Christine from Neo Cocoa invited me to tag along with the Sweet Mafia on a private tour of the TCHO chocolate factory. And you know, when the mafia is involved, you can’t say no. So I took the train to San Francisco on Wednesday and met up with Christine and part of the sweet mafia at La Cocina where a few of them make their magic. We carpooled from there to Pier 17, the location of TCHO.
Normally, I would be worried if a mafia member drove me to a pier… I mean, that seems like a good way to end up swimming with the fishes. [Continue reading...]
Tagged as: chocolate, la cocina, sweet mafia, tcho
Before I jump into my experiences at the Taste of the Nation last week, I wanted to say a quick hello to all of you. I feel like I’ve been away for a long time. It’s only been a week or so since my last post but somehow it feels like an eternity. Maybe time expands when you are unemployed. Maybe I should start saying self-employed… though I’ve not been working so it seems strange to say self-employed right now. Anyway, I don’t want to ramble too long about nonsense, I just wanted to say hi and that I have missed you all.
I was lucky enough to win a ticket to the Taste of the Nation in Napa from Foodbuzz (they also provide the ads over there on the right hand side of my site). In exchange for the ticket, I promised to write up my experiences and post it here. I’m a bit tardy in my posting (the event was a week ago). So without further ado…
Taste of the Nation – Napa, Monday, August 17, 2009.
It was a warm summer day. My friend, Christine, and I left the Bay Area around noon and drove up to Napa. Our first mistake was not eating lunch before we left. Instead we waited then stopped for lunch at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher at the Oxbow Market in Napa. Christine ordered the bleu cheese burger and fries:
and I ordered the pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries:
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Tagged as: foodbuzz, napa, share our strength, taste of the nation
I got home yesterday from a five-day excursion to northeast Oklahoma. Dan, the kids and I went out there for Dan’s family reunion. It’s a beautiful area, not at all like the Oklahoma I remember from visits as a kid (down near the panhandle of Texas… much drier and dustier).
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Tagged as: oklahoma
After months of internal debate, I broke down and subscribed to Gourmet and Bon Appétit. I was hesitant because I had just unsubscribed from some other magazines in an effort to save some trees (plus I just wasn’t reading them any more… stuff like Lucky and Self). But after seeing so many recipes from both of these food-lover magazines regularly popping up on the blogs I read, I began to feel left out. That’s right, I’m a joiner. So I subscribed. And instead of choosing just one, I subscribed to both. I recently received the second issue of each, and so far have no regrets… there are many recipes I have enjoyed making and so many more I want to try.
The peach pie I made last month along with the sour cream ice cream both came from Gourmet. And the entire July BBQ issue of Bon Appétit makes me drool. I can’t wait to do some real barbecuing… mmm, pulled pork.
The strawberries at the farmers’ market winked at me so I brought them home. A whole half flat of them. Red, juicy and oh-so-sweet. And as luck would have it, there is a no-cook strawberry ice cream recipe in this month’s Gourmet. So I put two and two together and got ice cream…
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Tagged as: gourmet, ice cream, strawberry
Yesterday was my last day at work. I can’t believe it is actually over. I’ve been waiting and counting down for a couple of months now (longer than that really, but that was when I made my decision to quit), but now that it’s over I feel odd. I had my struggles with work for quite some time, but it was still sad to say goodbye. I don’t regret the decision to leave, but all day long I found myself pausing to take it all in: This is the last time I’ll sit in this cube fixing bugs… this is the last time I’ll walk downstairs to buy lunch… this is the last time I’ll use this laptop. It was all kind of surreal. I didn’t spend a lot of time this week looking ahead, I spent most of it looking back and saying good-byes. The few glimpses to the future I did have were scary. The unknown is scary. I’m excited and it feels good to be taking a step forward, but I am a little freaked out to be out on my own.
Before I could go, I wanted to leave my friends with a parting gift. Brownies. What could be better than brownies? But I couldn’t decide what kind to make: a classic fudge brownie? s’mores brownies? cheesecake brownies? I just couldn’t choose. That is, until I finished reading The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz. The last recipe in his book is for Dulce de Leche Brownies. Ding ding ding, we have a winner. So I pulled out the Spanish dark chocolate that my friend Erinne gave me and bought a can of dulce de leche (it was made by Nestle. I may try making my own next time but the can from Safeway wasn’t too bad).
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Tagged as: brownies, david lebovitz, dulce de leche, last day
