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Shepherd’s Pie

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http://www.idahoan.com/recipes

Felt like something hearty for dinner. Ron bought this big tub of Idahoan mashed potatoes which has a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie on the back. It can also be found here.

Shepherd’s Pie (serves 8)

1 medium onion, chopped (I didn’t have any so didn’t use)
2 cloves garlic, crushed (I used 5 because we love garlic)
1 lb ground beef
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 can (14.5 oz) Italian stewed diced tomatoes, drained (I used a can of plain peeled tomatoes and cut them up)
2-1/2 cups fresh green beans, cooked (I used frozen mixed vegetables with lima beans, carrots, green beans, and corn)
8 servings prepared Idahoan Mashed Potatoes (I ran out of milk and butter so used heavy cream to prepare the potatoes)
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In large frying pan, brown onions (if you have them), garlic, and beef. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Drain meat and place in a 2 quart casserole dish. Pour tomatoes over meat, top with vegetables. Mound potatoes on top and brush with egg.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 F.

Broil for 1 minute to brown the top.

Voila!

I’ve made Shepherd’s Pie before but it was much better this time around. It probably has something to do with the heavy cream in the mashed potatoes and that yummy slightly brown crust on top from the egg. As you can see, this is a pretty easy recipe, even if you don’t have all the ingredients, just use whatever you have in your cupboards and refrigerator.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken and Brussel Sprouts with Vinegar Glazed Onions

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My attempt to cook dinner this weekend. Bacon Wrapped Chicken. Basically defrosted frozen chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch. Smeared with garlic cream cheese and stuffed with mushrooms and thinly sliced garlic. Rolled with bacon and baked then broiled. I caused quite a bit of smoke with the broiling. Be careful with that. The meat was a bit dry, not sure how to quite remedy that.

Brussel Sprouts with Vinegar Glazed Red Onions. These were the brussel sprouts I just got at the market on Saturday. I didn’t use any butter and used a regular yellow onion and it turned out fine to me. A bit tangy but also bitter from the sprouts but I liked the combo.

I still think baking is easier…

Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival

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http://nccbf.org/home/

This was the first weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival so we thought we’d go check it out and get some good eats. We were very lucky with parking but I don’t advise trying to park there next week, it’d be easier to take the bus or walk. We arrived around 12:30 just in time for lunch. We started with some spam musubi (sorry no pic) and a dozen takoyaki (although made from shredded beef instead of octopus).

We had some yakisoba and beef skewers before taking a break from eating.

We were lucky to see the contestants of the Cherry Blossom Festival Queen Program in the crowd. Their program was on Saturday evening.

We wanted something a bit sweet and had the red bean paste filled cakes.

Super fresh!

Vicki as my food model 🙂

After lunch, we went to check out the booths and exhibits. We ran into my favorite celebrity…

and Ron’s favorite dog:

They’re having an actual show next week with the characters from Puroland with singing and dancing. I’m tempted to go but I’m not that obsessive!

Standing in front of the cherry blossoms at Peace Plaza.

We went to Hotel Kabuki to see their exhibits or origami, dolls, swords, and ikebana.






The last snack for the afternoon, deep fried mochi. I was expecting it to be sweet since it was at the shaved ice stand but it was a bit salty, there was some dried seaweed on top with a sweet soy. Again, Vicki is my food model 😛

The festival continues next weekend and the parade will be next weekend too. Don’t miss it!

Farmers Market, Stacks, Russian Hill, Okoze Sushi

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Certainly had a fun filled, packed Saturday with the beautiful weather.

We got up surprisingly early, 7:30am! On a Saturday, that’s almost unheard of, we usually only get up early to go snowboarding or if we have to really go somewhere. But it was nice because we spent a quiet morning at home drinking our coffee and having a bit of breakfast and catching up on a few things. Maxwell enjoyed our early rising so that he could peek out the window to smell the morning air. He’s in mid-sniff:

I took the bus down to the Embarcadero to get some goodies at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and just enjoy the beautiful weather.

My treasures for the day: strawberries,

Pepper jelly and beautiful Pomelos,

A huge artichoke and brussel sprouts,

Garlic Quark and Red pepper Curds.

I enjoyed brunch at Stacks’ in Hayes Valley. My friends Kat & Jon had some to pick me up from Union Square to join them for brunch. I ordered a short stack (2 pancakes) of their banana macadamia nut and coconut pancakes, quite a mouthful to say and an even bigger mouthful to eat! I only ate like 2/3 of the portion and packed the rest in a doggie bag. I liked the macadamia nuts but probably too much coconut.

After brunch (which Stacks’ is open until 3:30pm on Sat/Sun), I invited myself over to my friend Kat & Jon’s place to spend the afternoon (I hope they didn’t mind) since we hadn’t hung out in a while. They live on top of Russian Hill and have a great view from their building. You can see all the beautiful San Francisco landmarks.

The Transamerica tower, Bay Bridge, Coit Tower.

The new span on the Bay Bridge to the left.

Alcatraz (which I’ve yet to visit…)

The Golden Gate Bridge.

Berkeley’s Campanile… in the middle, that tall skinny thing.

I wish I had a better lens.

We met up with some of their friends for drinks at Bistro Aix before having dinner at Okoze Sushi, where Ron joined us.

I remember dining at Bistro Aix before but I didn’t remember them having such a lovely outdoor dining area. The heat lamps were on and we were seated at a quiet table in the back corner. It was quite cozy and the service was very attentive. We were only there for an hour for wine and appetizers.

We had dinner at Okoze Sushi where Kat & Jon recommended. They had met one of the sushi chef’s on previous visits, his name is DJ, and he has always treated them well with good food on subsequent visits. Tonight, Jon asked him to prepare some things for our party of 7, whatever he thought would be appropriate. We started out with some edamame and this waygu beef carpaccio dish. Yummy!

The restaurant was too dark so I gave up on taking pictures with my phone’s camera and just decided to enjoy the meal. We had delicious sashimi, an extra large special roll that had soft shell crab inside and some sort of white fish outside with siracha sauce and salmon roe, tempura, and a few other little things. Everything had really strong flavors and seemed more fusion cuisine rather than traditional Japanese. My only complaint would be that it was quite loud inside the restaurant so it was hard to have a conversation but then you can really concentrate on eating.

What a wonderful activity packed day in San Francisco…

Stack’s Restaurant
501 Hayes Street

Bistro Aix
3340 Steiner St (between Lombard & Chestnut)

Okoze Sushi
1207 Union St (at Hyde)