Happy Foods Blog

I just picked up the latest from Maestro... A culmination of 60 years of cooking in a beautiful collection of his best recipes... with a DVD of instructions: how to make chocolate leaves, and how to put an apron on, and.... I love Pepin and look up to him. I learned A LOT from him. In fact, to relax, I usually go to YouTube and watch some of his KQED episodes... I really do. You go Jacque, and for many more years of health and cooking shows....

Yes, it is that time of year where you see tons of beautiful orange pumpkins sitting around anywhere you look. Apart from being aesthetically pleasing to look at, a pumpkin is a good -in fact great- source of yummy things. The top on mind -blame my upbringing- is the seed... pumpkin seeds: roasted and salted make a wonderful snack and perfect accompaniment to a good ale. There is also that thick orange skin -or is it fat, or muscle- that you can make pumpkin stuff out of: pumpkin pies, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin kibbeh, -and in our family- pumpkin PANCAKES! Ever since we got that okido issue, we -meaning all of us- have been hooked on it. The recipe is below (pics to follow). Please make it, and make it often. Thanks Okido issue 6: Ingredients: 1 cup of flour, 2 tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of cinnamon (or other mix of spices), 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of pumpkin puree, 1 egg, and 2 tbsp of oil (I usually skip). What to do: Mix above ingredients together. Warm a p...

This is a brief post about what we ate on our recent lovely trip to Paris. We have made it to unbelievable restaurants, sampled amazing chocolates, saw beautiful art, walked romantic streets, and just had a great time. The restaurants we ate at are all in the nouveau French cuisine where the emphasis is on fresh, local, healthy,... and amazing. Arriving to our hotel, we head immediately to lunch at Ze Kitchen Gallery ... a funky and hip restaurant in St. Germain right a block from the Seine. The appetizers we chose were a play on raw fish. These dishes to me are as good as the fish you get, and they were wonderful (with a unique presentation): Asian flavors, mixed with slightly sweet and crunchy peels of cucumber, some radishes marinated green papaya and mango. Dora had the (raw) sardines, tomato and a ginger like sauce. It is slightly challenging to eat raw sardines as the fish is a little tough. Trout from Banka.... Sardines Cod... Rabbit! Desert... Ch...

Delicious!

And lucky for us, we're living on the front line. When we first moved to North Beach, we ate at North Beach Pizza about once a week- it's a block away, has friendly service, and beautiful pizza. We soon realized that by walking an extra two or three blocks, we could also enjoy the classic, Golden Boy Pizza, or the new kid, Tony's Pizza Napoletana. Talk about hard decisions! Nikos stands by North Beach - once he finds something he likes, he's difficult to budge. I, on the other hand, although enjoying North Beach for its feel-good atmosphere and always-consistent pizza, and appreciating Golden Boy for it's no-nonsense, pizza-in-hand-with-beer-at-the-bar attitude, have a soft spot for Tony's (if we can ever get in). It's pricier than the others, but I don't mind paying for the top-quality ingredients. Tony Gemignani (a bit of a celeb in the pizza world: he's won a pizza "world-cup", has been on Food Network, etc etc) is passionate abou...

Yes, you read it correctly, Yogurt soup. It is one of those things that go well with cold weather, feeling happy, cozy moments, lazy Sunday afternoons, etc. What: 2 lbs of yogurt (use at least 2%) one clove of garlic a pinch of rice a tablespoon of cornstarch some salt dried mint Put the yogurt through a metal strainer directly in the pot. Force it through with a spoon. Add to the pot the cornstarch that was mixed in a small cup of water. Place pot over medium heat and STIR, and STIR and STIR. After 5 minutes add the salt and the rice, and KEEP STIRRING until you see bubbles, or it has started boiling. This will take about 20 minutes (yes you need to stir this whole time). Then, you can turn to low heat and keep it on until rice is cooked. Fill a bowl, sprinkle some crushed dried mint on top, and ENJOY! (of course in Lebanon, you would eat this soup with many things in it - my favorite is Shish Barak or Lebanese Raviolis - which are meat filled little ''hats'...

So, I have been making some of the pies from David Lebovitz's blog (boy am I so jealous - living in Paris, and blogging about food there). Anyhow, I made two pies: the almond Chez Panisse Pie, and the Quince "Easy" pie. I loved both. DAvid is really good, and has a good palette. The almond pie was my favorite. It is crusty, rich in flavor, and just delicious. It is a bit tricky to make. The texture is heavenly: The top is this crackly caramelized almonds bathed in sugar and cream (need I say more), but sitting on top of a thin film of simple pie crust which is slightly chewy. The Grand Marnier comes through, along with the pungent almond smell. I love it . The second pie will be my every other week jam pie. It really is simple to make: just mix flour, butter and baking powder, add the almond essence (do NOT forget this!), lay the dough in the pie mold, put your favorite jam, cover with dough leaves, sprinkle with sugar, bake. Done. He also calls for adding a third of a cu...