Vegan Moments...

The last few days, not trying to, I started to eat like a Vegan! Please don't be confused, I will never be a full time Vegan, but I don't mind exploring!

Monday morning before I left Sacramento, my mom and I had breakfast at Orphan Breakfast House.  This place was busy for a weekday, but I understand why, it was fabulous! So you are probably looking a the pictures of our food below and saying that isn't Vegan, well you are right, not everything.  But my Omelet had soy chorizo, which I would call a Vegan food.  While enjoying my somewhat vegan omelet, I sipped on Coffee Con Panna, a fancy name for coffee with whipped cream.  I am a huge whipped cream fan, and this was just delicious! My mom ordered the G. F. Y. (Granola Fruit Yogurt), which was very good, and it was beautiful.  She also had the Banana-Blackberry Smoothie, and she would highly recommend it. 

Next vegan moment, this time it really was vegan! To thank my friend Austin for picking me up at the airport, I treated him to dinner at Native in Culver City.  I was very overwhelmed by all the options on the menu, I decided to go with the Nuevo Native Nachos.  This colorful plate included everything you would want on Nachos (the non-vegan ones), but this time it was meat free.  I loved all the fresh fresh ingredients, but the most interesting part of these was the cheese.  Native cheese is made from nuts blended up into a creamy mixture which topped a chip full of beans, salsa, Native meat, great!

(But I slight missed my melted, greasy cheese, have you ever been to Freeb!rds in Isla Vista?)

Last, on Tuesday night I met my girl friend Danielle at Adama in downtown Santa Barbara.  We are both new at the whole vegan thing, so we asked for suggestions.  My friend Mark, who's mother owns Adama suggested the Panang Curry and the bartender recommended the Vegan "KFC."  We had to also order the Buffalo "Hots!" We both love wings, so we had to test out the vegan version.

The "Hots" were delicious and spicy, and the ranch was AMAZING!  I am very picky about my ranch and this stuff was good!  The KFC, was crispy and tender and I feel like it is really hard to tell the difference from a real chicken nugget and a "vegan" chicken, I think the vegan may be better.  The Panang Curry, was great, it was probably the most obvious vegan dish of the night, veggies and tofu, but tasty.  Finally, I saved the best for last.... DRUM ROLLLLLLL...

THE CARROT CAKE!  Please someone buy this cake for me, maybe for my birthday, your birthday, or hey, Easter is coming up.  This cake is delicious and you won't miss a thing because it is vegan. I don't even think you will know it is vegan, you will just know you are eating one of the best slices of carrot cake!   

The Secret to Dottie's!

So still on our dining adventure in the city, Sunday morning we Yelped for the best breakfast and brunch within 6 blocks. We found Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  I assumed this must be a real treat, this place had 4 stars with 1685 reviews, soon to be 1686 reviews (my review), but I would like to share with you the real winners at this joint and how to bypass the crowd.

If you don't know already, when you arrive there will be a line out the door and around the corner.  Most people will wait hours to get into this place, but there is no need for that.  Before you go, call in your order and order it for pick up (take it to a park, much better scenery than in the restaurant), be sure to order the griddled jalapeno cornbread with jalapeno jelly with what ever you ordered.  The egg dishes were okay, not great, but this cornbread was amazing.  Also, don't forget one of the baked goods, I tried the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffin yum!!!

If you insist on eating at the restaurant, have someone in your party wait in line and send someone into the restaurant to order a baked good or two to hold you over while you wait outside.  You won't regret it!!!

Sarah

Girls Night Out in San Fran!

In true Mama-Craig style, we wondered out into the streets of San Francisco with no dinner reservations. But thanks to a little bit of prior research I knew a few places I wanted to try. We headed up to Sons & Daughters and the only time we could be sat was at 10:30. Our stomachs were already growling and we were not interested in waiting. I asked the host if he could recommend any other great places to eat, he suggested Bouche, a small french restaurant about a half of block down the street.

We read the menu outside, and this looked like a great place to try. It was a cute little place with an open kitchen surrounded by a bar for watching the cook in action and then up a stair way was additional seating at tables. We requested a table upstairs. Once we were sat at the table my mother glanced at the menu suggested, "let's order one of everything!". That sounded like a lot of fun, but way too much food so we decided on three apps and three entrees and a cheese plate to start. Oh yes, and of course we ordered wine!

So here is what we ordered!

3 glasses of wine. Honestly, we had no idea what we ordered, we were not familiar with any of the French wines available on the wine list, so we asked the waiter to select 3 favorite reds. He brought us 3 and place one in front of each of us. We took a sip of each and strangely, we all liked the original one he gave us. Sorry I didn't write down the wine selections.  

