Great Lakes Foodie » Food

Basil Chicken with Fig and Gorgonzola Salad

Great Lakes Foodie — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:48:49 +0000

Given the fact that I have a lifetime supply (okay, a week’s supply) of chicken breasts in the house, I decided to make a series of chicken dishes this week. Tonight, I pulled again from the garden and grabbed up some basil. I marinated the chicken with olive oil, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Unfortunately, the flavor didn’t permeate through the chicken. The chicken was finished off with a chiffonade of basil that helped provide a bright flavor. For sides, I made two. The first was your basis mashed potato dish. I put a little butter, sour cream, nutmeg, and garlic powder in the potatoes. For the other side, I wanted to make a salad. Since I was going with an Italian theme, I pulled out some dried figs, hazelnuts, and gorgonzola cheese. The combination was great! Pictures to come later.

San Francisco Food Tour

Great Lakes Foodie — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:05:27 +0000

One of the destinations for our anniversary vacation with Kendra and Jared was a food tour of the North Beach area in San Francisco. What a wonderful adventure. I’m going to recap the places we tried out.

Link to book your own tour: Taste of the City Tours – North Beach/Little Italy

Cafe Roma

526 Columbus Ave
Green St
San Francisco, CA 94133

This is a cute, small, and very local coffee shop in the North Beach area. They roast their own coffee beans a few times a week. We were able to step into the roasting area and learn a bit about the roasting process.

xox truffles

754 columbus ave
San Francisco, CA 94133

This shop is an absolutely wonderful chocolate shop. The truffles are made in the traditional way. Truffles are randomly shaped to mimic the truffle fungi that they are created after. This location has a series of wonderful, vibrant flavors including 10 varieties of vegan flavors combinations.

Liguria Bakery

1700 Stockton St
at Filbert St
San Francisco, CA

This bakery is known for its focaccia. Call early in the day to place your order. When the shop runs out of bread, it closes for the day. Our visit to the shop was in the late morning and they already looked empty. By the time we drove by later on, they were closed as promised. Now that’s the mark of a great bakery.

Italian French Bakery

1501 Grant Street
at Union
San Francisco, CA 94133

We got to visit this bakery inside and out. Stepping to the back of the bakery, we found an old cement floor with ramps built right into the floor. Two immense brick ovens face each other off each day. Try the massive coconut macaroon. It’s sweet, super moist, and has a crunchy outer shell.

The Dogfather

532 green street
Grant
San Francisco, CA

This is a newer establishment according to the tour guide. Not sure exactly why we were taken here. The food wasn’t bad…but wasn’t anything overly memorable.

Victoria Pastry Company

1362 Stockton St
San Francisco, CA

This was our last stop on the tour. This location is known for their pastries. Our stop included a viewing of their products and they were absolutely beautiful products. We tried the eclair. Yum.

Technorati Tags: Food Tour, San Francisco CA

Hamburger with Basil Mayo

Great Lakes Foodie — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:37:06 +0000

Tonight is our first night back from vacation. In an effort to not eat out and use as much of what we had at home as possible, I found a few burger patties that I had placed in the freezer a few weeks ago. I also had a few hamburger buns in the freezer. I pulled them out and started to get creative. In the morning, I stepped outside to check on our garden. A few casualties…The pole beans were chomped down along with the head lettuce and the tops of a couple of pepper plants. It definitely was a deer this time as it left perfect hoof prints in the beds!

Not quite a bounty…but I was able to pull out about 20 pea pods, parsley, lettuce, and a ton of basil and chives. The chives got chopped and dropped into the freezer with my other chives. What could I make with a burger and pea pods, parsley, basil, and lettuce. So I get to thinking….I LOVE pesto. Why not a pesto burger? Pesto made with pine nuts, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese might not work out too well on the burger. With the amount of fat in the burger, I was thinking something more creamy. I decided to make a basil burger and used mayonnaise as the vehicle. Though a fatty second to olive oil and cheese, the mayonnaise brings an acidic creaminess that absorbs and conducts the basil perfectly. I mixed the mayonnaise with a chiffonade of basil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

After grilling the burger, I spread some of the basil mayonnaise on the bun. We had the burger along side a salad of bitter greens, tarragon, champagne vinegar, and olive oil. The burger was absolutely wonderful. The only thing missing from the salad was a dice of shallot.

Technorati Tags: Basil, Burger, Pesto

Wayfare Tavern – San Francisco CA

Great Lakes Foodie — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:58:22 +0000

Our anniversary trip to San Francisco included a trip to Tyler Florence’s new restaurant, Wayfare Tavern. Opened only a few weeks ago, this restaurant was truly exceptional. We started the evening off with fresh popovers. I’m guessing that this is a nod to Tyler’s southern roots. Next, we shared a few appetizers: deviled eggs and grilled calamari. Both were excellent.

While waiting for dinner, we had the fortunate opportunity to be seated in a booth with a great view of the kitchen. The darker, lodge-like motif of the dining and bar area were nicely muted to set off the bright subway-tiled kitchen. You could see everything in action, including Tyler himself ensuring each plate was produced to his satisfaction.

We wound up having three separate mains (two had the same dish). The first dish was a fried chicken dish. In addition to our approval of the dish, I’ve seen daily nods to Tyler via Twitter indicating the same. Two had the salmon dish. Both liked the dish. Though I didn’t try the salmon, I did have a taste of the Kennebec potatoes underneath. If I come back, I’m getting the salmon dish just for the side, I think! My dish was a pork chop with roasted peaches, Marconi almond butter, and fennel (both shaved atop and pureed underneath). This was a marriage I’m going to have to recreate at home. Pork and fruit, peaches and almonds, juicy meat and crunchy fennel….need I go on?

I would highly recommend this very new, destined to be successful restaurant.

Wayfare Tavern

558 Sacramento Street

San Francisco, CA 94111

415.772.9060

www.wayfaretavern.com

Technorati Tags: Food Network, San Francisco CA, Tyler Florence, Wayfare Tavern

Thursday Night Gatherings

Great Lakes Foodie — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:37:19 +0000

Tomorrow night, we’re having Dale’s staff over to the house. Under the guise of “work,” this off site meeting is more team building than work-related meeting. I couldn’t help but get involved and assist with the menu. We’re not going with a single theme. However, the flavors should all marry well.

For drinks, I’ve made a classic sangria. I’ve tried many different versions of this classic…but Gourmet offers the best in my opinion. Click here for the Gourmet Classic Sangria recipe. (Gourmet July 2005)

For snacks, we’re offering several nut mixes (curry cashews and Union Square Cafe mixed nuts), sweet chili cream cheese dip and rice crackers, cheesy horseradish bacon toasts, and taco dip.

For dessert (yes, skipping right to dessert from snacks), we’re going to serve homemade vanilla-bean ice cream and chocolate velvet ice cream. A little ying, a little yang…and a lot of deliciousness! Can’t wait!

Technorati Tags: Party, Sangria