Whole Foods - Potrero Hill

Grand opening Whole Foods - Potrero! At last!

Perhaps the only bummer about leaving SOMA for Noe Valley was leaving the Whole Foods behind. Not that I didn't think that Whole Foods was often over-priced or too crowded to shop in, but you know, it is nice having a place close to the apartment where I can get organics and fresh fish. I definitely had a list of things that I could only get at Whole Foods. Between the farmers' market on Saturdays, the Good Life Grocer in Bernal, Mollie Stones, and the local butcher and bodega, I have been getting by without a Whole Foods in my life. This past week Whole Foods welcomed itself back into my life with the opening of a new store in a neighboring ‘hood!

This past Wednesday's SF Chronicle Food Section brought music to my ears. The new Whole Foods in Potrero Hill was OPEN! This is fairly convenient to our house so on Sunday afternoon, I set out with Jai to do some grocery shopping for the week and get some lunch. Never go shopping with a ten-year-old. She is a big help, but she doesn't have much control over the shopping cart, which she insists on driving. I actually hate pushing the shopping cart so this works out, but she hit one out of every two people with it. My apologies to those injured. Kidding, but thanks for understanding. By the time we got to the checkout, I was ready to pull out my hair. She is a great kid, just hard to keep track of when she is asking every employee if they have pomegranate. What she was going to do with one, I have no idea, but I let her run with her quest.

This Whole Foods is the largest in San Francisco proper. And, even better, they have a two story parking garage that is easy to get in and out of unlike their other two locations. The deli/prepared foods section is quite robust, notably the soup selection is stunning. The bakery is quite extensive. Some stranger was trying to convince me that I should buy Jai this remarkable chocolate dessert that was priced at $6.99. I don’t think so. The meat counter is long and has an expansive selection. The fish counter rocks. If anything, the produce section seems small in comparison to the other stores. There is ample seating for dining-in and there is even a coffee/shop bistro section on the ground floor which allows for even more spaciousness. Once I get the layout down, I think I will really enjoy shopping in this store.

The Mystery Box

This stack of produce was quite a surprise. This past week I ordered a "mystery box" of fresh produce from Mariquita Farm. The farm has begun delivering these mystery boxes to local restaurants for pick-ups on Thursdays. They describe this venture as, "taco truck -meets- the-farmers market." How great is that concept? This week's delivery restaurant location was Incanto, which is in our neighborhood, so I placed an order. I figured that it is September and with so many yummy things are in season that I would not end up with box full of potatoes and kale (always a risk in the winter). For $25 it was worth a try.

First of all, the word, "box" is misleading. It is more like a crate. A huge crate of vegetables. I have about 12 multi-colored peppers, 20 plus tomatoes, 3 huge eggplants, carrots, red chard, a whole pie pumpkin, tropea onions, baby gold beets, basil, godzilla fingerling potatoes, and a "mystery," zucchetta rampicante winter squash. The squash looks like a butternut squash whose neck has gone wild. This was a lot of food for $25. I could not believe my eyes when I got home and Mike had laid everything out on the countertop. Needless to say, I steered clear of the farmers markets this weekend. I had more vegetables that I knew what to do with. Tonight I made ratatouille for dinner using some of the loot and it was delicious.

The drop-offs are every other week. The dates and locations are:
9/20 Pizzetta 211
10/4 Let's Be Frank at 1 Fort Mason
10/18 Zuppa
11/1 TBD

If you are interested in ordering, follow this link for the details.

Mysterious Thursdays at Mariquita Farm

Order your mystery box today. It is a really fun thing and you will be supporting local farmers and cutting down on your food miles. You have nothing to lose and fridge full of farm fresh produce to gain!

Food week in review

I have been a delinquent blog poster this week. I found myself with the proposal of gainful employment on Monday and been beside myself with excitement! My dream of working for a food company has finally come true. In preparation of actually starting the job, I have been racing around trying to get a new car, (I will be commuting outside SF) and going for doctor check-ups and such. Plus, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous, at long last, and I have been spending time outside. During my time at home, I have been working away in the kitchen.

On Sunday evening I made a nice dinner of Chicken Breasts with Shallots, Chèvre, Figs, and a Port Reduction Sauce from a recipe on Chow.com. While I quite enjoyed the dish, Mike wasn't too crazy about it. Perhaps it was too French for him? I thought the creaminess of the goat cheese with the sauted shallots and fresh thyme were nice compliments to the chicken. I always love figs. I served this with fresh green beans and roasted fingerling potatoes. I did manage to spill half the reduction sauce all over myself and the kitchen. Good thing there was plenty left for the meal but my god, what a mess!