Cheese plate:
The cheese plate came with 3 different types, a goat cheese covered in rosemary, goat milk cheese, and a cows milk blue cheese. My favorite the goat cheese with rosemary, I love goat cheese!

Appetizers (listed from the top on the right): 
Confit Duck salad with beets and walnuts.  This was a shredded duck meat with a mayonnaise like sauce binding it together on a salad of mixed greens, beets, and walnuts.  Great salad, but I must say I was expecting something else from Confit Duck.

Brown Butter sauteed carrots.  These were delicious and intriguing.  We smelled these while they cooked them and the brown butter aroma rose to the top level where our table was.  There wasn't only brown buttered carrots, there were also thinly sliced vinegar marinated carrots.  When you took a bite of both together, it was quite an experience, burst of sour from the vinegar, quickly then altered by the sweet savoriness of the brown butter.  We enjoyed them so much we almost ordered another.  
 
We also ordered the calamari, but it wasn't our favorite. 

Entrees: 
Herb Crusted Halibut (Top left).  This was a light flaky piece of mild fish.  I am not a big butter bean fan (one of the sides) so this wasn't my pick, but my mom loved it. 

Filet Mignon with asparagus and mashed potatoes (Bottom left).  The beef was cooked perfectly, exactly medium rare the way I like it.  The mashed potatoes were to die for!!! They we silky smooth, creamy, buttery, and just right!!!  This was my second favorite!

Marinated Salmon, Poached Egg and Creme Fraiche.  This was my dinner selection and I could not be happier.  The salmon was raw, which was a pleasant surprise.  Once you cut through the edible hay, was a nicely poached egg and creamy yolk.  The yolk spread through the creme fraiche, then I took each piece of salmon, gathered the crunchy 'hay' and dipped in the egg-creme mix...ummm yes, it was a truly wonderful and delicious experience (see picture 4). 

This was such a great find. We had an amazing time through out the whole dinner and watching the chef through the railings. This place hasn't received much publicity on the big review sites, so it is easy to get a table, and you also get amazing service.

After dinner, we decided we needed a walk before dessert.  So we wondered around for as long as we could bare the freezing cold breeze, and then headed back to our hotel.  After yelping dessert within 2 blocks we decided on Ame, in the St. Regis Hotel across the street. Because we were only having dessert they sat us in the lounge which was filled with comfy couches and classy adults enjoying a cocktail.  I was tempted by the World's Greatest Martini for $125.00, but I think my real craving was really for dessert.

We ordered a flourless chocolate cake with Prune Armagnac Ice Cream and Armagnac soaked prunes.  This may have been a little to prune-y for me, but I did think the cake was perfect.  We also ordered the 24 Hour Apple Almond Tart with Almond Milk Ice Cream and Apple Balsamic Rosemary syrup.  This is the dessert that helped us make our final decision on Ame.  This was delicious.  Almond flavoring is so light, but adds delicious comforting flavor, to a classic apple tart.  Don't worry, nothing was left behind, we even ate the prunes!

We had such a great girls night out with more than enough AMAZING food and great laughs (thanks to Andrew) which was just what I wanted.   Sorry this one is long, but I had so much to share!

Sarah

Academy of Science (and gourmet dining)!

Girls weekend took us to San Francisco! Our first stop, The California Academy of Science! Before we could start exploring we needed to stop in the cafe for some lunch. This cafeteria style cafe had a lot to offer. Asian fusion, soups, sandwiches, taco bar, and slow cooked all were available, but the soup and salad combo was my choice for today.

The soup was a rich butternut squash soup with a hint of heat and curry combined with a Gruyere grilled cheese. When the sandwich was dipped into the soup I felt the satisfaction of the warm soup and the crunchy cheesiness of the sandwich. As I consumed my meal, I sipped on a blood orange mimosa. If you don't already know, blood oranges are in season right now and I highly recommend mixing up the standard mimosa with some deep red color and extra flavor.

After we ate, we wondered around exploring the rooftop garden, planetarium, aquarium, and rain forest. This is a great place for all ages. Who isn't inspired by science?

TIP: Dirty Microwave? Easy cleaning!

About 6 months ago Pinterest introduced me A Real-Life Housewife. A blog that shares tips and tales from the daily activities as a housewife, I first was intrigued by her tip how to clean your shower head (find it here). It worked like a charm.

On Tuesday she published Microwave Cleaning Made Easy. My microwave was something that drove me crazy and I tried wiping it down with a sponge, but the grease just smeared and made the situation worse. My solution became keep the Microwave closed at all times. Well that is until now. Anxious to try this out I had some extra time Thursday evening, so project clean microwave was about to go down. I followed her directions, and it was barely a project at all. Honestly the most time consuming part I spent sitting on the couch waiting while the microwave ran and rested.

