Year of the Donut (and Pizza, and Cupcake...)

Culinarily speaking, 2010 has been my best year ever - and we're only three days in! This weekend, Hook and I cooked some kick ass meals, discovered a few cute restaurants, watched a lot of Food Network (and recognized some SF eateries: hells yes), and hit the farmers' market. Highlights:

1) Returning from Kaiser yesterday, H and I grabbed lunch at Tony's Cable Car Restaurant (2500 Geary). He ordered the polish sausage, I the turkey burger; we shared fries. Yelp rates Tony's at 3.5 stars, and I'd be inclined to agree with the standing assessment: the staff were ueber-friendly (the old man at the counter praised my choice, then praised Hook's choice with equal gusto), the service was prompt, and the food was good: solid. Better than average for fast food, actually - the turkey burger was well-spiced and came on a legit wheat bun (as opposed to a dyed-brown white bun). Hook was disappointed that his sausage came with lots of fixins' (mustard, shredded iceberg, and an inexplicably grand amount of pickles), but enjoyed the meal nonetheless. I'll be back, probably the next time I'm picking up a prescription...

2) En route to BB&B ("Bed, Bath, and Beyond") yesterday afternoon, I spotted a cupcake bakery, smack in the middle of the deserted street! The bakery's door was open; the proprietress saw me look in and beckoned me forth. Not one to resist the offer of baked goods (even if the "offer" is really "the availability of nice-looking baked goodies for sale"), I (and H) went in. The shop offered about eight different flavors of homemade cupcakes, including a few basics like red velvet and straight-up chocolate, and some more esoteric varieties. Hook chose the root beer float; after some classic "man v. self" internal struggle, I went with the "pancake breakfast," a pancake-flavored cupcake (with bits of bacon incorporated into the batter) topped with maple-buttercream frosting. Holy mother of god: I could eat a pile of these cupcakes. It's good that Cups and Cakes Bakery is in the middle of SOMA, else I'd become a regular. And nobody needs that much bacon and maple buttercream frosting.

3) Saturday night, we made carne asada for dinner. I don't know if we were just ueber hungry or whether the fajita marinade we used was more-than-typically impressive, but Hook claims that this was the best meal he's eaten in months.

4) Not having tired of eating and cooking (ha!), I made buttermilk pancakes with blackberry compote for breakfast today (recipes from Mark Bittman and the Food Network website, respectively). The compote turned out so well, in fact, that I wanted to include the recipe here:

Blackberry Compote:

* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 2 cups blackberries, rinsed
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup blackberry or raspberry liqueur
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the butter in a large saute pan over high heat until melted and bubbly. Add the berries and saute for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and liqueur and cook until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. (Be careful: The liqueur may ignite. If it does, cool the berry mixture until the flames die down.) Add the ginger and cinnamon, mix well, and cook 2 to 3 minutes longer. Let cool for about 5 minutes.

I didn't have any liqueur so I subbed in orange juice, which seemed to work well. The original recipe (part of a larger recipe for panna cotta with compote, actually) suggested the compote be topped with fresh whipped cream, which I also recommend (and which suggestion I did not follow). Hell yes!

5) This weekend of epicurean delights closed with dinner tonight: homemade pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, Nameko mushrooms, and beautiful greens (topped with tiny yellow flowers) purchased at the farmers' market. Hook made the crust according to Mark Bittman's recipe; he added half a teaspoon of black pepper to the dough. And now, after a delicious, mostly-local dinner, I'm sitting back with a beer, preparing for the coming week.

Delay.

Ah, yes: it has been almost two weeks since I've posted. A busy two weeks, mind you (but aren't most weeks busy?), but that's still no excuse for the ueberdelay in blogging. Maybe it is? I haven't felt super updatey recently, until now. And now, here I am! Things are running smoothly here in the T.C. Yas.

I returned to Minnesota to spend winter break with my mom and sis and the visit (thus far) has been awesome! Hook flew back with me and spent the first five days of vaca here, in Coon Rapids. We accomplished a lot during those first days of break. For example, we:

- Went to the Russian Museum of Art (the existence of which was unknown to me until like, a week ago) and saw the Matrushka Doll exhibit.

- Made four types of truffles (honey lemon, Jack Daniel's, cinnamon, and almond), gingerbread cookies, and sugar cookies, all from scratch

- Reluctantly watched "The Proposal," all the while wondering how Sandra Bullock's career has not altogether perished by this point in time

- Walked to my favorite childhood bakery (Hans'), which is 4.3 miles away from my house and not easily accessible via sidewalk.

- Enjoyed lunchberts and boneless wings at the local BWW, which I'd never previously visited.

My favorite part of Hook's visit was the trip to Hans'. I'm a sucker for long walks (round trip was an estimated eight miles) and for donuts, and I hadn't been back to Hans' in at least three years (but probably longer). The shop was exactly as I remembered: dimly-lit, with raggy carpet, wood-paneled walls and orange Formica booths. Because we'd gotten a later start than initially planned, we arrived at 1:00. The dining room was empty. I ordered my favorite donut (chocolate long john with custard filling) and a coffee, which tasted like watery instant coffee. The donut was trans-fatted perfection.

***

The house is quiet. I just put some laundry in and am eating a small dish of assorted licorices. Oh, licorice, how delicious you are. Hook's taste in Old Man Candy is rubbing off on me.

***

I realized that the reason this font never posts correctly when I blog from my mom's computer is that I'm forced to use Safari instead of Firefox. Still, I blog. What a convoluted sentence followed by a fine, declarative sentence!