San Francisco Pictures

I know its a week after I have gotten home from San Francisco, but here are some picture that I really liked that didn't get posted at first and some that I edited and really liked. Some might be silly, but they were fun, so you get to see them 

Mom likes this, so I posted it. 

It's blurry, but I really like it 

Samoa Cake

I thought that it was time for a recipe for this blog, so here is my Samoa Cake recipe. A little back-story on this cake. I love Samoa's and once I finished all my girl scout Samoa's I was sad that there was no more, so my search began for a substitute and it came in a cake form. The Samoa cake is like a freaking Samoa cookie but better cause it’s a cake. I knew I had to try the cake, so I grabbed my keys and headed to Safeway in search of all the things I needed for this cake. I got home and put myself to work. After a long night of figuring out what I was doing and being impatient, the cake was finally done. I got out the knife and sliced me up some cake and I was unimpressed. After spending so much time on it I thought it would be better than it was. I knew I needed to try again and an opportunity soon came up. My mom was in charge of getting desserts for an auction, so she asked me to make the cake, because she enjoyed it more than me. I made the cake for a second time. Not being able to test it at the end almost killed me. It was off to the auction and at the end of the night I got texts telling me that it was amazing and that it sold for $250. Now just today my mom tells me I get to make this cake again for another auction. This time it is even more important and the auction is a huge deal. Stay tuned for what happens with it. 

Samoa Cake:

For the Brown Sugar Batter

·       1 stick of butter, softened

·       1 cup of dark brown sugar

·       2 eggs

·       3/4 cup all-purpose flour

·       3/4 tsp baking powder

·       1/2 tsp baking soda

·       1/4 tsp salt

·       1/2 cup whole milk

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one a a time, beating well after each addition. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Alternate adding the flour mixture and whole milk to the butter mixture, one at a time, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Set batter aside

For the Chocolate Batter

·       1 cup sugar

·       1/4 cup oil

·       1 egg

·       1 tsp vanilla

·       1/2 cup milk

·       3/4 cup + 2 T all-purpose flour

·       1/2 cup + 2 T cocoa powder

·       3/4 tsp baking powder

·       1/2 tsp baking soda

·       1/2 tsp salt

·       1/2 cup boiling water

Cream sugar and oil together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and milk. In a medium bowl mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined. Carefully stir in boiling water. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan well. This is a marble cake. Pour some of the brown sugar batter into the pan, then top it with some of the chocolate batter. Alternate until both batter bowls are empty. Tap bundt pan on the counter a couple times to remove bubbles. Bake approximately 1 hour or until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. (Mine only took about 50 minutes) Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool entire

 For the Frosting

·       1 can of sweetened condensed milk **Or substitute canned dulce de leche

·       1/2 cup confectioners sugar

·       2 T vanilla extract

·       2 sticks butter, softened

·       1/2 tsp salt

·       1 cup toasted coconut

Place the whole, unopened can of condensed milk in your crock pot and submerge in at least 3 inches of water. Cook on medium for 10 hours or on high for 7. *Alternatively, boil the whole, unopened can on the stove FULLY SUBMERGED AT ALL TIMES for 4 hours. Let it cool. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread coconut on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until desired color is reached (about 6 minutes). Beat cooled cooked condensed milk (or dulce de leche), butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla and salt for 3 minutes. Add in 1 cup toasted coconut. Chill for 1 hour

  For the topping

·       1 1/2 cups toasted coconut

·       1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted

Frost the cake with dulce de leche frosting Toast remaining coconut and press into the sides and top of the frosted cake. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring frequently. Place melted chocolate in a pastry bag with a small tip or ziploc bag with a corner cut out about 1/4 inch up from the corner, and drizzle stripes on the cake.

 

First Time I made it. The rest went in to trash. 

This cake is ready for the auction!

