Mi Piace Kate

Cat vibes

2012-01-27T10:13:00.001-08:00

There is some intense love happening in our front window this morning. Loud purring, eyes closed, loving. Sofia woke up feeling particularly friendly, after a not-so-nice attempt to bite a friend last night. It was horribly embarassing, and completely unprovoked. Sofia didn't actually bite, but she did attempt it, which is very unlike her, but also very worrying.

Sofia is not happy with us, because we've been withholding treats (crackers, chips, steak) lately because its just not good for her. She is a maturing lady, with maturing digestion, and she needs less human food. Sofia does not agree, and is trying to let us know. Sofia has always been our spiciest cat, but attempting to bite a fairly cat-tolerant friend on her first visit to our house? Not making a good impression here guys.

Skill exchange part two is coming

2012-01-26T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've been adding new makers to our upcoming workshop series over the last few days, along with some old favorites, like Sidesaddle Kitchen, Urban Veggie Starts, Sightglass Coffee and others. If you happened to see Pot + Pantry's newsletter or blog in the past few days, you already know the scoop on a few exciting new collaborators we've recently added to the lineup. We're still working out the schedule and adding a few more classes to the list, but we'll be announcing the full lineup soon. Oh, and Skill Exchange got a new look too. Things are getting straightened out around here, left and right!

A few weeks ago we asked all our 100+ past participants to give us a little feedback on the series, and offered up a few spots in our yet-to-be announced workshops. Today I am happy to share the names of our winners, all of whom should soon be receiving an email with all the details of their big win. Margaret Leibovic, Jacquie Blackman, Natasha Glushkoff, Mari Alvarez and Laura Muhlhammer all won a pair of tickets to any of our upcoming workshops.

What we ate

2012-01-25T10:30:00.000-08:00

Afternoon snack: mini wheat bagels with cream cheese and salmon

Brunch: Potato and cheese frittata with sourdough toast

Dinner: New York steak with chimichurri, sesame-garlic raw broccoli salad, steamed potatoes

Dinner: Homemade macaroni and cheese with sauteed leeks, and winter greens salad

Dinner: Spinach, lemon orzo with parsley and red pepper flakes

Dinner: Coconut brown rice, sauteed garlic-chili bok choy, chicken potstickers (from TJ)

Breakfast: Smoothie with unsweetened coconut milk, spinach, fresh ginger, mint, mango and a splash of citrus

A friendly visit

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last week, our friends Kirsten and Craig came to stay with us and explore the city. Instead of a two-day visit, we enjoyed an extended visit Tuesday-Saturday, thanks to the horrible weather (major snow storm followed by ice storm) in Seattle. They couldn't fly home, so these good friends were trapped here with us in San Francisco. Intern and I were pretty gleeful in regards to their two days of flight cancellations, and we didn't even try to hide it.

Kirsten and I met in 1992, when we both played softball (it was tee ball really) with the Alcott Allstars. We were in 2nd grade, the league didn't keep score, and our uniforms were marigold and boxy. We went to the same elementary school, but Kirsten and I didn't reunite again until late high school, and had some dubiously amazing experiences together during a high school trip to Italy. We were close friends through college, where there were more (and better) visits to Italy together. Now many apartments, cross-country moves, and years later, we're back on the same coast, if not the same state.

We had a few good meals, a couple false goodbyes, lots of pajama coffee and tea breaks, long talks, cat-talks (all of us, turns out, are exclusively cat-people) rounds of bananagrams, and I didn't take a single photo of us together. Not one. I forgot all about that documenting-the-crap-out-of-everything thing that I do sometimes.

We've had a sad record these past few years of only seeing each other once every 12 months. Thanks to the state of emergency in Washington, we were able to get good and caught up in each other's lives last week. I was almost sad to hear Kirsten and Craig were finally able to get on a flight to get back to Seattle, but I know Kirsten has chickens to feed, and an herb farm to plan. Oh, and Craig, is amazing and has a robe better than any other robe I have ever seen.

Almost 1,000

2012-01-23T10:00:00.001-08:00

This weekend the weather was miserable, so we stayed in as much as we could. Lots of tea, pajamas and cat coddling (and cuddling) was had around here.

This week I am coming up on my 1,000th blog post. WHAT! That seems like so much, and so so many, but I am pretty certain the bulk of those posts have only been in the last (almost) three years since moving to San Francisco. So much change and uncertainty, meals and projects have been documented here. In my spare minutes, I've been updating my portfolio with new work, while secretly ferreting away hours and minutes to update my blog as well. I've been working on a new look and layout, but of course, these changes are slow moving. Hopefully I'll be hit with more of that crazy productivity I had last week, and I'll be even closer to sharing the new look soon.

End of the week, and what I am working on

2012-01-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

We've had good (cat-loving) friends in town for the past few days, and somehow in the shuffle between work during the day, and entertaining at night, I've hardly taken any photographs to document the week. I wrapped up a few projects for clients, made it to the gym and pilates (yaaay!) and enjoyed an evening of bananagrams with our friends, with everyone in their jammies. The cats enjoyed every extra ounce of attention and play.

The nice weather I gloated about seems to be long gone, but I've got a few new projects starting next week, plus I'm working out the details on our upcoming workshop series. I migrated my work to the dining room table this week, which was a nice change of scenery. Along with my uniform of sweatpants, I think the temporary space changed really helped my productivity skyrocket. I checked projects off my list all week long.

Surprise in the mail

2012-01-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

This package of amazing products and print arrived on our doorstep this week. I forgot we subscribed to Quarterly Co. a few months back, and was surprised to find a box of printed things, and cool items picked by the gals behind No More Dirty Looks. I was so eager to see what was inside I ripped through this sticker... I wish I had more self control. I'm eager to try out the three products inside, and I really love all the attention and detail put into the packaging and enclosed notes with the products. I like the idea of taking a chance on a project like this, and trying a new, clean and safe beauty product to support some alternative makers out there that I might not otherwise come across.

Animal tracks

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

For the last few weeks we've been tracking a new visitor in our backyard and up on our deck. Looks like the visitor is a climber! At first I was suspicious of some very faint paw prints on our deck (they looked canine), but after this weekend, I know I am not imagining things. This animal is real, it is muddy, and it is pretty big. I've compared raccoon tracks and opossum tracks online, and yes, even dog tracks too, but I have a preettty strong feeling this isn't a dog climbing on our railing, leaving prints on our back windows and climbing on our roof.

Aside from scaring the cats pretty regularly, this animal seems to keep coming back for something, although I am not sure what. Our garbage and compost cans are two stories down and seem to be left untouched, and we don't keep compost or trash up on our little deck. Our garden has been fairly neglected for the past few months, and I don't think the raccoons have been rooting around down there. We have a few potted plants up on our deck, rosemary, catnip and a flowering houseplant, but I can't figure out what this raccoon is after. I read that a rag soaked in ammonia is a good, safe animal deterrent, but I also know that raccoons are crazy smart, and may not be deterred.

Maybe our roof or chimney is about to become home to some super cute baby raccoons? Maybe we need to keep our windows closed from now on? I am pretty sure our landlord is going to be super annoyed if I bother him with this issue... but then again, I wonder how much he likes (sometimes) ferocious baby animals and their mother nesting in his moneymaker. Yep. I just typed that.

Just photos

2012-01-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

{Napa Valley, St. Helena, various sights, tastes, places and things}

A plan

2012-01-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

This weekend, there was a birthday. My birthday. After our particularly nice-long-exhausting treat of a holiday season (and I really mean a FULL season of treats and treating) I didn't have big plans for this particular birthday. Getting back into a normal, non-holiday rush schedule, enjoying the amazing January weather, drinking green smoothies and getting myself to the gym and pilates has been feeling pretty wonderful. Normal feels good. Wrapping up the last few years of my twenties has felt pretty good and easy, AND becoming a year older doesn't exactly qualify me for big birthday territory just yet. So the plan was to have a simple birthday in the city. But things didn't exactly go as planned.

Instead, we went to Napa for the weekend. OOPS! Intern was offered the keys to a vacation house in St. Helena, which just happened to coincide with that birthday I mentioned, so we went. The weather happened to be particularly nice, so we rode bikes and tasted wine in the sun. We picnicked, we slept in, we tried out every feature of this fancy, French-chateau-styled vacation home in St. Helena-- complete with Viking range, sauna, pool, hot tub, steam shower, plush white robes and vineyard adjacent views. We didn't end up playing bocce ball on the serious-looking bocce ball court out back, but that was the only disappointment.

We dined, we bananagramed, and we felt almost a touch guilty when we heard about the snow in Seattle. Almost. We came home Sunday night and rounded out this nothing-special kind of birthday with a homemade, friend-made dinner of mint-asparagus potato ravioli, chocolate cupcakes and even more birthday treats, including my favorite cava. Stop it you guys. Just stop it.

Before it was all over, there was a tiny bit of shopping and happy hour downtown, and an Intern-made dinner of mashed potatoes, filet mignon, red wine and chocolate lava cake. Holy crap. We're really done with all the birthday-ing now, and its back to green smoothies and kale salad. I'm serious, I mean it!

weekend trip

2012-01-13T10:13:00.003-08:00

We're cutting out of work early today for a little surprise trip to wine country for the weekend. Our weekend bag is packed, our picnic supplies are assembled, and the weather so far promises to be very nice. Intern has a few meetings downtown this morning, and we have to pick up our Pastoral Plate order in the Mission, and then we'll be ready to head out for the weekend.

I've spent the past few days planning meetings, scheduling workshops, and talking with new local makers for our winter/spring lineup of workshops at Pot + Pantry. We're branching out with some of our workshops, as well as bringing back a few of our most popular workshops, AND we're adding a few advanced classes to the mix. A few changes are coming with this round of workshops, which will hopefully make our events more successful and run smoothly. We'll be sharing our new lineup towards the end of January, but you can watch our eventbrite page for details, as well as check out this blog, and Pot + Pantry for news!

Sun schedule

2012-01-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

The cats are all on a rigorous sun schedule, rotating their nap and bath spots around the room as the sun moves across our living room. The girls in particular, for some reason. Our house gets a good amount of sun, and the cats are the only ones taking full advantage. The gals like to sit with their faces in the sun, their eyes closed, just purring by themselves.

The picture below is really funny to me, but I can't think of a funny caption or witty remark. Sorry guys. Just look at this photo of Muuli the belly and be happy about cats.

More classes with Sidesaddle Kitchen

2012-01-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Miss Laura Miller of Sidesaddle Kitchen was featured this morning on Refinery29, sharing a handful of new raw recipes. ANNNNDD, Laura has a few upcoming classes at Pot + Pantry. Laura's skill exchange workshop was so popular, she is now offering spots in a series of paid classes that will offer in-depth instruction on how to make raw pies, truffles and puddings. These classes will include tastings (yay!) and recipes, and all will be held at Pot + Pantry January 12th (tonight) and January 21st.

There are a few remaining spots left in tonight's class, but you must register before 3PM.

Edit: EEK! Just got word that the remaining spots are already getting filled, so get in there quickly!

