in Berkeley. This place is great; sort of a cross between a sit down eatery and a taqueria. It has the advantage that the whole family can find something to eat here

Dessert: Ice cream

7.1.2014 | TI8

TUESDAY I ATE

Breakfast: Grapenuts with cranberry juice

Morning Snack: Donuts (new staff at work won everyone’s approval for sure!)

LunchBurrito (pork chili verde) from Xolo (1916 Telegraph Ave in Oakland). This was the best burrito I’ve had around here… the pork was well seasoned, although I might ask for it hotter next time. The flavors blended together really well. The carne al pastor tacos that other people had looked delicious  

Dinner:  Rice and beans

Dessert:  Double chocolate cookies