Big Joe's

First stop this morning was Big Joe's Broiler No. 3 in San Bruno.  Big Joe's has been a family favorite for a long time.  Great breakfasts, excellent burgers...  A good nosh every time.

We picked up my sister Arlene and headed down about 8am.  Sadly, Eileen was already at work.  I ordered bacon, eggs over easy, ww toast and country potatoes.  Arlene ordered ham with eggs over medium, country potatoes and a biscuit.  Victor decided on a short stack and side of bacon.  Then it got fun...

The waitress told him there was a special of a short stack, eggs, and bacon.  Victor said no, he just wanted the short stack and bacon.  No eggs.  She ran over to get the table tent that explained it.  he said no, just the short stack and bacon.  She went on, saying it was less expensive - and he didn't have to have the eggs if he didn't want them. Finally, he threw his hands up in the air and said  "I give up.  Bring me anything you want." It was almost ready to become Abbott and Costello meet the scene in Five Easy Pieces where Jack Nicholson tried to order toast...

We laughed.  The waitress laughed.  She placed the order.  When the food arrived, Victor asked "Where's my eggs?"  And then we all laughed a bit more.

The food, of course, was excellent.

If you're ever in San Bruno, it's:

Big Joe's Brolier No 3
487 San Mateo Ave
San Bruno, CA 94066

Oh...  cash only..... No credit cards.


There's No Place Like Home

The old adage is true - there is no place like home - especially when home is San Francisco.  It was great getting off the airplane, right over to the rental car counter, and onto the freeway without having to look at a map or figure out what route to take.

The only strange thing was this was the very first time I ever flew home and didn't first call my father upon landing.  But... he's going to be buying dinner for us one last time at Celia's on Saturday... More on that on Saturday... :)

The Frontier Airlines flight was pretty good.  I had a really good Turkey and Brie sandwich on a walnut raisin bread.  They charge for everything - credit card only - but it was otherwise totally uneventful.  Bags arrived in SFO...  Off to my sister's...

Arlene came down a day early (she's picking up my niece Jessica Wednesday who's flying in from from Florida) and Eileen made us all Reuben's from a great corned beef she had made on Sunday.  We all sat around and ate and laughed and just had fun.  By 9pm we were dead.  Time zone changes always get to me the first day.  The down side is being wide awake at 4:30am PST.  By the time we hit the train on Tuesday our sleep patterns will probably be in total sync.

It's almost time to start our first full day...


The Last Supper

This is it - the Last Supper before we leave in the morning for San Francisco!  Chicken Parmesan and Cheese Ravioli with a cheesey garlicky olive oil with oil cured olives.  Perfect.

We have meals planned with all sorts of folks - as many as three in a day in different parts of the bay area.  It would have been so simple had this been the wedding we were heading out for.  Everyone would have been in one place at the same time.  We're going to spend half of our time driving!

Oh well...

I am going to try and remember to take pictures of fun food and will definitely make time to update the blog from time to time.

And on the train ride back, I should have ample opportunity to wax poetically about Amtrak and the scenery.

Stay tuned.....


Cleaning out the 'Fridge

It's been fun getting creative with what's in the house and not going shopping!  Tonight was a really simple affair - Swiss Steak with mushrooms and bacon, rice, and peas.

I had three slices of bacon sitting in the 'fridge from Sunday's breakfast, a carton of mushrooms, there are always frozen peas in the freezer, and rice is an automatic - as is the flour to make the gravy.  Instant dinner.

In cooking tonight, though, I realized I was a bit too good at clearing things out... Our dog-sitter, Donna, will be here, as will Victor's mom for a couple of days this weekend.  I have to make sure there's at least milk, bread, and eggs - as well as some quick meals for Nonna to just heat and eat.  Nonna and Donna.  Cybil the wonder-dog is going to be quite spoiled while we're away.

Methinks I shall be doing a bit of shopping after work, after all...

Plus...  I plan on cooking Thanksgiving Dinner on the Saturday after... It's our traditional weekend to decorate for Christmas, so I think turkey in the oven and Christmas Carols on the stereo will be the perfect welcome home for us!


Peanut Butter Cookies

Okay...  I admit it.  I had two cookies while I was making dinner.  The old saying is "Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first."  There was certainly nothing uncertain about me NOT having a cookie while making dinner.

They're really good.  And if there are any left on Wednesday Morning, they can come with us to San Francisco.  Not that there's likely to be any left, but if there were.....

