October, 2009

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You Can Quiche Your Day Goodbye

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Bouchon Quiche Recipe: The Most Delicious Waste of a Day You’ll Ever Have

For a baby shower this weekend, a friend asked me to make a couple of quiches.  As Northern California food bloggers near the home of Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Restaurant, we just couldn’t do it the simple American way with store-bought pie crusts and the “it’ll be ready in an hour prep, cook, and bake time quiche recipe.” Instead, we pulled out Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Cookbook and spent eight hours over three days assembling a couple of masterpiece quiches from the most labor intensive recipe we’ve ever found.  Even with two people working the entire time in the kitchen it was intense, sweating bullets and hoping for success.  We learned a lot from massive mishaps but in the end we were surprised to get some rave reviews from guests at the shower.

We made the quiche crust dough a day before we needed it and refrigerated it overnight.  The recipe was similar to the way that you make biscuits with flour and pieces of chilled butter.  We rolled the dough out on Friday morning and I got out my three pans with removable sides.  The fact that the pans had 3” high sides instead of a 2” high ring mold didn’t faze me at all considering I thought it was a minor detail.  In the end it made a huge difference in the ultimate success of our standup quiche shells.  We freaked when we opened the oven after fifteen minutes of bake time to find the sides of our crust fallen into the pan (see the oven photograph).  I immediately got online and googled Thomas Keller’s Quiche problems and found a few posts.  Others had the same issue and thought it was because there wasn’t enough dough to go over the sides taller pans.  They made extra dough to try and solve the problem, only to find out that the dough just can’t hold itself at 3” high so YOU HAVE TO USE A 2” RING MOLD PAN FOR BOUCHON QUICHE! We just continued and tried to patch the sides hoping it would all work out, and miraculously, it did!  We had a bit of a filling leak on one of the three quiches, but it still turned out to be pretty decent looking and utterly delicious.

If you ever attempt this, you have to let us know how it turned out!

Recipe information after the jump….

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Mexican Fare & Free Transient Dinner Theater at Cafe Campesino: Santa Cruz

Monday, October 26th, 2009

One of the yelp reviews says, “Ignore the hippies and enjoy the food!”  We did notice that the owners of the Cafe were very aware of the Saturday night rowdiness and were attentive to the interesting dinner theater performance occurring around us.  They said it was particularly rowdy that night, I don’t doubt it.

This is not your big burrito, beans made with lard, oil drenched nachos kind of Mexican spot.  Cafe Campesino is a bit different than your typical Taqueria.  It is located in a small kiosk on the sidewalk in downtown Santa Cruz in front of New Leaf Grocery Store on Pacific.  It serves such dishes as Mole, Cactus, Gorditas, and Frida Kahlo Spicy Tomato Soup.  We had the Mole Plate, the Tinga Plate (Chipotle Sauce on Chicken with Potatos and Beans), Frida Kahlo Soup (Tortilla Soup) and a Pollo Big Taco with Spicy Guacamole, tomatoes, and potatoes.  Even though this is a casual kiosk, all of the dishes are lovingly presented on ceramic plates.

Tues.-Thurs. 11:30am-7:30PM
Wed.-Sat. 11:30PM-9:00PM
Sun.- 12-7PM
Closed on Mondays

1130 Pacific Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060-4581
(831) 425-5979

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=6485828850245878238 Click to continue »

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Pumpkin Tagliatelle: From Pumpkin Patch to the Dinner Table

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

You have to start your own seasonal traditions and this is our new fall tradition.  For the past few years we have headed to the beautiful Rodoni Farms Pumpkin Patch on HWY 1 just north of Santa Cruz to grab a pumpkin for an “all pumpkin” dinner.

The cute girls that sell the pumpkins at Rodoni Farms eyeball the size of your pumpkins and calculate the price as you walk up to pay.  Not only do they have a way with judging size, but they know a thing or two about their produce and always advise us to buy the Jarrahdale Pumpkin, light green in color, for making any pumpkin foods.  Last year we bought one that was so huge that it took about four Tupperware containers to store all of the puree.  So this year we chose a smaller pumpkin, which made a huge difference in our prep and clean-up time.  We were able to make the entire dish and a batch of chocolate chip pumpkin cookies with the smaller size pumpkin ($4 pumpkin) and still have leftovers for another dish and second batch of cookies.

Recipe after the jump… Click to continue »

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Zachary’s in Santa Cruz: More Than Just a Sweet Name

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Zachary’s is a well known Santa Cruz breakfast/lunch establishment.  It has an almost Southern-like atmosphere with old worn wood floors and wooden tables.  The menu has an extensive list of daily specials and almost all of the baked goods are made in house.  The menu consists of the usual breakfast fare only more decadent and way more flavorful than most.  The baked options include such items as jalapeño cornbread, coffee cake, herb ciabatta bread for the burgers and other rotating daily specials.

