A New Day

An Unexpected Pleasure

Every once in awhile you happen upon a book that makes you smile with pleasure at every turn of the page and keeps you wanting more. A friend of mine gave me such a book for Christmas. It is called, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It is such a delightful read that I simply CANNOT put it down and have even found myself sneaking a few moments at work to read a few pages. One of my favorite passages:

"Have you ever noticed that when your mind is awakened and drawn to someone new, that person's name suddenly pops up everywhere you go? My friend Sophie calls it coincidence, and Mr. Simpless, my parson friend, calls it Grace. He thinks that if one cares deeply about someone or something new one throws a kind of energy out into the world, and "fruitfulness" is drawn in."

Pick up a copy and read it for yourself - you won't be sorry!

Baking with Love

Before I left home to make my journey into the world, more years ago than I care to admit, I carefully typed up my favorite family recipes and placed them in a yellow folder so that I could easily spot them and refer to them. Some of the recipes are my mom's and some of them are my grandmother's, on my father's side. When I feel the need for comfort food, I pull out the folder and choose a recipe. The folder is tattered now and some of the recipes are stained with splatters from my creative endeavors in the kitchen, but it never fails me.

Since we had a birthday in the family this past weekend, I decided to make my mom's cheesecake recipe rather than take the easy way out like I often do and stop by Ettore's Bakery or The Cheesecake Factory and get one already prepared. So, I pulled out the yellow folder, made my grocery list, and this past week I shopped for the best ingredients and chose the freshest California lemon to make the cheesecake. I got up early Sunday morning before everyone was awake because I knew that the whole process would take a few hours. Later that evening, it warmed my heart to hear the "oohs" and "ahs" and "Mmms" around the dinner table while my family tasted the dessert. I am happy to report that momma's recipe has withstood the test of time. When you make a recipe that has been lovingly handed down to you and you make it with love and proudly present it to your family - nothing could be better than that - no cake from the finest restaurant or bakery in the world can top it. 

Momma's Cheesecake

Crust: 1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 stick of butter

Place spring form pan on a 12" square of aluminum foil. Using the wrapper of the stick of butter, grease the sides and bottom of the pan. Note: If using a nonstick spring form pan you can omit this step. Melt the 1/2 stick of butter and mix with the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon. Press mixture into bottom and sides of pan. Chill while making the filling.

Filling:

3 packages (8 oz.) cream cheese (room temperature)

1-1/4 cups sugar

6 eggs, separated

1/3 cup of all purpose flour

2 teaspoon vanilla

grated rind of one lemon

juice from the lemon

Use electric mixer at low speed, beat cream cheese until soft. Beat in sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks until well blended. Stir in flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until peak stage. Fold into cream cheese mixture until no streaks of yellow or white remain. Pour batter into spring form pan and place pan and foil in a 325 degree oven. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn oven off and let cake stand in closed oven for 1 hour longer. Remove and cool in pan on wire rack at least 2 hours.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

It's so hard to believe that it's Christmas Eve. The last few weeks are just a blur - it's almost as if the earth is spinning faster and faster. I thought I would have it together enough to post pictures as I was decorating the house, baking, and doing all the preparations for the holidays, but it just didn't happen. The road is paved with best intentions... So, from my home to yours - Merry Christmas!

Sunday in the City

Where are the days and hours going? I promised to post more pictures of our trip to SF and time has just quickly slipped away. Everything is hustle and bustle because of the holidays, but I hope that all of us stop and take time to enjoy the special moments.

We began our Sunday morning by taking a little early morning walk around Cathedral Hill. I have always been interested in architecture and we found some beautiful churches close to where we were staying. The rosette windows are so gorgeous.

After walking to Taquirea El Patron for our late breakfast of chiles quiles, we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Mission District where we decided to spend the day. It was nice to see so many open air markets like this one throughout the area.

