Beers, Bacon, Bikes and Bao!

To celebrate Jamie's arrival, we met up with a few friends in the Haight to check out Magnolia Pub & Brewery. I came across it on Yelp after searching for beer-heavy places for happy hour. The reviews intrigued me and I was looking forward to sharing a new neighborhood adventure with Jamie. Ta da!

It was a 2-bus trip, but I thought it was worth it. We were dumped off right across from the bar and it looked pretty cozy from the outside. We walked in and it reminded me of an old diner/coffee shop more than a bar. It was standing room only, so we moseyed on over to the bar and waited for friends. I started with the Kalifornia Kolsch and Jamie got the Piper Pale Ale. Mine was kinda wee for some reason and our total came to $9. Enh, maybe no happy hour special??

I really liked my second beer - the Proving Ground IPA. They offered it as draught or cask and I went with draught mostly because I had no idea what cask was. Later on I found out that cask beers are a little warmer and are a little less carbonated. Interesting. Personally, I enjoy a chilly, bubbly beer.

We eventually decided to do dinner so we grabbed a table in the small dining area. To kick things off, we ordered some Devils on Horseback (goat cheese-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon).

DELISH. Perfectly crisp on the outside and the dates were massive. Just a note, they came 2 per order, but they are able to work with odd numbers.

Jamie and I split a 1/2 lb Prather Ranch burger with pepperjack cheese. It was beefy and paired perfectly with the Blue Bell Bitter (my favorite beer of the night...it was like a Boddington's with just a little bit of a bite). We also split the Seafood Boudin Sausage (bay scallop, rock shrimp, nutmeg with dirty rice), which was pretty bland. I wasn't into the texture of it or the lack of flavor in the dirty rice. Meh.

Overall, I really liked Magnolia. Turns out they have a pretty sweet Tuesday happy hour deal...I'd definitely check it out. Totally worth the 2-bus trip!

We were up bright and early this morning and headed off to High Trails Cyclery to pick up Jamie's Christmirthday present. We had such a great experience while buying my bike so it seemed only natural to return for Jamie's.

He was determined to get the guy's version of mine, but after a couple test rides, he went with one just a step up from mine. Fancy.

We immediately headed off on our crosstown adventure that was supposed to take us approximately 6 flat-ish miles to lunch and then another 4 miles to Ocean Beach and along the Great Highway. Sometimes I have mapping fails. We all know this by now!

After biking downtown and through the Castro, we made our way through The Wiggle, a mile long zig-zag that is known for being fairly flat and biker-friendly. Perfect!

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The Wiggle dumped us out at the eastern-most side of the Panhandle and we made our way through the quiet bike path and took a quick pause. Then we had to take a little detour to deal with a flat tire (thankfully we rocked the smart phones and found out The Freewheel Bike Shop was just a couple blocks away). A few minutes later we were back in action and on our way through Golden Gate Park.

Then we hit a random slew of hills as we were mere blocks from our destination - Shanghai Dumpling King. I could just taste the xiao long baos! SO HUNGRY! After huffing and puffing up a large hill, I just wanted to sit and enjoy a piping hot, savory, meaty soup dumpling. It just wasn't in the cards. The wait was much longer than we were willing to deal with so we biked a couple blocks over to Shanghai House. I've been here before and they have delicious xiao long bao, but I just had my heart set on trying SF's 'best shanghai dumplings'. Ah well, maybe next time.

In addition to these little nuggets of soupy goodness

we also ordered the Vegetarian Goose

It's an odd name for mushrooms wrapped in tofu skin, but I LOVE IT. I didn't love this one, though. I'm used to it being served chilled without sauces. This version was warm, fried crisp on the outside and with some sauce drizzled on it. It was good, but just not what I was looking for.

We also got the Green Onion Pancake

Standard order whenever we're at a Chinese restaurant, but not a favorite of mine. These were a little greasier than I'm used to and they just weren't that exciting.

