Sutro's at the Cliff House

Annie and I are in San Francisco for vacation and my marathon. Because we like to spend money and eat at fantastic places (i.e. Jacque Cousteau in the Eiffel Tower) we were told to eat at Sutro's in the Cliff House.



Despite the fact that we were 20 minutes late for our reservation, we were warmly greeted and had a seat at the bar and ordered some cocktails while waiting for our table by the windows.



Annie got the rum punch with nutmeg and bitters, while I opted for the tried and true margarita. They were both amazing.

Once seated at the table we ordered appetizers and a lovely wine.


Cauliflower bisque with pieces of shrimp scampi.



Gainey Vineyards Reisling. We wanted a nice white to eat with our fish for dinner.

For dinner Annie opted for the Bacon Encrusted Salmon with celery, apples and rainbow chard on top, sitting on a bed of potato purée. The potato was delightfully light, the salmon was extremely good tasting, especially with the bacon, and the apple/chard sealed the deal. Llama approved!


Annie's entree.

I choose the scallops with a corn tamale and shrimp chorizo. I wasn't sure what to think of the shrimp chorizo when I ordered, but I had no doubt that the scallops would be amazing.


Aside from the fantastic presentation, my entree simply rocked. The tamale was fresh, the scallops even more so, and the shrimp chorizo was really tasty with great flavor.

We had a dessert as well, but we ate it too fast for a photo. Chocolate lava cake with peanut ice cream. Mmmmm lava cake.


Llama llove!

BBQ Sunday

Annie and I invited her parents over for lunch on Sunday because they had just returned from vacation in Michigan and I was positive they didn't want to cook.




Our menu plan was BBQ chicken, BakedBree's Tortellini Salad, fruit salad and broiled asiago coated tomatoes, fresh from the garden.

The chicken was simple. We used Stubbs BBQ sauce, only because we wanted a change from the standard Sweet Baby Rays. I just let it sit in the sauce for a couple hours then grilled until cooked throughly. Unlike Annie's Dad, I like to grill chicken til it is done, and no longer. He is a 45 minute griller for everything.







It was pretty good, but I'll likely return to SBRs after this jar is gone.

The tortellini salad was mad for us when Annie and I were in Michigan and is the reason we read BakedBree's blog. We omitted the olives and added fresh basil from the garden but it was still really tasty.




Annie's mom brought the fruit salad, many of the things were a part of the green bean delivery bin this week.

She also made the asiago coated tomatoes that were broiled shortly. I'm not sure where the recipe is from--maybe Cooking Light, but fresh tomatoes slightly warmed with golden brown asiago cheese and breadcrumbs really hit the spot.




All in all the meal was a hit. The llama stamp of approval is given to all of the dishes today.

Tempura Tango

Tonight we decided to go with Tempura Shrimp and random veggies, Benihana style squash, and salad with soy/ginger dressing. I was not impressed with the tempura, so maybe it's just not my thing, although the yellow pepper was surprisingly tasty.

Ben cut up the veggies and made the tempura batter.

I prepared the salad dressing and squash in the oven.

Necessary oils.

Finished product.
Tempura Shrimp, Mushrooms, Yellow Peppers & Squash,
Asaparagus. Sauteed Yellow Squash, and Salad.

Soy/Ginger Dressing:
onion, rice vinegar, peanut oil, tomato paste

The salad dressing earned the llama seal of approval,  Nothing else did. :-/

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CPK California Club Clone

This is our first post. Thanks for reading! This blog is cousin blog to What's Cooking. Basically, we are trying to one up them, as Ben is Carolyn's younger brother... and his family is all about competition.

Yesterday, we made tamales, and for that I started calling Ben "abuelita"--because they tasted like what a little Mexican grandmother would make!

We decided to do a homemade pizza after receiving our green bean delivery bin last week. I think the key is to use fresh herb/veggies if you have them! We used the following:

Ready for the oven.

Lotsa Pasta whole wheat dough
Pizza Sauce

Toppings:
Avocado
Carrots
Onion
Mozzarella
Romaine
Mayo
Fresh Basil
Oregano
Chicken
Bacon
Tomato
Parmesan

If you want the "club" effect, mix the mayo and chop the romaine and place on top after the pizza is out of the oven. I used the rest of the romaine for a delightful salad.

This is my pizza. Note: I did not put the
lettuce/mayo combo on
top.

Ben's pizza.

Enjoy!
Annie