I woke up around 8a today, and didn't want to get out bed because it was so warm and comfortable. I laid there staring at the ceiling enjoying the tranquil moment but then Navi started kicking in her sleep which got annoying fast and finally got me out of bed to enjoy the morning. I got in touch with Casey and his foot was hurting so badly that he wanted to stay at home and rest instead of go out and explore, so we decided to wait until Sunday to meet up again. I made the batter for buttermilk waffles, made myself a few, and sat on the couch watching episodes of Ugly Betty and relaxing. Tim finally rolled out of bed so I made him some waffles and got to planning out the day. The Berkeley website said that there was a chocolate and chalk art festival in the gourmet ghetto, so I figured we could bike through and see what it was like. I also wanted to go to the indian grocery store, the farmers market, and sur la table, so Tim and I decided we'd hook up the bike trailer to bring the dog along and bike through the gourmet ghetto to see the festival and figure it out from there. Tim finished his waffles, we laid around for a little longer, and eventually we got the bikes ready, got the dog into her trailer, and set off!
The festival was either a total flop, or it started really late in the day. The street wasn't closed off at all, and all I saw were 4 restaurant employees drawing on the sidewalk with chalk outside their restaurants. I didn't see anything to do with chocolate, so I was pretty disappointed! Tim and I decided we'd pedal over to Viks to get takeout, see if Pam wanted to grab lunch with us, and eat in the aquatic park. Pam had just woken up but she came out to join our picnic! Tim took Navi to the park to secure a table while Pam and I ordered food and bought seven cans of mango pulp. When the food was ready and my bike loaded with the mango pulp cans, we headed over to the aquatic park to meet Tim. We didn't want to walk all the way around to the road that crossed the train tracks with all the food and three cups of mango lassi, so we decided to carry our bikes over the train tracks. We had so much stuff and my bike was so heavy (because of the mango pulp) that we had to take turns walking across the tracks so that the other person could rescue the crosser if anything went wrong! Pam crossed first, I gave her the mango lassi cups, then I carried my bike across the tracks. When we wandered over to where Tim and Navi were, we were greeted by a very excited dog that smelled absolutely disgusting. Stinky sat under the table while we all enjoyed our delicious indian takeout on a beautiful day. After we finished eating, we sat around chatting for a while and somehow seasonal allergies came up. Pam said that if you eat raw, unfiltered local honey, since you are eating the pollen that you are around, your body learns to stop attacking that pollen and your allergy symptoms go away. You can pick up local raw, unfiltered honey at the farmers market, so I decided to try to pick some up. We headed over to sur la table first to get some tart dishes for something I wanted to try baking, and then Tim decided that he wanted to bike Stinky to the beach so that he could make her swim in less smelly water so we wouldn't have to give her a bath. He headed off, and Pam and I headed to downtown Berkeley to visit the farmers market.
The farmers market was just about to close, and the man who has a honey booth hadn't come that day. Pam picked up some apple cider and ice cream, and we both parted ways and went home. We still had plans to make pistachio tartlets with creme fraiche whipped cream and strawberries, raspberries, and pistachios on top, so we decided we'd meet up a little bit later since she needed to put her ice cream in the freezer.
I pedaled home and baked in the sun while climbing the hill home. When I got home, I think I downed a full liter of cool water. Tim and Navi hadn't gotten home yet, but I wasn't worried. I wrote up a list of the ingredients I would need for dinner (chicken in a white wine sauce with broccolini and salad) and for dessert. I also wanted to go to Target because they recently renovated to have a full grocery section and I was curious to see what it was like. Pam and I decided we'd meet at Target, and just before I left, Timmy got home upset because he had lost his glasses at the beach. He was too upset about it to be able to communicate clearly what had happened, so I just continued on my way and figured I'd hear about it later.
