Meet Your Meat: Berkeley Edition

Relax, this is not a PETA expose on factory farms! Besides the fact that it's Berkeley and that's just not how Berkeley rolls, this post is about a children's farm.




Deep in the heart of Berkeley, well actually fairly far up into the winding hills, is Tilden Park. And, at the North-East end of Tilden Park can be found a nature center, a series of pretty nice hiking and walking trails, and most importantly for today, a working farm. Yes, a working farm lies just a few minutes from Shattuck Avenue, and it may just be one of my favorite things about the East Bay.




On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend my mother and I enjoyed a lovely breakfast at La Note. Unfortunately, all of the arty photos of La Note's lovely back garden, which is straight from Provence, landed on my mother's camera, but I will briefly gush over their merguez sausage. It was a spicy, salty, delicious break from the usual breakfast sausage and it couldn't have been a more perfect side for Sunday brunch. I have also been craving their bowl o' latte pretty much daily ever since. Afterwards, we took a jaunt around the bookstore and the art supply store, and we headed up to the farm.



Little Farm is aimed at children and families, you can feed the animals, pet the cows (and the pigs if you can bribe them to venture close enough to the fence), and go nose to nose with rabbits, goats, sheep, and fowl. As I happen to 1) basically be a kid in a grown-up's body, and 2) relish any opportunity to interact with all things agricultural, I think it's completely worthwhile to take a trip out, even as a supposed adult. (The farm is also surrounded by a fair amount of thistle so watch your step, those leaves are sharp!)





When we went the piglets were only 3-weeks old and awfully cute, and the goats and cows were remarkably friendly, but even if you're not into adorable farm animals, (sorry, I have to slip in some moralizing, it's a post about food and Berkeley) it never hurts to remember that your breakfast of eggs, sausage, and buttered toast owes a heck of a lot to animals just like these.

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Memorial Mojitos: San Franciso by Stomach and by Foot

So I'm a little late in posting my entry this week, and a little later posting these photos at all. Memorial day weekend my mom came up for a little visit. Saturday morning after I picked her up from the airport, we went on a little culinary/cultural walking tour of San Francisco. Good times and a couple of large mojitos were had.

We started out at the Ferry Building to peruse the Saturday Farmer's Market and pick up a light picnic lunch. We went with local faves Cowgirl Creamery, Boccalone, and Acme Bread. I highly recommend Cowgirl's St. Pat cheese wrapped in nettle leaves - yum!

After the Ferry Building, we walked along the piers until we got to Fisherman's Wharf. We tried chocolate at Tcho and enjoyed all the tourist attractions Pier 39. Those sea lions really never get old, and the street performers were fun, too. I particularly enjoyed this family of circus students and this giant skeleton.

















After the Wharf we headed over to North Beach for a little pre-dinner cocktail and appetizer. Calzone's makes a great mojito, and the large open air bar and cafe seating make for great people watching. Then a quick walk through Chinatown and it was on to dinner at the Stinking Rose, a perennial favorite.













Later on it was back home to the East Bay, but not without a walk past one last city landmark. It was a very good day.

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Pan de Muerto: Frida's Dead Bread and Blatant Bribery with Baked Goods

When in doubt, bake.

Actually when in doubt, cook, but for today we bake.

At the end of this semester one of my classes required a public presentation on a piece of art we created. I normally don't balk at speaking in public, but sharing anything creative I've made does tend to make me nervous. I was going to be showing a linoleum cut print I had been working on in my printmaking class, a piece that quite literally had my blood sweat and tears in it.

By some reports a bit gory, this piece to me is about the way I connect and express myself, through art and food, and also a bit about my family and a cultural heritage I claim more often than not through cooking (when you don't speak the language, food is universal). I have a fondness for my mother's stories and this reminds me of her telling me about my great-grandfather beheading chickens in their backyard.