I should have know that it wasn't a great day for me to be cooking. Earlier on Sunday, I struggled with my new food mill trying to Tomato Sauce from Lidia's Italian Table with some of my own additions, like garlic. It came out all right, once I won my battle with the food mill. After safely stowing the sauce in the freezer, I had to change my clothes. I was completely splattered in red sauce!

While I was simmering the tomato sauce another culinary disaster ensued. I attempted to make L'Affaire du Clafoutis as posted on fellow blogger, Garnett's site Vanilla Garlic and I used a tart pan where the bottom pops out. I should have know better. The mixture of eggs and milk was too thin for that pan and it all came roaring out the bottom of the pan. At that point I was out of sugar. I have been trying to find a suitable organic sugar to use for my baking sugar. I went to Mollie Stones and did some shopping. I came back to try my clafoutis again in a different pan. In moment of overconfidence, thinking I had memorized the simple recipe, I forgot the "pinch of salt." Well, the missing salt and use of fat free milk, not whole milk or cream, resulted in a flat and bland tasting clafoutis. A bummer because the Italian prunes sure were delicious!

On Tuesday night I went camping with my girlfriends near Stinson Beach under the full moon. We made s'mores over the campfire for dessert. Those sweet graham cracker sandwiches brought back memories of my childhood. We had big bonfires and cookouts in our backyard with all of our neighbors each summer. My dad would whittle the kids roasting sticks for the marshmellows. I would burn at least 10 marshmellows before I toasted one perfectly and could assemble my s'more.

On Wednesdy afternoon I made a batch of absolutely delicious Pear Ginger Muffins from blog, Coconut & Lime. They are sensational. Initially, I thought the ginger might be overwhelming but it was a perfect compliment to the sweet pear. I froze half and we have been snacking on the other half of the batch. I envision eating these muffins on my way to work this fall.

Today has found me in the kitchen again. I made a batch of Split Pea and Ham Soup from a Moosewood cookbook. Obviously, I added the ham to the recipe. It is the best split pea soup and it very easy to make. The secret ingredient is red wine vinegar which you add at the end of cooking. The acidity brings out the flavors nicely. It went to the freezer as well for the winter when we are both commuting.

As I type this post, I am slow roasting tomatoes using Kalyn's Kitchen's recipe. My herb combination was fresh basil, fresh rosemary, and dried oregano. I also used some fresh ground black pepper. They are coming along nicely and the house smells divine.

This week, I finally purchased Jamie's Italy which I had been coventing. It was a great purchase. I have also been reading the book, Alice Waters and Chez Paniesse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution. It is very well written and I can barely put it down, but don't want it end either. I highly recommend putting it on your "must read" list.

I must run. Mike is taking me out to dinner to celebrate my new, cool job. We are headed to a great place in the neighborhood, Firefly. Then tomorrow I jet off to Miami, FL to spend the weekend with my Cornell girlfriends. Art deco, cuban food, and the beach, here I come! I just love, L-O-V-E Miami! And Rachel too. She is the one we are celebrating this weekend.

The lure of cinnamon rolls

Sure I go to the farmer's market because of all the delicious, homegrown, genetically unaltered food. I thoroughly enjoy walking around the market picking out a a week's worth of produce for our household. I start to get very anxious with so many choices and alluring colors. Whose tomatoes look better? Who has the best plums? How much can we really eat in one week? Who sells that delicious corn we had last week? What in the world is that Asian vegetable? This is all a part of Saturday morning farmer's market fun. But you really want to know what gets me out of bed on Saturday morning and to the farmer's market? It's this:
This cinnamon roll is to die for. Really. It is enormous, just slightly smaller than a child's head. And you can only get it at the Alemany Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. It is the best thing I think I have ever tasted. I know I am exaggerating, but after five days of healthy cereal eating for breakfast, this indulgent baked good hits a note love in my stomach. It is like Christmas morning every Saturday. This particular vendor has lots of other yummy looking pastries, but I cannot get past the cinnamon roll. The cinnamon and sugar mixture, doughy bread, and icing are perfectly proportioned. I can't even tell you how much self-control it took me to get these rolls home so that I could photograph them. And then every morsel of the treat has vanished and I begin to consume the fruits and vegetables I purchased for the week, meanwhile fondly looking forward to the next Saturday morning.

Jetlagged, but well fed

I am tired. The five hours of restless hours of sleep on the red eye were mediocre. Notably, for the first time I did not watch five straight hours of the Food Network on a JetBlue flight. Don't worry, Bobby, Giada, Rachel, Alton, and Emeril, I will tune in on the return flight.

