Picture My World

Picture of the Day - Saturday, December 13th

Fake It Truffles

I hate to divulge secrets, but I can't resist. My department holiday party was 12/13 and as a past winner of various company baking contests, I was asked to bring something for dessert. So I brought what I am calling Fake It Truffles. People loved them. They were devoured! Many people asked me for the recipe. Which I'm including below. They are seriously addictive. But so easy!

1 8-oz package of cream cheese. You have to use regular, the consistency of low-fat doesn't work. It's the holidays, you are allowed to indulge :-)
1 package of Oreos. I used Trader Joe's Joe Joes which are like Oreos with  candy canes. Yummy!
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 package regular chocolate chips.

Mash up the Oreos. Mix with cream cheese until completely combined. You don't want to see any marbling. Remember these are called "Fake it" it needs to look like real truffles. Mix in 1 cup mini chocolate chips. Roll into small one-bit balls and put on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I recommend trying one--you know, quality control and all. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Melt a package of chocolate chips. Use a deep bowl as it is easier to do. Using a fork, drop each ball into the chocolate chip mix to cover completely and put back on cookie sheet with parchment paper. You could top with a nut (but I wouldn't understand why you would want to ruin the chocolate with a nut, but I know some people like that), chopped up candy canes, red hots, anything. Chill at least an hour and then serve. Watch them disappear!

Oh and if you are wondering how I did in this year's baking contest, well, they didn't have it! Can you believe it? I'm not sure why. Perhaps cost cutting, but I'll pretend it is because they are worried I might just win again :-)

Picture of the Day - Friday, December 12th

These are the best donuts ever! No seriously, the best! Just ask anyone who has had them before. The secret is that they use their own Apple Cider. Not the crappy stuff you get here, but the good stuff made from apples they pick in their own orchards. They don't call it Delicious Orchards for nothing! And they are worth the shipping which is more than the cost of the donuts. The perfect Cold Snack ;-)

Meeting Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin

Before Lisa and I headed to Erin's cookie party (see yesterday's POTD), we stopped by Omnivore Books in Noe Valley to meet Eric Ripert from Le Bernardin in New York City.  I had heard of him and his restaurant before, but he is most familiar to me from his appearances on Top Chef. It was so great to meet him. He spoke for 40 minutes or so before signing his new book. He has a great website with recipes and party ideas. You should definitely watch the videos, because his accent is so awesome.

I'll also give Omnivore Books a plug. What a great bookstore! It just opened in early November and it is a cookbook book store. It offers both new and antiquarian books. It is quite possibly the cutest bookstore I've ever been in. It is well lit, well laid out and cozy enough to want to spend hours looking through the books. Ironically, the space was a butcher shop back in the day and you can still see the scale and other tell-tale signs of its history. There were too many people at the Eric Ripert event to get the chance to browse, but I look forward to going back very soon!

Without further ado...Eric Ripert...

Remember that goal I had to go to SF's top restaurants?

I thought that I would revisit the goal that I had made last year (note I had typed "this" year but now I am realizing that it is now "last" year) to visit all the San Francisco restaurants on the Chronicle's Top 100 restaurants list. I must say I have failed miserably! But since the list came out last April, I'm extending my deadline until April 2008 when the new list comes out. Here is the status:

Eaten at: A16, Antica Trattoria, Aqua, Betelnut, Bix, Boulevard, Canteen, Clementine, Farallon, Jardiniere, La Taqueria, Mecca, Michael Mina, Myth, Ozumo, Perbacco, Pesce, Plumpjack, Range, Scott Howard, Slanted Door, Terzo, Matterhorn, Ton Kiang, Town Hall, Tres Agaves, Zuni

Not yet eaten at: Acquerello, Ame, Aziza, Bar Crudo, Bistro Aix, Bocadillos, Coco 500, Coi, Delfina, Dosa, Firefly, Fleur De Lys, Foreign Cinema, Gary Danko, Greens, Hog Island Oyster Bar, Incanto, Jai Yun, Kokkari, La Folie, Limon, Masa’s, Maya, Nopa, Park Chow, Pescheria, Piperade, Poleng Lounge, Quince, Rubicon, Silks, Slow Club, Swan Oyster Depot, Tartine, The Dining Room, Yank Sing, Zarzuela

So that means of the 64 on the list, I've been to 27 or 42%. That's a pretty poor showing, so my goal is to get to some more of these places before April. Care to join me?

I bring all this up because I wanted to mention one place I went to recently that should be on the list. It is Sociale, a fabulous Italian restaurant on Sacramento Street in Presidio Heights/Laurel Heights. It is set back from the street and it is like walking into another world as you follow the narrow walkway to the private courtyard. It is very much a neighborhood place with a fabulous staff. There is outdoor seating year round with small strung lights almost making a canopy overhead like a star filled sky. Like all good SF restaurants they have heat lamps make dining outside always an option. It is very cozy or gezelligheid as my brother would say in Dutch. We arrived a few minutes early, and we were offered prosecco while we waited in the courtyard. I had the pappardelle with braised duck and Diane had the wild boar ravioli. Both were outstanding and we enjoyed the two dishes so much we couldn't even pick a favorite. I can't wait to get back there again. And seeing as it was fairly reasonable (as far as SF restaurants go) I know I will be back again!