And to close things out, we had some Pork and Vegetable Dumplings

They smelled very cabbage-y and just paled in comparison to the flavors going on in the soup dumplings. I'm pretty sure they were boiled and the skin was super thick. Yeaahh, not going to order these again. Honestly, I would have been content with two orders of soup dumplings. I love them that much. *drool*

Bellies full of food, we began our trek back to my neck of the woods. We basically back tracked with a few little detours (apparently we went down a few one way streets the first time around) and then we encountered some not so friendly hills. Eeeh.

When we got home, I mapped our little adventure and instead of the planned 10 mile ride with a bus ride back, it turns out we rode 15.3 miles. DANG!

That elevation profile is no joke either. Kinda crazy for someone that's only gone on 3 long-ish bike rides as an adult and someone who hasn't ridden in awhile!

I'm proud of our excursion and the fact that I actually rode in heavy traffic - a first for me - and survived! :) Woohoo! Perfect Saturday afternoon (perfect weather too at around 65 degrees!).

Longest. Run. EVER.

Lesson learned, man. I should always stick to my "stay home every Friday night" rule...no more exceptions.

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Last night I caved and met up with friends for some shabu-shabu at Cafe Mums in Japantown.

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Have I mentioned my love of shabu-shabu before? Thin slices of meat, bubbling broth, veggies, noodles, sauce...AAHH YUM! There was this place in Rockville that Jamie and I would go to (total hole in the wall, obvs), and the last time we were craving shabu-shabu we found out it was closed! AGH! It's been ages since my last shabu-shabu experience so I really couldn't say no ;)

I had no idea what I was in for. Apparently Mums is known for it's all-you-can-eat and drink deal. Ehhh. I allowed myself a sake bomb and then stuck to water for the rest of the night. The late late night.

A few communal plates of meat and several hours later, it's way past my bedtime and I'm BEYOND full. I finally got home at 11:30...a little too late considering I had to be out the door at 6:30am for my 18 miler. Yeeh.

Woke up still painfully full (how is that even possible??) so I passed on meeting up with the early morning group runners. I was determined to get all 18 done today no matter what, so I forced myself to get out before noon...even with a belly full o cow :\

Since it was going to be a doozy of a run, I actually rocked the headphones. The first time in a long time for me! Took it slow and steady to make sure I didn't burn out and did pretty well for the first 13 miles...until this guy popped up:

Mapping fail! The following block (we're nearing 14 miles at this point) was a set of stairs. Meh. I ended up running halfway up the hills and walking the rest. And believe me, there were a bunch of hills.

Things flattened out eventually, but I had to make a pitstop at a Vitamin Shoppe to get more water/electrolyte beverage because there are no water fountains in the middle of the city. Hm. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Gatorade while running? Bizarre. Then I found myself in a pretty sketchy part of town where I got creepy comments as I bolted through the streets. In the middle of the day. Yeah, I will not include that neighborhood in future runs.

My second and final mapping fail came at the very end when I realized I mapped the last smidge of the run through the Stockton Street Tunnel. PASS. I decided it was ok if my run was just shy of 18. Seriously, I'm not going to be picky. I got it done, right? I have no idea how long it actually took since it was a lot of city running with traffic lights and random stops (hi, Vitamin Shoppe). All I know is that I was extremely grateful to have headphones. Here's just a snippet of what got me going this afternoon...

Come With Us - Chemical Brothers

Bring it On - Lenny Kravitz

OMG (Disco Fries Extended Mix) - Usher

Footloose - Kenny Loggins

Theme from Wide Angle - Hybrid

Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz

I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance (Twelves Remix) - Black Kids

Not Myself Tonight - Christina Aguilera

Here I Am (Kaskade Radio Edit) - David Morales & Tamra Keenan

Paper Romance - Groove Armada

Leave Home - Chemical Brothers

It Began in Afrika - Chemical Brothers

Sincerely Me - A New Found Glory

Yeh, I also surprised myself with all the Lenny Kravitz and Chemical Brothers. And that I went through my entire playlist on this run. All 64 songs. Jeebus. Also, Footloose seems to be one of my favorite songs to run to b/c I repeated it 3 times. Hahahaha heeey Kenny Loggins!!

