Tuscan Pizza with Figs, Pears, Rosemary, Chicken, & Honey

You guys, this pizza is so good!  I know it sounds like such a weird combo - pear, figs, rosemary chicken, honey!  I get it, I totally felt the same.  But I was also intrigued by the combination of ingredients, and let me tell you, it doesn't disappoint!  Even though you might think it's sweet, this ends up being a pretty balanced pizza - tart, sweet, savory, and herby.  Next time I make it, I will skip the chicken altogether {the human pack is trying to eat as little meat as possible} and add the rosemary to the olive oil & garlic spread that coats the pizza before the first round of baking.

{The recipe calls for two chicken breasts.  I used only one, it was plenty}

I opted for picking up a fresh pizza dough from Arizmendi Bakery.  It is my favorite bakery in the city.  They use high quality ingredients, no additives, and they make their pizza dough fresh every day.

 {Look at those bubbles on the dough - that is a sign of high quality dough}

{The pack served the pizza with limoncello we had from Venice, Italy}

I dare you to try it before figs go out of season!

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The Weekend

The pack had a busy but fun weekend!  The human pack members traveled to Stanford for the ASU vs. Stanford game and got heavily rained on.    

{ASU mascot - Sparky the Sun Devil}

{Eating a delicious vegetarian burger right before getting soaked by the storm}

They also stopped by the driving range to improve their golf skills.  Well, pack member Natalia has no skills, but she's trying really hard.  That's all that matters, right?

{Practicing golf - Andrew loves pink!}

Meanwhile, pack member Jordi took a trip to the beach and enjoyed sunset strolls with his pack. 

{The Monster -- pack member Jordi having fun in the park}

{Sunset}

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Random Wednesday Date Night

Pack member Andrew was hungry and thirsty tired last night and said: Let's go eat!  So we did.  We love our neighborhood and try to support the local businesses as much as possible.  We decided to try a little restaurant that just opened up the street, 903, for their noodle night. 

{Natalia outfit - Massimo Dutti Blazer - similar here, Massimo Dutti bag, Hudson jeans similar here, Shoes Gianni Bini - old}

{Pack member Andrew is grumpy}

 {Fresh spring rolls}

{Andrew's drunken noodles & Natalia's veggie ramen}

903 was a great choice!  The food was fresh and delivered super quickly, which was great because pack member Andrew's hunger and thirst were quenched quickly and he was like a brand new man.

Am I right or what?  Look at that happy face!  It had to be framed.

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Should I Spend Nine Dollars on a Chicken Sandwich?

Pack member Andrew analyzes Focaccia Market's chicken sandwich.

   {Focaccia's chicken sandwich}

Everyone has a lunch place like Focaccia Market near where they work.  It's the fallback lunch place--the place that offers you everything (salad, sandwiches, soup, hot food buffet), does none of those things well, but does them just good enough so you keep going back if you're busy or just too lazy to think of somewhere else to go.

I (too) often get a chicken sandwich from Focaccia.  It costs me a little over nine dollars.  Worth it?  I made the same sandwich at home and brought it to work to see if it is a better value to MAKE IT or TAKE OUT

It's a pretty basic chicken sandwich.  It has chunks of chicken breast, cheddar cheese, roasted red peppers, peperoncinis (for 75 cents more), lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, all on top of a white "focaccia" bun.  I get the whole thing toasted, and usually eat it at my desk while I watch another replay of the end of the Arizona State / Wisconsin football game work.

Would mine be better?  Spoiler alert: yes, of course mine is better.  It's a chicken sandwich.  I'd be ashamed if I couldn't make it better than the mediocre lunch spot near work.

I started off with some organic chicken breast that I roasted a few days earlier.  It came from the same chicken I used for my dino kale salad.  I used organic lettuce and tomatoes.  The roasted red peppers and pepperochinis were not organic.  But they were from Trader Joes / The Good Life, so they had to be healthy, right?  The cheddar cheese was organic…and extra sharp.

   {Knife skills that make Morimoto blush}

I made the mayo from scratch.  SAY WHAT?  Yes, from scratch.  It's easy and surprisingly fun to do.  And it has to be healthier than eating calcium disodium edta.  I haven't bought mayo in a jar in probably seven years.