So I hope to report soon that I've visited some more of SF's best restaurants and I hope that Sociale makes your list as well as The Chronicle's in 2008.

Oh, and I'd brag now about how I've now blogged every day in 2008, but I wouldn't want all my blog readers to get too excited about the prospect of a more regular blogging schedule:-)

Stranger things HAVE happened...

Remember this post last year when I blogged about how by some miracle, on my first foray into non-Toll House cookie making I managed to win my company's annual holiday cookie contest? Well this year I felt a bit pressured to enter again. The woman who runs the contest wanted me to enter and then my boss thought I should enter as well. And like I said last year, when the boss tells you to do something, you do it.

So I wandered through allrecipes.com and myrecipes.com looking for the perfect cookie recipe. Then last weekend I had some Food Network holiday cookie show on in the background and Emeril Lagasse came on to make his Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies. Seeing as my favorite Pepperidge Farm cookie is similar, and Emeril's recipe include chambord (yummy!) I was sold. So the night I needed to make the cookies I was also preparing for a huge presentation I had to make for the JLSF. I was very stressed and didn't even put my all into the cookies. While the cookies tasted pretty good when they came out of the oven, I felt like they weren't as pretty as they could be because I didn't put in enough filling (I had about 1/4 left over). At that point I didn't even really care. They weren't disgusting and I didn't think they would kill anyone, so that made them good enough for me.

So I drop the cookies off for the contest and because of about 50 meetings I had that one day, I didn't even get to go to the cookie contest when the winners were announced. But my coworker came back and said that I got 3rd place!!! What? Was she kidding? I was shocked and did not believe her!!!!! The other cookies looked so much better, I was literally shocked! But believe it or not, I did indeed win 3rd place and below is the picture to prove it. Some might be bummed getting 3rd place especially since I won it last year, but believe me, even 3rd place is a big accomplishment for me.

Needless to say, the woman who runs the contest said I can't enter next year. Ha! She actually says I deserve to be a judge, but seeing as I hate nuts in my sweets, I wouldn't be the best judge so I'll have to say no. But I'll take my 3rd place finish and officially call myself a good cookie baker!

There's a rat in the kitchen...

To borrow from some songs made famous by UB40 (with a little help from Neil Diamond) there is a Rat in Mi Kitchen! And this is a good thing. This rat is a Red, Red Wine called Cellar Rat Cellars 2006 Wentzel Vineyards Pinot Noir. Yes, my friends, our wine is home!!  I will admit to driving a bit quickly to get home. But it was nice to have something to look forward to. I wasn't sure if I had any food worthy of our first foray into winemaking, but fortunately I had a bit of brie in the fridge. That'll work! I grabbed the wine opener and opened her up. I sat down, checked the color, swirled, smelled, swirled, smelled and finally sipped. First sip...wait for it...pretty dang good! Woo hoo! I think it will only get better over the next few months in the bottle, but definitely enjoyable now!!

I really enjoyed the experience of making the wine with the rest of the Rat Pack. It has been a great way to meet people that I wouldn't normally meet and I'm thrilled to be embarking on a a 2007 Pinot (i.e. Pinot 3.0) with them again this year.

And by the way, Crushpad was in the New York Times today as well. Check it out here. Greg, did you notice a Seattle location is imminent???

Oh, and friends, note to you: have parties and invite me :-)

Harvest Time...Got Grapes?

As I've alluded to the past two days, I'm making wine again with Alan Baker and the rest of the Ratpack. It is that time of the year when I drive to the Crushpad facility and I start to get excited a block away because I can already smell the wine...It is a wonderful thing...

It was a bit touch and go for awhile. The plan was to make another Pinot Noir from Wentzel Vineyards in the Anderson Valley (Mendocino County)  - the same vineyard as our 2006 vintage. But, yields were lower this year than last year, so we weren't sure we would be allocated any grapes. I've been told that yields are lower throughout the state because the winter and spring were bit drier than last. So the result is smaller clusters and therefore less wine. Although these smaller clusters could lend themselves to more intense flavors. Once mid-September came and went, and I hadn't heard from Alan, I just assumed we weren't making wine this year. Such is agriculture, right?

But Monday night, Alan literally got the call that we got an allocation when the grapes were en route to Crushpad at like 7pm at night. So he quickly sent out the call to the Ratpack and those of us who could make it to sort on Tuesday did. The group was small but certainly enough folks to get the job done. In addition to me and Alan, we had Jen, Carl, Camille and Dan. This year we are only doing two barrels (50 cases) versus the 4 barrels (100 cases) for the 2006 vintage.  Sorting the grapes didn't take much time at all. Particularly because we were all munching on the clusters so there was less to sort ;-) They were so clean with almost no leaves and very few raisins. We did pull out some whole clusters (so they aren't destemmed meaning the grapes will stay on the stems) to add some complexity to the wine while it ferments. We are hoping to do a cold soak for 5 days before we start fermenting. I'm sure I'll get down there in the next two weeks to do some punchdowns.