Needing something to distract myself and hopefully distract and impress my audience if my art wasn't up to snuff, I decided a feat of baking was in order. It's a bit out of season, but Pan de Meurto, a traditional bread made for Day of the Dead, went perfectly with the theme of my art and I knew just the recipe. Guadalupe Rivera, Diego's daughter, put together a collection of Frida Kahlo's recipes. Being a great inspiration to me personally and artistically, I knew I had to use her recipe.

Now that it's done, I can't remember how the presentation went, or if the audience liked my piece, but I personally love seeing it everyday in its place honor in my kitchen, and I didn't have a single piece of bread left.

Frida's Pan de Muerte
Bread of the Dead
updated/expanded/adapted from Frida's fiestas: recipes and reminiscences of life with Frida Kahlo by Guadalupe Rivera and Marie-Pierre Colle

5 cups of flour, sifted
1 1/3 cups sugar, plus additional for dusting
2/3 cup plus 2 1/3 Tbs Butter
1 1/2 packages (3 tsp) yeast dissolved in 3 1/2 Tbs warm milk
6 large eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk

1) Melt butter and 1/3 cup milk on stove over medium low-heat. Allow to cool.

2) Mound the flour in the center of a large bowl and make a well. Add sugar, butter/milk mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla to the well.

3) Gently work into a dough and knead until it pulls away from the side of the bowl. If it is too soft, add in more flour.

4) Shape into a ball, grease and flour lightly, and place in a greased bowl. Let stand in a warm place until doubled, about 2 1/2 hours. Cover with a towel and refrigerate overnight (at least 6-8 hours).

5) Divide the dough in half, divide each half into thirds, and each third into sixths. You should have 36 golf ball sized balls of dough. Take breaks while handling the dough and allow to rest in the fridge, it shouldn't get too warm.

6) Take one out of every 6 balls of dough (6 balls total) and reserve for decorations. For the remaining 30 balls, roll into a sphere and decorate with two small, thin, snakes of dough made to look like bones. Each of your balls of dough reserved for decoration should make 10 snakes and decorate 5 balls.

7) Place the decorated balls on a sheet of parchment, greased, on a baking sheet and let rise for a second time. Place in a warm location for about 1 1/2 hours or until the balls have doubled in bulk.

8) Sprinkle with sugar and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Each tray should take 12-15 minutes, but check as early as 10 minutes and leave in as long as 20 (checking often) in order to attain a golden color. Rotate as necessary in order to prevent over-baking. Ovens will vary. Bottoms should sound hollow when tapped.

Excellent when slightly warm and enjoyed with a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea.

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Wednesday Night Chocolate Cake

Last week Susie, very correctly I might add, said that cake is a good way to say "hey, I like you." Cakes can be big or small, with lots of layers or just a few, and made with all manner of frosting, filling or ganache, but anyway you slice them, a cake will instantly let someone know that they are important.

Cake doesn't always need to be a big event or a big celebration though. Cake can also be a simple, quiet celebration, a good way to say "hey, I like me."

I am a firm believer in treating yourself, but I also believe that treating yourself doesn't have to involve a ton of dishes, hours of labor, and epic baking battles. I love a good challenge, but on a Wednesday night after a long day at work that was maybe a bit of a bummer, forty-five minutes is all I need to bring it back together.

Think of this cake as a meditation on dessert, an exercise in simplicity and subtlety. One bowl, one pan, and dessert can be an everyday affair, or maybe just a way to congratulate yourself on making it through the week.


Wednesday Night Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

1 cup sugar
3/4 + 1/8 cups all-purpose flour, plus some for pan
3/8 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus some for pan
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Grease one 9-inch round baking pan with oil, sprinkle in some flour and shake around to coat. Discard excess flour. (or make it really easy and spray with cooking spray with flour).

2) Stir together dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients (eggs, milk, oil and vanilla); beat with a whisk or wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.

3) Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Serve with fresh berries, a spoonful of jam, a dusting of powdered sugar, and/or a tall, ice cold glass of milk.

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