What we ate

2012-01-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

Dinner: Coconut lemongrass soup with udon noodles, tofu, mushrooms and other stuff

Happy Hour: Rosemary, Aperol, St Germain, lime and something cocktail

Dinner: Moroccan tagine of chicken, green olives and preserved lemon

Sneaky immersion blender breakfast: Spinach, mango, lime, grapefruit and oatmeal powder smoothie (I don't even like liquid breakfast, but this is pretty delicious)

Dinner: Lamb meatballs, roasted broccoli and onions, turmeric potatoes on the side

Sunday lunch at The Alembic

1 in 10 is a very spicy little pepper

The best fish sandwich after a leisurely Sunday hike

Breakfast: Puffed brown rice, soft boiled egg

Dinner: Cholay, turmeric potatoes, rice


Office lunch: mini pot stickers and bok choi (and our office has a yellow glow when the curtains are closed)

Our CSA this week

Produce and a purpose

2012-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Back in October I went to an estate sale and found these 1940s sugar sacks. Clean, beautiful, and begging for me to take them home. I knew if I took them home, I would probably cut them up and turn them into something else... sorry ephemera purists, I can't help cutting stuff up! This time it only took me 3 months to get around to the project though. I made these produce bags in an hour or two, but I am not keeping them for myself. Nope. Here Etsy, take them. Take them all!

We have a drawer full of produce bags that we use every week to carry our CSA produce home. We also use these bags in the fridge to store our vegetables. I've found that our lettuce stays crisp, and the rest of our vegetables are pretty happy in the fridge when I keep them in a cotton produce bag. This time of year our fridge seems to always have a bag of leeks, cabbage or root vegetables.

January, I love you

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Oh January, I'd tell you to stop, but I don't mean it. January so far has been the first month in many months that hasn't involved daily sweater wearing. It is entirely possible that I've already forgotten the warm end of summer, and the warm start of fall, but I really do love January weather right now.

We went for a hike in the woods with our friends on Sunday, and the woods were like a jungle. Green and lush with flowers hiding around corners. We hiked (leisurely strolled) to the top of Mt Sutro, took in the view, and made plans for lunch. After our mild hike exertion, we rewarded ourselves with beers, fried peppers and shared sandwiches.

This might just be the best weather for a too-close-to-christmas birthday.

Intern had to work this weekend, which meant I had to find my own entertainment on Saturday. If I stayed home I would have done some house wifery like dishes, or folding napkins. Instead, I took myself to an estate sale (ok, actually 2 estate sales) and bought myself (I mean us) a wonderful and horrible (we have a lot of work to make it look amazing) dresser.

Your eyes are probably fixed on the pink floral wallpaper, but please, just peel them away and look at that tall drink of dresser right there, cream with gold trim and some crazy ornate handles. While Intern was working away at a coffee shop in the mission, I was frantically trying to figure out how I was going to jam (carefully place) this heavy well-priced find into our midsize junk-hauler (nice car we call Luigi). I bought it, slapped some blue tape with the word SOLD on it, and went home to alert the Intern. We've got some sanding and painting to do!

We sadly had to leave the sale without the matching monstrosity below (but it is a matching set!) because there is no way in hell I could have convienced Intern of the charm. I suspect there was also a matching bed at some point too, but some other sucker got to it first.

The gold and white dresser (of my dreams) was a hard sell, until I opened the drawers to show Intern the dovetail joints and thoughtfully designed sectioned compartments inside the drawers. Got him! I got him with promises of color-coordinated underpants and socks. Now we've got a huge-fun refinishing project to tackle, and I can't wait to get started.

A full week

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

I am really done, I promise. No more holiday-related blog posts. Really done. I scheduled the whole week of posts, just to get it all wrapped up so I could focus my energy on other projects. Organizing the closet! Reordering the bookshelf! Designing a giant wall calendar! Blending things with my new immersion blender! Doctor appointments! Cat wrangling! Fertilizing the gardening! Picking lemons!

We still have cats, I promise. The lack of cat-posts around here means nothing other than I have been a lazy documenter. They are still here and generally all over me all the time. All four cats have been particularly needy (and kneady) lately, and boy, are they demanding. I made a quick video of some kitten wrestling antics this week, since the kittens have recently rediscovered that wrestling is SO. MUCH. FUN. Try waking up to a couple of kittens rolling and wrestling across your body in the night.

January so far is being downright balmy, although I hate to brag in front of all you non-balmy weather sufferers. I am sorry but not very... because yesterday I went out to run errands without a sweater and ate lunch outside in the sun, and it was the most amazing thing I did all week. Keep it up January.

What we ate (Seattle Holiday part two)

2012-01-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

Dinner: Haleem toppings fried onions, lime, shredded ginger, green chili and cilantro, plus a little garam masala

Lunch: Making puri at Ammi's house

The hot puri (we ate them all)

Lunch: learning to make cholay (chickpeas) with Ammi

Lunch: so so good and we learned to make it all

Dinner: SF Christmas dinner of crab, butter, saffron rice and a big old salad

Lunch: Djan Thai in Wallingford

Dinner at Mezcaleria Oaxaca in Queen Anne

What we ate (Seattle Holiday part one)

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Ruben sandwich from Homegrown

Brunch: Burger with a fried egg at Emmer and Rye

Breakfast: Mom-made cinnamon rolls with lemon cream cheese frosting

Breakfast part two: Croissants, spinach scramble

Christmas mimosas without the orange juice (we all forgot to pick some up)

Christmas Eve dinner: Herbed sliced potatoes with lots of butter

Christmas Eve dinner: Finally finished herb-crusted roast and potatoes

Christmas eve: Obligatory shrimp cocktail at Grandma's house

Christmas day dinner: Intern-seared rack of lamb in the making

Christmas dinner: Rack of lamb, roasted asparagus, stuffing, massaged kale salad and grilled romaine salad

Christmas drinkin'

Christmas in photos

2012-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

I took our Christmas decorations down before posting any photos our details about our family holiday. Who wants to read about Christmas a week after the fact? No one around here, I'm pretty sure, so instead, here are a bunch of photos. I'm not going to bother with stories, except to say the above photos of my sister and I are probably some of the finest moments captured over the holiday--

ONE: those ankle-length eyelet aprons were made by our mother at least 20 years ago, and grandma hasn't stained either one once (!!!), even though they have been in continuous-regular use for 20 years. My sister and I each wore one while cooking, and I didn't bother to check whether we'd made a mess of those immaculate aprons.

TWO: My sister and I like to sneak in at least one annual holiday photo of us wearing our grandmother's fur coats. We always do this on our way out the door, without grandma knowing. This year I got the floor length mink, and Liz got some black fur thing I don't think I've seen before. Grandma would kill us with words if she knew we make fun of her fur, or worse, she might actually think we want the horrible things, and threaten to give them to us when the time comes. No one wants that, a but a good holiday fur-sneak is always funny after a couple bottles of wine and a few hours of being bossed around by our mean old grandma. The photo is blurry because a certain Intern felt very nervous about this fur-sneak thing, and we heard Grandma coming down the hall to see us out the door. We got it anyway!

Anyway, this is what Christmas looked like:

The new year

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Our little thrown-together NYE party was a fun evening of music, cocktails, snacks, party attire, and over 160 photos from our hallway photo booth. Intern and I spent the morning cutting strips of fabric, then tying them into garlands to decorate our house for the party. We played a few rounds of Mafia, ruthlessly killing each other off for the slightest giggle or proclamation of innocence, listened to vinyl and a few top musical picks of 2011. The kittens were quite the little partyers, and stayed awake and in everyone's business all night long. I woke up with an ever so slight headache, but I'm so glad our friends could join us to celebrate the new year. I love a party where I can wear slippers all night long.

Last post of 2011

2011-12-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

I know I just said I wasn't going to blog this week, but... I lied. Turns out, I had this feeling...errr need to write one last blog post in 2011. I was busy I was wrapping things up in real life this week, but I'd hate to neglect a big part of the last year, and that is you, internet. Also, I'm feeling a little inspired by all these charming blog-ladies (like this one) out there who are wrapping up their year with timely posts and reflections on the past year. Me too! Me too guys! Don't let the year end without me.

Thank you internet, for introducing me to nice charming internet friends who have (OMG) become real life friends too. 2010 Kate probably wouldn't have ever believed that 2011 Kate was making friends on the internet. Watch out 2012 Kate. Things could get reaaal crazy (Just kidding mom, it won't!).

The following links are a handful of the big and little important events of the past year.

2011 was a big year in a few ways. First, Intern and I are officially past the two (and a half) year mark of living San Francisco, and we're coasting towards nearly three years of living in the city. We promised Seattle we'd be back home in two years, but we're still here, and kind of really liking it. We don't know where we'll be in the next few years, but for now, we're not dumping Seattle or San Francisco. We're keeping both options. This year we had some big things to celebrate, including my MFA, Pam's dirty 30 in SF, new babies, and a little collaboration with a new friend at Pot + Pantry.

We spent time with good friends, made new friends, had dinner parties, and enjoyed some really amazing meals.

I've learned a lot this year, including some skills and a few harder lessons. I learned a little bit about butchery, vegan baking, urban gardening, indian cooking, freelancing, and you know, what I want to do with my life. I learned some safety lessons, lots of cooking, but I've also attempted to learn how to slow down. It took a few months after the end of grad school to figure out a new schedule and pattern, but I've made strides in letting some things go, and being brave enough to try something new.

I'm starting 2012 with some exciting plans, some wonderful friends, a house full of cats, and a most wonderful partner to learn and explore with.

We're back!

2011-12-28T12:43:00.002-08:00

But not exactly back to blogging. This blog break feels so good I am going to stay away for another few days as we try to stretch out the holiday for as long as possible. Our trip to Seattle was wonderful, eventful, unplugged, exhausting and so very satisfying, but now that we're back in San Francisco, I am trying to take a little time at the end of the year to slow down and enjoy some time to catch up. I'm trying not to start any new projects, but finish what I've started. We have bags to unpack, thank yous to write, a little party to plan, and a few more holiday cards to send. See you in a few days internet, there will be photos, recipes and stories to share!

Estate sale finds

2011-12-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

Went to a Friday estate sale, and found myself in possession of some old metal kitchen tools. I feel pretty proud of these little hoarded treasures, but I feel infinitely more proud of the following two finds.

One: an old collection of cocktail stir sticks from all over the country. I soaked them for a few hours to get the grim off, but I'm not sure if they'll sure any more purpose beyond pure decoration on our bar cart. My favorite one is black and says in gold gothic lettering "Your father's mustache." Pretty good. I also found a near-perfect set of 4 gold trimmed champagne saucers. For a dollar each. I am bragging. I thought I would give these saucers as a gift, but quickly realized once I got them home... I am too much of a hoarder to share.

Holiday break

2011-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

We're off! We're headed to Seattle for a few days to spend the holidays with our families. We're hoping to sneak in some time with friends, and have lunch at a few of our favorite places in Ballard and Wallingford while we're in town. Intern and I are in charge of the two big holiday meals, so we've packed a few new recipes to test out on family. We're looking forward to French 75's with Grandma, playing bananagrams at night in front of the fire, a house full of cats, breakfast in jammies with mom and Pam, and a whole lot of Indian food with ammi and Intern's whole family.

I'm really looking forward to spending some time with Intern's 6 and 10 year old girl cousins, who are awesomely into us, like reaaaaally into us. The like making us cards, sitting in our laps, and hanging on our every word...and this might be because my name is Kate. I think their parents let them watch the royal wedding back in April, because the girls constantly ask the question, "What if his name was William and you were still Kate?! What if your names were William and Kate?!!"

WHAT IF you guys? What if?!

I'll either be blogging sporadically, or possibly not at all over the next few days. Our cats won't be alone without any company however, since we've got some feline-friendly neighbors who will be spending the holidays with our cat-babies.

In case this is the last time I blog for a week, happy holidays guys!