Pam and I ended up having to go to Target, Trader Joes, Lucky, and Andronicos to get everything we needed. The "grocery" section of Target had a few of the essentials that we needed, but you can't expect Target to have fancy produce and things like creme fraiche. I had looked for creme fraiche at Andronicos sometime in the past week and couldn't find any, so I knew I'd have to go to Trader Joes for that. We headed there after Target and got most of the ingredients, but of course we couldn't find broccolini. Lucky is right next to Trader Joes, so we tried to find broccolini there, but we had no such luck. I had seen broccolini at Andronicos, so we ended up heading there on the way home to pick some up. We finally got home with all of our ingredients and I started making dinner because I knew Tim might want to go to a party in San Francisco, and I wanted dinner ready before he left. He ended up not going, so it didn't matter. The dough for the pistachio tartlets needed to chill for a while before it could be baked, so Pam got started on that while I made dinner.
Dinner was so-so. I really, really liked the white wine sauce, but the chicken breasts that I used were really thick, so the texture was a little iffy because you basically fry the chicken in the pan until it is completely cooked. I really need to get a wooden mallet so that I can pound my chicken to be thinner. I think I will make this dinner again sometime and pound the chicken breasts to be pretty thin. I think it will be delicious and tender then! The sauce was really great, so I think I would make buttered noodles with this dinner in the future because they would taste great with the sauce.
Dessert was delicious, but it did not go as planned. We didn't get enough pistachios into the tart dough, so it was too sticky. We couldn't roll it out and put it into the tartlet tins, so we ended up molding it into the tins by hand. It wasn't too pretty, but it got the dough into the tins. We accidentally misread the temperature in the recipe, and baked the tartlet tins too high. When Pam told me the temperature was 475, I wondered to myself, wow, that seems kind of high. I'd never really made a tart, though, and sometimes you bake pizza at 450 degrees, so I figured maybe I didn't know enough to doubt the temperature. Well, 10 minutes later, our noses told us that something wasn't cooking very nicely and whoops, the tart crusts were ruined! I figured that the whole idea of the creme fraiche on top of tart dough with strawberries and raspberries on top was similar enough to strawberry shortcake, so I decided to quickly whip up some buttermilk biscuits. Those came together and were baked quickly because I make them so often, and then we enjoyed those piping hot covered in strawberries, raspberries, and creme fraiche whipped cream. Yummy! I've never used creme fraiche before, and I thought it added a really nice touch! I might try to use it in a cake sometime and see what I think!
After this, we were all pretty pooped, so Pam headed home and I headed to bed with a good book.
The festival was either a total flop, or it started really late in the day. The street wasn't closed off at all, and all I saw were 4 restaurant employees drawing on the sidewalk with chalk outside their restaurants. I didn't see anything to do with chocolate, so I was pretty disappointed! Tim and I decided we'd pedal over to Viks to get takeout, see if Pam wanted to grab lunch with us, and eat in the aquatic park. Pam had just woken up but she came out to join our picnic! Tim took Navi to the park to secure a table while Pam and I ordered food and bought seven cans of mango pulp. When the food was ready and my bike loaded with the mango pulp cans, we headed over to the aquatic park to meet Tim. We didn't want to walk all the way around to the road that crossed the train tracks with all the food and three cups of mango lassi, so we decided to carry our bikes over the train tracks. We had so much stuff and my bike was so heavy (because of the mango pulp) that we had to take turns walking across the tracks so that the other person could rescue the crosser if anything went wrong! Pam crossed first, I gave her the mango lassi cups, then I carried my bike across the tracks. When we wandered over to where Tim and Navi were, we were greeted by a very excited dog that smelled absolutely disgusting. Stinky sat under the table while we all enjoyed our delicious indian takeout on a beautiful day. After we finished eating, we sat around chatting for a while and somehow seasonal allergies came up. Pam said that if you eat raw, unfiltered local honey, since you are eating the pollen that you are around, your body learns to stop attacking that pollen and your allergy symptoms go away. You can pick up local raw, unfiltered honey at the farmers market, so I decided to try to pick some up. We headed over to sur la table first to get some tart dishes for something I wanted to try baking, and then Tim decided that he wanted to bike Stinky to the beach so that he could make her swim in less smelly water so we wouldn't have to give her a bath. He headed off, and Pam and I headed to downtown Berkeley to visit the farmers market.