How did your Saturday runs go?? I hope they went much smoother than mine did!

Bye Bye Vacation

Hm, where did we leave off? Crazy Asian food fest/lazy day, right? It's vacation, why not continue the leisurely snacking?

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous in San Francisco. Perfect weather, slight breeze, a few clouds. Selin got to work on some crazy good short ribs (at 7am - that's dedication!) and I decided to attempt my first run/walk since the National Half Marathon.

FAAAABULOUS adventure along the Embarcadero! Unfortunately, I had an almost crash with a biker...oops. This is why I don't run w/headphones!

On the afternoon agenda - BBQ at Crissy Field. As we were driving over, I kept thinking everything looked familiar. Apparently, I ran down here for my very first marathon in 2007...ah memories :)

We set up shop next to the amphitheater and had amazing views:

Everyone brought some tasty treats like these addictive Endive Spears with Herb Cream Cheese and Smoked Salmon:

Also on the menu: Quinoa Salad (I drooled when I caught a whiff of it!), Tea Sandwiches (I can't remember which one landed on my plate first), Kielbasa Pasta Salad, and Selin's AMAZING Asian Pulled Beef Sliders with Mango Slaw (accidentally deleted a close up shot of the sweet/spicy/savory beef!).

Some yummy Israeli Couscous and Golden Beet Salad jumped into my belly after that picture was taken...and some Curried Shrimp Salad...and maybe some Sangria...who doesn't love a day of outdoor eating and drinking?? :)

Since this little fiesta was to celebrate someone's birthday, cupcakes and singing were definitely in order!

I want more of this cupcake. Now. You are looking at what might be one of my favorite red velvet cupcakes to date. Perfectly moist, nice flavor and excellent cream cheese frosting (we're talking good texture and flavor). AAHHHH heaven!

Such a great way to close out vacation :)

O wait, vacation eating didn't end there haha. After we got back to Selin's some more snacking took place and then dinner two, was some of this:

Tuttimelon! We walked in and to our surprise, it was now self-serve...TROUBLE! I ended up with my standard Chocolate, Chocolate Chips, Strawberry combo and tossed in some Mochi for fun. Yes, I ate froyo for dinner. Whatever. Vacation!

Ok, gotta run to work...posts are going to be super scattered for the rest of the month. Why? There's a hint on my home page. Check it :) :) Don't worry, more details will follow!!

FINALLY

Work week is OVER!! I'm so excited to finally have a Sunday off :)

I took the rest of the week easy and tried my best to eat leftovers...nothing too exciting on the food front. I did get a call the other day from my front desk saying I had a FedEx waiting for me. I had no idea what it could possibly be. Definitely didn't order anything. I didn't think...

Ta da! I completely forgot I opted in to Foodbuzz's Tastemaker item this month - Bertolli Sauces! Inside this nifty little box:

I'm psyched to try the Arrabbiata Sauce...maybe I'll use it tomorrow when I have friends over for dinner. I'm thinking something with eggplant? Stay tuned to find out what I do :)

Other than that, my week was pretty laid back. Didn't get any run/walks in after Monday since I still haven't been feeling 100%. Instead I caught up on this:

Oh, Lost, how I've missed you so much! I skipped the last two episodes because I had work to get done so I sat down last night to play catch up. LOVE!

I've also gotten into this:

And wish I had known how awesome Arrested Development was while it was on the air! I seriously cackled repeatedly. Alone. In my apartment. Loudly. You bet I will be Netflixing the other seasons soon.

I'm also counting the days till my next vacation...a much needed break!! Where am I off to?

*me on the trip of many firsts - first trip to SF and first marathon :)

That's right, back to one of my favorite cities at the end of the month! WOOO! I'm definitely up for food suggestions and blogger meet ups!

That's all for now. I've got a day of cooking planned for tomorrow so I'll have plenty to post :) Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

Goodies Galore!

This is going to (hopefully) be a quickie post since I'm only allowing 30 minutes of blogging time tonight!