   {My homemade mayo}

For the bread, I stopped at Arizmendi bakery on the way to work and picked up a fresh sourdough roll.  I assembled the sandwich at work, although without the luxury of a toaster.  I resorted to microwaving the cheese and chicken, then put everything on the sourdough roll, which was still fresh enough to be awesome without a toaster.  Look at this beauty…

   {My version of the sandwich}

It's pretty obvious where I'm going with my analysis.  But to be fair, here's the breakdown (as always, based on taste, cost, and time to make):

Taste
The Focaccia sandwich is decent, but not great.  The chicken is a little dry and rubbery.  The melted cheese and mayo mask the dryness though.  The peppers, lettuce, and tomato taste as you would expect.

I take issue with Focaccia's bread.  It's called a "focaccia" but it's closer in taste and texture to an oversized white bread dinner roll.  It suffices, but having some real focaccia would really help Focaccia's sandwich.

My sandwich was awesome.  My chicken tasted better, my cheddar tasted better, my mayo tasted better, and the bread was fantastic.  I mean, c'mon, look at that bad boy!  Advantage: me.  

Cost
Focaccia's sandwich was $9.16.  I calculated mine at $3.53, the most expensive part of that being the sourdough roll, which cost one dollar.  Advantage: me. 

Time
Focaccia does not take orders in advance.  At the height of lunch time, it can take at least 30 minutes to get a sandwich.  During off-peak hours, it can be as little as 10 minutes.

My sandwich took about 32 minutes to make.  WHAT?  Please keep in mind that I roasted a whole chicken, so I took part of that time into account for the chicken I used on the sandwich.  I also made my own mayo, which takes a few minutes to do correctly.  I also walked about 10 minutes out of my way to get the sourdough roll from Arizmendi on the way to work.   Obviously, a lot of this time can be cut out.  Advantage: even. 

The verdict
MAKE IT.  This might be the easiest call I ever make.  My sandwich tastes better and costs less.  Oh, so you worried about time?  Instead of taking time to go out for a sandwich at lunch, use that same time in the morning to get everything for the sandwich prepared, pick up some quality bread on the way to the office, and put it together at lunchtime.  Oh yeah! 

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

My parents are big desert lovers and my mom always bakes.  And as you know, I love to bake as well, so of course we share recipes all the time.  She discovered this flourless chocolate cake a while back and she's been telling me how great it tastes.  She baked it a few times already, so I had to try it.  And she was right - I can see this type of cake served in fine dining restaurants.  It is super rich, smooth, and chocolaty, similar to a brownie, but without the denseness that comes with flour.  

I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top and served it with sliced strawberries.  It would have also tasted delicious with a berry reduction or other fresh berries. 

Don't be fooled by the "Flourless" title - this is not a low-calorie desert!  However, it is pretty quick and easy to make since it requires only three ingredients. 

{I only made half the quantity of the original recipe}

{Beating the eggs at the highest speed of the stand mixer}

{Folding the melted chocolate & butter into the beaten eggs}

{Baked the cake on parchment paper & foil-covered springform}

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The Perfect Way to Feel Poor in San Francisco ...

... is to visit the Billionaire's Row.

Last week came news that Marissa Mayer of Yahoo! bought a $35 million mansion on SF's Billionaire's Row.  We still don't know if the rumor is true, but we became intrigued with this so called Billionaire's Row.  So yesterday the pack took a field trip.

You will see from the pictures below that these houses are enormous.  San Francisco is known for its tight quarters.  These mansions are an obvious exception.  Look at how small we look in comparison to them!

{This is the view for most of the houses on the Billionaire's Row}

This trip reminded us how poor one can feel in San Francisco.

After exploring Billionaire's Row, we dropped pack member Jordi off at home, and had dinner at one of our favorite Castro restaurants, Anchor Oyster Bar.

We celebrated the end of another fun weekend with some bubbly. 

Have a great week everyone & thanks for visiting!

Lately

It's been a hectic end of the week, but the pack managed to squeeze in some relax time.  On Friday night, we made a Romanian desert that I started craving when I brought home plums from the store -  dumplings with plum, sugar, and cinnamon {gomboți cu prune in Romanian}.  I pretty much grew up eating these dumplings during my childhood summer days, using plums from our garden.

I met my wonderful girlfriends for a couple of drinks to catch up and relax.

{Excuse the quality of the last 2 photos.  iPhone's fault}

Had lunch with pack member Andrew in one of downtown San Francisco's public open spaces.

Enjoyed the sunset while walking pack member Jordi on a beautiful Indian summer San Francisco night.

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Is this Salad Worth 19 Dollars?

