YUMMYFACE

semisweet chocolate with dried orange peel

potato salad:

boil yukon gold creamer potatoes. hard-boil eggs.

make vinaigrette from lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, capers, preferably cut-up bread and butter pickles.

pour vinaigrette on warm potatoes.

fig and cheese won ton tarts:

spray muffin tin with baking spray. press wonton skins into it. preheat oven to 375 degrees.

cut stems off figs and halve them. saute in butter with cinnamon and a little salt and pepper until warm and cooked and oozy.

i think it would be best also to add sugar and lemon, but i haven't tried this.

crumble a little blue cheese (i think i bought maytag) into the bottom of each little cup, then cover in figs.

bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the won ton skins are crispy.

spinach thing:

cook rice in rice cooker.

take frozen spinach, boil and drain.
cut up garlic and saute in pan with olive oil and some ginger powder and crystallized ginger.
add spinach, a little water, cinnamon, cumin, salt, pepper, nutmeg, dried red pepper, bragg's liquid aminos.
add dried cranberries and cook till plumped.
add toasted hempseed.

fry an egg sunny side up or over easy. break yolk into rice and stir up with rice and spinach mixture.

mmmm.

no figs or calf's liver, but this last week i tried this, after intense overtime i went to the safeway near jason's house at pleasant hill and after waiting in line forever at 11:45 pm behind a lady trying to buy her food with $62 in food stamps and $10 in cash, then went home and started cooking:
chop shallots, saute in olive oil, add chicken livers, sliced portobello mushrooms, and various and sundry herbs and seasonings (salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, sherry, soy sauce, maybe some others?) and finally blackberries mashed through a sieve with a spoon.

it was ok, nothing exceptional.

a few days later (yesterday, sunday) the leftovers turned into a black sludge like crude oil, but chunkier. more like dinosaurs and swamp vegetation not quite rotted all the way yet. or like a peat bog. i chopped the leftovers and threw them in a pan with some chopped garlic, dried basil, and canned tomatoes, then poured the sauce over fresh garlic herb fettucine from safeway. delicious, and closer to brown than to black in the end!

other food this week:
many apple pears, red bartlett pears, white nectarines;
dannon light yogurt;
spinach pizza at jupiter's and a hefeweizen with lemon;
strawberries and nectarines with whipped cream at casey's;

i want to make calf's liver and portobello mushrooms in a sauce of shallots cooked with sherry, pepper, and pureed fresh figs.

add also potato masher
bread knife

so we ate tonight (8/2) for an anniversary-type thing at zazoo's (where nicholas alioto used to work) and it was very atmospheric, right on the water, near jack london square. there were only 2 other groups max in the restaurant the whole time we were there. first we sat outside on the deck and looked at the lights rippling in the water and the huge buttressed horse-shapes of the cranes on the docks. canadian geese kept flying by honking in long straight lines. the occasional boat sailing past and the utter serenity and closeness of the water below us made me think nostalgically of venice and its wonderful peaceful lack of traffic noise. we were a bit cold, though, and went inside. the inside was somewhat less charming, though warmer--the view diluted by the tinted glass picture windows, the air polluted with the sounds of jeopardy! and 80's pop music. the place specializes in italian-style seafood and afghani food. i was torn between the two--i've never had afghani food! but finally i cracked and ordered the thoroughly unhealthy fried oyster, scallop, and prawn platter.

they brought warm rolls with butter.

rahul's clam chowder ($3.75) was rather lacking in clams. definitely not the best i've ever had, though by no means bad. my steamed clams (6.75) were much nicer. they were served in a sauce made of some combination of clam "liquor," lemon juice, and butter, as well as something red, memory betrays me as to whether it was tomato or red bell pepper, and lots of chopped clams that made up for the 10 clams in shells that came in the sauce.

my fried seafood platter ($16.75) came with a pile of basmati rice pilaf, white with a few saffron-yellow grains here and there, 7 fried scallops (breadcrumb), 8 fried prawns, and 4 fried oysters. (i only know the exact numbers because rahul and i were each eating exactly half our meals and then trading.) the oysters were the standout. i had forgotten how good and like the sea fresh oysters can taste, almost floral in their complexity. there was also a pile of steamed vegetables, thankfully not overcooked. the peculiar thing was the carrots the bright, unnatural yellow of highlighters. rahul thought them squash before tasting them because of their color and shape similar to yellow summer squash (i have to assume). and oddly enough, also a slice of raw tomato and a single ring of raw red onion. not a whole slice, mind you, but only one ring out of that slice.

rahul got the grilled salmon ($13-ish, I think) which i tried only a tiny bite of, but found strange. the strange thing: it was topped with a mixture of melted orange and white cheeses (cheddar and jack? mozzarella?) with flakes of parsley and something dark red which i have not yet identified. the salmon was also rather dry. dry or moist, however, i think serving it with melted cheese like a glorified tuna melt gives a nice salmon steak a somewhat bizarre and declasse quality. salmon parmigiana? cacciatore?

we were full then and went home. i forgot how i missed the water of venice, its closeness and quiet.