Anyway, after resting and cleaning up a bit, I headed out to grab a bagel (and large iced coffee!) at my favorite bagel place, Murray's Bagels, on 8th Ave and 22nd Street. This place claims their bagels are so good that you don't need to toast them. And guess what? They don't need to be toasted. They are that good. I got my usual: whole wheat with hummus and sliced tomatoes. Yum!!


I proceeded off on a long walk through Chelsea, the West Village, Soho, Nolita. I enjoy wandering around, looking in store windows, seeing what restaurants have closed and opened, and how things have changed since I lived here. I just love that people eat in NYC at all hours.


Somewhere in Nolita I spotted an infamous Pinkberry! Admittedly, I was still going strong on my bagel, but when in Rome... So I stepped into the sherbet colored atmosphere. I ordered an original with blueberries. Heavenly! They aren't kidding, this stuff is amazing. It is real yogurt, tang and all, frozen, and paired with fruits or other less healthy toppings. This stuff is good, really good. I know that people have been freaking out about this stuff in NYC and LA and I just have to point that the 40 Carrots restaurant in the basement of Bloomingdales has been serving this type of delicious fro yo for a long time. It is the primary reason to go shopping at Bloomies at lunch time. "Ladies That Lunch" in department stores have been in the know about this type of frozen yogurt for years.

Crossing back through Soho I wandered into a new speciality food shop, Despana. This market carries all sorts of imported Spanish foods. I sampled some cured meats, oils, and olives. Sadly, I had to reason with myself that, thanks to the liquid rule on planes, I really could not buy anything. This place is lovely. It makes you want to head to Spain to take cooking classes. Isn't this a cool picture?

I scream, you scream

We all scream for ice cream! I finally did it. I went to Sur La Table and bought an ice cream maker and David Lebowitz's book, The Perfect Scoop. I could not resist all the rage in the food world about homemade ice cream and this cookbook so I had to join in the fun. So next week, I begin making ice cream!

A great place to buy cookbooks

I have discovered that the best place to buy cookbooks at a bargain price is Strand Books in New York City. Despite living in NYC for two years I had never been to Strand until my brother took me there one time when I was visiting him. Now I make a point to go every time I am in New York. The prices cannot be beat, they have an incredible selection of cookbooks, and ambiance of the place is amazing.

I discovered that Strand is place to buy cookbooks when I found The Silver Spoon, a cookbook I had been coveting, for about $20. It was half off! I could not resist purchasing the cookbook (and several other books). Pretty much all the books, including cookbooks are marked 30-50% off the cover price. The nice thing about this bargain buying experience is, unlike Amazon or shopping online, you can actually flip through the myriad of cookbooks they have right then and there.

While waiting for my brother to hurry the heck up, I was worrying about how I was going to tell Mike I bought a 20 lb book that I needed to carry back to San Francisco with me. I noticed a sign that they will ship your purchases for a very reasonable price. Things kept getting better and better. I now had a cookbook I had wanted forever and I did not have to break my arms to get it home!

If you ever find yourself in NYC and near Union Square check out Strand Book Store located at the corner of 12th Street and Broadway, just south of Union Square. Their hours are: Monday-Saturday 9:30 AM-10:30 PM and Sunday 11:00 AM-10:30 PM.

Roasting and boasting

Earlier this week I tried roasting a chicken for the first time. I now own a roaster which is very exciting. This is the first large piece of meat I have ever prepared. I mean, really, who has time to roast meat? It takes way too long. Definitely a weekend evening activity.

My roasted chicken turned out pretty well for a first timer. I had to consult several sources to figure out how exactly to roast a chicken so I will share the process with you.

Buy a whole chicken - kosher, organic, whatever. For me the kind of chicken wasn't that important the first time. I bought a 3.5 pounder, free range chicken from the local butcher, Drewes Bros Meats. I would probably buy a bigger bird next time though so I would get more meat. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. If you are like me, you'll pray that there aren't any innards in the cavity that you have to remove.

I sliced a lemon in half, peeled 3-4 cloves of garlic, and selected a few sprigs of rosemary and placed them in the cavity of the bird. Next I tied the legs together with kitchen string. I rubbed the whole bird with olive oil (you can also use butter) to make the skin nice and crispy.

I placed the bird on the v-rack in the roasting pan and placed the whole ensemble in the oven on the middle rack. Set the oven to 400 degrees and cook for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and cook for an 1 1/2 hours (for a 3.5 lb bird) or 2 1/2 (for a 5 lb bird). Also, check (compulsively the first time) the status of cooking by sticking a meat thermometer deep into the thigh of the chicken and when the internal temperature is 170 degrees and the jucies run clear, that mad hen is ready to come out of the oven.