I'm turning over a new leaf...a responsible one. I've set up a work area in my dining room (conveniently at a table I haven't been able to move on my own since Christmas - WEAK!) to keep myself from typing from the couch and get organized.

What do you think? It's still a little messy as I'm trying to figure out an iTunes/iPhone connection thing from my old laptop. It forces me to look at the white wall of no distraction haha.

Another part of this leaf turning process was passing up on an annual Chinese New Year dinner with friends. Every year my friends (also big food nerds) do a big Chinese New Year feast at a local restaurant and every year it is jam packed with delicious food. Tonight's celebration was at Joe's Noodle House in Rockville, a small restaurant with quality dishes. I'm bummed, but I turned it down with very good reasons: 1) I had to put in extra time at the office 2) I needed a run 3) I'm trying to be financially responsible and 4) I wore this today:

Yes, two different socks. That means laundry time. Big laundry time.

My spirits lightened up a bit when I checked the mail and saw a package from Jamie! All the snow delayed its arrival and Jamie kept talking it up on Skype. I definitely didn't expect the onslaught of goodies when I opened the box!

First up, some curry/saucy things

And instead of packing peanuts, I got a bunch of these marshmallows:

That one was filled with some sort of strawberry creme (just a dab) and the other flavor (not pictured) appeared to be a 'purple fairy' flavor. Apparently a picture of a purple fairy means delicious chocolate surprise.

Kiwi Creme Cake took up the most space in the box. I think these are like Tastycakes. Jamie started snacking on a sweet potato one while Skyping and it definitely wasn't what I imagined when he said he got sweet potato cakes. Eh, I'll give one a shot.

I giggled when I saw this next treat:

Yes, Crunky. Upon further inspection, it sounds like heavenly candy - malt balls in chocolate? HELLO.

He also sent some SPAM singles.

Have I mentioned my love of SPAM? I share this love with my siblings too and I think it's TOTALLY NORMAL. haha. My gramma used to make SPAM when we were little and I never questioned it. She would either pan fry some thin slices or pop them in the toaster until they got crispy and served it with some rice. SO yummy. Not exactly the healthiest dish, but at the time it was quick, simple and delicious. Now it's one of the many random tasty memories I have of my childhood. What foods bring you back to your childhood?

These single packs looked fun, but I looked a little closer and noticed they were different flavors:

Yeeh! A little scary. Sweet potato SPAM? How does that work?? I did like the nifty pictures of what you can do with SPAM, though hehe

Shrimp Chips were also tossed in.

Have you had shrimp chips before? They're not as scary as they may sound. It's usually not an in your face shrimp taste...mostly a crispy chip taste with a hint of shrimp. My mom used to get the shrimp chip disks (they're brightly colored, plasticky looking circles) that you fry up at home. Those are WAY better than the french fry looking ones typically found at Asian markets. Just a heads up.

And last, but not least, some chewy fruit candies (I think) that look a little bit like Hi-Chu so I'm going to bet they're good. I trust Jamie's sweet tooth.

Not quite sure what to do with all these goodies, though. There will be sampling, but the rest will probably be stashed until he returns...whenever that may be :\

Do you have any favorite foods/candies/beverages from travels abroad?

I'm off to get some work done and finish laundry! Already got my run/walk in for the day and am happy to report I'm consistently doing run portions well under 9 minute pace with no pain :) :) SOOOOOO happy!

C is for cookie...

I'm not much of a baker. In fact, I'm terrible at following directions...which is why I usually steer clear of baking. For some reason, I felt compelled to bake last night. Compelled to bake not one batch of cookies, but THREE different kinds. Holy potatoes.

I picked up 2lbs of butter, a tub of shortening, a container of sugar, a bag of flour and a crapton of chocolate chips. It was a party in my shopping cart.

I decided on Monday that I was going to lay off the sweet treats for an entire month (I tend to eat a ton of sweet treats during the holidays for no apparent reason - I don't even like sweets!), but the Betty Crocker in me was triggered and I thought I should bake a bunch of cookies for my coworkers - running store and office. It seemed like the appropriate holiday thing to do.

