A Weekend In The Country.

What started out as a weekend adventure to visit Meghan, shawns friend from University of Wisconsin Madison for her 30th birthday - quickly turned into an immersion crash course in the farming community of Jacksonville, OR. Meghan lives in a modern commune (ish) in the Oregon countryside where they grow their produce locally - and her brother is an intern on a goat dairy farm further down the road. The Chevre was OUT of this world if you must know.

You can check them out here http://www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org/?p=455dsoffamilyfarmers.org/?p=455ffamilyfarmers.org/?p=455

The crash course was enlightening and to see this cooperative trade community that this exists is truly inspirational. When I think of my future I definitely see something that is somewhat in the middle, gardens and produce and countryside - just something with less physical labor and more access to a large city.

We had a lovely afternoon floating on a raft in their pond, sipping beers and playing bocce in the sun- and I will even leave you with a recipe, though I doubt you'll be able to recreate it from your backyard, you can try!

Also, we drove home along the coast from Oregon back to San Francisco - stopping at the Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka, CA and all the tacky little roadside attractions - and frolicked on the beach.

Sauteed Greens With Goat Feta & Beets
2 beets
Head of Collard Greens
Goat feta
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Olive Oil
Balsamic drizzle

First peel and cube the beets - drizzle with olive oil bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until soft.

Meanwhile, in a pan start to saute the garlic until starting to brown...toss in the greens - when they are soft - combine with beets and feta - toss with a drizzle of balsamic and tada!

RatDonalds

The McCafe is a C+.

*Better than Keurig Coffee pod coffee, but worse than Seattle's Best Borders In Store Cafe latte.

*You CAN get it non-fat, but you CANT get it with extra shots. Nada on the triple shot.

*It kind of tastes like milky coffee with shots of old coffee grinds, made into espresso shots.

*It was $3.06 for a medium - which means its no cheaper than a Starbucks or a Blue Bottle. ~

LONG LIVE BLUE BOTTLE NAWLINS CHICKORY STYLE ICED COFFEE!

MUST OWN ITEM OF YOUR LIFETIME

<------- I dont want to live in a world where these dont exist.

Shawn and I purchased some this spring at the 99 cents store and have used them at least 5 times since.

Money well spent and a life well lived, if you ask me. :)

What To Do When You Cant Find Peppered Bacon

Saturday morning I awoke to find we were out of eggs, out of bacon and apparently out of motivation to trek to Safeway. I ended up going to our local uber expensive, no-discount card needed - Delano's Market where I walked down the aisles trying to come up with something yummo! (Note: had I known we were going to hang out later that afternoon and picnic in the park, I would have skipped breakfast and made another treat!)......but I ended up making a summer hash!

This is based on a breakfast Meagan often ordered from John O'Groats in Los Angeles, CA. It usually is vegetarian and has corn and spinach in it. Looking back I should have included the spinach even if Shawn would have picked it out and thrown it in the garbage post noshing.

Sausage, Potato & Apple Hash

2 Potatoes
2 Apples
1 Onion

3 Cloves of Garlic, chopped.
2 Tbs of Margarine
Some Chicken Stock
6 Sausage Links

Chop up potatoes into small cubes and boil for 20m or until tender, use 1/2 water and 1/2 chicken stock for flavor.

While taters are boiling - chop up apples, onions and sausage. Start to saute onions & garlic with the margarine until starting to caramelize. Once there's a sauce forming, throw in your chopped sausage....let it saute and brown for 10 minutes. Then add apples, with the skin on!

Strain potatoes and add the saute pan - cook for a remaining 5 minutes while you make eggs to top! Salt and Pepper to taste.

Something Of Note

On Sunday morning I had the pleasure of meeting my East Bay friend Jackie for brunch in Berkley at La Note on Shattuck. It was Father's Day so there was already a line when I got there at 10:30am!