After we were done sorting, we embarked on one of the most fun parts of winemaking--hanging out and drinking wine! We all moved over to the lounge area of the winery and munched on some food Jen was so nice to bring and opened a few bottled of wine. We polished off a bottle of our 2006 Pinot (more on that tomorrow) and then opened an Unti Grenache and a 2004 Crushpad Cab. It is so cool to just hang out with these people and talk wine. What a great way to meet new people! I've really enjoyed getting to know Alan, Carl and Camille and I look forward to getting to know Jen and Dan more as well. At one point, David Dain Smith who I think is the biggest of Crushpad's clients came over to talk Pinot. I think I read he does 600-700 cases a year and several of his wines have gotten 88 and higher scores from Wine Spectator and Robert Parker. He's the real deal. I mean...so are we...but I don't know if Alan plans to send a few bottles to the Wine Spectator. Anyhow, I've enjoyed David's wines in the past and was excited to just chat about wine with him--especially since he made a 2006 and is making a 2007 Wentzel Pinot as well. What just blows me away is how collaborative everyone is. Here is a guy who is a well known winemaker (and has the ratings to prove it) and he is happy to discuss in detail how he makes his wine. There is nothing competitive about it--just collaborative. I've heard this in general about the wine business and I definitely enjoyed experiencing it hands on.

I've included a few pictures. The first is of our beautiful grapes before they were sorted and destemmed. They tasted perfect! The second is a big shot of Crushpad's facility. They just moved back in June to a significantly bigger facility to accommodate the tremendous growth they've experienced. The place is huge and the picture doesn't even include the area behind where I am standing nor the cold room or barrel room! And they still rent 15,000 more square feet a few blocks away for more storage! Next you see our grapes on the sorter-destemmer waiting for us. Then finally, a picture of our fearless leader Alan as he contemplates how we best extract color from the skins and then a more serious one. I didn't get one of our group, but if you are at Crushpad, you'll see one on the winemaker's wall:-)

Introducing...for the first time... CR Cellars 2006 Wentzel Vineyard Pinot Noir!

Here you go friends, the sneak peak of the 2006 CR Cellars Wentzel Vineyards Pinot Noir!!!!!! Lovingly made by me and a bunch of my wine friends! While at Crushpad to sort and destem our 2007 Pinot tonight, we got a sneak peak of our 2006 vintage. You can see it isn't foiled yet and this is the only bottle with a label, but it sure is pretty! You'll notice the corks are personalized with Alan's logo: Cellar Rat. We even opened up a bottle to try. I was actually a bit nervous!But after a few sips the verdict is a good one! I'm very happy with it! It still needs some time...but you know what they say...good things come to those who wait...  We're aiming for a November release. Party plans to follow!

More on the rest of my evening tomorrow. Must sleep now...

You won't be surprised to read this...

I am now a proud owner...

...of a new Canon 40D!!!  I bought it a few weeks ago and officially broke it in at the Bocce ball get together with my friends last weekend. It is a nice upgrade from my 20D. Just the size of the LCD screen is great. I'm very happy with it and looking forward to taking more pictures soon.

Now completely switching topics...Rumor has it that some Wentzel grapes from the Anderson Valley are arriving today with my name on them over at Crushpad so perhaps that little project will be my next photo subject matter. If you want to watch us sort the grapes and get rid of the MOG (matter other than grapes), at about 5:15 pm PST wander over to www.crushpadwine.com and click on "Crushpad Cam" over on the left hand side and select "sort cam." I've learned that the grapes control the process and timing not people, so if we aren't on the sorting line at exactly 5:15 check back every few minutes or so. You can even send me a message that I can see while I sort. Stay tuned...

Am I cool?

Actually I don't really think I'm that "cool." I'm normal, slightly quirky, and quite happy about it. I couldn't fall asleep last night (a bunch of us got together for dinner at to see "3:10 to Yuma" which was excellent and I highly recommend it) so I picked up the October 2007 issue of Food and Wine magazine that arrived in my mail. So I'm flipping through and read some interesting articles such as "Sommeliers: The New Party Essentials." Then I flip to the next article: "Retro Cool Kitchen". And there, low and behold, is a photo of Chef David Gingrass in his Napa kitchen! Who is Chef David Gingrass? Well, you've read about him on my blog here and here. He is the chef and owner of Restaurant Two from whom Lisa and I took the Lobster Boil cooking class back in July. How cool is that? He was actually talking about his new kitchen in Napa during our class. So it was fun to see an article about someone I "know."

But ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't end there! The next article...and I mean literally next article is... "How to Be a Citizen Winemaker" which is about Crushpad where I am making wine. Remember this and this? Are you kidding? Two articles in a row about people/places/things I know? Yup! How cool is that?

It was a bit too much excitement for late on a Friday night so I had to shut the magazine at that point. Hopefully I'll finish it today. And if there is a third article about something I am involved in, then perhaps, that will mean I'm cool...