Peanut Butter Cookies

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix butter, peanut butter and the sugars until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix until well blended. Add the cranberries and and peanuts and mix thoroughly.

Place dough balls on cookie sheet and flatten the balls with a fork.  I use ice cream scoops and have them in several different sizes. Baking time depends upon how big a cookie you make,  but a standard rounded-tablespoon0sized cookie should bake about 10 minutes. The cookies should be firm to the touch and just beginning to brown.  Larger cookies will take a bit longer to bake..

Such a big taste for such a simple cookie.  Play with the additions.  Add chocolate chips.  Peanut butter chips. Mini peanut butter cups.  Have fun with them!  And eat one before dinner.


Sausage and Tortollini

Since we're taking off very early Wednesday morning (a rousing chorus of Simon and Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning, 3AM may be appropriate here...) I'm not doing any grocery shopping.  It's clean out of the freezer and clean out the 'fridge.

With that in mind, I cooked up a couple Italian sausages and added them to some sauce I had in the freezer.  Out, also, came the cheese tortellini.

Dinner in 10 minutes.

Some nice parmigiana  shredded on top and dinner was served.

Victor made Peanut Butter cookies for dessert.


Dunky Eggs

When Victor was a little kid, his mom called fried eggs "Dunky Eggs" because they could dunk their toast into the yolks.  When his nieces and nephews were born, the tradition continued.  Of course, for the grand kids, she would actually cut the toast in strips for them to dunk.  Grand kids always rank higher.  You can spoil them and then give them back.  And smart kids don't pull temper-tantrums with grandparents.

My father's version of fried eggs were cooked in a cast iron skillet in a gallon of bacon grease.  They were almost deep-fried.  And damn, were they good!   His breakfasts were legendary.  Piles of fried potatoes, bacon and toast. Not to mention the endless cups of Lady Lee coffee... But I digress...

This morning I started out with my favorite Niman Ranch bacon.  I love Niman Ranch.  Bill Niman started his business some 35 years ago in Marin County.  It is proof that we don not need factory farms. It has grown to a network of family farms supplying quality meats.  If you buy Niman Ranch meat, you can be sure the animal was humanely treated and slaughtered, that it was pasture-raised and lived outdoors in a traditional farm setting, and that it was not fed growth hormones or antibiotics.  Real food, raised naturally.  It's what it's supposed to be all about.

The potatoes were baby yukon gold's, sliced and fried in a bit of grapeseed oil. garlic, salt, and pepper.  The eggs were fried in butter - Plugra, of course - and the whole wheat bread used for the toast was free of partially-hydrogenated fats and high-fructose corn syrup.  I don't care what those commercials - put out by the corn industry - say; high-fructose corn syrup is evil and I will not consume it in any way, shape, or form.

Real food, real ingredients, minimally processed...  Breakfast was great!


Steak Sandwich, Italian Style

I had pulled a london broil out of the freezer before heading to work this morning without any plans for it.  I just knew that tonight's dinner was going to be beef.

Somewhere along the line, the idea of a sandwich started formulating... I like sandwiches.  Lots of good stuff between slices of good bread.  And sandwiches can be fun.  You literally can put anything between slices of bread.  Trust me.  I know this.

Tonight's sandwich started off with a cheese and tomato focaccia.  The focaccia is light and airy and has good flavor, but it's more subtle and compliments rather than competes with a filling.

I sliced it in half and slathered on the Duke's mayonnaise, then just a bit of horseradish.  Next went a layer of leeks I had sauteed in butter.  The sweet/savory of the leeks was a perfect compliment to the thinly-sliced steak that went next, along with some salt and freshly-ground pepper.

Thin slices of asiago cheese went atop the beef, and then a layer of roasted yellow peppers and thinly-sliced tomatoes.

And then LOTS of arugula.  Arugula is just so good.  Its crunchy pepper flavor is perfect on sandwiches.  I like it as a salad, cooked as a side dish... but as a green on a sandwich, it really shines.

On went the top, and another sandwich was born.

It was good.

And so was the Pumpkin Pie!


Pheasant with Figs and Apricots

Back when we lived in San Leandro, our next door neighbor, Bruce, belonged to a hunting club.  Every now and again during season, he would show up on our doorstep with fresh pheasants.  I LOVED those birds.  They were all cleaned and dressed.  All I had to do was figure out how I was going to cook them.  I loved it.  We found one particular recipe from Lidia Bastianich that we liked and made it often.  We made it for my family one holiday and my nieces and nephews asked for it every time we had them over for dinner.  It was a hit.

