Tarte Fine - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Leslie of Lethally Delicious decided on Tarte Fine on page 315 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I called a couple Trader Joe's and found that their frozen all-butter puff pastry was back in the freezer. And since Los Angeles is going through the biggest heatwave (today was 113 degrees - hottest since we kept track of these things!), I hung out in the open freezer aisle of Trader Joe's!

I only made part of the recipe...a little rectangle of butter and apples. The apples from Ha's Farm are sliced thin and layered on the puff pastry. I was supposed to role out the puff pastry a bit but it was 4:30 am and I forgot about this part. Again, heat wave = bake before the sun comes up!

A quick brush of apricot jam finishes off this super easy treat.

Don't you just love Dorie Greenspan? Did you know she has a new cookbook? Around my French Table is absolutely beautiful! And I'm giving away a copy to someone. See this post to enter (deadline is Thursday). Good luck and I hope you join in on the fun with French Fridays with Dorie! :)

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Recipe:
Leslie's blog: Lethally Delicious
Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 315)

Dorie's Around My French Table Giveaway!

Win this book!

This summer was challenging. The weather was gloomy, and so were some other things. I dropped off a lot of blogging, but now that "fall" is here, I'm hoping to come back to the swing of things! (btw, "Fall" in Los Angeles includes 90 degree temps this weekend! Eeck!)

This fall, I'm joining a new cooking group! French Fridays with Dorie is a sister project of Tuesdays with Dorie. The awesome Dorie Greenspan has a new book out and FFwD is going to go through the book one recipe at a time.

Since "cooking" to me usually involves mixing TWO different cereals, soy milk AND a sliced banana (oh yes, that is four different ingredients!), I am looking forward this group!

And if you want to join, register here.

My Tuesdays with Dorie friend Mary (such a cool name!) has given me an early 40th birthday gift of Dorie's new book! Whoo hoo! It is beautiful and I can't wait to start cooking. Then I thought, what better way to celebrate Fall, Dorie, Birthdays, Friends and all that good stuff, than by paying it forward and giving one person a copy of the book?!

To enter the giveaway (one copy of Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours), just leave a comment (if you aren't connected to a blog, leave your email address...and if you have a blogger account but it's private so I can't see it...leave your email address). Deadline is Thursday, September 30, 2010 at midnight PDT. Only US addresses. FTC disclosure: I'm paying for this myself.

{10/1/2010 update: Contest is closed! Congrats to #35 The Goatherd}

Good luck and happy cooking! - mary the food librarian

How to Grow Tomatoes! Secrets Revealed!

Remember my earlier post about growing golden beets? Well, today I'm going to let you in on a huge gardening secret! How to grow tomatoes!!!

1. Order seeds.
2. Give them to your parents and their "all-garden" backyard. Yeah, there isn't room for a lawn chair or anything. It is all Southern California, all-garden backyard.
3. Dad plants, encourages growth, waters, transplants, stakes, and grows the tomatoes.
4. Mom waters the plants and runs the heck out of the backyard when she sees a tomato bug.
5. Voicemail says, "Hi Mary, This is your Mom. We have tomatoes if you want to come over."

And you thought gardening was difficult!

I love, love, love, these yellow heirlooms. They were sooo delicious!

My folks will celebrate their 43 wedding anniversary next month! My dad is 78 and my mom is 67. My mom always says,"11 years apart, just like Prince Charles and Diana." Um, Mom, that one didn't quite work...

Unfortunately, Southern California had a really gloomy and cold summer. My dad only got one round of tomatoes this year...and his cucumbers definitely didn't give him a bumper crop. But it was all delicious!

I know people were canning, making tarts, salads, and so much more. But here is my recipe:

Ingredients and tools:

• Tomato
• Sea Salt
• Hand or knife

Eat tomato from hand with a dash of salt, or cut up and eat more dignified.

Thanks Mom and Dad for growing such great tomatoes this year! Let's do it again next year!- mary

Tuesdays with Dorie...by midnight?

I'm hoping to get my TWD post up by midnight (um, I have to bake it first). Mine will be made with nectarines and peaches. Cranberries? What?! No way are cranberries close to Los Angeles...and my bag of frozen cranberries died when the refrig had that fatal heart attack this summer.

In the meantime, check our my friend Mary on the Everyday Food blog. Yes, she is only a mini-Kevin Bacon away from her fav Martha Stewart (photo of Mary and Martha)

ttyl, - mary the food librarian

Ferry Building (Delica & Miette) and Tartine, San Francisco

Holy Smokes. I'm finally at the the end of my Restaurant Week from recent gallivants around Los Angeles and a recent trip to San Francisco. New resolution: Eat, Shoot and Post.

Today, we celebrate eating, laughing, walking around, and enjoying a recently freaking freezing August trip to the Bay Area.

This is 5 year old Julia. I was lucky to spend 4 days with her and her mom, Agnes in SF. We drove up from Los Angeles to visit our RA from the UCLA dorms, Sumi. Julia is a doll - full of life and just so sweet. She is really polite - always offering me a Mentos candy in the car. Her older sister was with Agnes' husband at the Star Wars convention in Florida, so this was one of the first times Julia got her mom all to herself.

