jane park approximately

crabbing adventure

greatestcommondivisor — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:45:00 +0000

Every year I always mark the first day of crab season in SF. I love crab and just can’t get enough of it during the winter months. Or at least I thought I couldn’t get enough of it, until our full day crabbing extravaganza.

If you want fresh crab, you can’t do better than booking a crabbing trip out in the Pacific Ocean. We left from the Berkeley Marina, sailed through the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge, and north along the California coastline. It was a beautiful trip that ended with a delicious crab feast.

leaving from the berkeley marina

lime point lighthouse at the north base of the golden gate bridge

under the golden gate bridge

point bonita lighthouse on the marin coast

enjoying the ride and some morning beverages

After sailing through the bay and north along the coast, the captain started circling the boat and they started bringing in the traps. I have never seen so much crab in my life. Also, bait smells really awful. But I guess not everyone thinks so.

bait = fish carcasses

brave tighe helping out with the bait

bringing in the catch

so excited for crab!

an nth of the catch

taking home dinner… for the next week

Yes. We each took home 6 giant crabs. Good thing we planned for a crab boil right after our trip. First we demolished some steamed crabs with garlic butter, then Matt made thai curry with crab. After that, Mike and Matt found way too much pleasure in hacking apart a crab to make Chinese salt and pepper crab. All in all, a great trip and a delicious feast.

single serving cheesecake

greatestcommondivisor — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:08:20 +0000

I don’t often make desserts because I don’t often eat dessert. I’d always rather save room in my belly for something savory over something sweet, but when I saw this Smitten Kitchen recipe for New York Cheesecake I just had to make it.

It needs a few hours to chill, and since I decided to make it on a whim, with only a couple hours before I had to run to a holiday party, I thought, why not make some single serving cheesecakes for the hosts? Since my springform pan wasn’t quite as tall, I knew I’d have some extra batter to experiment with, so I pulled out some mason jars to make a few more single serving cheesecakes in them.

For the single serving cakes, I went ahead and followed pretty much the same steps, making a little graham cracker crust at the bottom of the mason jar, and filling the jar to an inch below the top. To account for the smaller volume, I let them puff for 12 min at 550 degrees, but reduced the cooking time to 20 min under 200 degrees (the whole cheesecake needs an additional hour).

I didn’t land with exactly the visual effect I was going for since the cheesecake browns so quickly on the sides in the mason jars. I wanted the graham cracker crust and the layer of cheesecake batter to look more distinct from one another, but perhaps with some more experimentation with temperatures I can nail it. Still, not a bad idea. After just an hour or so of mixing, baking, and chilling, I had some single serving cheesecakes to hand over to the party hosts when I got there.

Some adjustments…

I love cheesecake, but often find it to be cloying. Deb from Smitten Kitchen adapted her recipe from Gourmet. I made a little tweaks myself. You’ll pick up on a theme. Take ‘em or leave ‘em, but here they are:

Use powdered sugar for the crust, but HALF the amount. I found the full amount to be too sweet, and if you use granulated sugar, it doesn’t melt into the crust and you can very distinctly feel the sugar granules in the crust.
Use only 1 cup sugar for the batter. You still get a sweet cheesecake, but a lighter, less cloying one.
I went for a blueberry topping rather than a cherry topping. Also, to contrast with the sweet cheesecake, I only used about 2 tablespoons of sugar. I also used a full lemon to give the topping some tartness.

and here’s the whole cheesecake. yum.

friendsgiving

greatestcommondivisor — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:00:33 +0000

On Saturday my friends and I hosted our third annual ‘friendsgiving’. It really is one of my favorite days of the year. There’s nothing better than getting all your friends together to stuff your faces, especially when all your friends are phenomenal cooks.

This year we hosted Thanksgiving for a group of 14. It was certainly an interesting exercise in hosting. It was really important to me to be able to seat all 14 people around a table because I think sitting down together, passing around the dishes, and enjoying the meal around one big table is a really fundamental part of the Thanksgiving ritual. That said, I wasn’t about to pass off a regular ol’ potluck Thanksgiving and make it a free for all when it came to seating. Luckily, Caroline was nice enough to lug her dining table over to my place in the pouring rain to create one long dining table, successfully turning our double parlor room into one big dining room.

the set upset up, close up

For the table setting, I went with Wasara plates, which I used last year too. The visual impact is great, and at the end of it all, you can throw them in the compost bin. I ordered mine from Branch Home and they showed up overnight. I also picked up a roll of Mydrap cloth napkins from Amazon. They’re great because they come in perforated rolls, so you can just fold and throw them on the table without having to think about ironing them. I also really love how clean and simple they look.

name tags

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I’m running around cooking, hosting, socializing etc. I always forget where I put my glass. I find that I’m not the only one with this problem, so I decided to tie little personalized name tags on everyones glasses. I used half-pint mason jars for glasses, and I tied Avery key tags with twine around each glass. This definitely helped minimize the number dirty glasses at the end of the night.

enjoying ‘kozaks’ – alex’s proprietary blend of yumminess

all seated and ready to eat!

