Knuckity Futs

Adventures of a gap-year intern living in Berkeley, CA

[knuckityfuts]

The Little Next Door

I always seem to end up here at exactly the same time every year. It's not fancy, or terribly innovative, but it's good, and more importantly it's reliable (something that I've found is hard to come by in LA). We were in West Hollywood after Ian got a fresh 'do at Baxter & Finley so decided to drag our starving selves over to 3rd for an appropriately yummy end to a long day.

(French Onion Soup - too much cheese or nah?)

(Moules Frites)

(Creme Brûlee) It was reeeeeeeeeeeal swell. Xx, VT

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Breakfast at Grand Central Market

(Capuccino a la G&B Coffee)

(Lox with Accessories on the best Bagel from Wexler's)

(The O.G. aka Pastrami and Mustard on Rye from Wexler's)

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Sol Bar at Solage, Napa Valley

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Embarcadero Farmer's Market

This is long overdue.... San Francisco gets +1,000 points for food.

( Lavender Cherry Soda in Reusable Bottles )

Then we moved inside for some more...carbs and fat. What we do best.

(Orange & Fennel Dry Sausage from Boccalone, and Fog from Cypress Grove)

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Peaches & Cream "Pie"

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Easter Weekend in NYC

Here's my weekend in a nutshell...

Sara and I met up in the city on Friday afternoon, and began the weekend with a little stroll turned 60 block hunt for milk bread. 

(Walking through Central Park on the most gorgeous day)

On Saturday, we headed out to the Union Square Greenmarket and then walked up 5th Ave. towards our second stop of the day, Eataly. Being that it was insanely crowded, we ended up grabbing a light lunch at a standing tables which consisted of a selection of charcuterie, cheese, and olives. Also, Mathew stole bread. Accidentally, of course. 

(Pistachio, Tiramisu, and Lemon Gelato from Eataly)

That night we met up at the Waverly Inn in the West Village for drinks and dinner. After that, it was off to bed as we all had early starts ahead of ourselves the next morning. 

(Never too old for Easter)

After being pelted with Easter eggs , and 10 year old twins screaming "WAKE UP VIE VIE". We all moved downstairs for an Easter egg hunt and coffee before we headed uptown to Cafe Boulud for Easter brunch. 

(Macaron from Laduree)

After the meal we dragged ourselves to Laduree for even more sugar, popped into the Met briefly, and then walked home across the park. 

I am one lucky duck.

xx,

VT

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Gingerbread Cookies

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/3 cup molasses 1 egg 2 tablespoons water 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon each allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt

...from The Taste of Home Full recipe can be found here.

I think they're real f**king snazzy.

xx,

VT

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Linzer Cookies

INGREDIENTS

3/4 lb (3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 3 1/2 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup good raspberry preserves Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

...from Ina Garten's The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook Full recipe can be found here.

Let's start this year off on a sweet note...Happy 2014 everyone!

XX,

VT

[matress-actress]

Keep forgetting I went to Africa

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Don't Give Up the Ship

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Crêpes Dentelles

Being that I'm back in LA after a hugely depressing goodbye to my beloved Bay, I've decided to pick up the cooking again. Or rather the baking...  

(Sweet Devon Butter - This was lightly salted, so I omitted the "pinch of salt" from the recipe)

The recipe was a major pain in the ass to find, and I had to make some conversions, but the final rundown ended up being quite simple.

1/2 cup good Butter (8 tbsp.)

1/2 cup Flour

1/2 cup Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cream together butter and sugar until light yellow, and fluffy. Then mix in egg, and flour until combined (I found that a whisk worked best for the egg, then I switched to a spatula for the rest). Spoon teaspoon dollops onto a Silpat and spread thin into 3 1/2 by 7 1/2 rectangles (think the face of a brick, I was able to fit three on each baking tray). Bake until golden. Remove and quickly roll over *cylinder molds, or anything with a diameter of your thumb...roughly. Allow to cool.

*traditionally these can be made in a tube shape, or flatter. To achieve the flatter shape, use a knife to fold the cookie. No need to buy a cylinder mold, just wrap a marker in wax paper.

