San Francisco

Homer and I took a 10 day trip to California and I wanted to share some of the good (and not so good) stuff we ate while we were there and some travel tips. First up was San Francisco!

Pictured first is the window display at Swan Oyster Depot. We were lucky enough to be staying around the corner from this place at an AirBnb Apartment. AirBnb has gotten some bad press lately but we had a great experience. Swan is only open for lunch and there is usually a line but it is totally worth the wait. You can also just buy fresh seafood for take away, but half the fun is sitting at the counter engaging with the staff. We shared some oysters and I had the shrimp cocktail while Homer opted for the clam chowder.

Swan is located on Polk Street which is a sort of up and coming street in Nob Hill. It has some fun restaurants and bars.

One of the places that I knew I had to go to in San Francisco was the Zuni Cafe. We made reservations prior to arriving in town, and I would recommend making one if you want to eat there.

Zuni is known for its Roast Chicken for two, and so of course we ordered it. I can honestly say that it was probably one of the best meals I have ever had. The chicken is on a bed of mustard greens and bread salad. The service at Zuni is also top notch, our waiter was great.

One place that we found while we were in San Francisco was the Magnolia Brewpub. We ended up there for a late lunch after walking through Golden Gate Park. It was totally jammed and mostly with hipsters but the food was really great as was the large selection of brews. That is a picture of Tristan's Duck Crepinette above. Considering the amount and quality of the food the price point is excellent.

Tristan had wanted to try Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers so we ended up there for lunch on the day we were exploring around Union Street. The burgers were pretty decent and the menu has something for everyone.

One place we tried but that didn't live up to the hype was Foreign Cinema. I had read some good things and certainly the patio is gorgeous but the food was so so. I would try their Lazlo Bar next door before shelling out the dough to eat here.

A final food related tip is to have an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe, a San Francisco institution. The man making them has been doing so for several years and it was fascinating to watch him work.

A couple of tips and things we found helpful:

• We bought a Muni Passport at the airport and used it everyday. While not good for travel on the BART it does work on every city bus, streetcar and cable car line. The fact that it works on the cable car line alone is worth it as a ride each way on one of those things is $6.


• San Francisco was quite cold compared to stinky hot Toronto. If you are going, pack things you can layer, footless tights were my life saver. If you go to a baseball game make sure to pack a heavy jacket, I was frozen by the end.


• The Ferry Building is a great place to get supplies and dine when visiting Fisherman's Wharf, it is a bit of a walk (or just hope on the streetcar) but really the best option in that neck of the woods. Do NOT eat at any of the crap restaurants in the Pier under any circumstance.


• We stayed in Nob/Russian Hill and found it very central to explore all of San Francisco. The neighbourhood is safe and has lots of great places to dine and shop. While I don't metion it above, the Nob Hill Grille was the first meal we ate in San Francisco and if I lived there this would be a great neighbourhood joint.

Next up LA!

In Just Seven Days

I have a Tumblr now, which I update only somewhat more than this old chestnut.

But this needed a bit of a longer entry.

Last Thursday I had my first ever serious bike accident. Coming home I got caught in the streetcar tracks near Eastern and Greenwood and was shot to the pavement. I didn't have any broken bones, but I did some pretty serious damage to two of my teeth. I have never been more thankful for my helmet.

So on Friday I spent 8 hours with a variety of health care providers. Mainly my dentist. I came out with a temporary fake tooth (a crown as they call it) and a referral for more work. I am in the process of getting a permanent crown on my one tooth but because it cracked so far up I needed to have some gum surgery so that the permanent one could bond to it. I had the surgery (aka the most expensive 45 minutes of my life) and now wait a couple of weeks (months?) and then I get my new fakeish tooth. My left arm is also a little poochy but getting better. And I actually had a really great experience with our health care system, so that says something.

I was going to write a long blog post about soft foods, but I tell you, there are more forums devoted to soft food diets than I anticipated. So you know, Google it.

But I will say that aside from the usual, smoothies, ice cream, mashed potatoes and eggs, I have also enjoyed pita bread (I can tear it into tiny pieces and soak it in dip while shoving it to the back of my mouth), borscht (delicious and cool for summer, just blended up real fine) and french fries. I also intend to enjoy some risotto and lentils in the coming weeks. Soft food isn't so bad really.