Workshop with Pastoral Plate

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday evening, we hosted our final workshop of the year with Jonathan Lewis of Pastoral Plate. Jonathan started the evening with a poem, and shared his stories and experiences in tracking down the answer to the not-so-simple question, "Where does this food come from?"Jonathan's goal at Pastoral Plate is to support farmers and producers, and demystify the complicated chain of farm to table. Farm to table isn't so simple, nor is it very stable for small producers in the Bay Area.

Jonathan's efforts to understand our precarious food economy has lead Pastoral Plate to join the slow money movement and engage in small scale farm investments to help support local producers, which you can read about here. Jonathan's partner Deborah prepared a lovely braised lamb and olive dish for everyone to sample at the end of Jonathan's discussion.

As I mentioned previously, this workshop was different than most of our past skill-based workshops. Instead of a demonstration, this workshop was a discussion, and the group was very engaging and asked thoughtful questions throughout. Another attendee posted a wonderful write up on our workshop over at Spice Dish.

This concludes our workshop series for 2011, but if you'd like to learn about previous workshops, check out this link for earlier posts on my collaboration with Pot + Pantry.

Pre-Christmas weekend

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

The last weekend before Christmas! How did we get here? In between last minute gift making, wrapping and shopping, we stopped to have an early Christmas dinner with friends, accidentally went to an estate sale, and enjoyed a latka-filled potluck with new friends. The kittens are enjoying every opportunity to dive into piles of tissue paper, attack our suitcases, and hunt our Christmas decorations. I made a lemon olive oil rosemary cake, but between two afternoon teas, and a Saturday brunch, not a single piece was left on Monday morning.

Since we're flying out tomorrow, I've made it my goal to cook/eat every last perishable CSA veggie in the house, so no vegetable guilt will follow me home for the holidays. Vegetable guilt, in case you're wondering, is always included with every CSA box. At the moment I pick up our CSA, the clock starts ticking to use the vegetables wisely. Wilted greens, limp radishes, brown parsley? They all cause immense guilt and regret. I do not want to waste those veggies, but sometimes one takeout dinner during the week can send the whole vegetable schedule into overdrive. We're one lettuce head and a single bunch of mustard greens away from an empty fridge. ANDDDD, we've got some wilt-y looking cilantro. Ugh.

Friday note

2011-12-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

I am fighting two things this morning: the lingering end of this cold I picked up, and the overwhelming urge to stop at a big estate sale in the city this morning. I know I said I was over that first-day-of-sale thing... but maybe I'm not.

This weekend we have a few holiday get-togethers lined up with friends, a tiny bit of holiday gift-making and wrapping, and a mountain of laundry to take care of so we can start packing for our trip back home.

Last night we had our final workshop with Pastoral Plate, and while I'll share more details and photos on Monday, I just wanted to say that our last workshop did not disappoint. The group was engaging and asked thoughtful questions, and Jonathan was, as always, passionate and eager to share information, tell a story, and draw a group together. We all enjoyed a braised lamb shank dish that Deborah prepared, and Jonathan answered questions from the group, made us all giggle, and helped to untangle the precarious and complicated network of food production, from from field to farm, to butcher and processor to distribution and finally to table.

Workshop with Pastoral Plate Tonight

2011-12-15T11:26:00.003-08:00

Our last workshop of 2011 is tonight, featuring Jonathan Lewis of Pastoral Plate. Jonathan will be giving a talk on his work with Pastoral Plate, (along with a tasting) and will explore (and untangle) some of the complications of our local food economy.

This last workshop is completely, totally, fully booked, and we've got 9 people on our wait list, and I am hoping to release a few more tickets to them later this afternoon. (!!!) I'm looking forward to a little break in the schedule, but I'm already getting excited for our upcoming lineup starting at the end of January!

What we ate (the soup rut continues)

2011-12-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

Dinner: 12 bean soup with collard greens and sourdough toast

Soup rut

Dinner: Pasta with marscapone, lemon and arugula and roasted radishes and turnips on the side

Dinner: Braised lamb shank over couscous with parsley mint sauce

Breakfast two ways: Fried eggs and naan with strawberry jam on the left and and with pepper jam on the right

Skill Exchange wrap up

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

As our skill exchange workshop series wraps up for the year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on some of the things I've learned through this experience. I started this project with Donna of Pot + Pantry back in August, as a way to explore social skill exchange out in the wider communities of San Francisco, and to test some of the theories and methodology I developed during my MFA thesis work at CCA. The goal of this workshop series has been to encourage self-reliance through social skill exchange, to meet new people, and to have fun.

For me, small and free have been two very important ideals that have at times been difficult to maintain. Why small, why free? Small workshops have been important not just because our workspace is small, but also to help create a safe and supportive atmosphere for everyone involved. Small group workshops are great for conversation and connection, both for the nerves of our sometimes first-time teachers, and for first-time makers who want to ask questions and feel comfortable in a group of similarly-minded strangers. It isn't easy to admit you are a beginner, you want help, and you are trying something new. Our small workshops have allowed for lots of questions, conversation and connection.

At the end of nearly every workshop, people have stuck around, exchanging emails, business cards, laughs and sharing ideas. There have been emails, meet ups, conversations, dates, parties, dinners and friendships that have sprung up out of our workshops, I kid you not.

All our workshops are free because, very simply put, I believe basic skills should be free.

Hand making skills haven't always been so scarce or so irregularly practiced, and I think they shouldn't be reserved for those who can afford to pay and practice them. Finding time to practice a new hand making skill is difficult enough.I'm not against fee-based classes or paid education (hey grad school!) but there are already a lot of barriers which prevent communities from sharing and exchanging skills, and I don't feel that cost always needs to be part of that equation.

Sure, there is an argument that if we charged a few dollars for every workshop, it would compel people to follow through, and show up to every event. We'd had a few no shows, which can be frustrating when we generally also have a waiting list full of people who want to come to our events. This project isn't propelled by a monetary goal, and I don't believe that hand-making skills should be. Skills are valuable, but that value doesn't have to be attached to a monetary value.

When trying to explain this crazy idea (believe me, everyone questions why something so valuable is free) I always think of an old fashioned barn-raising. Communities came together to help each other build barns, and each neighbor had a different tool or skill to help get the job done. No single person or family could quickly do what a community could do together. In turn, communities took turns and helped each other build barns, sharing skills and knowledge to support each other.

When I talk of self-reliance, I don't mean to propose that everyone can, and must be canning, cooking, baking, sewing and building everything themselves. It is difficult, it is time-intensive, and I don't believe it can be sustainable to do it all alone. I do believe self-reliance can be sustainable, practicable, and enjoyable if you can build a community and network of like-minded makers around you, to help share and support your efforts to be more connected to the materials, work, and knowledge necessary to practice healthy, mindful making.

We've collaborated with different makers on eight workshops, and have shared skills, ideas, and started new conversations with a much wider audience than we anticipated. Some workshops were more popular than others, but I've found that since our first workshop in October, many of our participants have continued to have ongoing conversations with other makers, Donna and myself. I started to recognize a few faces at new events, and have found that some of our participants have come to find us through very different sources. News is spreading beyond our blogs, our friends, and our very local mission community.

I am really excited to continue this workshop series, as well as work to create new opportunities for skill exchange. In the coming weeks/months I will share some new projects I have been invited to participate in that support and encourage the kind of work I find myself most inspired by. I know that these workshops, and the way that I carry out this work may change over time, as I am able to incorporate new goals and ideas into the project.

Intro to Charcuterie with Travis Mcconnell

2011-12-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we hosted our second-to-last workshop of the year, this time with Travis Mcconnell of Revival Bar + Kitchen. Travis shared a brief history of charcuterie, as well shared a few of his favorite books on the topic. Travis walked us through three topics essential for home curing: safety, tools and ingredients. The workshop finished with a tasting.

This workshop was the first in a series of charcuterie workshops planned with Travis. In workshops planned for early 2012, Travis will help us explore home curing techniques, and will give curing demonstrations (and hopefully more tastings!).

Weekend in December

2011-12-12T11:59:00.002-08:00

This weekend we attended Intern's company party, checked a few gifts off our holiday list, and made yet another pot of soup. We've always made quite a few of our holiday gifts, and this year we'll be doing the same. I've been gathering cute jars, patterned fabric, and we've already screen printed gift tags and holiday cards this year. Last year, we made wool blankets, appliqued pillows, bow ties and bath salts for friends and family. This year, we're puttin' stuff in jars and sewing some stuff, but I really can't say more.

My sister and I are doing something different this year- instead of a wrapped gift, we've promised to take a trip together some time in the coming year, to a city neither of us has been to. We traveled together in college, but we had our best mediator with us (thanks mom!) and we've never gone anywhere just the two of us. Inspired by my favorite other Kate, we're doing it this year. Taking a trip, just for sisters.

As kids, Pam and I traveled together at least twice a year, to bounce back and forth between families, and those long flights always included spilled drinks (on Pam), sometimes a bloody nose (mine) and some tears (generally both of us) and on one epic flight-- tears, a bloody nose AND a lot of air sickness bags (all mine) all at the same time. But now we're all grown up and not into hitting each other, and my sister knows better than to let me root around in my bag looking for markers or my walkman with a coke in my hand. I promise Pam, we're going to have a great trip!

Friday cat-love and a party

2011-12-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

I caught the girls being downright friendly towards each other this week, sharing the same nap-spot in the sun. This is a big, kind step towards love you guys, and I am so happy for them. It might be because both of these ladies like to be warm, or maybe it is because they were both too stubborn to give up the best nap-spot, but whatever the reason we'll take it. Cat-love!

Intern and I stayed in last night playing dorky (AWESOME AND FUN) word games with our new banangrams game, but tonight we are getting all fancy tonight for his company holiday party. This year the party has a 60's Mad Men theme, so we've got some new party clothes ironed, fluffed, and ready to go. I'm not much for fanciness most days, but tonight I'm giving it a go-- I'm pulling out a pair of real heels, I've got some sparkly tights, and I even got eyeliner lessons from a friend. I'm going to look real fancy tonight while I watch Intern's bosses and co-workers get really drunk. Happy weekend and happy holiday parties!

What we ate

2011-12-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't made a 'What we ate' post in a few weeks, not because we haven't been eating or cooking, but because we've been eating easy, fast, and not-so-photogenic things. Black bean soup, lentil soup, spicy thai noodle soup, and yes, a couple of takeout dinners and frozen pizzas with quick sauteed CSA greens. BORING! I guess we've been lazy, but we've also been craaazy busy, which makes cookin' less appealing when all I want to do in the evening is curl up and sleep. I blame the weather shift.

Dinner: Lemongrass coconut milk vegetable noodle soup

Dinner: Oh look! More soup! This time with tofu and veggie eggrolls on the side

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and chive cheddar biscuits

Breakfast on the go: Yogurt and granola

Dinner: TJ ravioli and sauteed CSA greens with capers and shallots

Dinner: spicy black bean soup with cumin-sour cream

Brunch: home-shredded hash browns with a fried egg and cheddar

Holiday Cocktails from The Royal Cuckoo

2011-12-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Paul Miller of The Royal Cuckoo shared two holiday cocktail recipes for our Holiday Party-Party at Pot + Pantry last night. Paul mixed cocktails for our guests, and shared a few tips for holiday drink mixing, along with passing us the following recipes.

The Royal Cuckoo is one of our favorite neighborhood bars, at 3202 Mission Street. The Royal Cuckoo plays vinyl, and live music, and it is where I had my very first martini! My favorite drink on the menu is the Bitter Cup. Just try it.

