Raise your hand if 2007 was just The-Best-Year-EVER!

…Anyone?

…….Anyone??

I think for most of the folks I know, 2007 wasn’t exactly all mangoes and jolly ranchers. (yes, I just created my own saying =D) I don’t think it’d be fair to 2007 to say it was the worst year ever. Rather, it was more of a year of sacrifice; a year to yield your indulgences of the present for the betterment of the future.

When I made the decision to move back home to study for the CPA exam, I didn’t realize just how much my cushy lifestyle in San Diego would change. I gave up a great paying job, house by the beach, bar hopping adventures, and other shenanigans with friends desperately trying not to grow up(or old). All that went away, and suddenly I stood thigh-high in a muddy puddle of studying and drudgery. Between the drought of cashflow and lack of interesting stimuli, it was rough at times. Oh yeah, and my dog died too =(

Oh, but it wasn’t just me subjected to 2007 – the Year of Temporary Surrender.

All it takes is one look around my circle to see that everyone around me had given up something to better their futures. One friend moved away from the beach and pretty girls in San Diego to live in my RV parked outside in my backyard. I feel your pain. Two of my buddies each opened their own restaurants, both sacrificing their time and money for the success of their businesses, while testing the limits of their relationships. Another friend moved out of his house for most of the year to add another level to it, while one put everything on hold to become a firefighter. One friend said “fuck it”, and pursued his dancing career in LA. Even my girl made the call to fill up her already busy schedule to get a second masters degree.

I can’t wait for the new 2008 Ford Focus! WOOHOOOO!!!! lol

But even through the leaden steps of a slow and monotonous year, there were plenty of awesome highlights: I passed my CPA exam and landed a job at a CPA firm, I visited Costa Rica, Yosemite, and Atlanta, became a chef once again, and started my very own blog!

As far as everyone else goes: hopefully the job at Apple pays off, one friend’s restaurant is off to a great start and while the other friend may have hit a snag with his, he can look forward to being a proud daddy in the coming year. One friend is one step closer to his dream job, and another friend made it big in LA and is now dancing on tour for the Spice Girls. Three buddies even tied the knot(suckers) to their dream girls.

Ok…so maybe labeling 2007 the Year of Sacrifice isn’t so fitting. With things turning out the way they did at the end of the year, 2007 seems more like a Year of Having Balls – plodding through the bullshit to get done what needs to get done. 2007 – the Year of “Fuck It”, let’s make it happen. It’s never easy going through a change; there’s always risks involved and it takes guts(especially having the guts to propose lol). Sure, I gave up the cushy lifestyle, but I did what had to be done. Settling with my dead end job and living by the beach would have been the lazy, easy decision.

My Grandpa always said, “No Guts, No Glory”

Here’s the deal…I’m in Atlanta right now visiting my girl, and guess what I forgot to pack?

My camera! Yup! And guess what was on that camera??

Pictures of my giant hostess cupcake!

So, until I get back home and upload all my photos from over Christmas, I’ll leave you with this tantalizing teaser picture I took with my camera phone:

heehee…can you tell where I got lazy and used a different cake mix??

Sadly, this was the first real cake I’ve ever created, so it was definitely a learning experience.

So enjoy for now and I’ll follow up with more pictures as soon as I can.

I hope everyone had a good holiday with lots of good food and presents, and I guess family too.  =)

I’m working on the Giant Hostess Cupcake right now and it’s a pain.  I’ll let you know how it turns out soon!

Every so often you get an opportunity to be part of something really cool, culturally, in a city. Last month, I got to be part of a select group of people to be the first ever audience at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco. Thanks to Laura, Jessica and I were invited to enjoy a soft opening of the new San Francisco location, and take part in an exclusive show.

Located in the heart of a revitalized Fillmore jazz district, Yoshi’s is a great addition to the historic neighborhood. The new San Francisco location is a masterpiece – a state of the art jazz club, swanky, modern lounge, and tantalizing restaurant all in one.

The two level jazz auditorium has great sound!
Photo: Kevin Bond

The space is taunts an impressive 28,000sq ft venue, capable of 417 people in the jazz club and 371 in the restaurant and lounge areas. When we walked in, the lobby area wasn’t quite finished, but you could tell it was going to be something special. The spacious lobby area opens to the restaurant on the left side, with a large staircase leading up to the lounge above; connecting the gap between restaurant and auditorium. Straight ahead from the lobby is the ticket booths and jazz club entrance.