Pack member Andrew analyzes the Plant Cafe's Dino Kale salad. 

This is the Dino Kale Salad from the Plant Cafe, a nice lunch spot near my work in downtown San Francisco.  I spent almost 19 dollars on it.  Worth it?

I recreated the salad as precisely as I could at home to find out whether I should MAKE IT or TAKE OUT.

As the name suggests, the Plant's Dino Kale Salad has dino kale, one of the healthiest veggies out there.  The dino kale sits on top of a bed of arugula, another tasty green.  On top of the greens are toppings galore: cherry tomatoes, avocado, toasted almonds, red quinoa, carrots, cucumber, chicken (which is three dollars extra).  The dressing is a simple mix of oil, lemon, cumin, and I think turmeric.

I have to admit, it's a very good salad.  But is it worth 19 dollars?

I ventured to recreate this salad to a tee so I could compare my version with the Plant's.

I started off with the dino kale and arugula, of course.  I think the Plant blanches its kale, so I did the same, meaning I threw it in boiling water for just a couple of seconds, then cooled it down right away.  This gives the kale less of a construction-paper quality.



Then I prepared the toppings.  For the chicken, I took a breast from a whole chicken I roasted a day or two earlier.  I love me some roast chicken, and maybe one day I'll share my recipe.  Anyway, I took a knife to the chicken breast and all the other toppings and plopped it on top of the greens.



Next came the dressing.  I took two parts oil, one part lemon juice, some cumin, and some salt and threw it all in a little container that I could shake before mixing the dressing with my salad at work.

And that's really it.  I waited until I got to work to slice the avocado so it wouldn't turn brown.  But other than that, it was ready to eat at lunch time.


   {Andrew's version of the Dino Kale Salad}

Alright, alright, alright, so the 19 dollar question - is it worth it to make this salad or take it out?

I used three criteria to answer this question: taste, cost, ant time.  Taste is how good the salad tastes.  Cost is the dollar amount I spent.  And time is amount of time it takes to get the salad from Plant/make the salad myself.

Taste 
The Plant's salad is excellent.  All the ingredients are fresh and top notch, and they work well together.

My salad had the same ingredients, but suffered from sitting in the fridge for a few hours before I ate it.  It still tasted good, but it had a hint of that leftover taste that food gets from hanging out in the fridge.  Slight advantage: Plant.

Cost
I calculated that my salad cost $5.97 to make.  That's pretty expensive for a homemade lunch, but everything I used was organic (except the salad dressing).  And $5.97 is still 13 bucks cheaper than the Plant.  That's more than enough money for me to buy a burrito later in the afternoon when I'm hungry again.  Advantage: me. 

Time
The Plant is a block from my work, but with the wait in line, it can be up to a 45 minute roundtrip to get my 19 dollar salad.  BUT, the Plant takes orders for pickup if you order before a certain time.  It's about 15 minutes roundtrip for me if I preorder.

My salad was tedious to make.  I had to wash the kale and blanch it in a pot.  I had to use another pot to make the quinoa, and another to toast the almonds.  I had to roast the chicken too.  Then I had to slice all the toppings, make the dressing, and then slice the avocado at work before I finally ate my salad.  All told, it took at least 30 minutes to make.  I would have had to add a couple more minutes to do the dishes but for my wife helping in the kitchen.  Thanks honey!  Slight advantage: Plant.

Judgment
MAKE IT.  This is a much tougher call than you would think.  19 dollars is a lot for a salad.  But it ain't a breeze to make the same salad at home, especially if you want to use good ingredients.  I just can't get over having to spend 13 dollars extra having to buy a salad instead of making it at home.  My salad may not have been quite as good as the Plant's, but it was good enough for me to declare myself the victor.  Go me!

Thanks for visiting!

Ginger + Honey + Coconut Milk Popsicles

I saw this recipe for homemade popsicles a while back and have been thinking about it ever since because I am a sucker for asian flavors.  This weekend was perfect weather to whip some up--it was one of those rare San Francisco weekends when you could walk outside without a jacket.    

Three ingredients - that's it!

{Zoku Popsicle molds - here, but you can DYI with some paper cups & wooden sticks}

The recipe was easy to make, but the waiting was long -- 12 hours total for the popsicles to freeze.

Pack member Andrew thought they tasted like a good palate cleanser.  I thought they were just awesome and refreshing!  We devoured ate them in one day.

Thanks for visiting!