Yule Tide Mai Tai
makes one cocktail

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz of light rum
1 oz of dark rum
3/4 oz of benedictine
1/2 of cointreau
1 oz of pomegranate juice
juice of 1 lime
1 and 1/2 fresh pomegranate wheel for garnish
1 mint sprig for garnish

Directions:
Add all ingredients (except mint sprig) and add 1/2 pomegranate wheel into a ice filled mixing glass (pint glass). Shake well, then float one pomegranate wheel on top of glass place a mint sprig on top. To finish, pierce pomegranate wheel with straw, then serve.

For holiday punch:
For punch, just multiply ingredients to desired quantity, then stir vigorously in punchbowl. Pomegranate wheels must be shaken separately then added to mix. Serve with ice!

Snow Angel
makes one cocktail

Ingredients:
creme de menthe
champagne, proescco or sparkling wine
white sugar
meyer lemon twist for garnish
mint sprig for garnish

Directions:

Take a champagne flute, dip the rim into a glass of creme de menthe to coat the rim, then dip flute in to a glass of white sugar slowly turning flute. Wipe out the sugar from the inside of the glass, and pour a 1/2 oz of creme de menthe (alternately rumplemintz or some kind of peppermint schnapps) into flute then fill flute with champagne or sparkling wine, add meyer lemon twist and a mint sprig, and serve!

Holiday party-party Recap

2011-12-08T10:55:00.001-08:00

First ever Holiday Party-party, you were fun, but boy am I tired. Whirlwind planning, a whole lot of toting boxes, prepping jars, cutting gingham circles, washing lemons, RSVPs, emails, and awesomely, a whole lot of vegan chili chocolate truffles. Oh, the truffles! The party planners may have had quite a few of those last night to keep us going between preserved lemon demos, cocktails made by Paul Miller of The Royal Cuckoo, and our favorite raw, vegan, hilarious SideSaddle Kitchen. Thanks to everyone who came out last night for cocktails, kitchenware, demos, jokes, and party aprons. Later today we'll be sharing the cocktail recipes Paul prepared for us last night, so stay alert, recipes are coming!

Mistletoe in SF and a holiday party

2011-12-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I went to Pacific Heights to run a few errands, and two preteen boys in soccer uniforms hustled me into buying some mistletoe that they "kinda grew" themselves. When questioned on this suspicious homegrown mistletoe hanging on a clothesline across the sidewalk, the boys said they didn't exactly grow it, but "encouraged" the mistletoe... probably the same way they encouraged me to buy three bundles of the stuff, just so I could "Give it to friends and say Merry Christmas to them!" Punk kids with bowl haircuts. They got me good.

Tonight I'm co-hosting a little DIY Holiday Party-Party with Donna of Pot + Pantry. Our party will include recipes, snacks and drinks to help make your next holiday party sparkle, plus guests will receive 10% off the entire store! There will be drinks and snacks, and workshop demos while supplies last!

I am about to ruin a few surprises, but here goes, I just can't keep it a secret any longer!

We'll be sharing a couple demonstrations (and tastings!) throughout the evening, including holiday cocktail mixing with bartender Paul Miller of The Royal Cuckoo, then Sidesaddle Kitchen will be demonstrating how to make thin mint truffles, (plus she'll have truffle gift boxes available for sale!) and finally, a DIY preserved lemon demonstration lead by yours truly. I'll have supplies on hand for you to make your own cute jars of preserved lemons, so be sure to bring a lil' cash if you'd like to participate in the lemon demo, and go home with a few jars as gifts! Phheewww, I feel so much better now that I got that all out in the open. Party starts at 6PM, hope to see you there!

Workshop with Town Cutler

2011-12-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind in blogging about our last few workshops at Pot + Pantry, please forgive me. We've had a busy month already, and now we're down to only three more workshops before the end of the year. We'll be back in January with a whole new lineup of classes as well!

Last Thursday we held an evening workshop with Galen Garretson of Town Cutler. Galen gave a brief lecture on knife sharpening, including a discussion of different steels, and sharpening methods. Galen demonstrated his three step sharpening process using Japanese whetstones, and answered questions along the way.

Galen now offers small group classes at his shop, where you can learn to sharpen your own knives after a lecture and demonstration. The $80 registration fee also includes a few tools you'll need to sharpen your own knives. If you'd like to take a class with Town Cutler, Galen has a few upcoming classes in January. Sign up online, by visiting towncutler.com.

This class was a popular class with a long waitlist, so we plan to collaborate with Galen again to offer additional workshops at Pot + Pantry early next year. Pot + Pantry now carries a selection of Town Cutler knives as well!

Workshop with Fire Escape Farms

2011-12-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we held a workshop with Naya Peterson of Fire Escape Farms. Naya taught a lesson on all things herb, with a discussion of micro-climate, cultivation, harvesting and tips for growing herbs in pots and small spaces.

New Native

2011-12-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to share a new Etsy shop, New Native, created by my bestie Michelle. Michelle set off on an adventure a few years ago, one that changed the course of her life forever. She came back the US, but not for long. Michelle now lives in France with her husband, working in a museum, and spends her weekends exploring flea markets, traveling, and creating new projects and art. You may remember Michelle from a Secret project post many months ago, where she shared instructions for making a simple knit necklace. In the months since, she has been hard at work creating new patterns and designs. We worked together to create a graphic identity for her project, and now we can finally share New Native!

Michelle recently launched her New Native shop, and she has a few of her designs up in the shop already. I've had a sneak peek at some of the new designs, and (!!!) and I know Michelle is hard at work preparing to add more to the shop over the next few days.

Michelle ships internationally, but if you live in the US, and would like your necklace to arrive in time for the holidays, you must order by December 6th. European orders must be made by December 15th. I have a few of her knit necklaces, and honestly, I love wearing these super soft and delicate necklaces throughout the year.

Weekend

2011-12-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

The biggest cat in the house has discovered a few new spots to fold himself into, and Sofia rediscovered a few of her neglected "babies" sometime in the night over the weekend. I woke up to scattered tissue paper, and furry babies everywhere. She loves her fake babies and carries them all over the house. As for the real cat babies... well, she is learning to live with, and occasionally love them.

My slipper search came to an end after finding a pair of charcoal wool ballet slippers while out running errands with Lucy. Slippers, like a good pair of jammies are my frequent house uniform, so the slipper search was quite urgent. Ok, honestly, I never wear real pants at home. Slippers and jammies, that is what I am into. I was very sad to retire our gingham MUJI slippers, but we wore them out completely.

During this errands-shopping afternoon, Lucy and I found a few holiday goodies, had lunch at The Butler and the Chef, and enjoyed sneaking away from work and obligations to have an afternoon off. My weekend started with allergy testing and some Christmas hunting downtown. On Friday evening, Intern and I finally visited Terroir, to meet up with Intern's coworkers, and our favorite coffee-wine-friend Archie. Saturday started with a workshop at Pot + Pantry, and ended with a dinner of spicy black bean soup, and bedtime by 9PM for me.

This week I am hoping to print our holiday cards, wrap up some client work, make a few gifts, and do a few last minute preparations for our Holiday Party-Party at Pot + Pantry on Wednesday. We've lined up some exciting demonstrations, and throughout the night there will be a few surprises, while supplies last of course.

One more thing before the weekend

2011-12-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

I took five days off my allergy pill, so I can do a full allergy test at the doctor's office today to find out what else is irritating my senses. I think the kittens somehow know this, and have been testing my survival skills at night. Muuli spent nearly all of last night trying to sneak up on to my face, neck and chest while I tried to sleep. She either loves to love me, or she is trying to stop me from breathing. Either way, its adorable, and I can't wait to take my antihistamine today so I can get back to being covered in kitten.

This week was light on food posts and generally everything else (except for Joshua Tree), but I've been busy working to wrap up client work, plan a few surprises for our overbooked holiday party at Pot + Pantry, and keep breathing through my cat allergies. Saturday is our sold out workshop with Fire Escape Farms, and today we released tickets for our upcoming workshop with Pastoral Plate on December 15th. It is our last skill exchange workshop of the year folks, and sadly, your last chance for tickets until January, when we announce our second round of workshops!

Joshua Tree part three

2011-12-01T09:34:00.001-08:00

The house we rented over Thanksgiving is in Yucca Valley, in a little community called Rock Reach. I found Rock Reach House during a deep dive into the internets, courtesy of one my many favorite blogs, A Desert Fete. After seeing her photos of the house, I shared it with Intern and within minutes he had a plan to invite our neighbors along... and within a few more minutes, (or maybe hours??) we were all revved up and excited to book our trip for Thanksgiving. This was back at the end of July folks, July. A long wait for one of the most relaxing trips we've ever taken.

Once we arrived at Rock Reach, we didn't want to leave. Our plans for a day trip to Palm Springs disappeared once we all settled in to four days of soaking in the cowboy tub, listening to music, gentle hiking, and general lazing around in slippers and um, sweatpants.

Lucy and I spent a few days before our trip gathering supplies, after a group planning session and a complicated matrix of notes of meal plans and a packing list, drawn up by dear Intern. His matrix was complicated... I wish I saved it. Several colors of inks, lots of arrows, boxes and general organized chaos. The house was stocked with absolutely everything we needed, including beautiful Heath ceramics, a fancy sound system, candles, comfortable beds, e v e r y t h i n g. Aside from a little wind, the desert was eerily silent, and there was no light pollution to interfere with stargazing. I could go on and on and on about this place, but I think a week of blathering on the blog is probably enough.

Rock Reach, we'll be back.

Tissue paper trick

2011-11-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

A certain couple of kittens are flying through the house right shredding a couple sheets of tissue paper. Cheap entertainment, but we go through a lot of tissue paper during the day. All the cats like a fresh sheet of tissue! Muuli likes to carry sheets around in her mouth, while Neebu likes to slide and dive into the paper. They both like to shred tissue, while Sofia just likes to sleep on it. Keeping these kittens awake during the day takes some effort, but lots of play during the day means more rest for us at night.

Thanksgiving Joshua Tree part two

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving we woke up eaaaarly with the sun in our faces (darn that relentless desert sun) had breakfast, and headed out into the hills for a little hike. We didn't see any coyote, but we saw signs of them, if you know what I mean. Later in the afternoon after a sufficient rest, we started cooking dinner and playing scrabble. Dinner was a leg of lamb with a rosemary garlic crust, sourdough stuffing, roasted sage potatoes and butternut squash, sauteed greens and good old pumpkin pie.

And here it is, our one and only group photo of our first Thanksgiving dinner together. It was Rick & Lucy's first Thanksgiving ever, and the photo is just as blurry as our memory of it will be years from now. Thanks to my awesome photography skills, I think this one is a real framer! PS- I am pretty sure everyone was wearing pajama bottoms at dinner.

Holiday party at Pot + Pantry

2011-11-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

Tickets are now available (I mean it this time!) for our holiday party at Pot + Pantry on December 7th. RSVP at our eventbrite page, or check out our mention in Sunday's SF Chronicle for more details about the event. Sorry for the post last night, where I inadvertently lied to you all about ticket availability. Thanks for all the emails about my lying ways. Get yer tickets now!