Alas, we moved and the free birds were no more.  Until today.

I've been chatting with one of our customers, Bob, for quite a few years, now.   Bob is a fairly local guy who has been hunting locally all of his life.  He's watched the area go from wide open and wild to housing developments, and the animals go from free range and wild to hemmed in by housing and traffic.  He's a fun guy to talk with.  I'm not a hunter myself, and am generally anti-gun, but understand the difference between hunting and eating the catch, and shooting animals out of airplanes and helicopters.  Hunting rifles and AK-47's are different.  And I most definitely like the taste of food that didn't come from a refrigerated dislpay case in a supermarket.

So... enter Bob today, with six beautiful pheasant breasts!  I was psyched!  There was no question that we were eating pheasant tonight.  My only dilemna was how...

The Lidia recipe is fairly time consuming, I think - it's been a while since I made it (Victor's mom's 75th Birthday party.  I paid $20 bucks a piece for 4 pheasants at Genuardi's...)  Soi I did a quick search on Epicurious.  This recipe came up:

Roasted Scottish Pheasants with Apricots and Dates '21' Club

Gourmet | November 1995

  • 1/2 cup dried apricots
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from about 2 large limes)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • two 2 1/2- to 3-pound pheasants (preferably wild Scottish)*
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 2 teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
  • 2 bay leaves
  • vegetable oil for brushing pheasants
  • 1/2 cup pitted dates, chopped
  • Garnish: fresh thyme sprigs

In a small heatproof bowl cover apricots with boiling water and soak 10 minutes. Drain apricots and cut into quarters. In a small saucepan simmer wine, liqueur, lime juice, and sugar 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Cut off legs of pheasants and reserve for another use. Sprinkle pheasants inside and out with pepper and salt to taste. Put 1 teaspoon thyme and 1 bay leaf in cavity of each pheasant and close cavities with skewers or toothpicks so that pheasants hold their shape.

Brush pheasants with oil and in a roasting pan arrange, breast side down. Roast pheasants 20 minutes and discard any fat in roasting pan. Turn pheasants over and to pan add apricots, wine mixture, and dates. Roast pheasants, adding about 1/2 cup water if all liquid evaporates, 25 minutes more, or until thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 160°F. Let pheasants stand 10 minutes.

Transfer pheasants to a cutting board and cut each in half. Serve pheasants with apricot date sauce and garnish with thyme.

A typical Gourmet recipe.  Convoluted and time-consuming.  But I liked the sauce concept.  I'm a sweet/savory kind of guy.

So.....  here's what I did:

I pulled the meat from the bone, checking for shot (Bob said there may be a little, so be wary.)  Into a skillet it went with a bit of olive oil and shallots.

After it browned a bit, I added:

  • 2 cups red wine
  • 1/2 cup brandy
  • juice of 1 orange
  • splash of lime juice
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots
  • 1/2 cup dried figs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp herbs d'provence

I let it simmer a bit but it wasn't quite there.  I added an 8oz can of tomato sauce and a handful of oil-cured olives to cut the sweetness a bit, and let it cook down and thicken.

All I can say is "wow."  It came our really good!  I wanted to serve it over spaghetti - and didn't have any in the house!  (I had angel hair, 2 types of fettuccine, ziti, mostaccioli, and half a dozen others - but no spaghetti.)  So, fettuccine it was.  And a damn fine choice, I might add!

There is enough left for Victor to have lunch tomorrow, too.  Always a bonus.  Thanks, Bob!

Now I think I'm going to go in and make a pumpkin pie.


Chicken Pot Pie

I knew this morning that I was going to make Chicken Pot Pie for dinner tonight.  I just didn't know if I was going to make individual pies or one big one.  Well... One big one won out.  And purely because I was feeling gluttonous; if I made individual pies, it would be more difficult to have seconds - or thirds.  And I must admit I did stick the spoon back into the dish a third time.  Granted, it wasn't a huge third spoon, but it does help explain why I don't have a 28" waist.

This is the type of food I grew up with.  Six kids meant making things stretch - and soups, stews, pot pies, etc., were definitely the way to do it.

And like my mother before me, I don't have a recipe.  These are the kinds of things one just makes.

What I did do, though was cut up a chicken breast.  I diced a small onion and sauteed it in a bit of butter.  I added the chicken and a handful of chopped celery.  I put in a bit of poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.  Nothing fancy.  I cut up a couple of carrots and added them to the pot.  And then a couple of cups of chicken broth and a few potatoes, cubed.  I didn't peel anything.  Oh - and a cup or so of frozen peas.

