Sun Warmed Farmer's Market Heirloom Tomatoes

My parents always made this dish when I was growing up and I always hated it. In fact I hated all tomatoes. That is until they started to use homegrown ones from their garden... This lovely dish is how I discovered good tomatoes.
This morning upon discovering that San Francisco was having an uncharacteristically beautiful August Sunday, and discovering that all of my friends seemed to have other plans I decided to walk down to the Farmer's Market in the Inner Sunset for inspiration. I went around 1pm, right before they closed and scored big! For $22 I purchased 2 heirloom tomatoes, a yellow peach, 2 cucumbers, 3 heads of broccoli, a poppy seed baguette, green beans, an olive tapanade and an artichoke-lemon dip. The trick is that right before they close, vendors are so eager to get rid of their goods that they are willing to negotiate.
My recipe for Sun Warmed Farmer's Market Heirloom Tomatoes is:

1. slice up an heirloom tomato and layer on plate as shown
   
2. sprinkle salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
3. chop up a few leaves of basil and sprinkle on top (the more the better!)
4. drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top
5. enjoy!
   

Dinner Friday July 31st 2009

On the menu for tonight: Rosemary & Parmesan Chicken Rulot served with crimini mushrooms, community garden swiss char, scalloped potatoes, a dark chicken consumee and pomegranate gastrique... the perks of dating a chef ;-)

Pepinillos

So my favorite snack is Pepinillos:

• peel a cucumber and slice it up
• get your ingrediants, 2 limes, salt and hot sauce (I use tapatio)
  
• squirt some lime juice onto the bottom of the plate and layer some cucumber slices on top.
• sprinkle on salt to taste, a dash of hot sauce and some lime juice, continue layering slices marinating them as you go. at the end squirt whatever lime juice you have left over it.
  

I swear this is a million times better then popcorn and way more healthy too. Now here's the kicker, after I chow down on these delicious cukes I drink the juice... It feels like a smack in the face, but then you come back for more. I swear you will love them, just try it! Super easy to make, cheep ingredients and a delicious treat! Don't forget to let me know how you liked em!

Transformers 2

So the Chef and I went to see Transformers 2 last night at SF's Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. This venue is fun because they let you drink booze while you watch the film! The booze bit turned out to be necessary for this particular film. It was completly filled with anti-Obama propoganda making his staff look incompetant and glorifying the military (gag). I could have sworn Sarah Palin bankrolled the whole shebang. It is importantly to think critically while watching high testosterone action packed movies such as this. It was a laughable experience and I would definately NOT recommend it. The action stuff wasn't even really that cool.

In other news the Chef and I will attempt homebrewing a brown ale tonight, I will keep y'all posted on how it turns out!

Cheers,
The Lover

This Morning's Tea, Tortillas and Purple Potatoes

It is a BEAUTIFUL day in San Francisco! The sun is out, there is minimal wind which means that I am a happy lover today! As much as I loathe and despise Starbucks (or Starcraps as I like to call it:-) This morning's Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte really hit the spot! For lunch i'm whipping up some quesadillas and bacon. I use Queso Oaxaca from "El Chico Produce #3" in the Mission, it is just like Mozzarella except with more flavor and waaaaaaay cheaper! Also, I always use corn tortillas.

Tortillas have an interesting history in Mexico, in the North where things tend to be more Americanized and industrialized flour tortillas are favored, but in the more indigenous South corn tortillas are prized. This is because corn or Maize is close to the earth, it is such an integral part of Mexican cooking and culture. As a Latinamericanist I always go with the corn tortillas, in addition to just being tastier, I also like to eat them (with everything) and bear in mind their history and relevance.

In Andean societies, indigenous groups such as the Quechua and the Aymara believe in "La Pachamama" or mother earth, anything that comes from the earth is powerful because it is close to her. Purple potatoes which are found deep inside Peruvian soil are thought to have aphrodisiac powers because they come from deep within the earth and are therefore more powerful. I have a few Peruvian Purple Potatoes sitting around and have been debating what to do with them, perhaps I will surprise the Chef later with some purple mashers or some such thing... any thoughts or recipes are welcome!

Cheers,

The Lover

Dinner Sunday June 21st 2009

Just came back from a camping trip in Sonoma...

Tonight's dinner:

Striped bass that the Chef caught today out of Lake Sonoma served over steamed white rice. Simple, fresh and delicious- the California way!

Post-Grad Blues

So graduation came... and it went. The whole process was really quite anti-climatic and I am starting to realize that the accomplishments you achieve while in school are what matter, not some hour long ceremony. I am working for free now (I certainly didn't see it coming) for a pretty cool company that is working on a very cool event. The event is scheduled in SF for August and is called SF Chefs. Food. Wine. It will feature many of the big cheeses in the food/wine world talking, cooking, pouring and being generally accessible for a full 3 days! I will be running around in their midst organizing, pampering and assisting where necessary. The preparation that goes into planning these events is monumental, but it comes at a good time. It is a time where people are so desperate for work that if you dangle a vague promise in front of their face they will throw themselves into virtually anything, not even hoping to learn anything from it FOR FREE hoping that maybe they will get a job out of it. Which is a necessary step in this new world of economic doom and gloom. Before I graduated I never had trouble finding a job, employers seemed to love my chipper "can do" attitude and my low maintenance persona. After graduation... and this is when I am supposed to have that full time job that I've always been offered but never been able to take because I HAD TO GET A DEGREE! So now, Bachelors of Arts in Latin American Studies in hand I find that all of this holding out for a diploma did not help me! There is no 9-5 job with advancement potential, not even close. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this event will help me build some connections that will take me out of my unhappily unemployed status. At least I have my chef who is able to create a culinary masterpiece out of our vacant refrigerator! So I will forge on, battle my post-grad blues and keep blogging!