Thanksgiving Joshua Tree part one

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

We were on the road by 8AM. We took I-5 down to Joshua Tree, and despite the somewhat underwhelming scenery along the way, we avoided the holiday traffic, and made it to Joshua Tree a mere 10 hours later. Sure, we took a few pee breaks, stretch breaks, and one quick truck-stop lunch break somewhere in the middle of absolutely nowhere... but hey, we made it. We arrived to our rented "cabin in the desert" in complete no light-pollution darkness, but woke up in the morning to see the weirdest moon-planet surroundings, almost as soon as the sun came up. Really, we didn't sleep in past 7AM the whole time we were there I think, it was just too sunny to sleep.

Once we arrived in Rock Reach, we kept busy with walks in the hills, long soaks in the cowboy tub after dark, preparing good meals, and generally laughing ourselves silly. Jack rabbit sightings in the morning, almost-maybe glimpses of something-big-moving-in-the-dark at night, but there was absolutely never a single moment of rushing, hurrying or worrying about anything. I don't know how anyone actually lives in the desert year round, but for a few days? Absolutely completely weirdly amazing and fun.

Workshop with Revival Bar + Kitchen

2011-11-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Tickets to our workshop with Revival Bar + Kitchen are now available! This workshop is on December 10th, from 11-1PM at 593 Gurrero Street.

Almost Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

We're off reaaaaally early this morning for a long drive down to Joshua Tree for a few days of internet-free living. Actually, there might be internet, but we won't really be on it. Let me rephrase: we're off on a work-free, relaxing in a cowboy tub in the desert kind of holiday. And we might go to Palm Springs for a day. We've rented a house in the desert with friends, and have planned a lamb-centered thanksgiving meal. I made the pumpkin pie Monday night, and it will hopefully survive the dirt roads at the end of our journey.

If all goes to plan, by the time this post is published we'll be hours away, working through a few hours of This American Life podcasts, and Intern's 8-hour playlist. The big and little cats have a few (human) friends coming over to take care of them, so we don't have to worry about the cats burning down the house, or at the very least, shredding our curtains.

I have another post scheduled for Friday, when I'll be releasing tickets for the upcoming workshop with Travis Mcconnell of Revival Bar + Kitchen.This workshop will be seasonally appropriate, with a lesson and a tasting of both fresh and cured charcuterie, made by the Chef de Cuisine at Revival. Other than that, you'll hear nothing from me until Monday. Adios internet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday-Party Party at Pot + Pantry

2011-11-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Donna and I are very excited to announce a special end of the year skill exchange workshop... it is going to be a party!

On Wednesday, December 7th, Pot + Pantry and Mi Piace Kate Design will host our first ever holiday-party party! Between 6-9pm, come to the shop to sip cocktails, nibble on snacks, learn how to make a simple and easy DIY host/ess gift -- and walk out armed with recipes and instructions to create your own stress-free soiree. We'll have knowledgeable hosts on hand to demonstrate each piece of the puzzle, including making your own preserved lemons, handcrafted holiday cocktails, and sweet and savory treats. Partygoers will also get 10% off the entire store! Event is open to all, RSVP preferred. Free tickets will be available next Monday at 10AM on eventbrite.

Workshop with Sidesaddle Kitchen

2011-11-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we hosted our first workshop in the new Pot + Pantry space, and oh my, the workshop was amazing. Laura Miller, of Sidesaddle Kitchen and her lovely assistant were quite ambitious and knowledgeable, sharing three raw, vegan recipes (with tastings!) of chocolate pudding, chocolate chili truffles and a pear tart. Let me just reiterate: raw. vegan. and no joke, not gross at all.

Pot + Pantry's new location is big enough to set up chairs, AND fit a few more bodies into the shop for our workshops, plus there is a kitchen in the back, perfect for demonstrations!

Laura walked us through the basics of three raw dessert recipes, answering questions along the way, and offering tastes of every delicious thing she prepared. In case you weren't able to attend the event, or possibly haven't tried Laura's vegan desserts, you will soon have a chance, since Sidesaddle Kitchen just got legal, and will soon be selling her desserts ALL OVER THE PLACE! You should follow her blog for the details!

If you cannot wait (and you shouldn't) the best way to get yourself a slice of what Sidesaddle Kitchen is cookin' ( I mean that figuratively, since these goods aren't cooked) you should order a whole pie for the holidays. Laura is working overtime this week, offering a choice of three thanksgiving pies, but your order has to be in by midnight tonight! Simply order a pie on Sidesaddle's website, then pick it up at Pot + Pantry on Wednesday from 4-6PM. Just in time for the holidays!

Short week, lots of updates

2011-11-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

This weekend was full of holiday planning, vegan deserts (!!!) and kittens kittens kittens. We did a little Thanksgiving prep, pouring over a few new cook books looking for recipes, and making shopping lists for our big meal. AND, Kittens decided they love tissue paper and Christmas decorations, and sleeping under the covers in our bed.

This week will be a short one for blogging, since Intern and I are packing up, and heading to Joshua Tree for a desert thanksgiving with our good pals Rick and Lucy. We're unplugging this holiday, since we're not packing our laptops or ipads. Cell service might be spotty, but we're planning to rely on good old fashioned maps, and our polaroid camera... and ok, also our digital camera, and an 8 hour playlist for the long drive, courtesy of Intern's ipod. But I promise, we're taking books, and planning good home cooked meals, plus we'll do a little hiking, and stargazing snuggled up in front the outdoor fireplace.

Before we leave however, there is a bit of work to wrap up, and lots to share about the last few days, and a few upcoming events. Refinery 29 gave our little skill exchange a nice little shout-out last week, and our workshop with Sidesaddle Kitchen was a big success. Who knew raw, vegan chocolate pudding (with avocado!) would be so amazingly delicious? Later I'll share a wrap up of our workshop with Sidesaddle Kitchen, and and tomorrow I'll post some details about a little holiday party we're planning.

Workshop with Fire Escape Farms

2011-11-18T11:56:00.001-08:00

I'm a little late on this one, but tickets for our workshop with Fire Escape Farms went on sale this morning at 10AM. This workshop is all about herbs, harvesting, planting, cooking, and caring for herbs in the Bay Area. Tickets are still available, don't worry, so get your acts together (unlike me) and get your free ticket while they last!

Workshop with Pastoral Plate

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, Intern and I joined a private meat CSA back in February. After a chance encounter at the Whole Foods meat counter, we became good dinner-party-having-friends with the creator of Pastoral Plate, Jonathan Lewis and his partner Deb. As our friendship has grown, so has our understanding of our precarious food economy.

We make meat orders online through Pastoral Plate every few weeks, then pick up our order in the mission on delivery day. To be completely honest, we don't eat meat every day, in fact, generally around 2 maybe 3 times a week. Our diet includes meat and fish, but is primarily vegetable based, and ok, sometimes lots and lots of pasta. When we do eat meat, we try to be very intentional about the choices we make. Ordering from Pastoral Plate allows for a level of transparency that we've never known at a grocery store. We know where the meat is from, how the animal was raised, and who we are supporting when we buy.

Ordering meat ahead of time means we have to do a little more meal planning, but it has easily become part of our routine. We buy small whole chickens, ground lamb, beef, and other cuts in small quantities. We generally freeze some of our order and plan meals based on what we have on hand.

I am sharing all these details because in the next few weeks, Pastoral Plate will be leading a workshop at Pot + Pantry that will be a bit different from the rest of our lineup. Jonathan Lewis will be leading a discussion about his work with local food producers, and will help us to untangle some food myths, while sharing a deliciously prepared tasting of Pastoral Plate's current offerings. While this workshop will follow a different format than other workshops at Pot + Pantry, we do hope that it will create a opportunity for conversation and exchange. Tickets for The Whole Mess: A workshop and tasting will be available December 1st at 10AM.

What we ate

2011-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

The morning after

Massaging the kale

Guinness cake

Sunday night dinner party

Intern takes cocktail duty very seriously

Dinner: Side dish of balsamic roasted brussel sprouts

Lunch: Potstickers and tot soi

Breakfast: Whole wheat english muffins, sharp cheddar and fried egg sandwiches

Dinner: 40 Egg rolls stuffed with shredded cabbage, kohlrabi, carrot, ginger and ground beef

What I am working on

2011-11-17T09:48:00.001-08:00

It has been a busy week with new projects, trips to the printer, and few exciting holiday plans in the works. I picked up a handful of new prints, including these schedules for our upcoming skill exchange workshops, which you can check out in person at Pot + Pantry.

Yesterday Refinery 29 did a cool write up of the new Pot + Pantry shop, and our skill exchange workshop series (yaaaaay!) and we got to work on some super secret holiday party planning... all of which will be revealed soon enough!

Today I've got a styling project to kick off, our CSA box to pick up, some phone meetins' and some cat nails to clip. Yeah, you read correctly. I have three long-nailed cats that need to be corralled, coddled, then held tight so I can trim their razor claws. The joys of working from home never end. Tonight we'll be checking out this show in the neighborhood.

Workshop with Town Cutler

2011-11-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Free tickets for our workshop with Town Cutler will be available today starting at 10AM on Eventbrite. We're expecting this class to fill up quickly, so be sure to get your ticket soon!

The workshop is December 1st, from 7-8PM at Pot + Pantry's new location at 593 Guerrero Street.

update: ~~A few tickets still remain for this workshop! Get yours now!~~ class is sold out!

Pumpkin lesson

2011-11-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

There is something extremely satisfying in cooking up an entire little pumpkin. I washed, divided and cleaned out the pumpkin, then I roasted it and made a puree. I coated the seeds with olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper then toasted them for a snack. All that was left was skin and stem, and a bit of stringy-whatever that comes from the pulpy part of the pumpkin.

We used to the puree to make a pumpkin risotto with thyme and mascarpone, topped with caramelized pancetta and seared scallops. Even with all that, and the fact that I just went on and on about how satisfying it was to cook a pumpkin... I still prefer good old simple butternut squash to pumpkin. Go figure. As it happens with a CSA though, we got a pumpkin, not a squash. In the delightfully wise words shared by this lady, you get what you get, and you don't throw a fit. The pumpkin risotto was good, it just wasn't I-can't-wait-to-make-it-again good.

November & December classes

2011-11-14T11:09:00.001-08:00

Tickets for our next skill exchange workshop (with Town Cutler!) will be available on the 16th at 10AM. On Saturday we're relaunching our workshop series in the sparkly new Pot + Pantry space, with the overwhelmingly popular Sidesaddle Kitchen. We've got more to share and I can't wait for the next round of classes in the new space!

The four cat strategy

2011-11-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

The kittens officially have full run of the house. 24 hours a day! This may not seem like news, but it is big news around here. Since we first acquired our surprise kittens back in July, we slowly introduced them to the other resident cats, along with different rooms in the house. Every night however, the kittens are rounded up, and tucked into bed in the office, so big sister Sofia can have a break, and we can get some sleep without fearing crashes in the night, paws in our faces, and general kitten-inspired anarchy in the dark.

Our schedule over the past few months has revolved almost entirely around the bellies of four cats. Separate food, separate feedings. Hungry little kittens needing 4 meals a day, hungry chubby adult cats, desperate to eat the high-fat kitten food. Now, we've given up the four feedings a day, as the kittens have grown out of those ferocious appetites, and fallen into an easier, less demanding meal routine. Now everyone is eating together, sharing bowls, sharing food, and we're generally less constricted by the demands of a four cat household.

Over the last few weeks, we've tried without success to let the kittens sleep where they want at night. These experiments generally end quickly, because Intern doesn't like his toes to be attacked in bed, and Sofia doesn't like pouncing, purring kittens sneaking up on her at night.

