and curiously – Page 14

Chickpea chickpeople

Potluck party! The best, for me, because I get to socialize but I don’t have to leave my apartment, and there’s food involved. Also I can still sleep by 10pm. Also, food.

Most recently, I threw a vaguely Mediterranean potluck party, that included flat little falafels, roasted beets (magenta poops are still funny to me), hummus, “Greek” salad, and an awesome salad that had all the delicious things some friends brought.

It’s so satisfying to use the pressure cooker to make dried beans. I think I mostly like that my rudimentary understanding of PV=nRT is useful, here.

Of course, to go with, many handmade pitas (though mine don’t always make pockets), and a light(er) dessert of greek yogurt, fruit, and candied walnuts.

Salt & Vinegar Potatoes

Don’t let me near a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, because I will eat the whole bag, even if my mouth is kind of burning from the acid and maybe cut from eating too fast by the end. Hey, I never pretended to have any restraint. As much as I like eating a bag of chips for dinner, sometimes, that’s just not a choice I can make, so… salt and vinegar potatoes!

They’re actually good — slightly crisp (though, I won’t lie, nothing is like a potato chip), tangy and salty, and you can say that you basically ate a vegetable. I know potatoes don’t count, really, but it’s closer than chips.

Salt & Vinegar Potatoes
adapted from Epicurious

2-3 large handfuls of new potatoes
1/2 to 1 cup (depending on your taste) of vinegar — normal white vinegar is fine
salt
a tablespoon or two of oil
flaky salt
chopped herb of your choice (I used parsley)

Bring a medium-sized pot of water — enough to submerge all the potatoes — to boil.

Cut the potatoes in half, or quarters if they are big.

When water’s come to a boil, add vinegar and salt, and stir briefly. Add the potatoes, and boil until they are just barely tender, around 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes.

In a skillet, heat oil until it’s shimmering. Add the potatoes and fry until they are slightly browned and crisp, 10 minutes or so. Try to resist the urge to move them around too much — I’ve found that letting them sit helps them brown and keeps them from sticking too badly.

Top generously with flaky/crunchy salt and chopped herbs, and serve immediately.

Craftsman and Wolves & the Rebel Within

In San Francisco, I broadly categorized cafes into two categories. In the first, everything is clean lines (including the pastries), the tables and walls are immaculate, and everybody has a Macbook. In the second, everything is in piles (mm pastry pile) the furniture is mismatched, and everybody still has a Macbook. Usually, I prefer the latter — I like to feel like I can sort of disappear into the background rather than stand out in the foreground. But, there’s no better reason for exceptions than exceptional pastries, right?

It’s super sleek-looking, but the staff at Craftsman and Wolves are very friendly and have fielded many of my questions about their extensive and very interesting pastry collection. And, seriously, those are some good-looking pastries.

One of their most famous, of course, is The Rebel Within, which is a savory muffin with, astonishingly, a soft-boiled egg inside. I’d avoided it for ages because it has bacon in it, but this particular day, my will was weak, and I gave in. It was really, really good. It may have also been the coffee, but I was actually shaking a little as I ate it and tried to take some quick pictures. (At $7 a pop, I wanted to remember it.) The muffin is dense and savory, and the egg really was perfectly soft boiled, which is something I struggle to do even without the muffin part factored in. I tried to figure out how they do it — maybe flash freezing the egg? This is one pastry I can confidently say that I have no idea how to make at home, so I only feel a little ridiculous buying it.

Miniature apple crumble

If there is a food blog promise that I want to stick to, it’s that I won’t call miniature desserts “Single girl cake” or “Pie for one,” because, seriously, I’m not going to judge how much dessert you want to eat based on your relationship status. Any amount of pie is an individual portion if you believe, that’s what I always say.

That said, I’m seriously a sucker for anything in little ramekins. I think it’s because I like crust. But, I won’t tell if you want to make two and then eat them both, just saying.

Miniature Apple Crumble

1 Granny Smith (or whatever’s convenient) apple
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp flour
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of salt
ice cream for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (I actually used a small toaster oven.) Lightly butter a ramekin, oven-safe mug, couple compartments of a cupcake tin, whatever you’ve got.

Dice the apple into small pieces and toss the apple pieces with 1 tsp of sugar or so, based on how sweet the apples are to start with. Place the apples into the ramekin. It’s okay if they overflow a little, since they’ll cook down.

Combine melted butter, rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

Pile the crumble topping onto the apples.

Bake the crumble for 20 minutes or so, until the topping is browned and the apples are bubbling. You may want to place the ramekin on a baking sheet or something, if you’re like me and filled it… ambitiously, since it dripped off the side a little.

Serve with ice cream, if you’d like, and enjoy immediately.

Vampires, trees, and treats

A couple months ago, I jaunted off to the Pacific Northwest again, but this time to visit Erin. We had a great few days filled with finding scenic nature and delicious things to eat, and I was more than a little excited that our travels brought us through Forks of Twilight fame.

Our meandering brought my stomach through my favorite, Cupcake Royale, the infamous and maybe-closed Paseo, a great pizza place in an otherwise terrifyingly empty city, andsomewhere called Lunchbox Laboratory that did some black magic with tater tots.

In the non-eating category, which we all know is difficult, we drove a car onto a ferry, shamelessly participated in some Twilight tourism on our way to the Hoh Rainforest, and took lots of scenic pictures near all the pretty nature in the area.

Cupcake Royale. I want this in my mouth.

Lunchbox Laboratory. I can't even. — Lunchbox Laboratory. I can’t even.

Welcome to Forks, sleepy lumber town turned vampire central.

This made me deeply happy and uncomfortable.

Thanks, Erin, traveling but generous host Kim, and new friend Seth for a great visit!