Like I have seen my mom do with turkey, I let the chicken rest on a cutting board for 5-10 minutes before cutting into the bird and serving.

Mike likes the white meat and I like the dark. We both thought the chicken was very flavorful and tender. Mike even said it was better than Boston Market and he holds Boston Market in high regard. I served roasted, rosemary new potatoes and fresh English peas with the chicken.

Next time I will try cooking a slightly a larger bird and maybe stuff the cavity with some other herbs.

The neighborhood farmers' market

One of the best things about moving to Noe Valley (a.k.a. Stroller City, as I call it) has been the neighborhood farmers' market on Saturday mornings. This Saturday, my husband and I woke late, grabbed our canvas shopping bag and headed to the market on our way to brunch.

While farmer markets are abound in the city of San Francisco, there is something I really like about shopping at this one. It is small, not overly crowded, and easy to navigate. You can easily swing by and grab some seasonal fruits and veggies and be on with the rest of your day. It is a smaller, more intimate, version of the Saturday Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building downtown where the commitment to shopping and the hit to the wallet are both deterents to even going. Here you can easily compare quality and prices without driving yourself nuts. There is also a chance to get to know the vendors which I hope to do.

At The Noe Valley Farmer's Market I usually head to the back of the lot to the two larger veggie vendors. They have a nice selection and their prices are fairly reasonable, for organics. I have also been impressed with the quality of the things I have purchased. The herbs at these two vendors look amazing as well. One vendor even has italian, thai and purple basil! This week I bought, fresh English peas (I LOVE fresh peas), an artichoke, carrots, new red potatoes, and a crown of broccoli. Just enough to get us through the week.

The details, if you are in the 'hood:

Noe Valley Farmers Market

24th Street between Church and Sanchez

8am - 12pm on Saturday

Individual servings of cake

Cupcakes. I am crazy about cupcakes. Perhaps it is because they remind me of the birthday cakes my mother used to make for me when I was a child. Homemade white cake with white butter cream icing. Heaven. Cupcakes are the perfect treat for the adult me.

When I lived in NYC I would occasionally treat myself to a cupcake from a bakery that opened near my apartment building in Chelsea, Billy's Bakery. The cupcakes were an absolutely delightful treat. There was perfect amount of icing on every bite of moist cake. Somehow these cupcakes had the magical power to cheer you when you were sad or help you celebrate good news.

I liked Billy's Bakery better than Magnolia Bakery or Buttercup Bakery. I liked that, unlike Magnolia, there was never a line at Billy's. The Billy's staff seemed to really care about their baked goods. It wasn't just a tourist destination. Also, I think Magnolia over-ices there cupcakes. Way too much icing and I love icing so there must really be too much. I do not have any strong opinions about Buttercup Bakery. It was just inconvenient to get there when I lived in NYC. Now close friends of mine live nearby and it never seems like the right time for an indugent cupcake when I am visiting them. I do however have the Buttercup cookbook, a gift from a dear friend, and I love it. I will get there one of these days.

Cupcakes in San Francisco are another story. I cannot find one to compare and believe me, I have made it a personal quest to find the same satisfying treat. Noe Valley Bakery doesn't use butter cream frosting, although their carrot cake cupcakes are excellent. (They also have tons of other delicious treats and breads.) Citizen Cake's cupcakes are too fancy. Miette, in the Ferry Building, does not use enough frosting. Kara's Cupcakes opened in the Marina and while I have not been to the store itself, I have had some samplings at a party. Good, but no Billy's. Love at First Bite Cupcakery and Bakery in Berkeley has good, but not memorable, cupcakes. Plus I cannot reasonably go to Berkeley everytime I have a cupcake craving. Alas, I will have to continue to sample cupcakes in the Bay Area. Oh, the hardship.

As a cupcake freak, I absolutely wanted cupcakes at my wedding reception instead of an actual cake. When I called wedding cake bakers, I was quoted an outrageous price per cupcake. I could not get them to understand that I wanted something simple. (I hate fondant.) My minimum quote was $5 a cupcake. Luckily, I finally found a ex-Whole Foods pastry chef with the help of a co-worker who agreed to make me 175 cupcakes using the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook (Her idea!) at a very reasonable price. She even went the extra mile on decorating them. And, she didn't over-ice them! They were absolutely delicious and a huge hit at the wedding.

Check them out! We had Lenox Miss Piggy and Kermit "cake toppers" because I love The Muppets!