Jackie is leaving for a month to study in Ecuador, so a last minute kvetching session was absolutely necessary. :)





I give this place an A+! I had a beautiful non-fat latte served in a charming Parisian mug, frothy and light and cozy - along with Oatmeal Raspberry Pancakes. The thing I regret not getting was something I saw across the way: a baguette slathered in goat cheese topped with roasted red peppers and a soft boiled egg on those lovely little egg holders!








The "something of note" was - I got Jackie ( a strict pescaterian) to try bacon! She's been thinking of re-introducing protein to her diet per her dietitian and what better way to start than something NOT healthy! Her reaction was: it was greasy. but yummy.
Cést La Vie!

Vegan Green Curry Potato & Tofu Pot Pie

I've been meaning to have our close friends Kris and Darcy over for dinner and cards lately. Bless her heart, Darcy is a vegan - so coming up with new recipes to wow an already seasoned cook is always hard! This time I went to the archives of experiences to come up with something straight from the Kugler brain kitchen.

A sucker for Vietnamese cuisine, I used to go to my favorite restaurant My Lihns in Albany which serves delicious high end (for Albany) Vietnamese cuisine. My always present companion to this place, Christina, was a vegetarian and she always ordered a dish called Cary Ga....green curry stew with potatoes and tofu....green curry made me think of this RED curry pot pie my father once had with salmon at San Francisco's B Star (Burmese food) in the Sunset. So I thought! lets combine them!

Ingredients:
1 Can of Coconut Milk

1 Small Jar of Green Chili Paste (vegan)
1 Pack of firm tofu
1 Onion
4 Small Potatoes
1 tub of margarine
2 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 teaspoon of corn starch

Salt

1 dash of Cayenne pepper

3 cloves of garlic minced
2 Tablespoons of Ice Water

First make the dough. Combine 2 1/2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of salt, cut in 1/2 a cup of chilled margarine. They say use a pastry cutter but I just use my hands to crumble it all up until it resembles course crumbs. Work in the cold water, ball it up and put it in the fridge for later!

Secondly, peel the potatoes and cube them very small - boil them for 20 minutes of until soft.

Thirdly, chop up onion and cube tofu. Toss cubed tofu with a little flour, salt and pepper, minced garlic and 1 dash of Cayenne pepper and set aside. It will get mushy but not too mushy.

Fourthly, take the jar of paste and the coconut milk and whisk together in a separate dish. Also include 1 teaspoon of corn starch.

Put your saute pan over medium heat with some of the leftover margarine and start to cook the onions, then gradually add the tofu mixture and cook til brown.

Once you see the tofu is browning its time to add the coconut milk green curry mixture to the pan....pour slowly! Also salt and pepper to taste the filling.

If the potatoes are done, drain them - and add to the pan as well and set aside.

Lastly, spoon in the mixture to your 4 ramekins evenly. Roll out the dough from the fridge and place the ramekin on the dough, cut along the edges so that there's enough dough to crimp to make the pot pie. :) cut a cross in the middle.

Bake @ 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown! Cool for ten minutes. :)

PLEASE NOTE: I wish I had taken better pictures but Shawn did make lovely fried wontons stuffed with tofu, green onions and soy sauce - with a delicious dipping sauce! Hooray!

Artsy Fartsy Fancy Schmancy Cocktails.

This past Friday before seeing The Hangover at the The Vogue Theatre Shawn and I were wandering around (aimlessly) in the presidio, parched, looking for something vokda-ey to quench our livers. *ahem* I mean thirst when we wandered into Spruce.

Never in my life have I been treated so nicely by an establishment whose side of butter costs more than the entire cow it came from. :)

We were treated as though we left a $100 tip on a $20 meal - the hostess sat us in our own little corner near the kitchen, checked on our cocktails and even set us on our way to the movie with fresh baked cookies in hand to sneak in!

Oh, and the drinks were great. I had a Macintosh and shawn had a Kentucky Bourbon Side Car with infused Maple Simple Syrup. I give this place an A!

Now, if we ONLY could afford to go back for their $90 appetizer. Sigh. Someday.