This weekend marked our first successful full night of sleep with four cats roaming free. Yes, this is what our life has become, strategizing about four cats. No hissing, no crashes in the night, and only a few purring kitten pounces in my face. Mostly it was a pig-pile of kittens and people, with everyone trying to carve out a space to sleep in bed. We made it. We feel rested, we're ready to take back the office. More on that later.

Oh Friday

2011-11-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Ah rainy Friday. The heat kicked on this morning, coffee and a muffin were delivered to me in bed, and I have two small cats planted firmly on my lap. None of us have any intention of moving until a battery dies, or one of us needs to pee. Edit: I quit first, stupid work-guilt!

Last night was Pot + Pantry's reopening party in the new space on 18th. The snacks were delicious, the wine was lovely, and the place was packed. Oh, and lots of new kitchen tools and amazing textiles! Our first class in the new space is November 19th, and I'm excited to kick off the next round of classes before the end of the year.

What we ate

2011-11-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Fall CSA with veggies I've never cooked before!

Lunch: Salad of everything from fridge and pantry clearing sweep

Dinner: Fridge clearing lentil soup with raita and pappadums on the side

Brunch: Home delivered Tartine treats, from insanely kind neighbors

Breakfast: Tart apples with toasted bagels topped with aged white cheddar

Dinner: Stuffed eggplant simmered in tomato sauce

Dinner: Steamed artichokes with mustard aioli

Dinner: Grilled romaine

Dinner: Romanesco spinach pasta

Can I make mustard at home?

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when I want to learn how to make something, and I am told that it is stupidly easy, I just don't believe it. I will continue to scour the internet, read books, and ask around, searching for the most difficult, complicated, multi-step process, because surely, the hardest way must actually be the right way. Something as delicious as mustard can't be easy.There are so many kinds of mustard too, and most of them are pretty fancy looking mustards. Those are the mustards I want to make, and I want them to be complicated and labor-intensive.

Mustard making, turns out to be stupidly easy, but nuanced. Yes. Nuanced and easy. Among the books, recipes, science-y descriptions of chemical reactions I read this blog post on the Atlantic which made me feel like an idiot, and then soothed me with hilarious phrases like "hot must" and "Ancient Rome was quite the hotbed of mustard-making" ... mustard jokes, anyone? anyone?

Anyway, I made my mustard on Tuesday afternoon, while waiting on a phone meeting. I dilly-dallied before and after making my mustard, but I think the whole process took about 11-14 minutes. OR LESS.

I decided to make a hot mustard, so I used very cold water, I ground my own mustard seeds to make the necessary 1/2 cup of mustard powder, and used a combination of yellow and black mustard seeds, plus some fresh horseradish, for extra spiciness. The whole process took mere minutes. REALLY.

I put my mustard in two insanely cute small jars, I put them in the fridge to let the bitterness work its way out, then I tasted the mustard first thing the following morning, right after coffee, but before breakfast. I made hot mustard guys, and I feel stupidly proud of this stupidly easy process. In case the nuance part didn't come through in this post (and you didn't read the long article I linked to), let me just paraphrase: It is nuanced. The temperature of the water, the timing between adding vinegar to your mustard base, the type of mustard, all of it can dramatically change your little pot of mustard. This is the most science-y food I've made in a while (not including my various attempts at sourdough starter). I want to make more mustard, yet the only thing holding me back is the question, how much mustard can one fridge handle? I have some thyme that is almost begging to be thrown into mustard, and more cute jars just aching to be filled.

Go make mustard!

Lots of links for the week

2011-11-09T10:03:00.002-08:00

Just a few things to mention this morning, before I head off to work (at the dining room table). We've added a few new workshops to our skill exchange lineup, so be sure check out the upcoming workshop schedule. The next class with Sidesaddle Kitchen is completely full, however Laura is giving away two tickets on her blog, and the winners will be announced today at noon. You've got two hours to win one folks! Coming up in December we have lots of classes, including one special holiday DIY themed class... it isn't on the schedule yet, but it will be soon!

Pot + Pantry is reopening at the new space at 593 Guerrero this week, and they are having a little party to celebrate. I've had a sneak peek of the space, and the new space is cuter, slightly bigger, and full of amazing kitchen-y things. I'll be there on Thursday evening snacking and celebrating with Donna, and resisting my urge to touch and buy everything in the shop.

In one last bit of news, I've tentatively joined twitter. I guess I should say, I've joined, and have tentatively started tweeting, but I feel a little undecided about the whole thing. You know I've given up other forms of social media nonsense, but now I feel I've stumbled down a slippery slope. When I started considering it a few weeks ago, I thought surely my value-conscious Intern would steer me back on course... but he encouraged this weird foray into tweeting and crap like that, so I am afraid I am going to try it out. I am not committing myself to nothing guys, just you know, sending out a few cat photos and cat jokes, and we'll see how I feel about it. EEEEEEKKKKKK.

*Just in case you find the above photo a little distressing, don't worry. We didn't get rid of any of our cats, Muuli just decided she doesn't want to be tamed. It turns out the appeal of chewing through a suede collar was just too much for her, so she let us know she'd like something a little different.

cat disputes

2011-11-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm working on two new patterns for some, dare I say it, holiday gifts? I somehow feel it is time, but it might still be too early to talk about the holiday. Anyway, I haven't made it very far thanks to this guy. Getting out my sewing supplies must look like an invitation for chaos to Neebu, because he will wake from a deep sleep to throw himself into every sewing project. I'd like to say I've wrapped up work on new produce bags, but I've barely started. I did finish one little project, as a test. I think these guys are going to be good, I just need to stock up on more material.

Oh, and do you want to know what the girls were up to while I was battling Neebu? The girls were busy crossing boundaries and building bridges. This is the strongest photographic evidence we have of their mild tolerance for each other! Look at them, practically touching and not even smacking!

Within minutes this scene dissolved into a territory dispute over the coveted rocking chair. Sofia didn't lose the battle, she just wasn't feeling it. Regardless of who won, this was groundbreaking and real progress was made. These girls are going to love each other someday.

A real fall weekend

2011-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

As of this weekend, it is fall, and for real this time. It is time for sleeves and socks, and maybe even a sweater or two. We turned our heat on for the first time this weekend, turned it off, then turned it back on again. The fall might be fickle, but I think I am actually ready for some cooler weather.

With the end of daylight savings, the weekend felt amazingly long. Not just an extra hour, but long weekend long. It might have seemed a bit longer than usual because I took Friday off to celebrate a certain lady's 30th birthday, and we spent the whole day downtown, being leisurely ladies of leisure, who lunch and get pedicures and drink cava in fancy places.

Right, so in case you got lost in that monster of a run-on sentence, here is a brief summary: The weekend was one hour longer, and it started a day early, and it was great.

Lucy's birthday included a long lunch at Wayfarer Tavern, soy milk pedicures (!!!) at Vanity Beauty Lounge, then a toast at Top of the Mark with our fellows. Our evening concluded with takeout pizza and drinks by the fire at a bar I never caught the name of, in a neighborhood I'm not sure of. Trust me, I'd recommend the place if I knew where it was.

The rest of our weekend seemed to include a lot of kittens, pajamas, tea and sleeping.

Workshop with Sidesaddle Kitchen

2011-11-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Free tickets for our Sidesaddle Kitchen workshop will be available starting at 10AM today on eventbrite. Tickets will go quickly, so be sure grab one while you can! Lovely Laura Miller will be sharing her secrets to making delicious vegan pies, truffles and puddings. I am sure there will be a tasting or two for everyone involved! If you aren't familiar with Sidesaddle, be sure to watch this cute video about her work:

~~EDIT! Only two tickets left!~~ EDIT AGAIN: Ok, we're fully booked! Looks like Laura may need to consider doing a second workshop! We've had over 120 requests for 12 tickets... eeek!

Life with four cats

2011-11-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've been busy (going going going) in and out all week with meetings in the Mission, but you want to know where the kittens have been? Right here. Sleeping in the sun, in their favorite window. I admire their commitment.

They look cute and sleepy, but this week marks a new level of destruction caused by kittens. Table lamp on the floor with a broken shade, check. Time out for wild kittens, check. Chance that the kitten-caused destruction will end any time soon? unlikely.

Sofia was also a wild destructive ball of cute when she was younger (chewed through a telephone cord, knocked over potted plants, tore holes in clothing, ripped open bags of dry pasta, broke a lamp, and on and on) but these two are setting new records. Ripped curtains, shredded screen, broken dishes, broken lamp, pulling outgoing mail back in through the mail slot, dragging plants through the house... where will it end? Neebu bites the faucet in the tub, Muuli attacks all moving toes under the covers... Too bad I'm defenseless against polka dot bellies.

These two maniacs melt with a little ear rubbing and cradling, and they always go crazy for the laser toy. We try to tire them out daily running them up and down the stairs after the laser... and Intern hopes they turn into 20 hour a day napping machines soon like Sofia and Lucca... but I'm not counting on it.

What we ate

2011-11-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dinner party season is officially here (!!!)

Macrina's Budapest coffee cake

Sunday brunch: Intern still don't like bacon! I made it anyway.

Lunch: Warm duck salad with spinach, onion, feta, pomegranate and citrus vinaigrette

Dinner: Skirt steak, roasted mushrooms, salad of massaged greens

Dinner with Deb and Jonathan

Dessert: Pears in cream

Suburban living

2011-11-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

We played suburban house this weekend, with our pals Tomas and Becky out in Orinda. What is in Orinda you ask? I do not know, because all I saw was freeway, dark woods and one cool, very art-filled house with a pool, dog, and temperature-controlled wine room.

Tomas and Becky prepared grilled lamb and a roasted eggplant and couscous salad, while we looked at fancy things, and marveled at suburban living. Intern and I both grew up in the suburbs, but not the suburbs of California, so I am pretty sure things are different out here. We didn't have pools AND hot tubs in our backyard (and next time we visit, we're bring our suits), and we didn't have a little vineyard in our backyard for that matter. We looked at the stars, we listened to the frogs, and pondered the city/country/suburbs. I think we've decided we want to stay city people.

estate sale weekend

2011-10-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend's estate sale was incredibly, completely intense. And kind of amazing, but also overwhelming. I think I am fully cured of wanting that first hour first day estate sale experience. Then again, maybe I was just under-prepared and I'll be ready for it next time.

The wallpaper alone in this sale was worth the crowd and the nervousness, because every.single.room was wallpapered in a delightfully weird pattern. There weren't the usual sad parts at this sale, but maybe I didn't notice because I was full of adrenalin.

There was pushing and yelling, and some competitive hoarding by the crowd of mostly male sale shoppers. I was beat out TWICE for a few items I spotted across a room (two metal bar carts!) by men who were grabbing things up and racing through the house with blue tape and sharpies. There was even an argument over a taxidermied baby alligator, but I was not apart of that particular situation. I was standing back and watching, probably with my mouth open.

I found a few treasures overlooked by those greedy antique dealers, including a handful of tarnished silver serving spoons and kitchen-y things, that are now all sparkly thanks to (this is where I start to brag about knowing a secret cleaning trick) a bath of hot water, baking soda, foil and salt. No scrubbing, no harsh chemicals either.

I picked up a few hardback books on gardening and cooking (both include newspaper clippings, and handwritten notes in the margins). I found a little book of funny cocktail recipes too. I do not plan to carry this purse-sized book in my purse, but the publisher actually suggests I should. In a box of crap no one else wanted, I found these golden ornaments. Christmas is going to be real elegant around here, now that we have these GOLD WALNUTS.