Oh, and we are also a member of a CSA so I am tested each week with the ingredients they give us (though if it is lettuce Homer usually has to eat it). This week I made this recipe with Turnip Greens.

I also made a dynamic beet salad, which was a riff on this one, used canned beets, no arugula. It was delicious.

That is the update for now, more CSA findings coming soon.

And kids, remember to wear your helmet.

Easy, Peasy Honey Squeezy

This winter has been quiet, especially in comparison to last year when I was across the country working on the Olympics. I don't mind though, I like being at home, puttering, going to work, seeing friends. Simple stuff, like going to the library.

Pretty much every Saturday Homer goes to the library, and when I need a new book I go with him. Our local library is small but I always manage to find something, and their cookbook selection is not half bad.

This time I picked up Spoon Fed, the memoir by Kim Severson and Off the Shelf, Cooking from the Pantry by Donna Hay. A co-worker suggested I might like Donna Hay and so far so good. The recipes are dead simple, but one called to me so loudly that shortly after bringing the book home yesterday I ran to the kitchen to get started on it. The recipe was Choc Honey Snaps, and while I didn't have the chocolate and cream for the topping I did have everything for cookies themselves.

I was nervous at first, I don't have a good history with cookie baking but as I watched them work in the oven I knew these would be perfect, one taste confirmed it.

You let these cool on the pan (they are quite chewy and flexible when they come out of the oven), so you need a couple to keep the baking moving along. It also uses nearly a whole bear squeeze bottle of honey. I suppose you could use fancy organic honey, but I used the No Frills bear and they were just fine.

I included the choc topping recipe after in case you wanted to include it, if you were making these as a Valentine's treat you could draw a heart on each one.

Honey Snap (with Chocolate Topping)

From Off the Shelf by Donna Hay, 2001

125g (1/2 Cup) butter

1 Cup honey

1 Teaspoon baking soda

2 Cups all purpose flower

3/4 Cup sugar

Chocolate Topping (Optional)

1/3 Cup cream

250g milk chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the butter and honey in a saucepan over low heat and stir to melt. Add the baking soda and remove from the heat. Place the flour and sugar in a bowl, add the butter mixture and mix to combine. Place tablespoons of the mixture onto parchment lined baking trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Cool on trays.

To make the chocolate topping, place the cream and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. Cool slightly before spooning a heaped teaspoon onto each honey snap. Allow to set. Make approx. 35.

Mea Culpa

I realize that it has been a while since I updated last. I didn't really think anybody noticed, but then over the holidays I had a few friends ask about the blog and why I didn't update it more. There are a few reasons; busy times, blogger being slow, scrounging for material etc. I am going to try and be better about it, even if it is just once a week and even if it is just for those people I don't get to see very often who use the blog as a way of keeping up.

The above should really be dedicated to its own post, our girls trip to Las Vegas in November. The food was out of this world. We went to Bouchon, which was sort of a dream come true.

Also, I am looking at starting (or maybe transitioning) over to Tumblr, because Blogger really is kind of a drag to use. We'll see.

For now here is an image of us in the sun in Las Vegas. Soon...soon.

To All the Mothers

That is me and Jonathan St. Pierre, a nice and very sweaty man (I had to crop out poor Jenny who was making a very unfortunate face). I went to my first ever Argos game this past weekend with Jenny, Homer and Ian. After this photo was taken, Jenny had the brilliant idea to go to karaoke at the Fox and Fiddle, since Ian and Homer are sort of karaoke all stars. So in a cab we hopped, off to Bloor and Beverley. We had a couple of beers at the game and let's just say a few more drinks were consumed (maybe some doubles) and Ian, Tristan and Jenny each brought the house down with their respective numbers. We got home at 2:30am. I had people coming over the next afternoon, and had promised food, ouch.

Here is where the title comes from (well sort of, not to imply that all the mothers I know like going out to sing karaoke until all hours). Luckily I had already planned to make the easiest recipe of all time - Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos. These take 15 min to pull together (and that is if you make your own taco seasoning, which I did because I realized it was the one thing I had forgotten to buy). It is also great for working mom's (like the mom whose blog I got it from). Just throw the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning and bingo-bango.

