LWD: May Edition

   Since we had LWD on Cinqo de Mayo we thought it would only be fitting to make some Mexican inspired dishes.  Casey was our lovely hostess and served up some delicious Ceviche, a side of corn and she even turned me into a "rita," lover with her amazing Margaritas!  Crazy! Here was the menu for the night:

Main Course

by Casey

Ceviche with Tilapia, tomatoes, avocado, red onion, cilantro and lots of lime juice.  

(I forgot to snap a pic! Oops)

Sides

Corn w/lime zest, evoo, and butter. (by Casey)

Stuffed avocados with cherry tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, cayenne and toasted sunflower seeds. (by moi)

Tortillas with cheese and black bean salsa. (by Maureen)

Dessert

Mango tart. (by Lea)

Stuffed avocados

Mango tart

   Everything was delicious as always and I cannot wait for our next meeting.  Perhaps we'll get down to some grilling!!!!

P.S. Sorry this post is so late.  June should be a breezier month, but who knows what's in store!  

Happy Cinqo de Mayo!

    Today LWD (ladies who dine) reunites for a little dinner soiree to celebrate Cinquo de Mayo.  I don't know what I am making yet...  I have been in one of the those I don't feel inspired to cook or make anything moods lately, so I may simply whip up some guacamole.  If I had found this recipe earlier, and Lea wasn't bringing dessert, I would have made these!!!!

Recipe here!

LWD pictures to come soon! Have a great weekend!

    On our final day in San Francisco we started with some blue bottle coffee, then walked to Local's Corner in the Mission, where we had a delightful meal.  Later we went to the Anchor Steam brewery and had some tastes after a tour of their brewery.  It was definitely the nicest brewery I have ever toured.  They had copper brew kettles!  After the tour, we headed down to the dog patch, where my friend Alice gave us a tour of the chocolate company she is working with called Dandelion.  They are one of the only chocolate companies in the nation that starts making their chocolate with raw cocoa nibs.  Pretty impressive.  Erich and I luckily had the chance to taste the raw nib, the chocolate churning and then the final product.  It was interesting to see how the favor changed.  I'm really excited that they will be selling in Philadelphia soon at Pub and Kitchen cafe?  I guess its coming soon?

 smoked sturgeon w/beet salad

 anchor steam

 drinking on some barrels

raw cocoa nibs

 churning

pork belly salad

rabbit tortellini w/prosciutto

More Macaroons!

   Erich and I passed this shop on our first day in SF, and about every other day of the trip.  

Chantal Guillon's window display captured my attention right away.

  They had quite the selection.  I tried the lemon coconut, persian rose, amaretto, and vanilla bean.  The Amaretto was my favorite, but they were all yummy.  You must visit if you are in SF!

Over the hills we go to wine country.  What a view!

Cline Winery 

A furry friend on the vineyard.

Vineyard across the street.  They had some great Italian wines!

   We headed to Russian River Brewing company after to quench the boy's thirst.  He had quite the taste.  A sample of all the beers on tap, made by RRB comany.  All 18!

    We went to Mission Cheese for a small snack for dinner and a drink to finish our day.  The place and staff were charming!  I loved these little sheep that were chalked on the board with the selection of cheese they sell.

We sat at the bar where we had a great view of their selection.

Erich ordered the Monger's choice.

Hong Kong Lounge

When I was 10, I took a trip with my parents to visit my family in Sacramento.  The one thing that stood out, even as a child (a growing foodie, one could say) was how amazing the dim sum was at Yang Sing in San Francisco.  To this day I remember arriving home from our trip still dreaming about the mango pudding and deliciousness that was had that day in the financial district.  Ever since I have been on the quest for the perfect dim sum, and knew I had to revisit my past experience on our trip.  We chose a different place this time, deciding that we'd steer clear of a ritzy dim sum experience and seek a more hole in the wall, home-cooking sort of meal.  After reading some reviews, we settled on Hong Kong lounge in the Richmond section of  SF.  Our meal at Hong Kong was one of our top foodie experiences while on vacation.  I debated posting these rather silly pictures Erich snapped while I was under a dim sum trance,  but they're pretty humorous, so enjoy!

We ate pork buns, shrimp and scallop dumplings, meat dumplings, some sort of veggie, coffee ribs w/whipped cream, sticky rice, sesame balls, mango pudding and some tea.

YUM!

Day 3 in SF!

Day 3 we started with some dynamo donuts in the mission!  Everything on the menu sounded amazing, but at 3.00 a pop, we knew Erich's original plan of ordering a dozen seemed more than a little ridiculous for multiple reasons...

We sat out in the garden and admired the beautiful orange poppies and black-eyed susans.

 Donut bread pudding w/a cappucino.

    (Clockwise)-Rosemary chocolate almond, vanilla bean, strawberry earl grey.  The Strawberry earl grey was our favorite.  By the time we left they had new donut offerings, but our bellies were full so we began our descent and ascent to the marina area to rent some bikes.

Check that van out.  It's about to tumble down the hill!

Burning off those donuts!

Ah the Golden Gate.

Lombard Street.

 A friend we made along the way to the beach.

The water was cold, but the sun felt like summer!

   After returning our bikes, we headed to the ferry building where we grabbed a bite to eat.  I think the most beautiful thing at the market were these exotic mushrooms.  The local creamery also provided me with some delightful tremor truffle cheese to snack on.  Mmmmm...gotta love local!