Category Archives: Sweets/Bakeries/Desserts

Simon Day 26 – At home with daddy

Today I attended a bridal shower in Alameda so Simon stayed home with daddy. I took this photo before leaving for the shower. Simon is sound asleep. So cute… and a bit hard for me to leave even if just for a few hours…

But apparently soon after I left, Simon woke up and stayed pretty much awake until I got home. Ron had some fun and posed Simon with this “1-UP” stuffed plush that we got last year from his brother William. Ron’s description is “Simon says, ‘Look! I got a life!’ from mom+dad=me).”

As for the bridal shower, it was a lot of fun to catch up with high school friends (even though high school seemed so long ago… gettin’ old!). We had some yummy food, delicious chocolates, fun games, and good company. The chocolates were especially delicious.

My favorite was the passion fruit/white chocolate ganache filled truffles. My second favorite was the one with chili peppers, the spiciness creeps up on you and it gets addictive (not pictured).

An interesting one was the one with bacon pieces.

After I got home, some of my family came to visit Simon. Auntie Lily brought us some freshly baked madeleines and some more gifts for Simon.

Pictured: Auntie Lily and Uncle Ricky, Cousins Veronica and Austin

Since Simon did not sleep most of the late afternoon, he started to get a bit sleepy after our relatives left. What a big yawn!

He was content to stay up a bit longer before falling asleep around 11pm.

Doesn’t he look like he’s planning something? Those eyebrows…

So Ron’s first afternoon taking care of Simon alone was a success! Next time no need to worry… well I wasn’t really worried but I just didn’t want to miss anything. Ron has been great dad 🙂

Cupkates and Bi-Rite Creamery

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Since it’s not always so easy for us to go out, we luckily have friends and family who bring things to us!

We had a treat from Virginia of some cupcakes from Cupkates! Top left is the Banana with Nutella Frosting. Bottom left is Peanut Butter Frosting with Chocolate Cupcake. Bottom right is the Salted Caramel Frosting with Chocolate Cupcake.

Ron and I tried two of them for now. I enjoyed the banana cupcake itself but not so much the frosting. The cupcake was very moist and rich with banana flavor. It was the opposite with the PB and chocolate, the PB frosting was very delicious, like a very creamy peanut butter but the chocolate cupcake a bit too bitter although very moist. We still have the salted caramel one left. I’ve posted about Cupkates before, click here.

Ron’s brother Henry and his girlfriend Betty went to Bi-Rite Creamery and brought us a pint of ice cream. I requested malted vanilla with peanut brittle and milk chocolate. The ice cream is deliciously creamy and I loved the little bites of peanut brittle mixed in. Yum! I’ve posted about Bi-Rite before too, click here.

It’s been fun being able to eat cupcakes and ice cream again. In a few weeks, I will need to take another oral glucose tolerance test to make sure I no longer have glucose intolerance (diabetes). I think I should start cutting down on the carbohydrates again to make sure I don’t do more harm to my body but I don’t want to diet so that I can make sure to produce enough breast milk for Simon.

Old Chicago Pizza (Petaluma) and Golden Island Cafe (San Francisco)

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Ron decided that we should take a drive out of town at least one more time before our baby is born so we headed out to Petaluma to walk around and relax. It seemed pretty quiet generally, maybe because it was a long weekend and people had left town.

We stopped by to have lunch at a place called Old Chicago Pizza. Famous for their double crust deep dish pizza, it has an extra layer of dough and extra cheese. You can only choose two toppings but the regular deep dish, you can split the pizza in half and have different toppings on each half. We chose chicken and artichoke hearts.

One piece is quite filling, even without eating the outside crust (which I couldn’t eat but was quite delicious).

We had plenty of leftovers with a medium size. Lunch for tomorrow!

The location on the restaurant is supposedly the main downtown of Petaluma and used to house a brothel! The women would entice men from the windows and as they came up the stairs, they would go into one of the small rooms in the hallway. Pretty interesting history.

We went for a walk around the outlets before heading back to San Francisco. Back in SF, we went for a snack at Golden Island Cafe which has my favorite Asian desserts. I love their tapioca desserts with fresh fruit and any of their steamed egg or milk desserts.

Ron ordered the rice balls with toasted sesame and ground peanuts and syrup. Not exactly what he wanted as he likes it with nuts inside the rice balls.

I ordered the steamed egg custard with ginger. These take about 15 minutes to steam and come out super hot. I love the bit of spiciness from the ginger and the creamy texture.

It was getting cold outside so it was also good to end the day with a warm dessert.

Old Chicago Pizza
41 Petaluma Blvd N
Petaluma, CA 94952

Golden Island Cafe
1300 Noriega St
(between 20th Ave & 21st Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94122

Cupkates – salted caramel!

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http://cupkatesbakery.com/

I’m lucky to have a friend who likes to share sweet finds like Cupkates cupcakes. Apparently the owner created a new flavor: salted caramel, a chocolate cake with caramel buttercream and flaked sea salt (the cupcake on the left). The other cupcake is a lemon raspberry cupcake.

So far, I’ve tried half of the salted caramel and the chocolate cake is really moist and yummy. Although I think the chocolate may have overpowered the delicate caramel flavor of the buttercream but the salt was a nice touch.

I’m looking forward to trying the lemon raspberry cupcake: lemon cake with Meyer marmalade topped with raspberry buttercream.

I’ve also tried her vanilla cupcake and a peppermint chocolate cupcake.

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe and 5A5 Steak Lounge

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We did quite a bit of eating today starting with breakfast this morning at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe which is within walking distance from our apartment. Our friends recommended this place for a great breakfast but might have a long wait.

We got there around 8am and had to wait about 15-20 minutes, they open at 7:30am. We ordered from their specials which are written on the dry erase boards.

This is the butterscotch french toast. I had one delicious slice. I think eating more would have been bad for my blood sugar.

This is one of their egg scrambles, a type of sausage with mushrooms and basil. It’s served with potatoes and a slice of jalapeno corn bread. Also very good. I really liked the corn bread.

For home, we took home some pastries. This is the sweet potato pecan muffin, very dense and sweetened by the sweet potato rather than sugar.

The whiskey blueberry coffee cake. The coffee cake was a bit dry and the topping a bit too sweet. It didn’t really work together well in your mouth.

Lunch we had at home but then went to dinner at 5A5 Steak Lounge for Dine About Town. It was probably too much to hope that they would have the Waygu beef on their menu… so here was their menu where we chose one of each.

Iceberg lettuce salad with thick bacon. The bacon was very delicious.

Caesar salad with fresh anchovies. The salty anchovies went well with the fresh taste of Romaine lettuce.

We ordered a separate starter of short ribs with lotus chips. The lotus chips were pretty cool, just like potato chips but probably healthier. The short ribs had persimmons on them which was an interesting touch.

The New York strip steak. The green stuff on top was a bit spicy and creamy, delicious but I have no idea what it was. The steak was tender too and a perfect medium rare but not bloody.