This is going to become part of one of my weekly chores, another thing I picked up from the real life housewife!

Vacation time!

Ok, so with life being really busy and getting the flu/food poisoning, I haven't really been in the mood to eat food or blog about food. Not sure where it came from, but all I care about is it is out of my system, I am feeling great, I am on vacation, and ready to eat!

This weekend will be spent with my family in northern California. We aren't too sure where the weekend will take us, but I do know we will have a great time, delicious food, and lots of laughs.

I started my vacation by heading down to Los Angeles last night to stay with my friends Austin and Samantha (you can check Samantha out here, she is awesome). We chatted and watched American Idol while enjoying 2 bottles of wine. I think this is what grown ups call fun these days, well at least on a week

Sam and I were looking forward to a hard workout at Sweat Pilates, then a nice little breakfast, and then to the airport. Our morning started out right, we left on time, until the rain in California freaked all the drivers out and they decided to create a traffic jam which made us late for Pilates. We didn't want to be those girls walking into class 10 mins late so we decided to move on to breakfast. With Yelp to the rescue we found FOOD on Pico Ave.

As always we can never pick between a few items on the menu, I wanted the buckwheat buttermilk pancakes on the specials menu, but I also wanted the breakfast FOOD sandwich. We came up with the best idea get both and share. Perfect I would say!

The sandwich was delicious, you really can't go wrong with an over medium egg, bacon, and cheese all in an English muffin plus it came with marinara potatoes with a special aoili sauce. The pancakes were topped with berries and bananas, which obviously made them good for you (just kidding) and were puffy little cakes topped with syrup. My stomach and taste buds were very satisfied.

Then off to LAX to catch my flight to my hometown Sacramento. I used to dread returning home, but I have learned Sacramento actually has a lot to offer and quite a good selection of restaurants. More to come from my vacation!

Sarah

P.S. How cool is this you can do your grocery too!?!? Well if you are looking for dairy, lemons, wine and chips!

Renaud's 2nd time around!

Last weekend while we were at Renaud's for brunch one of the regulars mentioned the almond croissants were to die for, we tried to order them, but it was already after noon and they had sold out. Not willing to give up experiencing the almond croissants, my friend Jenisse and I returned early this Sunday.

As we waited in line I worried that I would once again miss out in the croissants, but there were 2 left and we were taking both! Which was a very good decision. To accompany our croissants we also ordered lattes and fruit cups (to make up for the guilt of the buttery croissants).

The croissants were served right away, so excited to try this treat I couldn't wait to sit down. We sat at a table on their patio and the deliciousness was about to begin. It was a regular butter croissant, topped with almond icing and chopped almonds and inside was an almond glaze. Oh yes, I ate it all and every crumb on my plate.

This is definitely a Santa Barbara gem!

It's that time of year again, and I am Obsessed!

Are you all ready for those deliveries that are about to arrive if they haven't already?  Or the personal battle between bathing suit season prep and tasty little treats?  As you can see, tasty little treats usually win with me. 

A few months ago, most of you had a cute little girl wondering through your office, or knocking on your door asking if you would like to buy some Girl Scout cookies.  Fortunately, I didn't have to perform extreme acts of self control because I work from home and no cute girls knock on my door, but Andrew did the dirty deeds and ordered 6 boxes of cookies.

He brought home Trefoils, Somoas, Thin Mints, and a new box to our regular order, Do-Si-Dos.  Andrew said it was a mistake he didn't mean to order the Peanut Butter Creme Do-Si-Dos, but I am glad he did!  These cookies are awesome.  They are perfect for dipping in a cold glass of milk, softening (but not to the point of mushy), and then in two delicious bites you are done and on to the next cookie.  Before you know it you have gone through half of a roll, well that is what happened to me this afternoon.

 

Now that I have discovered these, the self control is going to be more important every time I walk into the grocery store, wish me luck!

Renaud's Patisserie & Bistro

Wow, this has been a crazy week, I am just sharing from Sunday! 

 

Wonderful Sunday Brunch! 

At Renaud's Patisserie & Bistro

 

Oven-Roasted Chicken

Caramelized onions, bacon and melted aged Gruyere cheese on choice of homemade soft roll, multigrain, sourdough or wheat bread

 

Croque Madame

Béchamel sauce, Swiss cheese and ham finished with a sunny side up egg on homemade pain de mie

 

Croque Madame: Best Sunny Side Up Egg!!!