Life is Good

Life is good when you have a biscuits & gravy station at The Galileo Italian Club brunch. There was a omelet station, all you can eat bacon, dessert station (pictured before I got to it), many breakfast items and a chocolate tower for the kids behind the bunny lady.

SCORE

Coffee Crisp candy bars is a food memory trigger for me. We used to go up to Canada evert year to visit my mom's relatives. This particular candy bar triggers these memories. For the longest time Coffee Crisp was only available in Canada. It is only within the last 20 years that once in awhile these bars will show up here in California. While shopping at Cost Plus World Market my beloved candy bar magically appeared on the shelf. I am happy.

 

PISTACHIO THINGY

 

This dessert was from an Anniversary dinner at the Galileo Club. It is some sort of pistachio thingy. The correct title is; " Torta Gellato on a Chocolate Cheesecake Crust  with Marzipan and Roasted Pistachios". I just say delicious. 

ORIGINAL JOE'S

Birthday/Anniversary's come around once a year and we like to celebrate. Going to the City (San Francisco) can be magical. The stars aligned with weather, parking and even dinner reservations. This year we chose Original Joe's located right in the heart of the North Beach district.

Parking in San Francisco can be very challenging especially in North Beach. Our parking karma found us a spot one block away in a metered spot. We had a very fine meal with steak, short ribs, crab cakes, ravioli (bonus points for house made ravioli) butter cake and some fantastic spumoni gelato. 

The crumbsweeper was absent tonight because the tables were not cloth covered. We did have a ragwiper but it is just not as inspiring and romantic as our beloved crumbsweeper. Overall it was a fantastic night to celebrate our anniversary.

 

ASPARAGUS

I used to look forward to the first asparagus of the year. It was a signal that Spring was right around the corner. We used to be so spoiled going to the Farmers Markets and buying freshly harvested asparagus. I knew my asparagus vendors by first name. You can still buy asparagus at the supermarkets but they are shipped from Mexico. There is nothing wrong with this asparagus but it is not the farm fresh stuff I used to crave. California has been pulling up their asparagus fields. They cannot compete with the foreign products price. Life is full of changes and this particular event has me saddened.

 

LIGURE CLUB COOKING CLASS or BAH DAH BING CANNOLI

 

The Ligure Club held a cooking class yesterday. This was a wonderful chance to learn how to make porchetta, giardiniera and Vinny's 'Bah dah Bing Cannoli". It was also a great excuse to have some good food, snacks and meet with friends. I would like to share some images with you.

Did I mention there was wine? No true Italian cooking class does not include wine. We all listened and learned from our instructors. Truth be told, I was there for lunch. The funnest part of our class was when Vinny demonstrated how to make the proper cannoli. Vince told us we have to use Bada Bing cherry brand cherries to top our cannoli. According to him, no other brand will do. I will take his word for it and it was delicious. Everything was yummy today. It was a great day for a cooking class at the Ligure Club.

SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN ATHLETIC CLUB

  

San Francisco Italian Athletic Club is a very fancy upscale social club located right in the center of San Francisco's iconic North Beach district. I was invited as guest to attend a crab feed dinner. They made me an offer I could not refuse. I met my friend Bob in the East Bay to carpool to San Francisco because parking is notoriously bad in North Beach. We did park in a garage paying 30 dollars three blocks away. (ouch). Walking the three blocks we got a very short tour of North Beach. We walked by restaurants, bakeries, (one sweet, one focaccia only) gelato store and bars. This is a fun area. The club had been recently painted and remodeled and it stood proudly on the edge of Washington Park. We had arrived.

We had an hour to kill before dinner. The SFIAC is two stories large. It has the main dinning hall with an attached bar. This dinning hall had acoustic tiles on the wall an a very high chandeliered ceiling. It was well thought out because later in the evening we could actually have a conversation with 400 men all talking at once. A lot of hand gestures included; this is an Italian club. We went upstairs were there was another bar and a nice balcony to see the San Francisco sites. They had a gym with a basketball court for members to use. We also saw a billiards room This was a fancy social club.

 Take a gander at this anti pasta plate. The olives had just the right amount of garlic to ward off any and all vampires. The next dish was salad and then followed by pasta. This pasta had a sun dried tomato cream sauce. It was decadent and rich.

 

The main course of crab was served. A quick note of the servers. They were very efficient and professional. It was quit the logistic effort to serve 400 people and they made it look like a ballet. Back to the crab. Everybody was served a plate of crab like the one pictured. It was cracked and had been marinated in (more) garlic, olive oil and vinegar. The crab meat was so good. It had a sweetness to it that was probably from the freshness and the kiss of vinegar. After devouring this plate, I was very full. I did have room for the traditional spumoni ice cream that was served to finish our dinning experience.

 Mangia, Mangia 

 

 

Wagyu Bacon Hatch Chile Jelly

Let’s just start off saying this product is delicious.  There are big chunks of smoked beef in a sweet peppery jelly to make this spread irresistible. The hatch peppers is a flavor sensation that I crave. It is not hot but does add the perfect amount of warmth to tickle the taste buds. If I can find any fault in this product; is in label claiming bacon. Bacon is smoked cure pork by definition. There is no bacon listed in the ingredient list. There are delicious smoked beef chunks in this mix, so all is forgiven.

ANNIVERSARY DINNER

Ms. Goofy and I were invited to the Fratalanza Italian Club's Anniversary dinner. We were invited as guests representing our Italian Club; The Galileo. The Fratalanza outdid themselves with a menu of stuffed pork chops & raviolis. 

Ms. Goofy and I are not Italian but we sure enjoy the food and camaraderie. Before and after dinner there was music by an accordion player and then a band. We did not stay too long because we were so full of yummy food.

 

CAN'T LOVE THEM ALL

I want to love all bacon products. Unfortunately, this product just did not hit the mark. I am not even going to mention this companies name because I have had other products from them that I love. This mustard did have real chunks of bacon and did have maple flavor. The problem was, it was cloyingly sweet. It was just off in it's balance of flavor components. You cannot win them all.

 

STEAK & BEANS

 

Several times a year the "Ligure" Italian Club has a 'Steak & Beans" night at the general membership meeting. These meetings are well attended because steak and beans are served after the meeting; free to members. This is a simple combination of foods that is comforting and satisfying. Yummy.

BUC- EE'S

 

Buc-ee's has the cleanest bathrooms in the nation; so I am told. Buc-ee's is a giant convenience store  and gas station chain located in Texas. Apparently they are very popular in that part of the country. My friend Carol lives in Texas and occasionally sends me Buc-ee's branded food items. They do not disappoint.

Carol sent us a jar of honey cinnamon butter and some hot sauces. Ms. Goofy immediately claimed the honey butter and made some corn muffins. These muffins warm out of the oven topped with Buc-ee's honey cinnamon butter should be illegal they were so good. The butter was sweet with just a perfect kiss of cinnamon that melted ever so slightly from the warmth of the buns. Oh my! I cannot wait to try the  hot sauces. Thankyou Carol.

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BACON AIOLI PRIME RIB SANDWICH

My sister knows what I like and usually gifts me an assortment of bacon themed products at Christmas time. Bacon aioli is a mayonnaise type product with real chunks of bacon. It is good straight out of the squeeze bottle but let's kick it up a notch.

Ms. Goofy has found a new go-to focaccia recipe. We combined the bacon aioli with leftover Prime rib and threw on some avocado slices for good luck. It does not get any better than this. Happy New Year.