Final Day of Spring Break

We made it to Eugene, Or around 11:30 so we decided to call it quits and stay the night. Dad was glad it was his last night having to sleep with Michael and this night proved to be the roughest. We slept in until after 8 which is good for us and we grabbed some breakfast at the nearby Denny’s. We could have headed straight north on I-5 and made it home in about 4 or 5 hours, but mom wasn’t ready to call it quits yet. How can you do a food tour of the Northwest coastline and not stop for an ice cream in Tillamook, OR? Unfortunately, this meant a detour and the roads leading to Tillamook are slow and windy so the journey home ended up being close to 9 hours. It was worth it, though. We loved driving through the beautiful logging and fishing towns along the Oregon Coast. This is a beautiful part of the country and everyone should venture off I-5 and try it at least once. We realize that we could buy as much Tillamook ice cream as we want at our local Safeway, but there’s something about buying it in the factory that makes it taste so much better. Plus, they have flavors there that aren’t available in the grocery store. Mom ordered blueberry and caramel hazelnut because she can’t buy them at Safeway. She said they were delicious and it was better than the ice cream at Humphry Slocombe in San Francisco. Dad got a peanut butter chocolate shake because that’s what he always gets and Michael got vanilla because that’s what he always gets and I got oreo because that’s what I always get. Was it worth the detour? Definitely!

caramel and blueberry 

Vanilla

Cookies and Cream

We skipped lunch and thought about skipping dinner but Michael wouldn’t hear of it. I’m not telling where we ate because we broke the rule of not eating any fast food for our whole trip but it was the ONLY place to eat in this little town in Washington just on the other side of the Columbia River. This is a picture of the bridge we drove over that scared my mom to death. The adorable, little town on the other side of the bridge is Astoria, OR and you have to go over this bridge to cross the mouth of the Columbia River to get to Washington. Mom made us stop and take a picture because she thought it was so beautiful. Welcome back to Washington! Until our next adventure…..

Day Five of Spring Break

This morning we slept in a little and we decided to skip breakfast to save room for the big finale! We packed up our stuff and walked over to the Ghiradelli building to buy some last minute treats to send Bonnie for Easter. Then Dad picked up our car and Michael, mom and I took one last ride on the cable car to Market Street where dad picked us up. We found our last eating spot called Tony’s Pizza. This place was highly recommended by our concierge and mom had found great reviews on google for it. By the time the place opened the line was snaking down the sidewalk so we were glad we got there early. This menu was probably the most difficult one we had to order from. There were at least 8 or 10 different types of pizzas you could order based on cooking temperatures of the crust. Under each one of these there were 6 or 8 different types of toppings you could choose from. Then there were calzones, salads, pastas, and so much more. Mom decided to pick two of the pizzas that had won awards simply as a way to narrow down the choices. Let me just say that we have eaten a lot of good pizza and my dad is somewhat of a pizza snob since he grew up in New York eating the best pizza in the country. He loved Tonys and when he says something is “great” that really means it was some of the best pizza he’s ever had. Mom thought it was the best meal we had on the trip and the perfect ending to a perfect vacation in a beautiful city. I got full too fast and didn’t get to even try the pizza but I thought the calzone was delicious. It was fun to sit there by the warm pizza oven and watch them put pizzas in and out. We could have sat there all day but our time in San Francisco has sadly come to an end. This is me and Michael walking up one last hill before getting in the car to leave.  

Meatball with mushroom cream sauce 

New Yorker

Cal Italia 

Manhattan Calzone 

After a quick drive to Lombard Street and Coit Tower to see the view we hopped on the Bay Bridge and drove out of town. Good-bye to a wonderful city and a wonderful vacation. Thanks, dad for paying for it and mom, for helping me plan it. The good news is that Michael is exhausted so he’ll be happy watching his Seahawks dvd all the way home. We’ll make it part way today and then finish it up tomorrow. Stay tuned in case we find anything else interesting to eat on the way home…..

