San Francisco Treats, Day 1: Tacos, Ice Cream, & Fancy Booze

by EP

In keeping with our slacker theme, here I am, writing about a trip I went on over a month ago.  But, the fact that I still remember almost every bite with fondness just goes to show you what a great, tasty trip it was!

Last month I visited one of my best friends, Rachel (who readers might remember from such adventures as Paris and my many visits to DC), who recently moved back to her home town of San Francisco.  We had a packed visit and some truly outstanding meals.  I can't thank her enough for taking me to such wonderful places!

Let's get to the highlight reel:

Guacamole!  Almost as good as mine :)

Day 1 gets its own post because we had so many yummy treats packed into one day.  

Summer’s Bounty

by Xani

I feel terrible, you guys.  How have I not blogged all summer?  I’ve been making sooo much good stuff.  You don’t even know (of course you don’t, I haven’t been telling you!).  If you follow me on FB/Twitter/Instagram you been getting a few sneak peeks, but the truth is with summer’s bounty at my fingertips, I have been making some KICK ASS dinners, drinks, desserts-- you name it.

I figure the easiest way to share as much of this as possible is a good, old-fashioned food porn roundup.  Even when I’m not blogging regularly, I always MEAN to blog, so I’m always taking pictures, then getting too busy/lazy to post them.  But, I’ve still got them, and they’re coming at you... NOW:


Tiny carrots I grew myself! Here they are as an appetizer along with bread fried in bacon fat:

And how did I grow carrots you ask?  In my amazing Salad Table, which has also provided us with lots of radishes and bunches and bunches of delicious salad greens.  Soon, cucumbers!

Before summer got too hot we enjoyed some artichokes al fresco (with my favorite dipping sauce- just good mayo mixed with lemon juice, so yummy!)

Also during early summer I got my hands on some rhubarb and made some Rhubarb-Rosewater Syrup to make a sweet and slightly tart mocktail (just mix with sparkling water to make this refreshing pink drink)

And THEN I made these rhubarb streusel muffins that were To Die For:

coworkers raved!

Keeping things a little sweet, a little tart, BEHOLD this cool cocktail EP made for our little 4th of July get-together:

Grapefruit juice, gin, and basil-sugar.  The mason jar makes it.

As summer heats up we're getting squarely into the kind of produce that just SCREAMS summer.  Like corn:

Chilled corn soup with lime, cilantro and hot sauce

Zucchini:

Zucchini Feta Fritters

Berries:

picked them ourselves!

Some of which I turned into this fabulous Double Berry Buttermilk Bundt

I love a cake that can also be breakfast

Finally, PEACHES.  We picked over 40 pounds of white and yellow peaches (AND all the berries, at the wonderful Larriland Farms) and so far made hardly a dent in them despite making peach jalapeno jam, and peach gazpacho.  I'll make a peach pie/cobbler before I process and freeze the rest.  Here is Eddie patiently waiting for them to ripen...

So there's a little taste of BCD summer so far! I'm really going to try to post more often and in a more timely fashion. How would you all feel about quickie posts with just a picture and description? Because with all the cooking I have planned for the rest of summer (peach and otherwise), that could be a lot of posts!


Happy summer,


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