Tip: Depending on the humidity, they don't last too long. My recommendation would be to eat them quickly....shouldn't be a problem.

xx,

VT

[knuckityfuts]

The French Laundry

For the past four years my brother has asked for one thing when he graduates, dinner at The French Laundry. Well, this past weekend he accepted his diploma and the following Tuesday we dined alongside our friends and family at California's most famous restaurant. Nine courses, and 9+ glasses of wine later, was it worth it? Every bit.  

Here are a few snaps of the meal. A total of nine courses plus a surprise course, beginning with canapés, oysters and caviar, moving into fish, then meat, ending with cheese, and dessert. For the past several months, I have been trying to expand my pallette in preparation for this meal, particularly where rare proteins are concerned. And the wine, oh the amount of wine! Well, living at Cal prepared me for that...not very well I might add (see below).

"Oysters and Pearls" Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar

(This was our "Surprise Course", which was a custard of Jidori Hen Egg topped with a reduction of something I cannot recall, and a chive potato chip)

Salad of French Laundry Garden Radishes English Pea Custard, Candied Orange Zest, Pea Tendrils, and Ginger Vinaigrette

(Four different breads were served throughout the meal, this was the first and my favorite, described as a chocolate croissant, but instead of chocolate there was butter, a lot of butter. Speaking of which...the butter pictured was sweet, there was also a salted butter.)

You will have to excuse the quality of the photos as the meal progressed both myself, and the photos grew more and more blurry.

Sautéed Fillet of Pacific Medai Compressed Yellow Peaches, Fennel Bulb, Mizuna and Finger Lime "Vierge"

Sweet Butter Poached Maine Lobster Ruby Beets, Sacramento Delta Green Asparagus, Bing Cherry and Watercress

Four Story Hill Farm Poularde "Rillette" Black Mission Fig Marmalade, Red Pearl Onions and Sunflower Seed Viniagrette

Herb-Roasted Elysian Fields Farm Lamb Nicoise Olives, Preserved Meyer Lemon, Sweet Peppers, Globe Artichoke and Sauce "Bagna Cauda"

Andante Dairy "Legato" Virginia Peanut Brittle, Celery Branch and Dark Raisin Purée

Hayden Mango Sorbet Coconut "Succes", Sichuan Peppercorn Meringue and Compressed Golden Pineapple (pictured)

Valhrona Chocolate "Marquise" Cherry Marmalade and Caramel Crisps

At this point I had consumed more champagne and wine than anyone should, and was more interested in how shiny my utensils were than the complexity of my dessert. They were fabulous, I'm sure, but in all honesty I have no recollection of eating them. In fact, I don't think I even made it more than a bite into the chocolate offering, as I was having more fun shattering the caramel crisp on top. Either way you take it, I enjoyed them.

Our host, Milton, took us back into the kitchen after the meal. So extremely cool.

In many ways this meal was not only a celebration of Ian's graduation, but the culmination of my time in SF. So I'd like this post, journal entry, or whatever this blog is intended to stand as, to serve as a thank you to everyone who made the past several months so ridiculously incredible. So, for the last "xx" from the Bay for a while, with all my love...

xx,

VT

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Fleur de Sel Caramels

I'm having fun seeing what I can turn the contents of my pantry into. Usually when Celine gets back from a trip she will bring some obscure food product as a souvenir from her visit, so over the past year or so we've accumulated a noteworthy collection of quirky unperishables. Today's challenge was Fleur de Sel, or french sea salt. I wasn't feeling the savory so opted for something sweet in the form of homemade caramels topped with a little of the salt for an interesting, and traditionally French twist on one of my favorites.  

Mark Bitman's recipe can be found here.

When I realized that the candy thermometer was buried in some box we had yet to unpack, and the likely hood of finding it was slim to none, I had a bit of a mid-recipe panic. The sugar was already bubbling away, Ralph's was too far away. Deep breaths. So instead I stood over the mixture for the next 30 minutes, without breaking my focus waiting for the perfect shade of golden (brown). Phew! Phew! Phew! Note to self: Read the entire recipe before starting it. I got excited.

