Why Are We in Ixtapa, Mexico?

To attend Food Blogger Camp, of course! Justin and I are spending a week in Ixtapa, Mexico with amazing, influential food bloggers. We are a part of the wonderfully small group of 30 bloggers that will be learning about food photography, food styling, writing, understanding multimedia tools in your blog and much more. Not only will we be attending "classes" but also eating together and taking a culinary tour and getting to know some inspiring people. Click here for the full agenda and the list of respected and well-known instructors!

And in addition to all of the foodspiration that we will be getting, we are enjoying the warm and beautiful location at Club Med in Ixtapa! More posts to come!

Food Science Friday: Comminuted

In the spirit of sharing some food science terminology, we thought we would explain the word "comminuted." Comminuted refers to a food that is reduced in size by chopping, grinding, etc and restructured, Examples include hot dogs, sausage, salami, and bratwurst where the filling is made of ground meats and filled into a casing.

Justin and my brother recently made this comminuted product, hot sausage, with my Italian-American family in Northern California. The full post is coming soon! In the meantime, enjoy those comminuted meat products!

One Word Wednesday: Na zdraví! (to your health!)

While visiting this holiday season my father gifted us a bottle of Becherovka, a traditional Czech herbal liquor. Anise is at least one of the characteristic flavor components.

A couple of years ago when we traveled to "the motherland" we were invited into people's homes and were toasted in the traditional means: abundant liquor served in a small glass with a toast, Na zdraví! (in Czech, "to your health"). Pictured here are some of the glasses (featuring the town fire engine and wheat crest) that we were presented to us by they mayor of Jenišovice, a small town where some of our Šimek ancestors once lived.

Do you have a favorite toast? What do you say when you raise a glass?

Hamburgers Sausalito, "where the customer is rarely right."

I had the opportunity to visit Hamburgers Sausalito over the holiday weekend with my father who was visiting form out of town. We started this homegrown tourist adventure with a BART ride into the City, grabbing a cup of Blue Bottle Coffee at the Ferry Building, and then boarding the ferry to Sausalito (also my first time there).

For lunch we were lured in by the rotating flame grill in the front window (above). The grill literally rotates as if it was a large turntable and holds the burgers, cheeseburgers, chicken, and thin-sliced steak for sandwiches.

This place was giving me flashbacks in the spirit of Al's Breakfast, one of my favorite Minnesota breakfast joints. I'm not sure if it was the narrow storefront with minimalist seating, the line of customers snaking it's way out on to the sidewalk, the full-on commitment to hamburgers, or the surly staff . . . but it was time for lunch!

If you get the lowdown on this place from yelp you'll see that many of the complaints mention their lack of customer service. FYI--there isn't any--so don't be disappointed. While I found my experience pleasant enough, their website indicates their restaurant is "where the customer is rarely right" . . . clearly no promises. The grill-boss abruptly asked several members in the group in front of me to wait outside since only one person is allowed per order otherwise it jams up the flow.

The burgers were good . . . flame broiled with melty Finnish Lappi cheese and complete with lettuce, tomato, onion, relish, mayo, mustard and ketchup. They take their beef seriously and grind it each morning. It's USDA certified black angus and 100% vegetarian fed, hormone, and antibiotic free meat. Since the seating was slammed we headed across the street to dine on our burgers and fries on a bench in the park. With views of Angel Island, Alcatraz, and the City by the Bay the ambiance was quite adequate indeed.

Lazy Weekend Lunch: Bubbling Soft Tofu Soup

I never thought I would say this, but I love tofu. That's right. Erase any previous negative tofu experiences you might have had and give soft tofu soup a try. A cold wintry day is the perfect excuse for a bowl of this Korean soft tofu soup with dumplings, at the So Gong Dong Tofu House in Palo Alto, California.

This soup came to the table boiling in a hot stone bowl with a raw egg that I cracked into the bubbling goodness. It's hot enough to cook it- to quote one yelper "like center of the sun hot!" And if you look closely in the background you can see the delightful little bowls of purple rice, pickled cucumber, kimchi and other tasty things that come with it.

The soup that I ordered also had beef in it with 3 delicious dumplings. You can also order your preference of spiciness. I can't take too much heat so I ordered mine mild, but go for the medium or hot if you dare. The chunks of tofu are silky smooth, melt in your mouth and the soup has great full flavor.

The End.

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve at One Market in San Francisco at the Embarcadero. Here's a link to the menu we had. I chose the Maine Lobster Ravioli, the Sonoma Lamb, and Valrhona Hot Chocolate Cake with coffee mascarpone ice cream. Justin had the Lightly Smoked Ocean Trout with a 62 degree egg, the Pan Seared Scallops, and the Cheese Tray for dessert. We noticed this restaurant was "sous vide"ing quite a bit of the meats and seafood!

From our table we could see part of the kitchen where the lamb was prepared as well as this view. It was a lovely evening with a view of the Ferry Building and fireworks at midnight! There were so many people outside to see the show!

We wish you a wonderful and delicious 2010!

Lauren and Justin

One Word Wednesday . . . Sushi.

Took a ferry ride across the Bay and found these wind-up Sushi in a touristy toy shop in Sausalito, CA . . . however, we had hamburgers for lunch (post to follow!).

Faux Gingerbread House

This year I wanted to make sure I had time to make a gingerbread house but I was inspired by an old Martha Christmas book to make this faux one instead, complete with candy windows. Here's a link to a similar way to construct this.

I used this gingerbread recipe and my best interpretation of the house. You can see the template at the top of the photo. I didn't trace it- just free-handed it. I also slightly overbaked it.

Even though it's hard to see, I made candy window panes out of sugar ( recipe in the link). I just poured the molted sugar into circles on the silpat and used a knife to trim. Martha makes clay molds but that was unnecessary. I have also made candy windows by crushing hard candy like peppermints, filling the windows and baking with the dough. They sometimes turned out great, other times, not so good.

Once cooled, I attached the candy window to the house with royal icing.

Finally, the house went on our buffet. Note the hanging snowflakes from our previous post.
And the results were great! My windows weren't as amber as I had thought but the faux house looked very pretty. I might save it and make more for next year! I actually used to make an entire facade village...maybe next year!