I browsed Foodgawker and found three cookies I really really wanted to make (note, these are what they are supposed to look like):

Chocolate Chip Shortbread courtesy of Not without Salt
Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies courtesy of The Recipe Girl
Pudding Cookies courtesy of Taste and Tell
How did mine turn out?? Um, I think they were pretty successful...considering I'm a novice baker. My hand mixer is from CVS. My arm got sore after the first cookie. I only own spatulas that come with gift packs. I had to pick up cooling racks at the Giant because I don't find them to be a necessary item in my home.

First cookie up - Chocolate Chip Shortbread.
These were pretty easy to make. Very few ingredients and I think the hardest part was rolling it in parchment to chill. My cookies are a bit misshapen as you can see ;p. The final product was a little greasier than I expected...but I guess that comes with all the butter that was used hehe.

This guy had to chill for at least 30 minutes so I got started on the dough as soon as I devoured a bowl of this, which btw, was delicious for canned soup. It also had the least amount of sodium of Amy's Organic canned soups:
I scarfed the soup down pretty quickly because I hadn't eaten since noon...and at noon I only had a salad. Totally had the shakes. It was a little sweet for a black bean soup, so I tossed in some extra corn (can't go wrong with extra corn!) and some Texas Pete for a li'l kick.

While the Chocolate Chip Shortbread chilled, I started on the Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies.
Apparently I own the last bag of Candy Cane Kisses on the planet. I went to THREE stores and couldn't find them anywhere! Luckily I had grabbed a bag for home decor last weekend and didn't touch them. Score. I unwrapped the entire bag of Kisses before I realized the recipe only called for ONE CUP not ONE PACKAGE. Oopsie!
So I chopped those suckers up and sprinkled them on top and then drizzled only a portion of the bag of white chocolate chips. SO YUMMY. The rest of the white chocolate chips went into these bad boys (my second favorite of the bunch)
These Pudding Cookies were pretty delish. I prefer white chocolate chips to regular chocolate chips any day and these were fantastic with the pudding mix, which is used to keep the cookies chewy. Do you prefer crispy or chewy cookies?

I have you know that I sampled one of each before packing a few up to send to Jamie and distribute to coworkers. :)

I had a mini snow day today and got lazy with dinner as I chatted with Jamie on the phone. I grabbed a small butternut squash, a bag of spinach and a wee ham (we're talking like no wider than a CD case. I was going to get fancy and saute things, but I ended up just roasting the squash with some salt, olive oil, nutmeg, thyme and sage. Since I was on the phone when the squash was done roasting, I threw some chopped up ham and all the spinach into the roasting pan with the squash. Tossed it with the squash, added some garlic powder and put it back in for another 15 minutes.
Final product was not pretty, but it wasn't inedible. Could have been better though. Scooped some in a bowl,
poured a glass of wine and turned on Empire Records - LOVE DVR and I forgot how much I loved that movie AND the soundtrack...even to this day! Great end to a snow day! Hope everyone is staying warm!!

I Heart Wine Country too!

I woke up bright and early (before my alarm went off - woah!) Sunday morning. This was partly because I was excited about our day of wine tasting and partly due to this sinking feeling that I forgot to put my pupusa in the fridge. D'oh! Suspicions confirmed. I definitely left my 3rd pupusa in the zipper portion of my purse and it smelled like pupusa in there! Nononono! To make matters worse, the pupusa greased out of the bag so a) I felt gross having consumed all that grease the night before and b) I worried my purse would have a giant stain in it! Thankfully it did not - Amee, don't you love how I take care of your designs?? :p

There were six of us headed to Healdsburg for a day of wine tasting and I was super excited. Not only were we headed to the land of zinfandels (my personal fave), but we were planning on stopping at deLorimier Winery first!

Why was I excited about deLorimier? Well, about 3 years ago Jamie and I went to Farrah Olivia for restaurant week. I chose the optional wine pairing with my meal and fell in love with my second glass of wine (and dinner!) - Mosaic Malbec. We were just coming off of a trip to Buenos Aires so I was all about the malbecs. I wrote the name down and anytime we were near wine, I made a point to look for it. No such luck.