I let it all simmer until the potatoes were nearly done, added a splash of heavy cream, and thickened it with my favorite Beurre Manié.

Into the crust-lined dish and then added the top crust.  I didn't trim anything, just folded it under, because the crust is the best part.  I use all of it!

And then into a 425º oven for about 20 minutes.

Yum.


Going Cellular For The Train Ride

I just got my cellular service set up for our train ride back from San Francisco.

We fly out to San Francisco on the 19th and will return via the train Novemnber 25th, arriving in Paoli on the 28th...   It's still a ways away, but I wanted to make sure everything is set before we leave.  Mr Detail-Neurotic.  that's me...

We're bringing the laptops and the iPods so we can watch movies and listen to books and the like, but I want to be able to get online and post about the train and the trip.  Hopefully, I'll have a lot of fun pictures of great food in the dining car to write about.  Or, I'll have a bunch of pictures of really sucky food in the dining car to write about. In any event, I now will be able to do it whilst travelling in the train!  My last cross country train ride was well over 20 years ago when I went from Boston to San Francisco.  There were no laptop computers then.  No cellular service.  I was actually incomunicado for several days.  I didn't have a sleeper. I think on that trip I just drank a lot.

This time, though, we're going first class - literally.  Private compartment with bed, bath, and shower.  All meals included.  Sheets and towels and turn-down service.  How sweet it shall be!

It was supposed to be our Honeymoon trip until Proposition 8 got in the way of things.

Oh well...  we're going to have a fun time, regardless!  And I can't wait to get home and see everyone!

 


They Re-Branded My Local Grocery

It started as a rumor about 6 months ago.  The Super Fresh store where we've been shopping for the 7 years we've lived here was changing names.  Well... that rumor is finally a reality as Super Fresh in Berwyn has completed its transformation to a Path Mark.

Not being a local boy, I didn't know that Super Fresh and Pathmark were all part of A&P.  I've never shopped at an A&P, but the name is certainly famous.  Where are A&P's anyway?!?    Do they even exist anymore?!?  But I digress...

The corporate office spent some big bucks on a complete transfomation of the store, from new lighting to new freezer and refrigerated cases, a completely new layout, new paint, new signs, new, new, new.  And, in theory, lower prices.

I have to admit I like the new look.  The store is brighter and it has a more visually appealing layout.  There's a couple of things I probably would have done differently - like the shelves in the corner of the produce section where the flowers used to be.  I doubt they will ever have anything in that corner that will entice me over there... But... overall, the place looks pretty good.  I do have to question the decision to spend so much money rebranding the store, though.  Do they really think they're going to be able to recoup it all?!?

I found the store almost by accident when we moved back here in early 2001.  Driving around and getting lost everywhere I went, I tended to stay close to Lancaster Avenue.  My first shopping was at the Acme in Strafford.  What a dump.  The store was dank and dirty, the staff rude.  It sucked.  Down the road was Fresh Fields.  The store with attitude.  I don't know who was worse - the employees or the customers.  I made a bee-line for the door and didn't go back until they changed their name to Whole Foods.  The first store in the area I found that I liked was Geunardi's in St David's.  And in no time, Safeway bought them and they went to hell.

I hadn't really spent any time up around the shopping centers north of us.  I didn't know the roads up that way, there was a lot of construction going on... But one day I was out exploring and I saw Super Fresh.  I went in and immediately liked the place.  It seemed new, the employees were reasonably friendly, the prices seemed reasonable...  I started shopping there regularly.

Over the years the Acme in Strafford has been remodelled (it still sucks) Geunardi's has tried to woo back its lost customers from the botched Safeway takeover (it hasn't worked for me...) and a new Wegman's has opened not that far away (too far for weekly shopping, though.)

And Super Fresh has kept pace, as well.  It's had it's new floors and paint, new uniforms for the staff... But evidently, it hasn't been enough to bring in the shoppers.  I think it has more to do with location than anything else... The whole shopping area is in trouble.  Linen's & Things at one end is closing down, Oskar Huber - a huge furniture anchor store is closing down.  Circuit City - another anchor - has just filed for bancruptcy and will surely be closing soon...  It's just a lousy location.

Which really is too bad.  I like the store, and I really like the employees there.  I like walking in and having people say HI to me.  I like being able to chat with the folks.  And I like their products.

The writing is probably on the wall for them, too.  I imagine they will have to see a significant increase in their numbers or they will be closing down, too.

Here's hoping they stick around.