(googleMap)

Zach: I’ve been to Zachary’s a couple of times and it has been nothing but great.  The homemade corned beef hash is excellent and the coffee cake is very good as well.  The gourmet burger was very tasty and the home fries were crisp and delicious.  Nothing bad to say about this place and I will definitely be back for more.

Lesley: Zachary’s has my favorite burger in the area and I wish they were open for dinner too.  The Gourmet Burger is served on their homemade herb bun with bacon and avocado.  On the side are their famous golden turmeric-yellow home fries.  The wait staff is fast and very professional.  They also have unique, really thin sourdough pancakes. There are so many great small side dishes to order in addition to your super huge entrees (coffee cake, jalapeño cornbread) that you just don’t have room for all the goodness in one visit.  I try to go with a friend who will split a bunch of things with me.

John: Hard to add anything more here.  Can’t go wrong as far as I’ve tasted.  If I had to make a change, it would be nice to have actual maple syrup, but that is minimal compared to the guaranteed good ingredients in the dishes.  I had french toast, coffee cake and half a burger for brunch, and didn’t need to eat until dinner.  The french toast is made with a flavorful bread and a spiced up egg wash that barely needs syrup, but if you have a sweet tooth like me you’ll want it.  The coffee cake is different each day, and the lemon almond flavor melted in your mouth, not too sweet, not too tart and just right with the butter.  For the butter-lovers, you will not feel skimped as anything that could possibly have butter put on it comes with a quarter stick on the side.  Speaking of an aside, Zachary’s also makes champagne drinks for those mimosa fans out there.

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Pumpkins are more than just Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos

Monday, October 19th, 2009

On our way to Sur Le Table in LG this weekend we decided to walk into the Icing on the Cake Bakery to see what pumpkin items they baked this fall.  Lucky for us, we found the Harvest Moon moist pumpkin cookie with an orange glaze.  Other fall themed treats were a Buttery Pumpkin Muffin with Cream Cheese Icing, Pumpkin Loaf, and Pumpkin Pie Bars with a Shortbread Crust.  They also had their popular cookie, the Brownie Pecan Chunker.  The Harvest Moon and Brownie Pecan Chunker cookies were sinfully tasty and well worth the $5.25 we paid for the two.  I was delighted by the variety and selection of amazing looking baked goods.

I had remembered the recipe for their Chocolate Cherry Chunk cookie from the July 2008 Bon Appetit magazine R.S.V.P./Readers’ Favorite Restaurant Recipes and decided to google it: http://pinkstripes.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/cherry-and-chocolate-chip-cookies/ This cookie has alcohol-soaked dried cherries with semi-sweet chocolate chunks.

http://www.icingonthecakebakery.com/

Bakery Hours:
Tuesday-Saturday 9am-6:00pm
Sunday 9am-3pm
Monday CLOSED

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The Big Dipa Double IPA

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Here at Blame it on the Food, we are fans of the India Pale Ale (IPA).  An IPA is a higher alcohol content, hop flavored beer that originally became popular with the East India Trading Company and its customers in India.  A double IPA often has a stronger hop flavor and an even higher alcohol content.  Since we’ve tried most, this unfamiliar bottle from a Bay Area brewer struck our fancy at the local Whole Foods.  It ended up being a good buy, being a double IPA that the three of us could easily enjoy for an evening.  This means that while it had a hop flavor, it was somewhat muted, making the beer smoother and more palatable to non-bitter-lovers.  Two of us certainly thought it could use a bit more punch in flavor, but weren’t complaining as we quickly finished off the bottle.

http://bigbluefrog.com/

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Lou’s Coffee Shop: Old-School Los Gatos Breakfast Joint

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Lou’s is a tiny little unassuming breakfast spot on Los Gatos Blvd that we’ve driven by on more than a few occasions without thinking much of it until we finally decided to give it a try.  The interior of Lou’s is like a step back in time to the classic American diner period.  It’s interior is worth the stop alone just for it’s uniqueness.  The menu has all the classic breakfast items and a list of daily specials like different scrambles, breakfast burritos, omelettes, different types of pancakes and homemade corned beef hash. The service is great and the portions are huge.  The prices are a little higher than most but that’s Los Gatos for ya.  It’s worth the stop if you are in the area for the atmosphere alone but the food is high quality and done right too.

(google map)

Hours: Mon-Sun. 6:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.   CASH ONLY

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Santa Cruz Diner

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Grab a booth and sit down for conversations based on trivial pursuit cards and breakfast all-day.  They have comfort food standards such as meatloaf or Salisbury steak, varieties of pie slices, and even Pho and vegan/vegetarian dishes.  Santa Cruz Diner is Santa Cruz style.  By Santa Cruz style I mean the menu has an eclectic variety for all Santa Cruz folks young and old.  Families, groups of high school kids, and transients, as well as everyone in between can be seen at the Diner.  The dishes are predictable and served up pretty quickly.  I took my brother to the Diner and he asked if the burgers were good, I said, “Good enough.”  He agreed, “Good enough.”

www.santacruzdiner.com/

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