Weekend Stuffs, Diwali Edition

On Saturday, our good friend Anisha invited a big crew of friends to her mom's house in Los Gatos (near San Jose) for a Diwali celebration, a Hindu holiday that you can read more about here. Mama Kumra served all 20+ of us an amazing, gigantic feast of Indian food.

Prior to eating, we turned on all the lights in the home & shared a prayer, asking Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and Ganesh, the God of auspicious beginnings, to bring prosperity and well-being. After our feast, we all went outside to light candles & sparklers.Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of the epic pool party that went down after our food settled.

What a way to mark the start of the holiday season - with good friends & a festival of lights! Thank you, Kumras, for a wonderful celebration!

Korka + Tyler listening to the puja

Rebecca with her candle

The Diwali Feast

Jesse likes

Fun with Sparklers!

Indeed :)

Olive Oil Muffins

Our good friend, Mary, suggested we visit Abraço while we were in NYC last week. She's mad for their olive oil cake, and I couldn't wait to try it. I was also going to bring her some for her birthday yesterday as a fun surprise. Unfortunately, we ran out of city time. SOOO, I thought I'd try and make my own and scoured the internets for a suitable stand-in. I came across Smitten Kitchen's recipe for olive oil muffins and got to work!

I was a bit apprehensive when  I was instructed to add balsamic vinegar, as I wasn't sure if it would overpower the zest and sugar, but it definitely added a richness. I still adapted it just slightly by cutting the vinegar to 1 tablespoon and adding an additional tablespoon of sugar, and I think it was a good call. These could either be served as an alternative to cornbread dinner muffins or as a sweet coffee cake or post-dinner treat.
If Mary gives me the thumbs up, I'm definitely keeping this recipe in the repertoire.

 

Olive Oil Muffins

Borrowed from Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Giada DeLaurentis
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons orange zest
2 teaspoons lemon zest1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons whole milk
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Powdered sugar, for sifting


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin.
Blend together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, eggs, and zests in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vinegar and milk. Gradually beat in the oil. Add the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Crush the almonds with your hands as you add them to the batter and stir until mixed. Fill the muffin tin almost to the top of the paper liners. Bake until golden on top and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins onto a platter and let cool for 5 more minutes. Sift powdered sugar over the muffins and serve.


Image and recipe via Smitten Kitchen

Monday, Oh Monday

Monday, you're back!
...even though we asked you nicely to stay away. You're persistent!!

We could reeeaaaalllly use another day like we had yesterday...Yep, where we didn't even leave the house once (well, The Boy did, to get crescent rolls & wine). It was cold & windy out, & The Boy had a tickle in his throat. What better reasons to hunker?!

The Girl stayed in PJs & cooked all day. First course was an amazing egg casserole Esme learned to make last weekend in Sonoma. Recipe below.

Round 2:
A HUGE pot of veggie soup (please come over for leftovers)!
We haven't been doing the best job of eating all the veggies from our weekly veggie box, so we decided to throw them all in for a day-long simmer! It was deelish! We added carrots, ginger, parsley, tomatoes, fava beans, squash, shallot, onion, garlic, lemon & broccoli...OHMIGOSH YUM! Here she is, pre-boil.

We were super dorky and made a video of the whole soup-making experience.
If you ask very nicely, we'll show you :)

Sausage and Egg Casserole with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Cheese

Thanks, Jenn Mann

1 pound Italian sausage (1/2 lb sweet & 1/2 lb hot), casings removed
1/2 cup chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
5 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 cup half and half
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups grated cheese (I used a mixture of cheddar, mozzarella and gruyere)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Sauté sausage in medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of fork into small pieces, about 10 minutes. Add shallots and garlic and sauté 3 minutes. Add sun-dried tomatoes and 2 tablespoons parsley; stir 1 minute. Spread sausage mixture in prepared dish (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate).

Whisk eggs, egg yolks, half and half, whipping cream, 1 1/2 cups cheese, and salt in large bowl to blend well. Pour egg mixture over sausage mixture in dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese and 2 tablespoons parsley over top. Bake until top of casserole is golden brown and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serves: 8 - 10 people. We cut the recipe in half & still have leftovers.

Happy Cooking!

Dear Pete, Please Make THIS for Dinner. Thanks!

Last week, we received our first veggie box from Farm Fresh To You (one of many wonderful local organic vegetable delivery services), and woweeee what a treat!! 15 pounds of in-season vegetables (YUM). Last night we fixed carrots, potatoes, chard & carmelized onions.

Tonight, I'm hoping to use the cauliflower to make this. The Dinner Files' Spiced caramelized cauliflower:

Well, actually...I'm working until 7:30 tonight. So I'm hoping Pete will use the cauliflower to make this. I'm drooling already!

UPDATE 3/24/10: We have made this 3 times in the last week,

one of them for a birthday potluck,

& it didn't even make it to the table!

Tiger tested, Friend approved!

Thanks to sfgirlbybay and Molly Watson for the inspiration (and the pic)!

Weekend Stuffs

Who Dat!

We hope you had a fantastic weekend!
Here's what we did.

Pete caved and ate sushi!!

We went for a quick drink at our Mini Bar & went home to Star Trek (the movie) & pajamas.

THEN....

Rebecca, Joe, Emma & lots of other wonderful friends

organized a SURPRISE movie brunch for Anisha's birthday...

Complete with ice cream sundae bar, mimosas & Emma's homemade pizzas!

Pete played Papparazzo!

We treated her like the star that she is,

as she signed autographs

and walked the red carpet!

And the "Best Birthday Girl" Award goes to...

Our makeshift movie theater!

View the whole set here.

After a long day of ice cream and 'West Side Story', we got some fresh air.

It's lovely to see cherry blossoms so early (Sorry, East Coasters)!

Anisha also had a Karaoke party that night.

Esme wasn't really fond of Karaoke at Encore...

...until we drank enough

and our friends started singing.

and....then Pete told the birthday party girls next to us that he was a professional photographer...

and then this happened:

and we couldn't think of a better way to end the night!

Weekend Stuffs

Weekend, in a nutshell --

Crazy Heart (so so good), strolling along Divisadero, coffee and doggies at Mojo, BEAUTIFUL clouds all weekend in San Francisco, brunch with Ilana (<3<3), engagement photos for Staci + Jonah (& editing said photos), drinks with friends in their pretty new home, Emma & Tanner -- two of our fave doggies, & lots and lots of food.

We wish every day could be Saturday :)

Weekend Stuffs

Wowee! This was a very busy weekend, despite our best intentions to stay in bed the whole time (see above...we gave it a good go). Esme loves when Pete has Saturdays off. The weekends are so much more fun. :)

We got to stay up late on Friday and see a wonderful movie (if you haven't seen "Up In The Air", fly...don't walk).

Saturday started with sleeping in late & Pete making "breakfast" in bed. We enjoyed a leisurely day in the Mission & ate our weight in food.

A Delfina pizza + pork shoulder lumachine (YUM), a Philz coffee & 2 ice cream cones later, we were spent & preparing to head home for some On Demand & Tums...

When we got a text from our dear friend, Mick. He sent a message to friends, asking us all to be witness to a very special event at our favorite neighborhood bar (also, see above).

Congrats to Mick & Lauren!!

This makes 4 engagements in 4 months amongst our San Francisco friends!

Sunday brought brunch with Dear Jonah, mulled wine, football & a fried catfish dinner.

We hope you had a great weekend, too! Nighty night!

xoxo