There were so many interesting shops along Mission that it took us hours to go through them all. We also stopped at a few community thrift shops along the way and found some books. One of the most interesting shops, though, was this store called Paxton Gate. I have never been into a store quite like it. It was a mixture of part garden design, part taxidermy, part fossils and rocks, and park small animal skeletons. They also had a wonderful collection of succulents and ferns. Their sign outside says that they have a collection of curiosities and oddities and I would agree - very interesting store and one to go back and visit when there is more time.

 

Here is a row of houses that were nestled in between stores.  The one house certainly stands out amongst its neighbors.

This house struck me with all the gold detail - even on the fence!

By this time it was getting to be late in the afternoon, so we made a quick stop at the beach and then continued on to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Our final stop was at Fishermans' Wharf where we ate our requisite shrimp roll sandwich before heading back home. It was a really fun weekend and I hope we get back to the City very soon.

Holiday Weekend in SF

I've always wanted to see San Francisco during the holidays and this past weekend we finally went into the City to see the sights and sounds of Christmas. We arrived in the City early afternoon.

This is a view from the Bay Bridge.

Shortly after we checked into the hotel, we decided to walk the few blocks to Union Square. On the way there we discovered a great taqueria and stopped in for a late lunch. We ordered chiles quiles because that is one of our favorites and they were hands down the best we have ever had! They were so good that we went there on Sunday and had them again for breakfast. The next time you are in San Francisco, you simply must stop in Taqueria El Patron on Geary Street.

When we got to Union Square I couldn't believe the size of the crowd. I don't know why I was surprised - it after all was San Francisco and a holiday weekend. Here are a few shots outside of Macy's.

There were vendors outside of Macy's selling hot roasted chestnuts and coffee - but, not Starbucks. The San Francisco Macy's is the largest Macy's that I have been into. There were 6 floors above ground and 2 below. We spent 4 hours there and only made it to 2 floors - the floors that had Martha's Collections, of course.

When we walked inside we were greeted by the most beautiful decorations! I was so overwhelmed that I didn't take that many pictures inside. People were literally everywhere and most of them had cameras in hand - snapping away. I took a few pictures inside the store.

Loved the way Martha's Trousseau bedding was displayed and decorated.

This picture didn't turn out that well, but it was one of my favorite trees that was decorated with Martha's Christmas Collection. It was done in white, ice blue, and silver. There were a total of 8 Martha trees. People were snatching decorations left and right. You couldn't put anything down because it would be snatched right from under nose. I am not kidding! I have never experienced anything like this before. It was fun, too, though because as I was carrying my ornaments around quite a few guys came up to me and asked where I got my ornaments. They defintely liked Martha's!

I enjoy looking at table settings in the fine china department. You can get such great ideas. Here is one done in gold with some of Martha's wedgewood china. So elegant and beautiful!

Notice the detail on the table. That is a Waterford crystal compote sitting on a gold doily with one of Martha's ornaments inside. Perfection!

Here is a more casual table setting, but I really liked it and loved the texture and colors of the quilt. It worked perfectly with the Fitz & Floyd china. The decorations on the napkins are Martha's gingerbread Christmas ornaments. They were made to go with this china!

Here is a picture taken from the 6th floor window of Macys.

These are pictures of Macy's display windows outside. It was difficult to get good photos because it was not only night, but also because there were so many crowds of people filing past them to look. They were pretty spectacular and the pictures don't do them justice.

Another favorite pastime of ours in the city is to watch the street performers. They are on almost every street corner in Union Square. This guy was truly amazing. I wish you could hear the music that was coming from those kitchen pots and plastic pails. At one point he even juggled sticks of fire in the air and then somehow smoothly picked up his drumsticks again without missing a beat.

This guy is a really talented singer. He sang songs from the 60s and 70s - he was a real crowd pleaser.

By this time it was pretty late and the stores were beginning to close. It was time to head back to the hotel. Check back tomorrow and I will have some pictures of our Sunday in the city.