Of course, we headed to the Ferry Building on our first full day. And even though there are so many delicious places to eat in the Ferry Building, I always head toward Delica, the Japanese deli. Here are some of my favorite Delica dishes: Wasabi potato salad and spinach sesame salad.

Delica's Roast Beef sushi (so fantastic), green bean miso salad, potato croquette, and a FANTASTIC corn mascarpone salad. Oh, it is fresh and delicious.

I just love this photo of Julia. She's waiting for the bus to take us to the Ferry Building.

See the beautiful cakes and pastries in the Miette display case? Julia had her pick...and she picked...

A bag of jelly beans. She loves pink. She love jelly beans. So naturally she bought candy at Miette!

Agnes and I split a double ganache chocolate cake. Forget the jelly beans.

Inside looks like this.

We also went over to Tartine for some breakfast. All San Francisco mornings should start with a big dose of hot chocolate and butter. I mean, Tartine's croissants.

Tartine's ham and cheese croissant. Agnes said it was delicious!!!

Almond croissant for later.

Tartine's lovely lemon tart. Holy smokes...this is beautiful and lovely.

Yes, a four-day period, I saw Natalie Merchant in concert, and Wicked at the Orpheum Theatre, and ate and ate. Here is Julia all ready for Wicked in her perfect green dress. She knows all the songs too. The family listens to the CD in the car a lot!

Agnes, Julia, Sumi, Diane, Pam, Toby, Shannon - Thanks for a great trip to the Bay Area. Let's do it again very very soon! - mary

Restaurants and Shops, San Francisco:
Ferry Building Embarcadero at the foot of Market Street
Delica
Melitte
Tartine 600 Guerrero Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 487 2600

Cocoa Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies - Tuesdays with Dorie

Cocoa Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies

Have you had that week where you are late for everything...all week long? Well, I'm having that. I think the Labor Day holiday threw me off and I'm celebrating Wednesdays with Dorie today.

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine selected Peanut Butter Crisscrosses on page 78 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I used Dorie's "playing around" section and made Cocoa Peanut Butter Crisscross cookies. I made 1/2 the recipe, skipped the chopped peanuts, used creamy Skippy PB, and added 1/4 c Dutched cocoa powder and 1/4 c mini chocolate chips. I made mine a little smaller and baked them for 11 minutes instead of 13 minutes for the larger cookies.

And did your hear? Dorie Greenspan's new book is out! I can't wait for mine to come in the mail. Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours! Be sure to order your copy now...and perhaps donate one to your local public library?! :) Laurie, the genius behind TWD is starting a new group "French Fridays with Dorie" - Sign up now and join the fun.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Recipe:
Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine's blog (it's in French and English! Whoo hoo!) or
Page 78 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Ici Ice Cream, Berkeley, CA

Ever since my cousin introduced me to Ici, I try to fit in a trip on every visit. They have wonderful handcrafted ice creams and sorbets in great flavors. Peach habanero sorbet anyone? How about shiso leave ice milk? Yum!

In addition to yummy frozen treats (including great ice cream sandwiches), they have sell some treats too. I've never purchased those...because I'm too busy stuffing my face with ice cream!

Um, I completely forget what Pam got...dude, I need to blog as soon as the event happens. But I had a taste and it was delicious! I've never been disappointed...and I've tasted a lot of their flavors! See all these friends in a previous entry...well, I tried all their flavors.

Boysenberry Sorbet for me. Delicious!

I can't wait for my next visit to see Pam and Toby! He's got a nice mohawk going here. I pushed Toby around in his cool stroller playing the role of Auntie Food Librarian.

Here is little Toby (9-months) in a baby backpack on his mom, Pam. Pam's dad created this sun shade to protect Toby's soft-as-a-freaking-baby-skin. He can't wait to have Ici ice cream soon!

Restaurant:
Ici Ice Cream (ee see)
2948 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705
510.665.6054

Vik's Chaat, Berkeley, CA

Sorry I haven't been blogging in a bit...summer has been crazy busy. I'm finally catching up on some posts and baking again. So, here goes a few more restaurant posts from my trip to the Bay Area. Yeah, I think this is Restaurant Week #523. - mary

My friend Pam and her adorable 9 month old son, Toby and I went to Vik's Chaat in Berkeley for some Indian food. We've been before...but now they have a new location.

This is the most beautiful sign around. The new Vik's Chaat location has a freaking parking lot. Awesome!

Vik's new location has the same system of ordering at the counter and then listening intensely for your name to be called over the speaker. The acoustics are kinda bad for it, and the speaker usually holds the microphone too close to his mouth, and there might be an accent. Somehow, we all get our food. And now they have different sections for dosa, special of the day, etc.

Pam and I got the Masala Dosa. I love the Dosa. One of the best Indian dishes on the planet.

I love how big the dosa (thin savory crepe) can be!

This vegetarian dosa is filled with potatoes and curry. Pam and I seem to always get the same thing so I can't really tell you about the rest of the menu! :)

And the best thing about Vik's? Cute little Toby, of course! How cute is he?! I wanted to put him in my bag and bring him home. Hopefully, Pam will come down soon for Toby's first visit to the Los Angeles area. We have some great India food here...so, please come down! Next up, a trip to Ici in Berkeley for some ice cream and sorbet!

Restaurant:
Vik's Chaat
2390 4th St, Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 644-4432