Good Eats

Good Eats

Two Tarts - Baked Eggs with Proscuitto and Gruyere

For me, the hardest thing to get a pretty picture of is food.  The raw components can be off putting, and lighting and styling food when I'm actually preparing it is no easy feat, especially because that's usually after dark.  I guess that's why I don't write a food blog. As a capable home cook, I do appreciate beautifully shot food blogs as a resource for new ideas and techniques. A tablet on the counter sometimes replaces my need for clunky cookbooks, making it easier to scroll between recipes when I'm working on a complete meal.  I can also carry recipes with me to the store by way of my phone.  My new favorite food blog is Two Tarts. A collaboration between two Colorado foodie friends named Dulcie and Sarah. They have amassed a collection of recipes for food and drink, with a focus on seasonal fare and components, like syrups, sauces, and pie crust. I'll be testing their Baked Eggs recipe when I host our now semi-regular ladies invitational next month. Here are some more pretty food blogs to explore if home cooking is your thing...

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Long in the Sweet Tooth

Long in the Sweet Tooth

As the years trudge on, we've had to make more effort to stay youthfully svelte, and post holidays some extra effort is usually in order. This is hard to do when celebrating the old guy's birthday.  It's especially hard when his favorite cake flavor is chocolate. I pieced together a recipe from a few different books yesterday and came up with this deep dark chocolate cake. I'm not afraid of sticking some unexpected ingredients in a mix to bolster flavor, and meet dietary needs, so you'll just have to trust me, it was decadent.  I garnished ours with dark chocolate covered cherries for the kids, but espresso beans would be a perfect addition for this grown-up cake.

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Sweet Thing

Sweet Thing

Today is my sweet husband's 39th birthday.  When we visited the SFMOMA last week we both gushed over a Wayne Thiebaud cityscape.  Best known for his dreamy pictures of food, in milky pinks and yellows, I wanted to share some of his work today.  Still a practicing artist at the age of 92, Thiebaud is a contemporary of some of my favorite artists including Jasper Johns and Richard Diebenkorn. He was also a long time professor at UC Davis, our alma mater, which makes him extra special to us.  

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The Namesake

The Namesake

We made our way into the city yesterday to take Jasper to see his namesake's work at SFMOMA. I'd be totally disingenuous if I said he was riveted by the extensive collection on display (certainly not as riveted as me).  Sometimes you do something for your kid that's really for yourself.  His favorite part of the day was probably our trip to the ballpark to get his Giants jersey customized, and to the mall to get some new kicks.  Despite his appropriate level of 6 year old boredom cruising the halls of a museum, we did find a few interactive pieces that he loved, including a radio frequency exhibit where the participant uses their projected image to tune to different signals.  He also loved the art learning annex where he created his own work inspired by Matisse. The Jasper Johns exhibit will be running through 2.3.13.

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