Author Archives: Administrator

Soy Milk Flan

I didn’t have any milk at home but needed to bake something for our work potluck so I found this recipe substituting soy milk for cow’s milk. You can find the original posting here but here it is as well (with a few modifications, like I doubled the recipe for a thicker flan):

Soymilk Flan

1 cup granulated sugar (used 1/2 only)
1/4 cup water (used 1/2 only)
2 cups soy milk (used vanilla soy milk so left out the vanilla extract)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (did not use)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar (used 1/2 only since soy milk a bit sweetened)

1. You can use a loaf pan and make one large flan (I made one large pan) or smaller ramekins. Six 6-ounce ramekins or 4 larger ones work well for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Put water on to boil.

2. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar melts and mixture begins to darken. Stir occasionally. When the sugar mixture turns a dark golden brown – this will take about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour enough to coat the bottom into each ramekin, if using, or pour all into the bottom of the loaf pan.

3. Heat the soy milk and the vanilla in a small saucepan until it is just about to boil. Turn off burner and put aside.

4. Beat eggs, egg yolks, salt and sugar in a bowl with a whisk (or using an electric mixer) until they are a light yellow color.

5. Stirring constantly, pour the milk mixture in a thin stream into the egg mixture until they are completely combined. Pour into loaf pan or divide equally among the ramekins.

6. Put the loaf pan or the ramekins into a deep roasting dish and put it on the middle shelf in the oven. Pour boiling water into the roasting dish until the water comes about halfway up the sides of the custard dishes.

7. Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the the custard is almost set, but the middles are still wiggly. Remove from oven and let cool. Refrigerate until you are ready to eat them.

8. To serve flan, place ramekin (or loaf pan) into hot water for 20 seconds, run a thin sharp knife around the edge of the dish and invert it onto a dessert plate.

One other modification on cooking time, I baked it at 300 F for 60 minutes and the center was still quite jiggly so turned up the heat to 325 F for another 30 minutes, still jiggly, so finally turned it up to 350 F for another 30 minutes before it finally solidified to my satisfaction. I cooled it overnight in the refrigerator and served it in the dish (did not invert it onto a dessert plate).

When you cut into it though, the caramel gets all over the place (see the thick layer on the bottom).

I think if I make it again and use the vanilla soy milk, I would completely cut out the granulated sugar. It’s plenty sweet and the caramel does the job. My co-workers said it tasted good (they couldn’t tell it was soy milk) and the texture was between JELL-O and flan, thicker than flan but not as thick as JELL-O.

Renegade Craft Fair

I highly recommend paying a visit to the Renegade Craft Fair whenever they’re in town. The artists always bring unique and interesting things.

Some of my favorites:

Underwear of the Month Club available at Recession Clothing
Almost tempted to join for fun.

Hello Kitty Ninja from Fat Ninja

Cute baby clothes and blankets from JAKC Designs
My first purchase for Baby Chung, the robot outfit and a cute mouse onesie. I hope they come up with Tiger outfits for next year.

Zelaya Designs – natural materials, handcrafted fabric flowers

Rebe – beautiful raincoat but too expensive for me right now

Nicacelly – a beautiful kimono like sweater was at the fair but not on their website (yet!)

Giant Dwarf Designs – I bought this Fleurette Cloche to keep my head warm (my flower is gray and the hat is fuchsia

It was good exercise too walking around Fort Mason’s Herbst Pavilion.

Belly Buds

So we bought this item called Belly Buds (from Amazon.com because of a 10% discount). I would say this was more of Ron’s idea as he wants to stimulate the baby and hopefully learn to enjoy music. These Belly Buds are speakers that connect to an MP3 player (I’m using a iPod Shuffle) and stick to your belly using silicone gel adhesive.

Ron has loaded a bunch of classical music onto my iPod Shuffle and I’ve been using the Belly Buds about 4-8 hours a day. I can’t wear it all the time because the adhesive is a bit irritating to my skin so I can only tolerate it for about 4 hours at a time before I have to remove them and let my skin rest. Right now I’m not sure if he’s really reacting to it but I’ve only had them for a week so maybe it take some time.

Cupkates

Our friend and neighbor works in Berkeley so has access to this great cupcake truck that makes rounds in Oakland and Berkeley called Cupkates, a mobile cupcakery. She offered us a few cupcakes that she picked up while at work and I couldn’t resist.

Part of today’s offerings were a vanilla cupcake and the peppermint chocolate cupcake. So far I’ve eaten half of the peppermint chocolate, the cupcake was really moist and the cream very light (more like whipped cream, not buttercream) with little bits of candy cane on top.

Check out the website for their regular truck route and their flavor offerings. Cupcakes range from $2.50 o $3.00 each. Follow them on Twitter for exact location of the truck. I think they’re closed for Christmas though.

Burger Bar San Francisco

I had brunch with V at Burger Bar. It’s located on the 6th floor of Macy’s at Union Square. We met there around 11am and were seated right away (they open at 10:30am). By the time we left, there was at least 5 parties waiting for tables.

We ordered from the Chef’s Burgers side of the menu.

Vicki ordered the Hubert Keller burger which is buffalo, carmelized onions, baby spinach, blue cheese served on a ciabatta bun ($22). I didn’t try it but V said the onions were a bit too sweet. The burger comes with skinny fries which were nice and crispy.

I ordered the low-carb burger which is black angus beef, portabello mushrooms, grilled peppers, coleslaw, pesto sauce, and a mixed baby green salad ($15.95). No fries. The pesto was delicious and so were to mushrooms and peppers. The meat was a bit dry and a bit oily. Next time maybe I will make my own burger or try the $60 Kobe beef and foie gras burger! (We decided to save it for a special occasion…).

After lunch, we did some shopping before heading back to Macy’s lower level demo kitchen for a free cookie swap event. I’ve been trying to find events downtown to attend and so this is the first one I’ve had time to go to. The chef today was Thia Boggs, an Oakland native, who demonstrated her pecan pralines. The guests also shared a recipe of our own so the chef made it interactive by inviting people up to talk about their recipes and answer questions. We got a free sample and a few recipes to take home. Check out Macy’s Events for future events. This Thursday Sept 16th will be a demo by Tyler Florence of his new cookware, 6pm, RSVP at http://www.macys.com/events!


Burger Bar San Francisco

251 Geary St
(6th floor Macy’s Union Square)