Onto the food…

michelle’s butternut squash and sage galette to start

I wish I had a photo of a spread, but there wasn’t enough room for everything on the table so we brought dishes out in rounds. We started with the usual suspects – Caroline’s persimmon salad, Mike’s mashed potatoes (mike brought 15 lbs of it!), my brussel sprouts with pancetta, Matt’s chestnut and wild mushroom stuffing, and Michelle’s cornbread chorizo stuffing.

The turkey came out in the second round. I have to say, I don’t really like turkey and every Thanksgiving I just take an obligatory bite or two, but this year, Matt’s apple cider glazed turkey was the most delicious, moist turkey I’ve ever had in my life. It was perfectly moist and had the most beautifully crisped layer of skin.

Then came Nina’s potato fennel gratin and roasted yams with mustard vinaigrette. Oh, and my cranberry persimmon sauce, which I didn’t get to take a picture of because I was too busy stuffing my face.Then, we finished off with Ryan’s persimmon cake and Ken’s pumpkin pie. No picture of Ryan’s persimmon cake Again, too busy stuffing my face.

tamale creepin for some scraps

Excuse the blurry photos.

Until next year!

friendsgiving preparations

greatestcommondivisor — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:20:57 +0000

The last time I posted here I was celebrating the highly-anticipated arrival of our indian summer here in San Francisco so it will be glaringly clear how little I update my blog as this here post is about the arrival of fall and a favorite fall tradition, friendsgiving.

Every year, when I host friendsgiving, I go a little crazy. A little suburban-pta-mom-crazy. To keep things simple, I’ve been reverting to some tried and true place settings and centerpieces. But then, Matt and Michelle noted that I probably wouldn’t be happy about having the same centerpiece show up in the background of pictures year after year. Ugh. So true. But decorative gourds? Nuts? So played out, right?

I was pretty happy with last year’s centerpiece, besides the fact that it was too tall and if you were sitting on either side of it you couldn’t see across the table…

photo courtesy of caroline

So, I decided to see what I could do with some flowers. I live just a couple blocks away from an AMAZING florist, Studio Choo, so I knew I could swing by there for something creative, festive, and unique. Let’s just say their prices don’t really fit into a 24 year-old’s friendsgiving budget. : (

I love having fresh flowers at home, so I do a fair amount of inventorying of good florists around the city. That said, after perusing Studio Choo, I knew right off the top of my head a handful of florists that carried at least a similar selection of flowers, even if they don’t arrange them as artfully as Studio Choo. I mean, why not take a hand at arranging them myself?

After cataloguing my favorite Studio Choo arrangements, I hit up a great florist near my office and picked up a few bunches of flowers to take home and arrange myself. I’m pretty happy with what I got from about $60 worth of flowers, some good clippers, and an hour or so of careful clipping and arranging.

The turkey’s brining, now, how to seat 15 people in a one bedroom apartment…

weekend escape artist

greatestcommondivisor — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:37:34 +0000

The San Francisco Bay Area is so beautiful, but I rarely get out of the city to experience it. It’s been a really busy summer at work so it took a little encouragement – and virtually all of the planning – from friends to finally make it out of the city. If it weren’t for them, I might have missed our indian summer.

A couple weeks ago, Matt and I headed out to Tomales Bay with some friends to breathe some fresh air, take in the views, and eat an inordinate amount of oysters. We tried to head out early to grab a table right by the water, but Matt and I are chronically late. By the time we got there (around noon?) all the tables by the water were taken, but still, there were plenty of views and sunlight to go around.

tomales bay oyster co.

We caravanned up in a couple cars, and two of the groups made pit stops at Cowgirl Creamery and Marin Sun Farms for some cheese and sausages for grilling. YUM.

bag o’ oysters

Since the others were so kind as to stop for cheese and sausages for the rest of us, we got a jump on the oysters. We bought this huge bag of oysters (the small ones I’m told), and got to shucking. I had never shucked oysters before, so I was thoroughly amused with the horseshoe set up. It’s there to keep the oyster stable and secure while you’re shucking so you don’t stab yourself or send oysters flying to the next table. sort of makes me want to put one at the end of my kitchen island

shucking away

what a beauty

When we got our fill of the fresh raw oysters, we went ahead and threw some on the grill. It was my first time having grilled oysters. They were phenomenal. For the rest of the day my biggest dilemma was whether I wanted a raw oyster or a grilled oyster next.

happy matt

We had such a good time I’m keeping my fingers crossed for one more warm weekend so I can head out there with my oyster loving lady friends. I really have to get better at getting out of town..

saturday morning breakfasts

greatestcommondivisor — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:00:55 +0000

Coffee is such a ritual for us on the weekends. I got Matt some Heath Ceramics teacups for his birthday and using them makes sitting down and slowly enjoying your coffee so much more amazing. Heath fanatics like me will understand. Others will think I’m crazy. But really, a special teacup can make your coffee or tea regimen so much more enjoyable.