You can see the full post where I found the recipe here. In it the author links to her preferred recipe for taco seasoning which I ended up using. I thought it was just enough - she would have used a little more. She mentions that you can even put the chicken in frozen, which I have done in the past, it just takes the full 8 hours on low to cook. This time I just put the chicken in uncooked and not frozen and it was done in about 6.

I had three good size chicken breasts and this (along with a small bag of frozen corn, on can of black beans and a small salsa) made enough to feed 4 adults with a TON of leftovers.

Great for lunches the next day, as a topper for salads or over rice.

I link the Friendly Butcher above, a shop new to the Danforth. Friendly as the name implies and helpful. I hope they last longer than the other butcher did.

A final note, you should visit my friend Avery's blog - she talks about our recent Jam making party and how you can host your own!

Email History

Like so many people of my generation, I have multiple email addresses. Three to be exact. The Oatmeal, has a great comic about what your email address says about you, but then again The Oatmeal has great things in general.

Indeed, my old Hotmail address still exists, though I rarely check it anymore, I keep it around in case it happens to be the only address someone has and they need to get in touch. Though I suppose they could just go one Facebook or Google me as one person did (not that I am famous, but there are not too many Toronto Hilary Green's out there). It is also where I get some e-blasts that I need to get but don't need to look at on a regular basis (CAEA I am looking at your E-Drive here) and where I have an extensive file of great emails from my university years.

Today when I was cleaning out the inbox I took a look in a folder I had labelled "I Like." Two things stuck out at me. I'll give you the sort of melancholy one first. It was an old email from a friend who passed away. For some reason in 2002 I circulated around with our friends that asked what the three songs would be at your funeral. My friend Bryce who passed away a few years later wrote:

Bad as they seem, Hayden
Motion Picture Soundtrack, Radiohead
Ice ice baby, Vanilla Ice... But all funeral attendees would have to replace the word "ice" with "Bryce"

And it made me think of him again.

Then I kept going and found this poem that my friend Kristopher wrote, it would have been when we were all (you know all of us right?) living together. I guess we were writing door poetry in the mornings for each other or something silly like that. And since it has to do with food I thought I would publish here (Kris don't sue me!)

HOT TEA?
maybe this tea won't be hot.
a quick sip tells me it is not.
a burning feeling, then to numb,
to think tea cool, that was dumb
my tongue now feeling thick and hurt,
the roof of my mouth raw and burnt
i slap my thigh in anger and scorn,
why do i do this every morn.

As you can see by the poem above and image below (of Bryce and a lens) both these guys were a little bit silly, if they had ever met they probably would have got on like a house on fire.

It's been too hot again to cook, but here is a link to an easy salad to see you through.

The One Where I Talk about Quinoa

June was kind of nutty and I didn't cook so much, then July came and with the first of July comes this ones birthday:

And there was some champagne and good times. Then the G20 came and there were some really really bad times.

Then we went to the cottage and had some homemade wings and other delicious foods, and the good times returned. With views like this:

Before we left for the cottage my long awaited oilcloth order came and I got really into crafting and finished this (more on my oilcloth obsession in another post):

Then we went out and around and saw some things like this:

And this past weekend visited, among others, these lovely ladies:

So with all of that running around and eating on the road I thought it best this week to return to some healthy roots.

With that in mind I bring you a quinoa salad. Embarrassingly healthy and though you do have to turn on the oven it can be eaten cold, straight from the fridge, keeping for 3 days. Perfect for summer office lunches.

Curried Quinoa Salad

From the GI Diet Cookbook

Serves 6

*You can add some diced cooked chicken (as I did) or tofu to make this a complete meal.

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp + 1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup chopped shallot

1 tsp curry powder (or more if you like it spicy)

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped carrot

1/2 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup chopped dried apricots

1/4 cup chopped toasted cashews

2 tbsp chopped green onion

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1. In frying pan over medium heat, toast quinoa for 5 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to to pop. In small saucepan, bring 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt to boil. Add toasted quinoa; cover and simmer over medium head for 15 to 20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Scrap quinoa into a large bowl. Let cool.

2. Meanwhile, in a non-stick frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high eat; cook shallot for 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in curry powder and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper and pour over quinoa. Stir in reserved shallot mixture, carrot, red pepper, apricots, cashews, green onion and parsley.