A Cocktail by the Lake- Yes, Please!

It was a date by the lake! One cheerful Sunday afternoon, we ventured out to Lake Chalet on Lake Merritt in Oakland for happy hour. This charming restaurant faces the lake and it's original core structure was a pumping station built in 1909.

I enjoyed a ginger cosmopolitan, a refreshing twist on one of my favorite cocktails, and we shared a few items from the happy hour list, most notably, the ahi tuna poke ceviche and the beer battered onion rings. Because of the clear blue sky and sunshine, we forgot our jackets and therefore sat at the marble bar with a view of the lake. We'll be back for another happy hour-perhaps outside on the water on a warmer day.

Fresh Pizza For Lenten Friday- It's Vegetarian!

It's the Lenten season and on Fridays as Catholics we are not eating any meat. This quick and easy pizza is full of flavor and you won't miss the meat. You will also notice that it is sans sauce...which I think let's the ingredients shine. We made this pizza for a Friday meal and using Trader Joe's whole wheat dough from the refrigerated section, it was not only flavorful and homemade but really fast.

We piled it high with our favorite toppings:
• fresh mozzarella ( although dried might make the pizza less soggy)
• sliced heirloom tomatoes
• fresh basil
• goat cheese
• olives

With a little polenta dusted on the bottom, it went into the oven on the pizza stone at 425F.

The results...fresh flavors, gooey cheese and a delicious crust you won't leave behind.

Introducing the PBC Shake...the Peanut Butter Cookie Shake

If only you could reach through the screen and take a sip of this milkshake! Filled with chewy cookie bits, the photos just don't do it justice. We had never heard of a peanut butter cookie shake...until we created it!

On this fine rainy afternoon, Anita came over with a bag of chunky, chewy peanut butter cookies purchased at Whole Foods. "They looked chunky, chewy and nutty" is her exact quote. You could see those peanuts. And we wanted to do something different with them and decided-why not try a cookie milkshake?

How do you make this lovely concoction? We added chocolate and vanilla ice cream, a sliced ripe banana, chocolate syrup, milk and the cookie! Don't over blend as the chunky cookie bits are the best part.

And you get a shake that is creamy but with a pleasantly chewy texture- the cookie! The ripe banana combined with the chocolate and the peanut butter goodness was the perfect combination for this sip of comfort food. We ate ours with a spoon!

Bacon, Gruyere and Egg Breakfast Tart Repeat

I love when we cook from our own blog. And this bacon, gruyere and egg breakfast tart was even more delicious when we made it again for a last minute brunch with friends. It uses just a few ingredients: puff pastry, eggs, gruyere cheese, bacon, creme fraiche and chives but it tastes spectacular. We served it with a side of fresh fruit and mimosas.

The recipe is here but our original savory breakfast tart post with step by step photos is pretty helpful too.

So visit the links, make the recipe and treat yourself and a friend to slice of this for breakfast!

How many Ph.D.s does it take to make baby food?

Apparently two. We've just opened the box on our BabyCook- a lovely gift that we received that steams and purees fruits and vegetables all in one. The size is perfect for small batches. And today I made our first batch of sweet potato puree for our little guy. Unfortunately, I had the hardest time understanding the instructions! It took a second pair of eyes- Justin- to point out the obvious sentence that explained how much water to add to the machine. It was the first sentence. Oh well. I'm blaming it on "mommy-brain."

The little guy loved the sweet potatoes. So far he's had brown rice cereal, oatmeal cereal and now sweet potatoes. It's exciting to see him try food for the first time and he's definitely interested when we eat. We can wait to see him eat more fruit and vegetables.

I know we've been a little quiet on the blog front but hoping to have more posts soon. I confess that I miss some of my late night baking projects.

If you have kids, what were the first foods you gave them?

It's Soup Time...in a Jar.

We love a certain brand of pickles that come in large mason jars. And I've been saving the jars for various purposes- such as "lanterns" with tealights outside. But when I ran out of tupperware for some homemade soup, two freshly washed jars were the perfect containers to share soup with our neighbors. Now, because I didn't actually can the soup, they had to go in the fridge to eat immediately but gosh, they sure made that soup look nice! This is a ham, bean and lentil soup that my mom made at our house. We've put our butternut squash and apple soup in these jars too and it looks fantastic.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Nothing says love like a homemade peanut butter cup and it's easier than you think. Thanks to the Hungry Mouse, we were able to quickly create our own version of the Reese's classic using peanut butter, powdered sugar and chocolate chips plus some decorations for the top. Here's the easy how-to:

MAKING THE SHELL

Melt your favorite chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet or dark) in a bowl at 30 second intervals in the microwave- stirring in between until smooth. Because we were eating this immediately, it was no problem to use this method instead of tempering the chocolate. Once melted, using a spoon, place a large dollop of chocolate in a mini- muffin liner and spread up the sides using the spoon. Be generous with the chocolate and place in the freezer to quickly harden.

PLACING THE FILLING

We used a blend of 1 cup of peanut butter to about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and mixed well. Adjust the stickiness with the powdered sugar to your desired consistency. A less sticky mixture is easy to spoon. Be sure to put a reasonable amount in the center of the shell and not up the sides. You will be covering this in chocolate and want to encase the filling in chocolate creating a chocolate seal- mmmm. We tried peanut butter alone and peanut butter with apricot jam but the possibilities are endless...could include s'mores, boozy fruit and other chocolate-friendly fillings.

CREATING THE CHOCOLATE SEAL

Ok, I made up the chocolate seal but a large dollop of melted chocolate on the top does seal in the filling. Feel free to smooth it or swirl it. Then place in the freezer for a few minutes to harden quickly.

DECORATING

And to make this a Valentine's day treat, we used Wilton melting chips to draw designs on the tops. We also used them to make some hardened designs that were placed on the wet chocolate. The nice thing about the melting chips is that they too harden making these treats easy to bring home to your sweetie!

And there you have it...homemade chocolate peanut butter goodness in a matter of minutes. I'd like to make more of these with other fillings...

got any suggestions for me?

Kiwi Caipirinhas for Everyone!

Justin used to travel to Brazil and bring home cachaça, a spirit from fermented sugar cane. We made our own version of a caipirinha, the Platinum Caipirinha, at this past post. This year, I read about a kiwi caipirinha in Sunset magazine and we had to try it! And this is a cocktail that can become a mocktail with one easy substitution.

You can make this with cachaça or for a non-alcoholic version, substitute 7-up or mix a bit of both for a less potent version.

Muddle in a cocktail shaker

• One lime, cut into chunks

• One kiwi, peeled and sliced- reserve a slice for garnish

• 2 tbsp sugar

Add:

• 2 oz of cachaça (or substitute part or all with 7-up)

Shake over crushed ice and pour the whole thing ice, fruit and all into a glass and garnish with a slice of kiwi.

It's lovely to look at and quite delicious with or without the alcohol.