The restaurant had a more modern feel to it – with an open kitchen and a private party section enclosed in glass.
Photo:Kevin Bond

We were treated to a sample dinner menu, where each guest was allowed to order one item from the menu. I ordered the Yaki Hirame: pieces of roasted halibut cheek on a cedar plank, with tomato miso. It was delicious! The fish was fresh and flavorful, and the miso sauce was great. We also had the Edamame in shallot, garlic soy and the Black Tiger Shrimp. Both were wonderfully prepared…too bad they weren’t serving the whole menu, I wanted to try everything on it!

The band playing that night was Times Four I believe. Since I don’t typically listen to jazz, I don’t know how well they are compared to other jazz bands. But there’s just something about live music that just makes it easier to appreciate.

All told, I’m really excited about this place to open. Yoshi’s gives you the feeling of a classy, old school joint, with the modern twist in their design and food. It’s really a great combination. The Bay can never have enough world class places, and with world class music and cuisine, Yoshi’s is one of them.

Thanks for inviting us Laura!!

Henry wanted to learn how to make Creme Brulee. I had never made creme brulee before and having only tried a handful of different variations, I didn’t know what specific goals I was aiming for while searching for recipes.

If you’ve never had creme brulee, you’ve definitely gotta try it. It’s part of the whole “custard family” branch of desserts, just like flan(creme caramel) and pot de creme. Custards traditionally consist of milks, eggs and sugar. In the case of creme brulee, we use heavy cream instead of milk. And there is also a thin, brittle caramel, which is created by blowtorching sugar on top of the custard.

I don’t like a real “eggy” custard, so this recipe was probably best sampling I’ve ever tried. I used a recipe I found from Tyler Florence since I’ve had good luck with some of his recipes so far.

You’re going to need:

9 egg yolks

3/4 cup superfine sugar(regular granulated sugar is fine), plus a few tablespoons to sprinkle

1 quart of heavy cream

1 vanilla bean – if you can find them fresh in the produce, kudos to you! Otherwise, look for them in sold bottled individually in the spices area

1) Cream together the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is pale yellow and thick.

2) Pour the cream into a saucepan over low heat. Split the vanilla bean in half, and scrape out all the good bits from the inside and stir them into the cream. (I threw in the bean too afterwards just for some extra steeping) Let the cream come to a simmer, but watch it carefully! One minute it’s barely simmering, and the next it’s boiling over. Take off from heat once simmered

3) Temper the eggs/sugar mixture by gradually whisking in the hot cream. Make sure you straight out the vanilla bean skin and don’t add too fast or the eggs will cook!

4) Divide the custard into ramekins, or any individual sized, oven proof containers and place in a baking dish. Pour hot water into the baking dish so that it goes half way up your ramekins. Cover loosely to prevent browning, and bake for 40 minutes. (for some reason, mine took more like 55 minutes) You’ll know it’s done when the custard is barely set around the edges. It should be pretty loose, but not very runny.

5) Cool to room temperature, and then place in the fridge for about 2 hours. Sprinkle with sugar and torch that bad boy for a minute or so until it’s a golden brown/caramel color. I usually let the caramel cool slightly to form that nice crunchy crust on top…plus it’s really hot.

What you should have is a super rich, vanilla bean flavored, creamy custard. There should be a great contrast between the smooth, velvety texture of the custard against the sweet crunch of the caramel. Trust me, make this recipe!!

….Just don’t eat too much of it. Every tablespoon of heavy cream has 5g of fat. Yes, you read that correctly….every tablespoon has 5g of fat. And we just used a whole quart!! haha!!

A buddy of mine wanted to learn how to make a few things. So I told him, “Sure, you buy the groceries, and I’ll show you how to cook!”

Haha, not such a bad deal right? So Henry wanted to learn to make a couple of things: a couple dessert dishes and a main dish. What we came up with were a Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, Pear Cobbler, and the Mushroom Risotto I made a few weeks ago. And thus we gave birth to the First Ever PoppaWinst.com Cooking Class! (FEPWCC for short)

Henry’s reaction when I told him we’d be documenting this event. LOL!

Real Eggs come from California…I don’t know what all you other folks are eating.