I then reached out to Selin since she was in the land of wines and my sister and parents figuring maybe they had more options being near NYC. Fail. I even tried to get to the vineyard on my first trip to SF but alas, too far out of the way for our day trip to Napa :(

Recently I got a text from Selin and turns out she was driving past the vineyard! AH HA! Totally on my 'must make it happen' list for this trip.

We get to deLorimier and find out there's a festival going on at all the Russian River Wineries. Apparently this weekend was the 11th Annual Wine and Food Affair - for $40, we could get free tastings AND free food pairings at 80 vineyards. WOAH. My kind of festival ;) We were kinda skeptical about the whole $40 ticket thing but the woman at the door totally sold us on it once she said we might run into problems getting tastings otherwise. Sold. They gave us a wrist band, map and wine glass and off we went.

Delorimier was serving this bad ass Grilled Rib-Eye Steak Chili made with one of their wines. AMAZING! Thick, but a little soupy, nice heat and the super tender rib eye bits were little nuggets of heaven. *sigh* oh wait, we're at a winery...the wine! Turns out they only make the Mosaic Malbec once a year and it's so popular, it sells out quickly (Selin did her research)...they weren't even tasting it that day!

Thankfully Selin jumped in and convinced the ladies to check if they had any bottles since her crazy friend flew across the country for this stupid wine and low and behold - two bottles (one for tasting and one for me!)...the 2006s were waiting to be bottled. Score!
After a little more tasting, I also grabbed a bottle of the tasty Mosaic Meritage :) Check out the gorgeous views:
Next up was Hanna Winery where they were serving Endive Cups filled with French Lentil & Prosciutto Salad with Peppers.
I wasn't really into the food, but the Jasmine Vixen was one of my favorite wines though I refrained from buying.

We turned back around to visit Hawkes Wine and as much as I hate to admit it, we went just for the Skirt Steak Tacos with Cabernet Chili Sauce. Oh my god. Best. Sauce. Ever. EVER! It was pretty packed (probably b/c of the delicious food!), so we grabbed a quick taste and sat outside to enjoy the perfect weather and scenery:
As soon as those tacos were gone, we scooted on over to Simi Winery for some Lamb & Herb Meatballs with Creamy Polenta and more soothing scenery!
They even had an outdoor kitchen...I want one!!
A couple meatballs later and we were ready to go to Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs. This was #2 on my must visit list ever since I tried their Geyserville last month. They too were serving meatballs, but they were Sicilian Meatballs with Spaghetti (by the time we got there it was bread) and I think they were the best meatballs of the day :)
I walked away with a bottle of the Geyserville (another bottle they opened for us - thanks!!) and their Lytton Springs - both delicious blends!
All the reds they were tasting were fantastic, but those two were my favorites. We lingered a bit longer here. Why? Oh yes, GORGEOUS.
We stopped down the road at Mazzocco Sonoma for some Lamb & Rosemary Meatballs with Rice Pilaf and a surprise treat - Butternut Squash Soup!
As if there weren't enough meatballs in our day ;p The wines here were pretty good, but I found myself moseying over to the Reserves Collection table and tasting a glass of their Petite Syrah...and promptly buying a bottle. Impulse buy! That's just what happens at the end of a wine tasting day ;p

The next and final stop was Wilson Winery because we got a little lost getting to our planned destination. SO glad we stumbled upon this place because they were serving Caramelized Onion Quesadillas with Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Basil Salsa & Famous Marinated Tri Tip OMG! The quesadillas were kinda lame, but the tri tip was phenomenal. I don't even know if I've ever had tri tip before...but I NEED it now! So tender and flavorful, though I'm not really sure why it was served on a tortilla?
The long line for the tri tip wasn't too bad since we had this glorious view:
Check out all those grapes!!

How on earth did I get all these bottles home?
Two rolls of bubble wrap and these were safe and sound in my suitcase. Phew!

It's getting late so I'm off to bed - early and long day at work tomorrow. I can't wait to gush about my last meal in San Francisco!