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Adventures in beer

Posted on Friday, March 8, 2013

The saga continues with our northern California brewery quest. This week we added a trip to the Lagunitas brewery in Petaluma, Ca and the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, Ca. I was intrigued by SNB and I think Ken Grossman may very well have been added to my list of idols. What a great business concept. B likened it to adult Disneyland and we both walked away with a really great experience. A few photos from our trip. The last few are of some neat buildings in downtown Chico.









































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[This Week in Pictures] no. 5

Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013






Sacramento beer week commences. Pangaea Two Brews Cafe for Oregon vs. San Diego breweries battle (disappointing). Kupros bistro for some Beryessa brew and Paesanos for some Bruschetta and tequila lime pizza. Ended the night with a stop at BEATS to pick up a few vinyls (Magical Mystery tour for me, Chemical Brothers for B) and some chocolate ice cream and spicy fries celebrating a friends birthday with karaoke at Hamburger Patties. 
  

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Chile Pea Puffs and Banana Dessert Puffs

Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013

adapted from 101 Cookbooks

This weekend I dusted off some old recipe files that caught my eye 5 years ago and vowed to create rather than to let them sit in that online catalog shelf of mine that is always added to but never looked back on.

The first of the creations were Chile Pea Puffs from 101 cookbooks. 

Ingredients
Olive Oil or nonstick cooking spray 
1 cup cooked green peas, slightly mashed 
1/4 cup extra firm tofu, crumbled 
2 small green serrano chiles, minced 
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. red chile flakes
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic, minced
32 wonton wrappers
Cup of water and a brush for sealing edges

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper (or your new dream Valentines day gift- Silpat baking mats!). In a  medium bowl mix together the mashed peas, tofu, chilis, salt, chili flakes, pepper, cumin, and garlic. 

Place one mounded teaspoonful of the pea mixture in the center of a wonton wrapper. 
Brush all four sides with water. 
Fold the bottom half of the wonton wrapper up just over the pea mixture.
Fold in the right and left sides, meeting in the middle. 
 Fold the wrapper in half.
Then flip the wonton over and you have a mini spring roll!
When you have filled and wrapped all thirty two wrappers brush each one with olive oil or spray with Non Stick Cooking spray and bake in a 400F degree oven for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown. 


Notes: This recipe freezes well so it's pretty simple to double and have stock left over. 
In the future I would try this with spring roll wrappers and go for a more substantial filling amount in the spring rolls. Wonton wrappers can get a little chewy in texture.



BANANA DESSERT PUFFS

I had some leftover wrappers when all was said and done with the pea puffs so I decided to create some banana puffs which reminded me of the friend bananas that we had daily for breakfast in Brasil.

Ingredients
1 Banana
1/2 cup brown sugar
wonton wrappers

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.

Slice bananas in 1/2 inch pieces. Add the brown sugar to a small bowl. Add a slice of banana coating it in brown sugar and place it in the middle of a wonton wrapper. Brush all four sides of the wonton wrapper with water and then bring the 4 wonton wrapper sides together pinching and twisting to form a little satchel. Once all banana puffs are finished, brush with olive oil and bake at 400F for 7-10 minutes until nice and golden. 






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Happy Birthday You Wonderful Woman You!

Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013

A toast! To the most fearless woman I know... my mother, on her birthday. May you spend this day indulgently with great wine, good food and great cheer. Although we are too many miles to count apart I wish the most for you to have engaging, beautiful, awesome experiences on this day (and always) because you are so deserving and those are the experiences you have given me in raising me to be the woman I am today. 

Now, lets talk photos. Here we are in the 70s. You in the oh so fashionable period cape wear, throwing your best disco moves to the photographer. What a ham! Unlike modern day bridesmaid dresses this one made the rounds and had a long life as a dress-up gown for me and Kyla.

It was my favorite gown and some of my best childhood memories. 

I love you, always!