I always look forward to when Matt makes breakfast on the weekends. He always manages to whip up something spectacular on a whim. Recently, that spectacular something was crepes! I was looking through these photos from a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share as a little weekend breakfast inspiration and maybe as a hint that I would enjoy some more crepes…

I almost always prefer a savory breakfast over a sweet one, but Matt’s breakfasts always turn me into a convert. He kept it simple and made crepes with peaches and creme fraiche with a little cinnamon. It’s really a dessert crepe, but hey, I don’t see any reason I can’t have it for breakfast.

letting the peaches warm up a bit

just add a little creme fraiche
and that’s it!

oh mighty fava bean

greatestcommondivisor — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:50:10 +0000

oh mighty fava bean

mmm fava beans. i love the way they taste, the way they look, the way they feel when you’re shelling them…

Gina invited us over last Saturday for a heritage dinner. I knew people were really going to bring it, and having no knowledge of Korean cuisine, I decided to cheat and go in on an Italian dish with Matt. I love Korean food, but I think I really learned to cook while cooking Italian food with Matt, so I think it does have a major role in my cooking heritage.

Knowing I wanted to do something with sous vide lamb and fava beans, we decided on sous vide lamb chops served over arugula with fava beans, asparagus, and shaved pecorino.

blanched heads and diagonal slices

This dish is really great because it’s so straightforward. Nothing went into seasoning this dish beyond salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil, and sherry vinegar.

vacuum packed lamb with whole garlic cloves

I just sprinkled some salt and pepper onto the lamb (rack of lamb cut into lollipops) and vacuum packed it with whole garlic cloves before throwing it in the sous vide for about 2 hours. Last time we cooked it at 60 degrees Celsius, so we decided to give it a go at 57 this time.

It was really easy taking this dish over to Gina’s since the meat was vacuum packed and we basically just brought a big bowl with all the prepped ingredients for the salad. We just threw the lamb onto a skillet when we got to Gina’s (1 min per side), and threw it all on a plate.

Honestly, I wanted to carbo-load with pasta, but I’m glad we stuck with the salad because I really appreciated having that space in my belly for all the amazing dishes that followed.

After our dish came Michelle’s amazing Banh Nam. Read more about it here.

And then came the best Beef Wellington I’ve ever had. This was my first time having Beef Wellington, but I’m confident that it will hold the title of best Beef Wellington for quite a while.

filet mignon, chanterelle mushrooms, crepe, pastry.. and other layers of deliciousness

Matt kept the alcohol flowing with selections from the Healthy Spirits monthly beer club. Gina followed up with an amazing peanut oil carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. YUM!

perfect sound forever

greatestcommondivisor — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:57:40 +0000

Did you know that momofuku means lucky peach in Japanese? I didn’t. At least not until now.

Lucky Peach is a newly launched, quarterly food journal published by McSweeney’s. It’s also the brainchild of Momofuku chef David Chang, who will be serving as Lucky Peach editor, alongside Peter Meehan (co-author of the Momofuku cookbook) and Chris Ying.

Michelle and I decided to check out the launch party yesterday at Make-Out Room. I’d say the two most exciting things about the launch party were 1) getting free tempura fried pickles while waiting in line to get in and 2) getting free drinks from a creepy old dude who paid for our drinks as commendation for so skillfully cutting him in line at the bar.

But hey, we got a picture taken with David Chang, so why not post it here right?

shitty iphone pic

After a couple drinks Michelle and I thought we might as well go talk to David Chang. Sure enough, there was a line for photos and autographs, so I decided to geek it out and ask for both. While getting the ridiculous autograph below, I managed to sneak in some questions such as “are you ever planning on doing korean food?” and “will you ever open up shop in San Francisco?” Sadly, he replied negatively to both.

read: jane, perfect sound forever. david

my beer-battered first issue of lucky peach

Michelle asked where he was planning to eat while in SF, and he said he was heading to Benu after the party. Michelle and I both giddily walked away and gave each other high fives for having beat him to the punch. ding ding ding, street cred.

