Second cousins Mark and Arthur were in town for separate conferences, so along with their sister Christy, we met up for brunch at the Market Bar in the Ferry Building. Had good eggs and bacon in the unusually warm sun, and then walked down to the ballpark to kill some time before taking a ferry to go winetasting in Alameda.
“Winetasting in Alameda?” you say, “They grow grapes over there?” Well no, but there are a handful of wineries that make wine within walking distance of the ferry dock, something Christy and Marcus recently discovered. I know, news to me too.
Stephanie was getting tired and had dance rehearsal later in the day, so she took off for home. Marcus met up with us, and we all hopped on the ferry towards Rosenblum Cellars. Christy and Marcus liked the wine so much on their first visit that they became members, which meant we all got to taste 9-10 wines (including some on their “reserve” list) for free.
Justin, Arthur, Mark, and Marcus on the ferry (taken by Christy)
Been carrying around a Pottery Barn gift card which I received from my lovely co-workers in North Carolina before I left for California. Two years ago. Luckily it works at Williams-Sonoma too, I just didn’t have a need for any high end culinary supplies since then. I know, shame on me.
Anyway, I decided it was time to not carry it around in my wallet for another year, so last weekend I stopped by Williams-Sonoma’s amazing multilevel flagship store in Union Square to see if I couldn’t invent some needs.
I started picking up a few odds and ends—seemed like it wouldn’t be too long before I’d use it up—when I saw the hand crank pasta machine. I immediately thought back to a recent conversation I’d had with bread- and pasta-lover Stephanie about making our own. At the time I thought that’d be a reason enough to get the envy of every homemaker: a Kitchenaid mixer. I hadn’t known about this though.
So I wandered up to the cookbook section and pulled out a book on making pasta. It had all these beautiful pictures with informative writing, and a whole section devoted to fresh pasta, which I read right there. Clearly my need had found me. Got the book, the pasta maker, a pasta brush, and a tool for cutting ravioli.
Later that night we put the machine to good use making our first batch of fettuccine. It took some time before we felt comfortable with it, but there’s nothing more fun that just turning the crank and watching a plug of dough get sucked through the rollers and come out a uniform thickness on the other side. We kneaded the dough using the machine at the widest setting, and then progressively shortened the distance between the rollers, making the sheet of pasta thinner and longer. Definitely helped having four hands. Once it was thin enough we rolled it through the attached cutting rollers and out came fresh fettuccine.
Which then went into a pot of salted boiling water, and eventually found it’s way into two bowls of delectable pasta carbonara (with mushrooms, asparagus, and prosciutto). Just don’t tell Mario.
I have to admit I have a weak spot for those microwaveable White Castle Cheeseburgers in the frozen foods aisle. Weak spot as in every other month or so, when my lack of Sausalito lunch options are getting me down, and I’m craving an explosion of flavor, I’ll buy a box of six at the market down the street. And eat three. Or four. They’re little, what can I say?
So you can only imagine my delight at discovering Trader Joe’s new Angus Cheeseburger Sliders. Angus!
These were in the cheese and salads cooler, the same place I recently discovered cheese curds. They also had chopped pork bbq sliders—which I also bought. Anyway, I ate the angus cheeseburger sliders for lunch today. All 4.
Verdict: they were definitely full of beefy goodness (as the package states), but man oh man does White Castle have a corner on the flavor market. I think it’s those magical little onions nestled between the cheese and the “beef” that kick things up a notch. So, good effort TJs. Yours were probably better for me—except I ate all four.
To everyone else: if you haven’t tried those little White Castle bundles of joy, do yourself a favor and schedule a fast food night in.