After only about three hours on the road it was already time for a snack and dad has found the perfect idea, or at least perfect for him. We stopped in a tiny farm town called Corning, Ca at a place called The Olive Pit. It was a wine and olive tasting place and dad sampled several selections (only olives, of course) until he finally settled on the almond stuffed green olive – YUK! He bought a bottle and some pretzels for Michael and we hit the road!. Here’s a photo of dad standing by the huge selection of olives trying to decide on one.

Dad at the Olive Pit

Fourth Day of Spring Break

It’s already Wednesday and we still have so much to do! The day started out taking a bus from our hotel up to Washington Square to Mama’s for breakfast. This place was quaint, comfy and cozy and once we were inside we felt like we were on a farm at grandma’s eating good home cooking. There were knick knack shelves all around the room loaded with tchotchkes of everything you could imagine that should be in a place like this. The windows were dressed with bright yellow curtains and the tables had floral cloths on them to complete the whole “I’m eating breakfast at my grandma’s house” look. But first we had to wait for a very long time to even get into the place. Mom was determined to wait it out and it didn’t turn out to be that long – only about 40 minutes – and I promise it was worth the wait! Best breakfast I’ve had in a long time or maybe even my whole life. Dad and I had the Washington Square Omelet which had which had Italian sausage, peppers, tomato and cheese. Michael had pancakes which we thought would be a waste of a breakfast but these were the best pancakes any of us had ever had. Don’t know what the secret was but they were incredible. Mom decided to try what Mama’s is famous for – the Monte Cristo. It was a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich soaked in egg and cooked like French toast and then they had this homemade raspberry jam to put on top of it. It was a perfect blend of sweet and savory and mom said she would have waited in line for even longer if she had known how good it would be.

Washington Square Omelet 

Monte Cristo 

Pancakes 

With our tummies full it was time to shop! We went back to Fisherman’s Wharf to find some quality souvenirs. Every time we go on a family vacation we have to buy a Christmas ornament to give to dad when we decorate the tree. We found a perfect ornament of a cable car to remind us of that fun night we rode up and down the hills of San Francisco. Michael also got a cable car to add to his expansive bus collection at home so he was happy. We found this neat little candy store that had several yummy treats that were made even better because they dipped them in chocolate. There were chocolate dipped oreos, chocolate dipped rice crispy treats, chocolate dipped twinkies and gigantic peanut butter cups. Our favorite was the chocolate dipped twinkie. The rice crispy treat would have been good with homemade rice crispy treats because I hate store bought ones. We ate a bite of each and tossed the rest because that would have been just wrong to eat all of them. 

By now it was almost 4 pm so we headed over to the Ferry Building to Miette to buy some treats for later. Then we headed back to the hotel to have lunch since we were starving. Lunch/dinner tasted so good. Mom ordered the trio of clam chowder – corn chowder, California clam chowder and New England clam chowder. They were all very good. I decided to keep it simple and I ordered a chef salad with chicken and it was delicious. I wanted to go to bed at this point in the day but that wasn’t going to happen quite yet. We got onto the muni near our hotel and headed to the game. Yep, what would a family vacation be if we didn’t fit in a game for Michael.

My dad couldn’t figure out the second leg of our trip to AT&T Park so we ended up walking the last mile or two. Normally I wouldn’t have cared about this but my fit bit was telling me that I was already well over my 10,000 steps for the day and now you’re telling me I have to walk more?? Michael walked the whole way and didn’t complain once. He’ll do anything to go to a baseball game. My dad really hooked us up with great seats on the third row behind 3^rd base. He’s been doing work in for MLB so they had the ticket there waiting for us. What a fun game! My mom asked Michael if he felt like a traitor for wearing a Giants shirt and rooting for a different team. He told her it was only for one night so it would be okay. How do you go from being a diehard Mariners fan to a Giant’s fan in one night? I don’t know, but Michael put on that t-shirt and poof! He’s a Giants fan. The game was a bit chilly and the Giants got killed but we had a wonderful time. Our trip back to the hotel was much better and we managed to find the right trains and buses to take. We finished the day with almost 20,000 steps or between 8 and 9 miles and our feet felt it! I fell into bed and that’s all she wrote.