Anyways, I haven’t had time yet to really give this first issue a good read, but after flipping through it, I expect I’m going to want to share some of it on this here blog. Also, Michelle and I may attempt the Momofuku ramen recipe for 4th of July weekend, so more to come on that. Let’s just say we’ll be talking about ramen again…

portlandia – pt. 2

greatestcommondivisor — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:45:53 +0000

We started day 2 off right at Tasty n Sons – which was truly tasty! While waiting to get seated, Michelle and I noticed a double-decker bus parked on an empty lot across the street. Michelle recognized the name, Lodekka, and remembered hearing it was a vintage store. Sure enough, it was. A very cute one at that.

waiting for lodekka to open

michelle perusing the goods

Like so many stores in Portland, Lodekka was super high in the cute+kitsch factor, but really low in relatable, purchaseable inventory.

After sifting through Lodekka, we headed back to Tasty n Sons for a delicious brunch. I wish I had taken some pictures there, especially of my Tasty Jerk – bloody mary with housemade beef jerky. Michelle and I did take a second to debate whether or not we thought the Tasty Jerk would be worth it (the Tasty Mary is a dollar less), mostly because we didn’t have anything better to do than ponder the marginal value of beef jerky. Given that it was housemade, I went for it, and it was absolutely worth it. Counting on Michelle to post her pics of it…

Tasty n Sons was one of the best meals I had in Portland. Michelle and I split a polenta dish with sausage ragu, mozzarella, and a fried egg, and the fried egg and cheddar biscuit with fried chicken. The fried chicken was nothing new, as Magnolia has been serving as almost identical dish at brunch lately, but the polenta and sausage ragu was ‘devilish’ to quote Michelle.

After brunch, we leisurely strolled the couple blocks to Mississippi where we popped into some more cute but pointless stores, my favorite being Pistils Nursery. Last time I was in Portland, they had tons of chickens just running around in the back. This time, they were cooped up, but still equally cute.

i would have wanted to take home the fuzzy white one in the front because he was just rolling around in the dirt just like tamale does on our rug

Walking from Tasty n Sons to Mississippi, Michelle and I noticed quite a few gardens with tons of herbs and vegetables. I’d definitely take up some backyard farming if I could pick up beautiful plants at Pistils all the time.

plants in the back

hanging plant i wish i could have brought home

terraniums i wish i could bring home

peonies i’d plant in my yard if i had one…

A little underwhelmed by shopping options in Mississippi, we headed over to Hair of the Dog Brewery, per the suggestion of many a beer connoisseur friend. They had a 3oz sampler option for each beer, so naturally, we asked for one of every beer on the menu! Deschutes still takes the cake but I think we definitely got a kick out of trying Hair of the Dog. Perhaps we shouldn’t have drunk them in order of increasing alcohol volume…

the lineup

Overall, the trip was a success (minus nausea from too much day-drinking). We had some really great eats, good beer, and amazing karaoke. Here’s a general recap of our trip:

Day 1:

Coffee at Barista
Shopping in the Pearl District
Lunch and drinks at Deschutes
Cocktails at Teardrop Lounge
Dinner at Clyde Common

Day 2:

Coffee from Stumptown Roasters
Brunch at Tasty n Sons
Shopping in Mississippi
Hair of the Dog Brewery
Dinner at Little Bird
Karaoke at Galaxy

Day 3:

Breakfast/lunch at downtown foodcarts
Another trip to Barista
Shopping on Hawthorne

portlandia – pt. 1

greatestcommondivisor — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:54:04 +0000

Ah yes, Portlandia. Where 20-something-year-olds go to retire…

Just got back on Monday night from a weekend girls’ trip to Portland with Michelle and Korey. I need a vacation from my vacation now, so I’m decompressing by, well, blogging.

bkb = best karaoke buds

Michelle drafted a pretty hefty lists of restaurants and breweries to hit up weeks before our trip, so we had plenty to do. Knowing I was in capable hands, I tried to let the serial planner in me just go with the flow. We landed pretty early on Saturday morning, so we thought best to start off by digging into our list of coffee shops/roasters. We stayed at the Ace Hotel so we decided not to start with the obvious choice of Stumptown Roasters and opted for what I think is the far superior choice, Barista.

outside super cute barista in the pearl districtmichelle enjoying her coffee

As it’s name would suggest, the baristas at Barista make far superior coffee than those at Stumptown. I guess they offer a curation of coffees from other roasters. We didn’t have enough time to go to Heart, but I did get a Heart roast iced coffee at Barista and it was DELICIOUS.

Once properly caffeinated, I was so excited to go back to Deschutes Brewery. They have great beer and great food. I couldn’t remember if I thought the food was good last time because I was already inebriated, or because it was actually good, but Michelle really loved her elk burger so I’d say the food was a hit too.

deschutes sampler

mmmm

cheers to a girls’ weekend!

Drunken shopping ensued. More to come later.