Le Petit Dej Breakfast Tray by Peter White, $92 at A+R Store

image: A+R Store

Tom and I returned from a long weekend in San Francisco on Monday evening. Guided by Tom’s brother Mike and a rented PT Cruiser (never even consider buying or renting this car by the way… it will only confuse you!), we walked the Mission, Upper and Lower Haight, and a drove through several other neighborhoods. Coming from Minneapolis’ very new spring, it was wonderful to see so much green and so much color in the architecture of the city. On the downside, much rain welcomed us to San Francisco but as you can see in the above photo there were moments of sunshine in between. I was happy to get to know the deYoung Museum, particularly its viewing tower of the city, and the SFMoMA. Thanks to Mike for sharing a great dinner at Contigo, where we enjoyed fantastic tapas accompanied by a bottle of cidra and plenty of tips on local beers, bars, and eateries.

We’re still sorting through about 400 pictures to determine just what to do with them. Finding photos of what we ate and drank, however, was quick and easy.

Not exactly my favorite holiday, but I’ll take any excuse to bust out my heart-shaped molds!

As January comes to a close, it’s really starting to feel like 2010. This weekend, while less activity filled than, say, our cross country ski marathon, was well enjoyed. On Saturday morning I was inspired by Bon Appétite to prepare crêpes for breakfast. With only one so bad it had to go straight to the trash (that was #3, one and two came out just fine), I am no longer afraid of this thin egg pancake with a French accent. Bon Appétite may be right, “crêpes are a cinch, with no special… pan required.” We enjoyed ours with a mix of cheeses inside (gruyère was the clear favorite) along with chopped cilantro and green onions and the occasional splash of chipotle Tabasco. If you’d like to try your hand at the recipe, hop over to Bon Appétite’s website. Don’t worry if you don’t have buckwheat at home; not about to run out on a Saturday morning, I used a mix of rye and whole wheat flours instead.

Martha: café con leche, largo de leche (left). Tom: tinto (right).

See you in February!

For Christmas my parents gave everyone in the family a bag or tub (depending on family size) of homemade granola. They used the same recipe my Mom worked with when I was growing up. I remember eating Mom’s granola from cereal-boxed shaped Tupperware containers alternately atop a bowlful of yogurt or served with milk. Having received my granola in a bag, I decided I needed such a container for ours too. I didn’t go as far as to have a Tupperware party, but one of the first things I did after returning home from Christmas was to purchase a Sistema cereal box from the Container Store to house my granola. Since then I’ve been enjoying breakfasts of granola with homemade yogurt (thanks to Tom). Yesterday I noticed we were almost out of granola, so I called home for the recipe and decided to dive in and learn to make it myself.

With only a minor variation or two, the recipe comes from The More with Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre (1976). The book is (still!) available and is described (on Amazon.com) as a gathering of:

500 recipes from Mennonite kitchens that tell us how to eat better and consume less of the world’s limited food resources. All recipes have been tested by professional home economists. This cookbook is written for those who care about their own health and the food needs of others in the world.

The recipe makes about 2–3 quarts of granola. The recipe is very basic (measure, mix, bake), but I’m going to have to train my nose to sense the granola’s doneness. The batch I put together today has the right taste and texture, but there’s a little burn in there too. The hardest part for some, depending on your access to high-quality bulk foods, may be sourcing the ingredients. Unsweetened coconut, if not available at your standard supermarket, can be found in health food stores. Wheat germ will be in the refrigerated section if it’s available in your grocery’s bulk foods and can otherwise be found sold by Bob’s Red Mill or jarred in the cereal or baking section. (The Wedge was out of bulk wheat germ, so I went with a bag from Bob’s Red Mill which I am now storing in a Ball jar in the fridge. I plan to start secretly adding it to everything.) Be sure to look for raw nuts and seeds in all cases.

Set the oven to 325º

Mix in Large bowl:

• 1/2 to 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 4 cups old fashioned oatmeal (ideally not quickoats)
• 1 cup hulled, raw sunflower seeds
• 1 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Bring to a boil:

• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Grease two cookie sheets and, dividing the mixture in half, spread the granola evenly across the sheets. Jelly roll pans will work best as you’ll avoid spilling any of the grains when stirring the mixture in the oven.

Bake for a total of 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes and watching carefully in the last 10 minutes to avoid any burning (as I said I may have caused a bit of burning today, but no matter!).