Bischoff's in the Bay Area

We are back from Napa and San Francisco! We had such a great time on our much needed vacation and spent time seeing every inch of the city and drinking every sip of wine in the valley. We flew into Oakland to stay with Brian's family for a few days while we toured San Fran. We got some great views of the city and ate at some great restaurants. Here we are at the Golden Gate Bridge! We were too lazy to ride bikes across it, but we were still able to get an amazing picture. Awe...

Here we are waiting in a very long line to ride the famous cable car. We finally got on the 4th one that came by and paid $5.00 each...Brian was not near as impressed as I was, but he rode it anyway. Thanks babe!

On to Napa!! We did not want to come home...being in Napa was just incredible and I know we could spend forever there if we had too. Great food, great wine, and great company. Luckily we brought enough wine back with us to be able to enjoy Napa in Dallas for quite some time.

One of the many beautiful views of the Napa Valley. No matter what angle you stand or which way you look you are surrounded by absolute beauty. If only I could wake up to this everyday.

This was one of the cutest little places to eat. It had such a great deli with all kinds of meats and cheeses. They also sell all kinds of olive oils and vinegars...I loved just looking around. One of my other favorite lunch spots was at the winery V.Sattui. It had the most amazing deli counter with all kinds of sandwich choices as well as prepared pasta salads, potato salads, olives, cheeses, crackers, spreads...the list goes on and on. And their wine wasn't bad either. We knocked out a full bottle during our very first lunch here in Napa. What about dinner you ask? The first night we ate at Market where we had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed some good ole mac and cheese. The next night we went to dinner at Bottega, Michael Chiarello's new restaurant. Where do I begin with this one? AMAZING. We started with bread and a dip consisting of garlic, parmesan, scallions, olive oil, lemon and maybe some other stuff that was delicious. We then moved on to our appetizer of a fried dough ball wrapped in prosciutto and dipped in a sweet wine sauce. Next up, the Rabbit Ragu over pasta followed by Lamb Rib Chops with Figs over polenta. Brian had to roll me back to the hotel. (I am still dreaming of that Rabbit Ragu by the way...it was delightful) And finally, we finished our trip in Napa with dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen where we brought our own wine and got free corkage. Here we had some of the best Oysters I have ever had and definitely one of the best Caesar salad's I have ever had. I just need to make a little more money so next time we can wine and dine ourselves at the French Laundry where it costs only $250 a person and doesn't include wine, just a glass of champagne. I wonder if I would even be able to appreciate and understand the complexity of the 9 courses? I am willing to try...

Me at the winery of Brian's favorite Cabernet, Silver Oak. I don't know why it's me and not him in the picture though...I was in a hurry to get to the wine I guess.

Great view at the top of Sterling. Not award wining wine, but great views.

The new Castle, built by V.Sattui was incredible. The tour was great and extremely interesting. They actually have space to barrel all the wine under the hill in a cave format to keep the wine at a constant 55 degrees year round. The place goes on forever...

Here is Brian in the torture chamber sitting on a chair with 100s of iron spikes that are heated internally from a fire beneath. It looks more like he is on his throne.

Here we are enjoying our final tasting of the week...

We had to stop by the Culinary Art Institute in Napa! I had to see if there were any unique gadgets or gizmos I needed. Didn't find any, but it was still fun. I did learn a lot about the local ingredients and how to better pair my wine with my meal choices at home.

Happy Birthday turns to Business Proposition

This week I was asked to bake a cake for my friend/co-worker's husbands birthday. At first I was flattered, then I was nervous, then excited, then nervous again, and now I am relieved. I love to bake and everytime I do bake I am very pleased with the results, so I don't know why I get so nervous, especially for this one. She asked for a German Chocolate Cake which I am extremely familar with and completely comfortable with. I think it is the whole concept of not being able to taste the end result before someone else dives in. And I also have the memory of one night going in the kitchen to whip up some oatmeal raisen cookies for Brian and me. I just threw stuff together as usual and started dolloping out my cookies. When I was done, there was still a small amout of batter left in the bowl so I snuck a sampling only to gag at my use of salt instead of sugar. Ooops.



Anyway, so this week during my episodes of mixed emotions, I got to imagining myself as a baker. I like the image in my head of me baking away, alternating my cute aprons, and using all my fun pans and colored spatulas. I know that is not reality, but reality has not sunk in yet. The girls at work also encouraged the idea by promising to give me business for birthdays and holidays. What a great job, bake a few cakes a month and bake a ton around the holidays which is when I get the itch to bake the most. There I would be, using my 2 ovens to bake everything from Chess Pie, to Cream Cheese Brownines, to Red Velvet Cake, to Peppermint Scones, to Lemon Pound Cake, to 100 different types of cookies (if you can't tell, my preference is cookies...love them!) with Dutch sitting quietly by my side, licking up anything that falls to the floor. I know...Dream On

I miss my Nana

My apologies once again for it being so long since my last post. Unfortunately, my life has taken a chaotic turn and blogging was pushed off the priority list. I have been traveling quite a bit with work and my grandmother passed away last week who I was extremly close to. I called my grandmother "Nana", and I grew up cooking next to her and baking with pecans from her backyard. Every year we collect all the pecans and have several pounds shelled which we would divvy between us and freeze for use throughout the year and we bushel the rest to sell. My mom and I have been going through her things and I keep collecting box fulls of cookware and bakeware that I just cannot part with. I have adopted several of her cast iron skillets, her glass pie plates, some very unique and old kitchen utensils, and the list goes on and on. Nana taught me so much about cooking and baking. To her it was no challenge...she never measured and hardly ever looked at a recipe. She was famous for her pecan pies, coconut pies, mac and cheese, fried okra, pork chops, pear preserves (made with pears from her pear tree), and sweet pickles. It is so sad to me how her generation is slowly leaving us...it is that generation that possesses the skills to grow their own vegetables, raise their own chickens for eggs, can jelly, can preserves, can pickles, and truly make everything from scrath. I love you Nana, and I will truly miss you!