Quite possibly the best find of all was a stack of old cotton sugar sacks. Cotton sacks people! I think I'll turn them into produce bags. I soaked them over the weekend in another secret non-toxic cleaning potion, and now they are fresh and white.

I felt gleeful walking away from that sale, and relieved to be getting out of there nearly two hours after I arrived. I'm just glad I wasn't trampled. Oh, all my efforts of not being trampled or scammed were rewarded with a pile of reallyimportantuseful stuff for less than $30. I can stop any time I want to, but I do not want!

Halloween among other things

2011-10-28T09:03:00.001-07:00

Kittens don't care about taking carefully staged photos. In fact, they don't care how many times you have to pick them up and move them away from your glass bucket of clementines and little CSA pumpkin. They just get right back up again and go about their business of trying to fit in the bucket, and knock the pumpkin to the ground. Selfish.

Oh, and that beautiful glass bucket you see in the photos above? Oh that? This beautiful bucket came to me via Donna, who kindly squirreled it away in her shop when I announced my deep love for it. She kindly hid it so no one else could get their hands on it. I am very attached to this bucket, and I can't wait to fill it with ice and a nice cava.

When I was little, we had little wooden buckets just like the one above, and my sister and I used to fill them up with treasures from the woods around our house in Virginia. Buckets full of berries and orange salamanders (generally one or the other, not a combination). Just looking at this bucket makes me happy, what is wrong with me?

I am taking some time off work this morning, so I can go spend some time scavenging at a nearby estate sale. My email alert says its going to be PACKED, and I gave in to the freak inside me that said, "Get there early Kate, get there at 10AM". Here is to hoping that I don't come home with a beautiful metal card catalog, a stool with a folding step, a green bar cart, and some bowls. Or whatever.

I heard somewhere that it is Halloween weekend. I don't know about you, but I am already done with my celebration. It started when I unpacked our CSA to find this little pumpkin, and it ended just after I took a photo of it. We're going to eat it later. Happy Halloween guys.

What we ate

2011-10-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dinner: Farro salad with sliced radishes, goat cheese and almonds

Lunch: tuna on whole wheat pita with heirloom tomatoes

Dinner: Yellow curry with chicken and udon noodles, plus stir fry green beans

Breakfast: Parathas with a fried egg

Lunch: Massaged kale salad with citrus and sunflower seeds (sounds hippie, but it is delicious!)

Dinner: Roast duck over mashed potatoes with kale salad

Dinner: My first ever duck. Roasted with lavender salt

Dinner: Grilled romaine lettuce. The only way I ever want to eat romaine FROM NOW ON

Dinner: Simple and delicious Spaghetti with tomato, butter and onion sauce

Ice cubes

2011-10-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Is 11:30 too early to talk about drinking?

I just feel the deep need to tell you, dear internet, something about ice cubes. Intern and I caved at Rainbow (that place makes us weak) and we purchased a silicone ice cube tray that makes huge cubes. This may sound silly, frivolous, and very trivial, and I won't even argue those points. I will however say, huge cubes of ice are a GAME CHANGER. Yeah, it is that dramatic over here these days. We're using sports terms to describe kitchen excitement, and we don't even like sports of any kind!

We geeked out about giant ice cubes for a good long time over the weekend. Way longer than one would normally discuss ice, I promise you. Only one cube fits in each glass, and dare I say, it is the best thing ever? We made campari and sodas, with bitter lemon, and oh my oh my god. I am sure there is lots of science to back up what I am saying here. Bigger ice = better drink. I know all that dilution stuff, but there are all sorts of ways to really geek out on ice-making, involving warm, filtered water... but we won't get into that.

What I am working on

2011-10-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a few (overexposed) outtakes from a little portfolio overhaul I'm working on this week. I have new projects to add, but before I can get there I need to edit down old work, and make sense of the jumble of grad school projects I've posted there. Now that I'm far enough away from grad school, I can say it aloud. I made some preeetttty weird stuff in grad school. How do I organize projects like a fabric bound California constitution, or an embroidered poster?

I have had a constant companion for the last two days of portfolio editing. She races out of the office every morning to join me for a snuggle in bed, and after a race around the house, she is back again, clamoring for my lap at all costs. She is clumsy, but persistent, and her little frenzied purr is hard to ignore!

Workshop with Sightglass

2011-10-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yay! Round two of our Pot + Pantry skill exchange workshop series! On Saturday we hosted our second skill exchange workshop at Pot + Pantry. Archie of Sightglass Coffee lead the workshop on home coffee brewing... but let me just get this out of the way right now... 81 degrees in mid-October. October! What is going on here, San Francisco weather? I'm not complaining, I'm really just saying.

We had a full workshop with lots of ladies and a few gentlemen, plus a very popular French bulldog by the name of Hektor. Despite the warm weather the shop stayed cool. The whole group fit inside the shop which was a nice relief for a couple of ladies who weren't quite sure of the logistics... 14 people sharing a little less than 200 (delightful) square feet? Don't worry, it works!

Archie made 5 different brews of coffee to mimic common home brewing problems originating from incorrect grind and water temperature. Using Sightglass Blueboon beans, Archie used this hand grinder to grind beans too fine, too coarse and naturally, just right.

Archie walked us through the tastings, and explained the what was happening with each brew to produce different tastes, and how to correct the problem.

This workshop with Archie was just the first of several workshops with Sightglass. The next workshops will focus on different aspects of cofffee brewing and tasting... but we'll announce the details in the coming weeks. Our next workshop is with Sidesaddle Kitchen on November 19th. Tickets aren't available just yet, but will be November 4th starting at 10AM.

Inspired by KITTENS!!!

2011-10-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'd say the kittens are fully integrated into the house at this point, and feel perfectly comfortable napping wherever they feel like it. The kittens are 6 months old now, and just under 9 pounds. Muuli the smaller female has a good weight advantage over Neebu, even though he is much taller and longer than her. Both little fiends are into everything, including climbing up bookshelves, jumping on the mantle, attacking toes under the covers, tackling Lucca, getting up on counters (Neebu), scavenging for crumbs in the kitchen (chubby Muuli) and snuggling like there is no tomorrow. Oh, and they walk around the house purring. Just purring for no reason, people!

In case you think we've forgotten our old favorite, here is Lucca, hanging out in the most amazing secret nap spot of all. He loves the kitten's bed in the office, and sneaks in whenever he can to get a daytime nap in. Poor fool thinks this is the best spot these days, even though everyone else knows the best spot is in the living room in the sun.

tiny update

2011-10-20T13:21:00.001-07:00

You can now follow my blog on bloglovin as well as by email, google reader, feedburner, and probably a few other ways, I'm sure. I'm working on a few new changes, which I hope to share slowly over the course of a few weeks.

This Saturday is our second workshop at Pot + Pantry ... On Monday I'll share photos from the event with Sightglass Coffee!

what we ate

2011-10-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: Cornmeal pancakes with chives and chili and a fried egg

Dinner: Gazpacho and toast with roasted parsley-garlic shrimp

best and cutest time intensive pie-cookies, ever.

Dinner: Lebanese eggplant salad with orzo and a papadum on the side

Breakfast: homemade granola with soy milk

Lunch: So good I ate them twice in one week. Also, working from home means I can have breakfast any time of the day and just call it lunch... and so I do.

Lunch: at Bun Mee

Dinner: Intern-made daal, smoked eggplant raita, brown rice, tomato salad and samosas

In need of a book

2011-10-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for a few new books to read. I'm under some wise Brit influence these days, who suggested and loaned Toast by Nigel Slater. I tore through it and I'm eager to keep reading his other non-recipe, but food based books. His book made me laugh, and made me teary in almost equal proportions.

Lately, most of my reading has been of the cooking variety-- Bon Appetit, cookbooks and blogs (do those even count?) but food reading is difficult for me, mostly because I get hungry and want to get up and make the things I am reading about. I've got a pile of design books I am working through, but I generally consider those to be good daytime reads, not nighttime just before bed reading. In the months after graduation I finally got around to few other books I'd been meaning to read for two years (Hi Malcolm Gladwell!) but now I can't remember all the other titles that friends have been recommending to me for the last two years.

Hi guys, can you tell me the name of that amazing book you read a year ago? And the one from two years ago? And the one you love right now?

Workshop with Sightglass

2011-10-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday is our second workshop in the series, Teach, Share, Learn, Make (& Eat). Sightglass Coffee's Archie Archer will be leading the workshop on Home Coffee Brewing. This workshop is completely full, however (!!!) Donna will be giving away one more ticket to the Sightglass workshop on Twitter today. Follow Pot + Pantry on twitter for your chance to win the very last ticket on the planet!

Weekend

2011-10-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend I started to get an itch for fall. It probably won't last, but I feel a little antsy for soup, sweaters, and... that is actually it, just soup and sweaters. Too bad the weather forecast is 70 and sunny all week. Jokes of course, I hope fall never comes. This weekend I harvested the last of our pathetic watery garden tomatoes, scrubbed the kitchen clean like a maniac, made gazpacho, tiny apple pie cookies, and intern and I pretended and intended to work all day Sunday, but instead walked around Pacific Heights and had lunch at Bun Mee. Forget work, it is neverending summer!

Workshop at Pot + Pantry

2011-10-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

It is official, Teach, Share, Learn, Make (& Eat) has arrived! Last night was our first workshop "A Beginner's Guide to Winter Container Gardening" with Urban Veggie Starts. We held the workshop out on the sidewalk last night, since it was too nice (and too hot) to stay inside.

I think we're off to a good start with the series. We had gingerale and miniature pumpkin cookies, and lots of lovely ladies attended the first class (with some really cute shoes!). We had a few no-shows, but we'll blame the insanely warm October weather. The class focused on winter greens, starting a container garden from seed and with vegetable starts. Deborah Lewis, our talented teacher for the evening, planted a box on the sidewalk and offered troubleshooting advice, gave recommendations to avoid common problems with watering and pests and gave a demonstration on harvesting greens as well.

Everyone went home with a starter pack of lettuce seeds, compliments of Pot + Pantry, along with a handout of instructions from Urban Veggie Starts. I look forward to hearing about the new gardens sure to be sprouting up around the city thanks to this workshop! Our next workshop is with Sightglass coffee, on October 22 from 12-2PM. The workshop is full, but I heard a rumor somewhere that Pot + Pantry may have one lonely ticket left to giveaway... details to follow!

Coconut popsicle recipe

2011-10-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Remember the coconut popsicles from a few weeks back?

I searched for a good coconut popsicle recipe on the old internet, but always come up with a milk-based recipe... which is no use to me, because I don't like making things that make my stomach hurt (not entirely true). I conferred with my favorite vegan, and he assured me that I didn't need real milk to make a creamy popsicle.

The first time I made them I didn't drain off the coconut water, and I was too stingy with sugar, so the popsicles weren't quite sweet enough, and had a bit more ice than I wanted. The second time I was less stingy, and I drained the water AND even remembered to write down the proportions of sugar and vanilla... but then decided not to post the recipe because I thought it was fall. Since the weather this week is in the upper 70's... (hi San Francisco weather!) lets go back a few weeks and pretend it is still summer. Seattle friends, put on your sweaters and make these!