The farmers market was just about to close, and the man who has a honey booth hadn't come that day. Pam picked up some apple cider and ice cream, and we both parted ways and went home. We still had plans to make pistachio tartlets with creme fraiche whipped cream and strawberries, raspberries, and pistachios on top, so we decided we'd meet up a little bit later since she needed to put her ice cream in the freezer.
I pedaled home and baked in the sun while climbing the hill home. When I got home, I think I downed a full liter of cool water. Tim and Navi hadn't gotten home yet, but I wasn't worried. I wrote up a list of the ingredients I would need for dinner (chicken in a white wine sauce with broccolini and salad) and for dessert. I also wanted to go to Target because they recently renovated to have a full grocery section and I was curious to see what it was like. Pam and I decided we'd meet at Target, and just before I left, Timmy got home upset because he had lost his glasses at the beach. He was too upset about it to be able to communicate clearly what had happened, so I just continued on my way and figured I'd hear about it later.
Pam and I ended up having to go to Target, Trader Joes, Lucky, and Andronicos to get everything we needed. The "grocery" section of Target had a few of the essentials that we needed, but you can't expect Target to have fancy produce and things like creme fraiche. I had looked for creme fraiche at Andronicos sometime in the past week and couldn't find any, so I knew I'd have to go to Trader Joes for that. We headed there after Target and got most of the ingredients, but of course we couldn't find broccolini. Lucky is right next to Trader Joes, so we tried to find broccolini there, but we had no such luck. I had seen broccolini at Andronicos, so we ended up heading there on the way home to pick some up. We finally got home with all of our ingredients and I started making dinner because I knew Tim might want to go to a party in San Francisco, and I wanted dinner ready before he left. He ended up not going, so it didn't matter. The dough for the pistachio tartlets needed to chill for a while before it could be baked, so Pam got started on that while I made dinner.
Dinner was so-so. I really, really liked the white wine sauce, but the chicken breasts that I used were really thick, so the texture was a little iffy because you basically fry the chicken in the pan until it is completely cooked. I really need to get a wooden mallet so that I can pound my chicken to be thinner. I think I will make this dinner again sometime and pound the chicken breasts to be pretty thin. I think it will be delicious and tender then! The sauce was really great, so I think I would make buttered noodles with this dinner in the future because they would taste great with the sauce.
Dessert was delicious, but it did not go as planned. We didn't get enough pistachios into the tart dough, so it was too sticky. We couldn't roll it out and put it into the tartlet tins, so we ended up molding it into the tins by hand. It wasn't too pretty, but it got the dough into the tins. We accidentally misread the temperature in the recipe, and baked the tartlet tins too high. When Pam told me the temperature was 475, I wondered to myself, wow, that seems kind of high. I'd never really made a tart, though, and sometimes you bake pizza at 450 degrees, so I figured maybe I didn't know enough to doubt the temperature. Well, 10 minutes later, our noses told us that something wasn't cooking very nicely and whoops, the tart crusts were ruined! I figured that the whole idea of the creme fraiche on top of tart dough with strawberries and raspberries on top was similar enough to strawberry shortcake, so I decided to quickly whip up some buttermilk biscuits. Those came together and were baked quickly because I make them so often, and then we enjoyed those piping hot covered in strawberries, raspberries, and creme fraiche whipped cream. Yummy! I've never used creme fraiche before, and I thought it added a really nice touch! I might try to use it in a cake sometime and see what I think!
After this, we were all pretty pooped, so Pam headed home and I headed to bed with a good book.
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