I've heard that making candy can be tricky because you can very easily burn yourself on the sugar if your not careful. Well, burn myself making caramels I did not, but burn myself taking toast out of the oven, I did. Badly. In fact, I believe that my right thumbprint now has a grate-shaped line through the middle of it. So I write this sitting in bed, one hand shoved in a bag of frozen peas, and the other unwrapping caramels.

xx,

VT

[knuckityfuts]

Clover Blossom Honey + Almond Granola

I've been trying to shake my "mind alarm" from its pattern of waking me up at six thirty every morning to go to work now that I'm on vacation, but for the past week or so I haven't been able to, and find myself sleepily searching through the pantry for something to eat every morning. So today, I had thought I'd struck gold when I reached in and found a box of granola, only to bite into a bowl of stale, powdery ick. Luckily, I had a quick little flashback to last summer on Nantucket when Tita Beana, Laurel and the twins made, from scratch, their very own granola. Ding!  

So I scavenged the kitchen for things to chuck in to the mix. I began with Ina Garten's Homemade Granola recipe, but substituted a couple of things, and cut the measurements in half.

Barefoot Contessa Recipe (Revised):

2 cups Rolled Oats

1/4 cup Clover Blossom Honey

5/8 cup Vegetable Oil

3/4 cup Toasted Almonds (chopped)

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine oil, honey, and vanilla, then add the wet to the dry mixture, and fold together well to incorporate (I found a spatula worked best). On a lined baking tray, thinly spread the mixture on one flat layer. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once at the 10 minute mark. Allow to cool, and brake up with your hands.

xx,

VT

[knuckityfuts]

The Ultimate Fishcake...Or So The Recipe Claims

For the past couple of weeks I have had a serious crabcake craving, but haven't gotten around to finding one in Berkeley, and since I'm back in LA now, I'll have to wait another two weeks until I can resume the search. So while these aren't crabcakes - I was inspired by some fishcakes that a friend had ordered at a recent dinner at Skates on the Bay, they came close enough.  

Recipe can be found here...

Aside from burning half of them, I think they came out pretty well. At least they looked half decent. I'm pretty scared of cooking any fish or poultry, but managed to avoid any stray bones, or undercooked fish. Phew!

Bon Appetite!

xx,

VT

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F**king Tahts

Last time I mentioned tahts in a post, three people messaged me to either point out the typo, or ask why I didn't know how to spell "tarts". WELL, to those people "tahts", is an entirely acceptable spelling of the word "tarts", so ha! 'twas intentional. Anyways, I found another Farmer's Market nearby and went a little fruit crazy. As a result I was left with several pounds of strawberries, and not enough creativity to make good use for them other than a trusty taht.  

Excuse the profanity in the title.

It's also Shartz's birthday, so this is a birthday taht. The best kind of taht. So even though she's across the country, we're celebrating Shartz's 19th here on the West Coast.

Generally one of the problems that I run into whenever I make something is that there's no one to eat it...other than myself. Luckily, we have some friends staying with us so between them, Celine and her team, and the security guards, we're good to go!

xx,

VT

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See You In A While, Crocodile

So the time has come when I pack up my room, my office, and my life here and head back to LA. You know the saying, "You never know what you've got 'till its gone"? I am an expert on this topic. While its hard to leave behind such an amazing place, I am heading out in the best possible way, accomplished, happy, and incredibly thankful for the opportunities, experiences, and people that I have been so lucky to know in my time here. And while leaving now is harder than I ever expected, I find that most of the best things are.  

Before I moved to Berkeley I was so used to comparing LA to Cambridge, the winner always being Cambridge. It seems things have shifted and now when I compare Berkeley ( and SF) to Cambridge, the previously undefeated champion has been taken down a couple notches...and LA sucks even more.

Honestly though, the thing I will miss the most is the food, or rather my experience finding, planning, and eating the food. I think it's safe to say that aside from work, I spent 95% of my time pursuing various food related activities, and it was fabulous. Luckily, I will be back in two weeks for Ian's graduation, and Strada, Elmwood, Gather, Bette's, Humboldt Fog, meat cones, shawarma, and super nachos.

xx,

VT