Coconut popsicles
*I do not like reaaaally sweet desserts, so these sweet proportions might seem a little stingy. Adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

13.5 oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
1/3 cup of sugar (I used less, maybe 2/3 of 1/3 of a cup... does that make sense?)
1/3 cup flaked unsweetened coconut (or shredded)
1 tsp vanilla
optional sprinkle of cinnamon

Directions:

Open can of coconut milk, and carefully pour off the cream, leaving the coconut water at the bottom of the can. Use that for something else. Whisk coconut milk, vanilla, and sugar together in a bowl, and a little sprinkle of cinnamon, then add a handful or two of flaked coconut... about 1/3 of a cup, and mix together. Once mixed, you may want to taste for sweetness, then carefully pour mixture into your popsicle molds/cups/ice cube trays. We have a set of four small molds that hold about 4-5 ounces each, so this recipe works well for a small batch.

Freeze your molds for as long as it takes... I like to act like a desperate maniac when I make popsicles, and check on them every 20 minutes or so... but you should probably just check on them in a few hours, unless of course you have a Zoku popmaker...

Skill exchange tonight

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Our first workshop is this evening, and I am so excited for our first evening of Teach, Share, Learn, Make (& Eat). I'm making gingerale to share at the workshop tonight, and really trying to contain my excitement... I've got hours to go before the big event! The class is going to be quite full, but I think it will be the perfect kick-off for the series. Kitten hugs for everyone who has helped us put this together, and kitten hugs to those of you who've written, asking for a spot in our classes. We know we can only offer so many spots in our classes, but over the next few weeks we'll be adding classes to the schedule, as well as releasing more tickets to our upcoming events. Subscribe to our Eventbrite RSS to keep up with our schedule.

what we ate (two week photo dump)

2011-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Breakfast: Avocado on olive bread

Dessert: Carrot cake from our neighbors

Dinner: Lamb meatballs, brown rice, lavash and smoked eggplant raita

Dinner: Sole with lemon caper butter and farro salad

Dinner: Farro salad with pomegranate, pine nuts, goat cheese and lemon vinaigrette

Post brunch coffee at Coffee Bar

Brunch at Coffee Bar

Our CSA last week

Dinner: Roasted herb potatoes

Dinner: New York steak, roasted potatoes, mushrooms and salad

Brunch at Slow Club

Insanely hot peppers from the garden

Dinner: Spinach, egg, tomato, fennel, zucchini salad with a side of TJ pizza (yes, I admit, sometimes we don't cook real dinner and we eat frozen pizza...but we rarely photograph it)

Wild kittens

2011-10-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

If our little sweet kittens don't have enough games and toys to keep their attention, they have a habit of making games for themselves. Sometimes involving teeth, and furniture. We've got to keep ahead of these two, and not let them take over everything.

If we ever forget that our little rascals are part wild, we only need to bring out their favorite feather toy to remind us how fierce our little 8 and 8.5 pound babies truly are. They are hunters, and they do not joke around, or release their toy once they've grabbed it.

This little face? Yeah, he growls fiercely once he has the feather bird in his mouth, and there is no coaxing him to release it. Along with our laser pen, DaBird gets a lot of tough love in our house, and I don't know what we'd do without these two energy-sapping cat toys.

Full Weekend

2011-10-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

We're headed into another busy week, but coming out of a very fun, productive, tiring, yet... dare I say, restoring weekend? Our weekend included Cynar cocktails at home, brunch with friendly-lovely neighbors at Slow Club, kittens in boxes, a housewarming only three blocks up the street, a wall of polaroids, making new friends, sunday Coffee Bar working and more brunching, a little old laundry-doing... AND a skill exchange mention on Refinery29. AND a mention on Craftzine.com

We broke out our fall wardrobe, only to toss it back in the closet for a little extra summer-end weather. Bare ankles, I welcome you to stay for as long as you'd like. You too, balmy October weather. Too bad it is a rainy Monday morning now. The weekend already seems so distant!

Extended Fall Lineup

2011-10-07T13:05:00.001-07:00

Urban Veggie Starts SOLD OUT!
A Beginner's guide to winter container gardening
October 13th 6-8PM

Sightglass Coffee ~~Tickets still available!~~ ~~only one spot left!~~ SOLD OUT!
Home coffee brewing with Sightglass Coffee
October 22nd 12-2PM

Sidesaddle Kitchen Tickets SOLD OUT
The non-hippie guide to raw vegan desserts
November 19th 11-1PM

Town Cutler Tickets SOLD OUT
Knife sharpening with Town Cutler
December 1st 7-8PM

Fire Escape Farms Tickets available November 18th at 10AM
Herbs 101
December 3rd 12-2PM

Revival Bar + Kitchen Tickets available November 25th at 10AM
Intro to Charcuterie with Revival Bar and Kitchen
December 10th, 11-1PM

Pastoral Plate Tickets available December 1st at 10:00AM
The Whole Mess: A Workshop & Tasting with Pastoral Plate
December 15th 6-8PM

For ticket information, check out TEACH, SHARE, LEARN, MAKE (& EAT) on eventbrite.

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What we didn't eat

2011-10-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it happened this week, but I had no time for food. Sure, I ate, but not in the usual way. Documenting meals is a less interesting option when you're home alone for several days in a row and not doing much cooking, and you're busy doing other things, like making posters and coordinating workshops. PS- I ate tuna sandwiches for lunch several days in a row, and shredded wheat for breakfast.

Instead of the usual 'what we ate' post this week, I present to you, demanding internet, a different kind of wonderful. Sofia is the enforcer around here, and if anyone doubts her top-cat status in our house... well, observe this. On calm nap in the sun, one naughty, testing-the-limits-kitten... and a massive smack in the face.

Last chance for winter gardening workshop!

2011-10-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

Our first workshop is completely booked! If you missed your chance to sign up for our Urban Veggie Starts workshop yesterday, you've got one more chance to at two tickets, if you visit SFGIRLBYBAY, and leave a comment on her post. Victoria will pick a winner on Friday.

On Friday we'll announce a few more workshops coming up in October and November, but until then, don't forget to check out our other workshop offering with Sightglass coffee. There are just a few spots left!

what I'm working on

2011-10-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

This week I went through a box of old photos and ephemera I haven't seen in a while. I was in search of one specific photo for a project, but came across a whole pile of other photos I thought I would share. I didn't find the thing I wanted, but hopefully these photos work their way into a new project or two.

I bought some of these photos in an antique store on the Oregon coast. I took a road trip with this gal back in college... it was spring break and we took off to Oregon for a wild vacation full of antiques, windy foggy beaches, and picnics. We were wild, I tell you. I think there might have even been some fish and chips involved in our spring break debauchery, oh, and some napping. You know how college girls can be when it comes to antique store filled spring break trips, am I right? Right.

Workshop details

2011-10-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Now that the secret is out, tickets are now available for our first workshop with Urban Veggie Starts AND our second workshop with Sightglass coffee. Check out eventbrite for ticket details on this, and upcoming workshops at Pot + Pantry. Tickets are already going fast* for both! Victoria of SFGIRLBYBAY is giving away two tickets to our first workshop on her blog, and Donna has a post up over at Pot + Pantry as well.

Thanks to everyone for all the kind hurrays and excitement sent our way about the workshops. We're a little excited too. !!! On Friday we'll share a few more details, and an expanded schedule for our upcoming workshops with Fire Escape Farms and Pastoral Plate!

*update! looks like there are only a few remaining spots left in the Urban Veggie Starts class!
**Urban Veggie Starts is completely booked!

TEACH, SHARE, LEARN, MAKE (& EAT)

2011-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Finally! I've been sitting on quite a few big secrets for the last few weeks, and now it is finally time to share the news. !!! We're kicking off our skill exchange workshop series on October 13th. We'll announce the dates, times, as well as the specific workshop details later in the week, but for now. here it is, our fall lineup!

Skill-exchange workshops this fall at Pot+Pantry

Mi Piace Kate Design is collaborating with kitchen boutique Pot + Pantry to host a series of free skill-exchange workshops, presented by local makers, chefs, gardeners, bakers, foodies and farmers. We're enthusiastic about making things by hand, but we know handcrafting skills are often undervalued and under practiced. We hope to change that by inspiring our community to use their hands, and learn new kitchen skills in a fun, social setting.

From baking, brewing and cooking techniques to urban gardening, join us and learn more through our demonstrations, tastings and good conversation at Pot + Pantry. Expect Bay Area artisans and entrepreneurs from Sightglass Coffee, Eatwell Farms, Pastoral Plate, Revival Bar + Kitchen, Fire Escape Farms, Town Cutler, Urban Veggie Starts, plus many more.

All workshops are free, but space is limited. Tickets for each workshop will be available through eventbrite.com.

Pot + Pantry, 3412 22nd St @ Guerrero, San Francisco, CA 94110
www.potandpantry.com (415) 206-1134

weekend

2011-10-03T12:35:00.003-07:00

This weekend was somehow full, despite the fact that I'm not quite sure what we did. There were tomatoes to pick, crackers to make, a shopping trip downtown for Intern and some business-y clothes... sushi for dinner, movies, a visit with friends, even a trip to the flea market. I worked a bit wrapping up loose ends, and Intern worked and worked and worked.

The cats lounged on top of each other, we picked up our newly sharpened knives from Town Cutler and somehow the weekend trickled away.

Friday post + Collaboration update

2011-09-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Intern is heading to Atlanta next week for a conference, which means I'll be on my own with four cats for a few days. If you don't hear from me by Wednesday, it probably means I am in my pajamas, watching Felicity seasons 1-4 streaming on Netflix, smothered in cats and loving it. Just kidding, probably.

Next week Donna and I be announcing our initial lineup for the MPK and Pot+Pantry Skill exchange workshop series. We'll share the first round of workshops, which feature a handful of local makers who will be leading workshops on urban gardening, cooking, local food and other topics. As I may have mentioned before, each free workshop will have a limited number of spaces available, which will be available to you by email RSVP, or by signing up in person at Pot+Pantry.

In the meantime, check out the exciting news Donna just shared over at the Pot+Pantry blog!! Yay! Big news!

What we ate

2011-09-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Dinner: Roast chicken, potatoes and farro salad

Dinner: Zucchini, radish and arugula salad with lemon-vingarette

Dinner: Udupi palace thali plate

Brunch: potatoes, pesto frittata, avocado and bloody mary

Lunch: Burgers at Marin Sun Farms in Point Reyes

Happy Hour at Spoon bar in Healdsburg

Happy hour: Fried and stuffed olives at Spoon bar

Breakfast: Tartine pastry at Dolores park

estate sale finds

2011-09-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend we managed to sneak in another estate sale in the Mission before heading off to treasure-filled salvage shops of Berkeley and Oakland. This sale (another one of the sad ones) reaaaallly had some secret hidden gems. Like hidden under the kitchen table but so good, I almost lost it all in excitement kind of hidden gems.

Amazing wallpaper, and not so amazing floral plastic sheeting over hardwood floors disguised the fact that this house had one mint-condition, original box and everything set of six champagne saucers. You know I have been hard at work greedily trying to amass one amazing collection of champagne saucers. No, seriously.

These saucers were carefully kept in the original box. maybe they were never even used...and even had a nice handwritten note on the box in English if you can't read German. CHAMPAGNE GLASSES! A set of six! For only $4!!! I really love these glasses. I'm already very attached, and want to drink every cocktail from a champagne saucer from now on.

In the middle of the champagne saucer excitement, I also found an apothecary jar and a white ceramic salad bowl, for a nice comfortable cost of $10... TOTAL.

Skill Exchange workshop at Pot+Pantry

2011-09-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

Don't think we forgot... we're just busy scheduling, planning, and ironing out details! We'll be announcing our fall lineup next week, so get ready!