So as part of the learning process, the FEPWCC is perfect for those novices out there who don’t know a lot of cooking techniques. Here’s an example of Henry learning how to seperate egg whites from the yolks:

Icky!

Contrary to some peoples’ beliefs, Pears, Apples and CARROTS do NOT peel themselves!!!

Mmmm…Pears for the Pear cobbler.

Henry learned about how to properly chop and dice veggies, how to saute mushrooms, and other tidbits of info.

Eat it up ladies…a man on the stove. LOL I should’ve made him wear an apron.

All in all, the FEPWCC had its ups and downs. The end products didn’t turn out as well as pretty as I thought they would, thus the lack of finished product photos haha. However, everything tasted great….so once we work out the kinks in the recipes, we’ll do a retake! I think next time we’ll stick to more traditional recipes.

I must say the Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee was FANTASTIC!!! I’ll post up the recipe for that next!

Also, keep posted for more openings for the Second Ever PoppaWinst.com Cooking Class!!!

=D

Earlier this year I began my quest of conquering the CPA exam. I really detest studying at home. For some reason I never feel like I am getting the things I need done while I’m at home.

I really needed to find a place where I could settle in, break out my laptop and books, have some great coffee and treats, and get some work done. Luckily, I found Julie’s.

Julie’s is a quaint little coffee and tea shop located on a rejuvenated Park St. in 1950′s Alameda. Having been born and raised in Alameda my whole life, I could appreciate finding such a jewel of uniqueness in a stretch of washed up businesses.

First, and foremost, a great cafe needs to understand great product. Julie’s has an excellent selection of coffees and teas, mostly organic and fair trade brands. The coffee is really fresh, and they really know how to make a great espresso. The teas served there are fresh, delicious and really flavorful. She has a decent selection of green teas, black teas, as well as herbal tisanes. There are daily specials of iced teas and herbal drinks; my favorite is the Lavender Lemonade!! If you’re into gingery drinks, I highly recommend the ginger-lemon brew.

There also is a small selection of food available. I highly recommend any of the daily special salads. I loved the Roasted Beet salad. The tartine open sandwich is really great too, with fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and basil. Pizza slices like pesto and walnut, and artichoke and mushroom are great deals for $3 a slice.

What I love most is the atmosphere. There are various sized tables and chairs for you to kick back in, have some coffee, break out a book or just hang out and talk. They change the artwork roughly about every month or so, keeping the design and look of the place fresh and different. In back they have this awesome garden patio with picnic tables and benches to hang out on warm, sunny days.

I really found a winner here when I decided to use Julie’s as my place to settle in and break out the books for hours and hours. Thankfully, I can say that all the money I spent here paid off, and I got just enough studying done to pass my exams!

So if you’re ever in Alameda, go ahead and pass up Starbucks and Peets, and make your way to Julie’s Coffee and Tea shop.

Do you love sandwiches??

Well, I do. And how can you not love a sandwich that looks like this:

This beauty is called the Susan’s special, on Dutch Crunch, Mixed meat, everything. That’s how I order it anyway, and it’s one of the best sandwiches you can find in the East Bay.

The Susan’s special is turkey meat, jack cheese, bacon and cranberry sauce. The thing about Sandwich Board is that they use roasted turkey meat for their sandwiches, not pre-formed deli turkey. They even ask if you if you want White, Dark or a Mix of white/dark meat. Once you bite into one of their turkey sandwiches, you can taste actual white, or dark, meat carved straight from a turkey.

It’s definitely better than any turkey sandwich you’re ever gonna make after thanksgiving.

They say they’ve been serving roasted turkeys everyday since 1983. Who would have thought that this little hole-in-the-wall place, with hardly any seating, would survive the Subway “Eat Fresh!” era, the Quizno’s “MMMM…Toasty!” push?? It’s definitely a hop in, order, hop out type of place, with no fancy slogans or exotic ingredients that’ll remind you of the motherland; and that’s ok.

Because what Sandwich Board serves up is a damn good sandwich, and that’s what any man would want.

So go ahead….take one last look…

I’m speechless.

Holy Pork Butts!

I ran across this website that has a Bacon of the Month Club.

You get either a 1-2lb package each month, recipes, a tee-shirt, and other goodies.

Kinda cool for all those bacon lovers out there!

Domenic put together another little time lapse video of the Thanksgiving Dinner.

Check it out!

And yes, I do pose like a pansy sometimes. =D